The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-02

made since his confinement in the peni-
Tertiary He is considered one of the
most cunning, and at the same time one
of the most desperate convicts in any
penal institution. He Genes by his crimi-
nal instincts naturally When he was but
child his father was executed in Cali
fOrnia for murder. A few years later Abe
took up his criminal career by becoming
highway robber While resisting ar
rest Abe Majors brother was shot and
Killed. Abe Majors murdered Captain
Brown of the Ogden police and was sent
to the state prison for life. He was only
10 at the time. He is now q.
In the famous break from the state
prison on Oct. 9. 1903. Abe Majors was a
ringleader. Under his leadership seven
conviets fought their way over the walls
of the prison and two of them escaped,
but were later recaptured A former pris-
oner smuggled a revolver to Majors and
with this he assisted in overpowering two
of the guards He was shot through the
arm and recaptured Just after he mad
leaped from the prison wall to the
ground Frank Dayton, one of the escap-
ing convicts, was shot dead and all the
rest were recaptured. II was by giving
the alarm in this break that the late A
A. Robertson, the defaulting teller of the
Wells-FargO bank, who committed suicide
in Salt Lake last spring, earned his par
Z don.
One of the men who assisted Abe Ma
jors in this break was Henry Waddell a
13-year prisoner. Afterwards he and Abe
MAJORS QuaffeleQ and a year ago last
August in the kitchen at the prison Ma
jors attacked Waddell with large knife
and slashed his throat. wounding him
seriously. Since that time Majors has
been kept in solitary confinement.
Sullivan a Desperate Man.
Joe Sullivan is serving a life sentence
for the murder of Patrolman Charles
Ford. AT the time of the murder Sulli-
van was an ex-convict, having served a
sentence for burglary. 1t was while serv-
ing this sentence that he took part in an
insurrectton that he hoped might lead 10
break. For his part in this affair he
was tied with his face to the cell wall
his arms held alOft by rings about his
wrists, and he was given only bread and
water to eat.
He had only been out of the penitentiary
few days when with Joe Garcia. who
was afterwards killed while resisting ar
4 rest, he held up the Albany Bar at Fifth
West and Second South and in escaping
shot and killed Patrolman Charles Ford
While in the county Jail he was caught
saving the bars of his cell
Sullivan blamed Nick Prussing trusty
in the county Jail, for giving away TO the
[ officers the fact that he was trying to
! escape and last June after Sullivan had
! been sentenced to life imprisonment and
+ Prussing had been sent to the prison for
/ forgery Sullivan and Demng attacked
Prussing in the corridor of the prison and
4 tried to kill him. A long knife was found
on Deming al that time. Deming and Sui
Ivan were placed in solitary confinement
and have not been out of their cells since.
Warden Pratt's Remedy.
/ If a bill advocated by Warden Arthur
I Pratt had passed the legislature at its last
session both Sullivan and Majors would
now be in their graves Warden Pratt
1 cndeaVOred to secure the enactment of a
law making an assault on a guard or on
a fellow prisoner by a life prisoner at
/ the penitentiary a capital offense. The
/ bill. failed of passage and since that time
both Majors and Sullivan have made VIC
I ious assaults on fellow prisoners The bill
viii undoubtedly be presented to the leg
| islature which meets the first of the year.