The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-10-19

their cells In murderers' row with the
assistance OF Mrs. Kate Soffel wife of
Warden Peter Soffel, only to, be run
down and shot to death near Butler,
Pa, 4S hours later, and did not they
come back? That was during the time
OF Warden Soffel.
And did not Hill and Douglass and
many another poor wretch who went
to death from murderers' row by the
gallows route come back?
There are many who stoutly main.
tain that they did, and that they
haunted their old cells and terrified
their occupants for many nights
Another mysterious happening that
contributed to the spooky reputation
of murderers' row was not explained
away until It had been going on for
weeks.
AT nine o'clock every night It has
been customary to switch The electric
lights from one dynamo to another.
This necessitated the changing of "a
belt and occupied from five to ten
seconds. During that time the entire
jail was In total darkness. except for I,
few isolated gas jets. in, the front o..
flee. at the gate and In the main cor.
rldor.
An UnearthIy Shrek Was Heard.
One night several years ago just be.
fore the lights had gone out as usual
an unearthly shrek pierced the inky
blackness of the big Jail from some
where in the neighborhood of murder.
ers' row It was long. moaning kind
OF shrek. such as no mortal could
make, and II seemed to sweep and
circle down the main corridor before
dying away. Everybody who heard Il
deputy wardens, guards and prison
ers alike--felt the marrow freezing In
his bones, An investigation was made
Immediately the lights had been
turned on again. but no solution Il
the mystery was found that night. The
prisoners were questioned and, as
might have been expected. all denied
knowing anything about II. Men ir
noise, came from somewhere on tho
ground floor. Those on the gpounc
floor thought It came from the roof
Next night when the lights were
switched or at nine o'clock the same
lnearthly scream resounded through
the building. and once more the result
ant investigation came to naught,
Warden Lewis was puzzled and lie de.
termined to trace the noise to Its
source, SO on the third night he Sc.
cretly stationed guards in empty cells
and along corridors with instructions
to make careful note OF the direction
from whence the yell came II 1t should
be repeated The yell was repeated
without fail as soon as the jail was In
darkness. but the worden's plan failed,
ideas of where the sound came
from.
by the time the uncanny yell had
been heard for five nights in success.
sion, with the mystery OF It's source AS
deep as ever. many OF the most SUI
perstitious prisoners were on the
verge OF nervous prostration. Nobody
could ever tell them after that that
the Jail was not haunted. The warden
was almost at his wits end, but he
tried one more scheme. He began to
transfer the prisoners, a few 4at a
time, from cell TO cell. and guards
We're instructed t. watch each batch
Of transferred men very closely In
this way the noise was finally traced
to a practical joker among the pris-
oners, who produced the diabolical
yell with the aid OF a hair comb and
newspaper. A piece Of paper was
folded across the comb and held as u
mouthpiece at the small end of meg.
aphone made by rolling the newspaper
up into cone. Everybody knows
what fearful noise can be made by
pressing the lips against a paper-cov-
cred comb and blowing hard. With
the megaphone added the noise was
greatly magnified, and II made noise
calculated TO give anybody cold chills
In the pitchy darkness OF a big prison
With the detee ti0n OF the eulprit the
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