The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-17
8 PRISONERS OUT AND AWAY.
ONE WAS GEESE NILES. WHO
TRIED TO HOLD UP a TRAIN.
He Leaps u 2s.Foot Enibankment. Gives
the Laugh 10 n re, lNerless Policeman
and F1ees to the Mount ains-His Two
l'onpaniOns in the Escape Caught.

Companions In the Escape caught.
SoMERvILIE, n. j., Oct. 49, Three pris-
oners escaped from the Somer-s county
Jail at 1880 this morning. Sylvanus Csrkhuf
and William Ashton, two of them, have been
captured, but Geese" Niles, an ex-convlct,
who distinguished himself last week by
attempting to hold up freight train on
the Jersey Central railroad, is still at large
When Deputy Sheriff John Anderson
started to feed the prisoners this morning
he swung back the solid iron doors OF the
main corridor and passed in the food through
an opening In the grating of the inner door
which he believed TO be locked He had
only half of the food for the prisoners, 80
as usual he allowed the outer door OF the
corridor to remain open and depended on
the inner door to hold the prisoners while
he stepped across a hall and entered the
iail kitchen to obtain the second tray OF
food.
In the brief interval that the deputy
was absent from the corridor 'Geese
Niles picked the old fashioned lock on the
inner door and walked out He was fol-
lowed by Carkhuff and Ashton. When
Mrs. Anderson, who was helping the deputy
in the kitchen, CHANGED to look out OF the
window toward the main entrance to the
iail she saw the three prisoners running
across the prison yard.
Anderson made dash out OF the kitchen
door, but by the time he reached the yard
the men had scaled fence and were cutting
across lots to the streets. The deputy
could not follow the prisoners Immediately,
as he was compelled to rush to the corridor
and close the outer door to prevent general
exodus of other prisoners. When he started
in pursuit the prisoners had gained lead
of several blocks and were sprinting down
Grove street toward Peters Brook. num-
Der of citizens joined in the chase and before
the prisoners had proceeded a mile they
we're pressed by "A bowling posse of men and
boys.
Policeman Henry Koch who was riding
I'D Grove street on bicycle saw the posse
advancing from the opposite direction
with the prisoners In the lead. The prison.
ers sighted the policeman in the distance
and turned Off into side street. Koch
made a short cut and caught up with Niles
and Ashton near the foot Of Bortine street
in East Somerville.
At the foot of Bortine street there is a
perpendicular embankment along Peters,
brook twenty-five feet high. Koch was
crowding Niles as he made toward the
embankment az his only means of escape.
When Niles reached the edge of the preoi-
pice he jumped Oft. He landed on his
feet on the soft earth at the edge of the
stream and sank nearly TO his knees in the
mire. He soon disengaged himself and
sxrinted across the lowlands toward the
mountain.
The high embankment acted az a barrier
to his pursuers, as they could not follow him
by a direct route without jumping over
the precpice. Koch leaned over the pre-
cipice and demanded of Niles TO surrender
or be shot. Koch was off duty and really had
no pistol with him. Niles, with a laugh,
invited the policeman to CARRY out his bluff
and sprinted away Ashton. who was follow
ing close at Niles's heels baked at jump
ing over the precipice. and surrendered
to Koch. Carkhuff, who had become sepa-
rat ed from the other prisoners early in the
chase, was pursued by posse for two miles
across the open country and captured in
a cornfleld The authorities are still search
ing for Niles, who was last seen running
toward the mountain
Niles began career of crime with the
Whvo Gang OF Raritan when he was ten
years odd. He was waiting trial in the
Somerset county Jail for attempting to
shoot W. H. Condit an engineer Of the New
Jersey Central Railroad in an attempted
hold-up OF the train near here week ago.
Carkhuff is also an ex-convict who is
likely to be resentenced to the State prison
for wife beating. Ashton was sent up from
North Planfield and Is awaiting trial on a
charge of rape An inspection Of the jail
after the escape Of the prisoners showed
that an attempt had been made last night
by Niles and his companions to dig theil
way out by removing number of bricks
from the rear wall at the end of the
corridor.