Arizona republican., 1903-01-25
BROKE JAIL WITH DYNAMITE

Gus Hyatt was the leader of one of the most daring jail deliveries known in the annals of criminal history last October when he and fifteen fellow convicts escaped from the Nashville penitentiary through a breach in the wall made by a dynamite explosion.
 Hyatt had been sentenced for life for murder and train robbery. He had been a leader when a free man. and the con vict stripes did not take away the aual- ity which enabled him to command other men, and for this reason he was soon the most popular man inside the prison walls, not only with the other prisoners, but with the guards as well. His leadership permitted him to enjoy | many comforts, and he was elected | "storekeeper" by the conVicts accord | ing to a custom which then obtained in the Tennessee prison. The rules are ! changed now.
 ! In his store he kept a small stock of groceries and tobacco, and also of | dynamite. How he obtained the explo- | sive has never yet been explained. His plans were well laid, and he admitted only the most desperate and hardened criminals to his confidence. On the night of the escape. just after supper, | when the prisoners were having their usual half hour recreation in the cor | ridor of the main prison building, he engaged the guard in conversation, Two or three of his cOnfederates ap- preached. pinioned the officer and east him into cell and locked him up. At that moment fire broke out In Hy- att's cell. which was the store, and the attention of the other convicts was at tracted to that end of the long corridor In a moment Hyatt had given the dy- namite to John Dow, an expert safe blower. and a bench was turned up on end to serve as a ladder, and the dy- namite was set off in a sill of one of | the big barred windows, ten feet from the floor of the corridor. It was a fail. ure, and the hole made was not large enough for a cat to get through.
 In an instant Dow was ready with an- l other dynamite cartridge, and this time 1 it exploded with a terrific noise that was heard for two miles, and a breach of the solid stone wall three feet in di- ameter was left. Dow was out first. then the other conspirators and four or five convicts who know nothing Of | the plot, but, seeing a chance 10 gain their liberty. followed.
 All this time Hyatt, the leader and arch -conspirator, stood on the inside l with a pistol taken from the guard, ! keeping watch. He ordered the other | convicts to stand back, and then sprane | through the opening upon which was then unveiled the fire from the Winches- ters of half a dozen guards. On tha | outside the breech was fifteen feet | above the ground, and Hyatt hit the solid earth running and firing back at his outwittde jailers.
 Since then not the slightest clue has been heard of him until now that Con- ductor Keen recognizes In Hyatt's pho tograph the man who attempted to hold up the Louisville and Nashville train Tuesday morning.
 Of the sixteen men who escaped through the hole. one was killed within a hundred feet, two were captured that night, one the next day and another a few weeks later in Indianapolis. The other eleven are still at liberty.
 The rules of the Tennessee prison are changed now. Stores" are abolished. the half-hour recreation in the corridor after supper is no longer allowed. and the men are experiencing a much more rigorous discipline as the result of Gus Hyatt's leadership"
 Hyatt was the terror of a dozen coun-