Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-05-16

The most wholesale and daring Jail
delivery ever attempted and success
fully carried out in the county was &C
conplished probably about midnight
last night, by which George Leonard.
Joseph Burns, Ed. Wagner, Frank
Rogers, James Corcoran and John
and held to the grand jury for blowing
open the safe in the office OF the Mar
shall Vinegar Company on the night Of
April II cut thru the county Jail wall
and got away. The escape was dis
covered at breakfast time this morn
ing, and the elapsed time had given the
men a good six or seven hours start.
Up to late today no trace of the six
had been discovered, altho the sheriff
and police officers are using extraordi-
nary efforts TO recapture them.
The escape was made from the sec
VIM oNSiS VI LIZ JsSA'S hSnA SaS SWIM
east corner, by unlocking the heavy
steel screen which covered the window
on the inside, cutting thru the window
frame and digging hole thru the
brick wall. The cracksmen then low
cred themselves down a rope made of
blanket torn in two, dropped to the
ground, scaled the high fence at the
southeast corner of the Jail yard and
were gone.
Had Plenty of Tools.
These men, part of whom at least
have served time in two states and
were wanted in another, were we'll sup
piled with tools. Where they secured
them is but one Of the mysteries of the
delivery Probably the padlocks
which hold the window screen in place
were unlocked with a piece of wire,
which would be a comparatively easy
task. With the screen open, the win
dow castings on each side were accesSt
BILE. A section of the casing on the
right hand side of the window next the
bottom was sawed off with a flexible
steel saw, which had been roughly
made With the casing out of the way,
.IIle ellQ OIL TIC jan wan Liz
casing was laid bare. With an iron
bar two feet long, two inches wide and
half an inch thick hole was made
thru this twenty inch thick wall and
to the side Of the iron bars which pro-
teot the window on the outside. Thru
this hole, 13X10 inches, the six
squeezed their bodies, chung to the
blanket rope, swung clear of the build
ing, slid down the rope to the ground
and were gone.
Landon Heard the Noise.
Altho Sheri" Hutson and his family
We're at home in their apartments in
the west end of the building they
heard no unusual sound. 1t was rain
ing and blowing at intervals from dark
until late into the night, which helped
to deaden the noise of the escape.
Danial Landon, however, who is serv-
ing thirty days sentence for intox-
ication and who was on the first floor
of that part Of the Jail in which five
of the six were confined heard noises
which he afterwards knew were made
by the work of the cracksmen digging
out. Landon said this morning: II
heard sound some time between 9
and 10 o'clock, would say it was
about $3.50, that sounded like dull ex-
plosion Then later, maybe, half an
hour, heard a sound like brick fall
ing on the floor. Then heard sounds
like some one was pounding, but all the
time, for more than two hours, they
kept walking back and forth on the
steel floor. I could hear them walking
plainly, but the other sounds were not
so distinct"
When asked why he did not give the
alarm, he said he did not know what
it was, and that if he had given tbs
alarm and there had been no real
cause for it, he would have "got the
devil for it" as he put it.
Had Evidently Planned Well.
When the conditions under which the |
six men were detained are made plain,
their escape seems a comparatively |
simple manner. Five of them, Leon
ard. Burns, Lawson and Wagner and |
Rogers, the man who was shot, oc-
,upied all of the upper floor of the east
end of the Jail. In this compartment
are five cells, of steel, around which a |
narrow corridor runs on three sides. |
The five. however, were not locked in |
he cells even at night, but had access
% all parts of the compartment The
walls of this part of the building are
ined with half-inch steel.
Corcoran. the youngest Of the six,
vas kept downstairs. He had access
o all of the first floor and part of the
second, but was separated from his
,als by solid iron door, which clos
d the opening from the compartment
n which the five were locked, to the
railway leading down stairs. Corcoran
vent about at will, and was employed
Washing the inmates dishes and do
ng other work, inside the Jail. He
ould hold conversation with his mates
bove, thru the grub hole" in the
DOR, which locked them in. Corcoran
vent with the others however, defying
ocks and keys, the solid iron door
tas unlocked he passed in with his
and the door was again
,cked. In that condition the door was
ound this morning.
Tools Struggled In.
1t is apparent that Corcoran must