The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1903-08-15
Noted Prisoner in County
Bastile Escapes Human
Law for Ever.
USES SMALL ROPE
Leaves Letter to the Inter
Mountain, in Which He
Tells Troubles.

Frank Orton. confined in the county Jail
while awaiting exiradition for the robbery
Of stage in Wyoming, and on the adj
dtional charge OF breaking Jail here was
found dead in his cell this morning about
o:3o o'clock by Night Jailer Baldiscro.
A bit OF clotheslnc hanging from a
ventlator in the rear of the cell leads to
the belief that Ortod hung himself in his
cell
Time Not Known.
IL is not known at what time the man
breathed his last. Tom Starkey and Lew
Gosling, confined on burglary charges,
were IN the next cell. They notified Night
Jailer Baldiscro OF the noises in Ortoif's
cell.
Baldisero made an investigation. IIc
says he found Orton hanging, quite dead.
lie cut the body down and notified
Coroner Egan. That official viewed the
body at 10 o'clock and ordered the re-
mains taken TO Sherman & Reeds under
taking rooms. where an inquest Is 10 bc
held tonight.
The rope found in the cell was Of q
weak fibre, perhaps $40 Of an inch in
diameter. II had not been chafed ap-
preciably. II was fastened to veniilator
in the corner OF the cell. This ventilator
consists Of several holes punched in the
steel wall.
In Southwest Corner
The cell is the first on the lower tier as
one enters the enclosed tiers, or, in other
words, the southwest corner. 1t is per-
haps 2 feet high
The rope was fastened not more than
and inches above the ground. OrtoH
IL n Z I.s ip.b.a h.:.
order to hang himself he must have had
to draw up his feet.
rumplcd pallet indicated that the pris-
oner had slept. He had partially disrobed,
but still wore his shirt and trousers.
The face OF the dead man was pinched
and drawn. The pallor of death had fol-
lowed the pallor Of days of suffering,
either OF mental or OF bodily anguish.
Covered by Beard.
The face was covered with a slight
beard and the gray eyes stared up at the
ceiling with a grisly glare.
The hands Of the man were not
clinched. as is almost always the case Of
those who have died under similar cir
cumstances, nor were the toes contracted.
The official or the coroner had removed
the trousers The muscles of the limbs
were not contracted. nowhere were any
evidences, in short, of great physical agony
to be found
The neck had not been chafed so far
as could be seen. The rope was very fine,
almost as thin as wire and it Is strange
that the neck of the man was not partially
severed in his struggles.
lnstigator OF Jailbreak.
OrtoH is thought to have been the in
stigator OF the jailbrcak of Sunday night,
when Lennox and Martin, Felker and the
Rodgers brothers and he broke Jail.
The story of the jailbeak is familiar to
all, but is worth recalling, in view of the
denouements.
Sunday evening, about ? o'clock, Ortoff
told Jaier Dolan he was sick. He asked
for a doctor.
County Physician Donnelly was sum-
moned. He felt Ortofs pulse and then
told Dolan to bring the man outside the
cell into corridor.
Dolan opened the door, but had no
sooner done SO than Ortoff, to his amaze
ment, thrust a revolver into his face.
Demands the Keys.
Ortoff demanded the keys. Doan
bravely stood his ground and refused to
give them up. Ortof then backed Dom
nelly and Dolan over against the bars,
and, Jumping to the lever which opens
the cells, swung open the doors of the
compartments In which the Rodgers
brothers, Felker, Mart;n and LennoA
were confined.
Again Ortoff demanded the keys Of
Dolan, threatening, 1t Is said, to blow oil
the jalsr's head. Dolan refused, Orto8
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