Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1902-08-09
TRACEY'S LIFE ENDED
Wounded and Surrounded the Out
law Killed Himself.
Run Down In a Wheat Field Near Fellows,
Fifty Miles West of SpOkane-HIs
Escape from Oregon PEN
itentiary.

itentiary.
Spokane, Wash, Aug. 7.-Harry
Tracey, the notorious outlaw, who
with David Merrill escaped from the
Oregon penitentiary at Salem, on
June o, after killing three prison
guards, killed himself early yesterday
morning, after being wounded by
the rife of one of the posse in pur-
suit. Tracey was surrounded in a
wheat field near Fellows, a station
on the Washington Central railroad
about so miles west of Spokane,
Tuesday night. Word was sent back
to Davenport, the county seat, and
large number of armed men hurried
to the scene.
The posse under Sheriff Gardner
opened fire on the outlaw and one
bullet pierced his right leg between
the knee and hip. Twenty minutes
after being wounded, he shot himself
with one of his revolvers, and his
body was found yesterday morning
after daybreak. The revolver with
which he killed himself was grasped
tightly in his right hand.
After battling the officers of two
states, after a wonderful fight of
nearly 400 miles across Oregon and
Washington, Harry Tracey was hunt
ed down by five citizens of the lit
tie farming town of Creston, not one
of whom was even a deputy. To
them is to be paid the reward.
Sheriff Gardner and posse arrived
in time to guard the wheat field
through the night; but the work
was already done. The outlaw was
dead.
The party to which belongs the
citizens of Creston: C. A. Straub,
deputy sheriff.; DIR. E. C. Lanter;
Maurice Smith, attorney; j. j. Nor
risOn, railway section foreman, and
Frank Lillengen.
A total reward of $4,1OO was offered
for his arrest. Gov. Mcbride, of
Washington, offered 3d. 500 for his
capture, dead or alive. The state of
Oregon offered $1,000 and brother
of one of the guards killed at the
penitentiary offered 500. The re-
ward for Merrill's capture amounted
to $1,000, which has been claimed by
Mrs. Waggoner, the berry picker and
her son, who found the body near
their house.
The Escape from Prison.
When Tracey escaped from the Oregon
penitentiary he was serving a sentence of
20 years. Merrill was in for Is years.
TraceY's long sentence was due to the
fact that he tried to kill an officer who
attempted to arrest him when he and
Merrill were committing "hold-ups" in
Portland. Tracey, just before he was
Der of gang that was terrorizing Port
land. Finally the officers surrounded
the house and captured Merrill. Mer-
rills mother was angry and helped the
officers catch Tracey. 1t was then that
Tracey attempted detectives life. When
Tracey and Merrill were finally landed
at Salem, Warden Jones underestimate
the reSOurcefulneSS and daring of these
two prisoners. At all events he did not
attempt to separate the two men, who
continued month after month to labor
In the stove foundry of the prison. The
morning of June 8, promptly at seven
o'clock, the prisoners were paraded to
their various workshops and set to their
daily task. This is done regularly in
every prison that the guards regard it
bit of routine they do mechanically.
Nothing to them is more surprising than
to be called upon suddenly to do the
very work they put there for. No one
of many who were in the foundry seems
to have seen what occurred. Certain
their places as usual. Certain 1T is that
somewhere near the places in which they
worked were two large rifles loaded and
ready for work. The two prisoners could
not have carried the guns from their
cells. No one seems to have seen them
seize these rifles, but just as the foun-
dry squad was about to be turned over
to the guard, Frank B. Farrell, and put
to work, shot rang out and Farrell fell
dead.
The stove foundry was NEXT tn the
wall. A yard surrounded 1T and 80 feet
from the wall was the dead line"
Guards were stationed upon the walls
armed with heavy rifles to shoot any
luckless prisoner who crossed that line.
Tracey and Merrill rushed to the yard,
followed by the guards who had paraded
the foundry gang to it's work. Near
the door Frank Ingsham, a life convict,
undertook to stop them, only to receive
q rifle ball
Reaching the yard, Tracey, whose shots
seldom failed, fired at every wall guard
in sight. One of the bullets killed S. r.
T. Jones, guard, and his fall made
every other guard in the place hesitate
to expose himself as a target for either
Of the desperate men. The watcmen re-
turned the fire, however, from all sides
and behind shelter, but in the rain of
bullets the convicts took a ladder from
the side of the foundry, put it up against
the 2o-foot wall climbed up and jumped
over.
III ZIG AhSdul41ASs IWO VI the WtNCuIlS1
had rushed out to the main gate and
circled the outside of the wall, hoping to
head off the fugitives. They ran into
them face to face but with a quickness
born of thorough desperation the con-
Victs had them covered with their rifles.
Compelling the officers to drop their
rifles, they made them walk in front of
them across the fields, hostages of the
good behavior of their fellow-jailers on
the walls. Once in the heavy timber the
long chase had begun.
Little is known of Tracey's life before
he went to Seattle. 1t is believed that he
murdered Valentine Hoge, a Colorado
stockman. and William Strong, boy,
In 1897 in Colorado.
Indorses ArchbiSnop IreIand's Statement.
Rome, Aug. THE vatican has
shown much interest in the Associ-
ted r,reSs inte,.viax,r with A rchhishnn