The Mena weekly star., 1908-07-09
AT THE CRIMINALS HOME
faces Which Have Held Many of
 p.,t couuty's Bad Men and From Which Many Have Escaped Beiug Replaced by New Ones.

nearly completed and ready
 their unfortunate occupants.
 U;thiu a few days the old cells,
 ow lying in heap at one side, ,ed and beat, will be carried
 Nav to b. seen no more. No one
 yes them more than passing
 ance. and yet they are very <Iosely bound to the history ot Bis county.
 Tn conversation with Attorney
 oole McPhetrige, who has acted
 the attorney and Uncle Jack
 >avis so long the clerk of the
 hurt, a reporter for The Star
 ,s told few of the incidents
 alled up by memory.
 M Tn 1887, when the county seat
 as still at Dallas, these old cells 8ben considered 10 be strong
 Enough to hold any convict, were
 Installed in the county Jail at that blace. It was ia response to a honular demand for the more
 ecure lodging of prisoners that 8hey were bought. There had lSbeen a number oi escapes from the
 ail finally culminating in the so-
 Failed "Moffat escape. This nccurred in 1886. Moffat, young &nlan scarcely come of age, had Earned the reputation obeying a danp erous man. lust why, TO #nne seemed to know. But he Nbad the reputation and 1t seems #to have been justified by his later #career. Bell Wehunt was at #work in a field near Dallas one snorning, when Moffat approached 8him, and without any warning zshot him down. Then he went Sto Wehunt's house and assaulted Mrs. Wehuut. It was one of the Kmost cold blooded crimes in the |history of the county.
 He was arrested and con fiued l. in the jail but soon after made good his escape. For several months he was at liberty but was finally apprehended ia Garland county and placed under arrests Upon his return to the Dalla. jail, public feeling was at fever heat and there were oulspoken threats of violence, but they were never carried out. He was tried on the murder charge, convicted and hanged, but not until he had appealed the case and the higher tribunal had affirmed the judg- ment of the circuit court. His execution took place iu March 'q6 and was the first judicial exc cution in this county.
 Soon after this man named Murray, who was charged with the larceny of horse, and sev real others who were con fined iu the jail on minor charges made their escape. Murray was alter wards recaptured and convicted, serving hIs sentence in the penl- tentiary.
 The following year the cells were installed and the officers felt that they could go to bed with the feeling that when they woke up in the morning their prisoners would still be behind the bars. IL was not long, how. ever, until the community was shocked by a wholesale jail de- livery. ln some way a group of prisoners, seven in all, secured tools with which they pried off the cell doors, dug through tue wall surrounding the building and made good their escape. Their absence was noticed almost immediately and posse was or ganized and went in pursuit. A few minutes after the posse had lett, saloon man named Carter rushed into store aud asked for a Winchester rifle. One was given him but it was empty. That made no difference to him, however, and out he rushed and soon re- turned with all seven of the men aud marched them back 10 the Jall at the point of the gun. OG their arrival t the jail, he showed them that the gun was empty , and their chagrin may be better imagined than described.
 With tine removal of the county seat from Dallas to Mena, the Jill followed and a rather re- markab!e feature of the removal " < the fact that the cells were l"I l. ken 10 piecs to bring here, but were loaded on heavy trucks brought over intact. This was Tn 1898.
 About nine years ago, or very shortly after the cells had been installed here, d brother of the Wehunt who was murdered by M Hat, walked up into the room ot Bud Lambert and while the