The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-06
Nine Negroes Break From
Wake County Jail.
PRISONER GAvEALARM
Among the Desperadoes is Ioe Battle,
Charged With Rape, Federal
Prisoner and Lynn Spence
Indicted for Burglary
by Grand Jury.

AS easily as if no steel bars and brick
walls surrounded them nine negroes con-
fined in Wake County Jail left that place
yesterday morning between three and
four o'clock.
Among the nine prisoners who escaped
are some desperate characters. men who
before this have been in jails and the
penitentiary whidle one was here for safe
keeping, charged with rape in Edgecombe
county, another was Federal prisoner.
and another a negro already indicted for
burglary and to be tried for his life.
The nine negroes who escaped are Dan
Biggs, John Bethel, Ed Gotten, Henry
Curtis, George Hayes, Mooney Perry. Len
Spence, Herbert Raynor and Joe Battle.
One has been recaptured. Hubert Ravner
the Federal prisoner, but the, others are
all still at large, though word came late
yesterday afternoon that Perry was in
the neighborhood of Rogers store, in the
northern part OF the county.
HOW 1T WAS DONE.
1t was between three and four o'clock
when the negroes escaped and lnvestiga-
ton shows that they had had fixed so that
others might escape. 1t was one of these,
John Smith, a one-armed negro who. get
ting out of the Jail woke the cook. who
slept in the Jail yard, and with him went
to Jailer Parham's house to tell of the
wholesale delivery.
By some means one of the men in the
steel corridor on the lower floor of the
Jail. which encloses three cells. had come
into possession of knife which he had
worked so as to make jagged saw, or
by some it is thought he had steel file.
With this one of the lock bars to the in
side cell had been partly sawed in half,
and then by some means snapped off.
This gave play to the lock levers of two
of the cell doors. which were opened,
though the men in the third cell were
still confined as the lock lever on it would
not work.
Once these levers were broken it was
easy to use the piece to break off another
section riveted on. and with this the ne
groes broke out, piece by piece, a section
of an inner cell. The steel bar used and
the pieces broken out show that great
force was used, and that perhaps all nine
of the prisoners put their weight on the
bar in breaking the steel cross pieces
riveted together, forming the side of the
CELL 1t is cell made by Pually &
Brother, of st. Louis, and was easily
broken.
A small hole being thus made the men
crept outside the steel cell at the back
and were then in narrow passage way.
They worked out wooden support under
a barred window and then with their
steel bar broke out the bricks under the
window, soon making an opening large
enough to slip through. Once in the yard
the escape over the fence next to the
postoffice back yard.
It is not known that any aid came from
the outside, but Jailer Parham says that
if the story the negro prisoners tell IS
true, there was outside aid. They say
that John Bethel had a pistol, and that
he swore he would shoot anyone who
attempted to make an cutlery. He had
also several knives.
The first that was known of the de-
livery was when John Smith. one of the
prisoners who would not escape. climbed
through the hole made by the nine con-
federates and went to the back ward of
the Jail and notified the cook. Then the
cook and the prisoner went to the resi-
dence of Taller o. L. Parham, Just in the
rear of the Jail, on Salisbury street. and
notified him of the occurrence. Jailer
Parham Immediately called Up the Raj
eigh police and Sheriff Page. Just as
they reached the opening in the wall
where the men had escaped. John Young,
a one-legged negro, had put his head out
the hole. but withdrew it when he saw
the officers.
THE NEGROES WHO ESCAPED.
The following tells who are the nine
men who escaped. and the crimes for
which they were to be tried or had been
tried
Battle is the negro from Edgecombe
county, brought to Raleigh. November
14th, for safe keeping. He made a
criminal assault on Mrs. Whitemore. a
white woman in Edgecombe county. A
mob was rapidly formed to lyrch him, and
lie fled to Virginia He was afterwards
caught and taken to Tarboro but again
mob formed, but the sheriff and ono Of
his deputies brought the prisoner to kal-
eigh. He is twenty-five years old.
Biggs is middle-aged negro, mean
looking. with a black reputation and he
has served a term in the penitentiary
His sentence in the States prison was for
big burglary at Wilmington, and il was
rumored at that time that lie had muir
cered \ man. He escaped from The peni-
tertiary, and was soon aAerward par
doned by Governor Russell He was
awaiting trial for larceny. having robbie,
rdunken white man recently in Raleigh,
one night of everything he possessed, but
he could not be prosecuted on The charge
of robbery because the white man did
not resist.
Perry is a harmless kind of negro thief.
He was awaiting trial for stealing a pig.
and when sent to Jail only week CT two
ago he had Just finished sentence for
the larceny of turkey. 1t is said he has
served three-fourths of his life either a.
prison or on the county roads. ne mas
not been out of jail or off the roads thirty
days during the past three years
Bethel is twenty-five years of age. we'll
developed, with several teeth missing. He
was awaiting trial in the January term
of Wake Superior court for larceny, as
sault and battery, and carving a con
cealed weapon. He is desperate, IA