The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1906-12-06
BURGLARS BREAK JAIL
Only to be ReCaptured at LineviIIe
the Same Night-after a Twenty
Mile Walk Through the Mud.

A daring escape from the Leon jail
was made last Saturday by Pat Kane
and Ed Hanley, the two fellows who
were arrested on Monday of last week
at Charlton for burglarizing the Harper
& Henry hardware store at Van Vert
on Sunday night, Nov. 25th. When the
burglars were caught with the goods in
their possession at Charlton they we're
brought to Leon and confined in the
county Jail, having waived preliminary
examination and being bound over to
the grand jury under bonds of 81 900
each. There were no other prisoners in
the jail and sheriff Wallace did not want
to keep the young fellows confined in
the steel cage allthe time, SO he allow
eu them the run of the corridor during
the day time, making frequent trips to
the Jail each day to see that everything
was all right. They were in the corridor
Saturday as usual and he was at the
Jail about o'clock. When he returned
again about o'clock he found they had
made their escape. They had broken up
a chair and secured piece of one Of
the hardwood rounds and then taken a
leg from the stove and used it as ham
mer. Climbing on top Of the cage with
the aid of a chair they were able to
reach the ceiling, which is only plaster
ed, and it was the work of but a few
minutes to get through the ceiling into
the attic. They carefully covered the
top of the cage with blanket so that
the falling plaster would make no noise
and one of them stood at the window
and sang loudly while the other was
working so as to drown the noise they
made. Once in the attic they dug a
hole through the brick wall on the north
side at the same place where young
Crees made his escape few months ago
carefully pulling the bricks inside so as
not to attract attention by letting them
fall on the sidewalk outside. They soon
had hole in the wall large enough to
crawl through and dropped fifteen feet
to the sidewalk and got away.
AS soon as their escape was discover
ed sheriff Wallace and number of as
sistants made hurried search, but the
only clew they found was that the fell
lows had been seen cutting through the
field south of G. G. Biddison's farm
northeast of Leon. Here all trace of
them was lost, but the telephones were
put in use and the word sent in all di-
rections. About half past nine o'clock
that night sheriff Wallace received word
from Freely Beavers, of Woodland, that
he had met the fellows in the road near
Woodland and they had told him they
had escaped from Jail but for him not to
say anything about it. They headed for
Lineyille with the intention of catching
a train in on the Rock Island, so the
nightwatch at Lineville was notified to
watch for them, and about eleven o'clock
he found them on the railroad track try
ing to board freight train. They were
on the Missouri side of the line, but
made no resistance about coming across
as they did not know they were in Mis-
souri,. Sheriff Wallace drove to Line
vile Saturday night and returned with
the prisoners Sunday afternoon and they
are now safe in the steel cell, and as one
of them remarked it was hundred to
one shot that they would stay there and
take trim tO the panitanfiarv