Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1902-01-02
MURDfROUS SCHfMf OVERHEARD
CONVICT DIyULGEs THE DEsPER-
ATE PLOT TO WARDEN NC
CLAUGHRY.
DEPUTY WARDEN LEMON MARKED
HE WAS TO BE SEIZED AND USED
AS SHIELD TO COVER THE
RI ~ ESCAPE.

Leavenworth, Kan, Dec. 31.--A plot
more desperate than any ever discov-
cred was unearthed at the federal pris-
on here Saturday.
Warden McClaughry, through one of
the prisoners, learned of a plan con-
cocted by five prisoners to seize n of
the guards and the deputy warden, and
with them as shields, to force their way
into the prison armory and then es-
cape. The plot was made by five of the
captured prisoners who escaped in the
mutiny in the new prison site on Nov.
2, and 1t is probable that the guard and
Deputy Warden Lemon would have
been murdered and a large number of
prisoners liberated had not the plan
been frustrated. The ~ringleader of the
plot is Gilbert Mullens, who held up
and disarmed Sheriff Cook of the To-
peka police force. Frank Thompson, a
negro, Fred Robinson, Bob Clark m
Turner Barns are the others who
Were i'm the Plot.
Clark and Barnes are the last two Of
the -;soners who escaped Nov. Z to be
captured, and were caught in Okla
homa several weeks ago. One of them.
Clark, wrote a cipher letter while in
the Jail at LawIon to have a brother
rescue him while being brought back
TO the penitentiary by boarding the
train near Guthrie and killing the
guards. The plot of Saturday was
given away by a convict who overheard
the prisoners talking about it. The re-
captured prisoners had been put to
work in the stonebreaking shed, which
Is inside the prison walls. They were
secured by means of a ball and chain
attached to their ankles, and have
been kept hard at work. Among them,
Mullens, who g one of the worst of the
lot, in some way secured a file. An
other of the ~convicts had secured a
case knife, which had been sharpened
to a fine point. The plan of the con-
victs was TO use the file to remove the
shackles, and then tic them together
so that the guards would not suspect
thai they had been cut. The intention
of the desperadoes was to make an
attempt for freedom Saturday after
noon. At that time four of the prison
ers, as BARRIERS. came to the sheds to
shave the prisoners. 1t had been ar
ranged that when the
Signal Was Given
the BARRIERS razors were to be seized,
TIE shackles torn off and the guard
seized and o~verpowered. One of the
prisoners was then to be sent to the
deputy warden's office, and he was to
be told to come at once to the stone
she'd. AS soon as he arrived there he
was to be seized, his hands tied and
the convicts were to use him and the
guard as shields to force their way out
of the front gate. They intended to
place the razors at their threats,
march them to the first iron gate n
here to demand the gate to be opened,
under penalty Of death of the guard
and Deputy Warden Lemon. They
then intended to make a rush for the
armory Of the guards where the rifles
are kept, which is just inside the first
iron gate. AS soon as they had seized
the guns 1t would have been an easy
matter to force the outside gate, The
intention was to kill any officer who
interfered. When told Of the plans OF
the convicts the officials Of the prison
lost no time in searching Mullins and
the other four. They found h file con-
cealed in Mullins clothes and the knife
was on another of the convicts.