Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-10-21
JUGGED YEGG FOR FIFTEEN.
Prisoner Got Funny with the Judge
and Got Five Years Extra.

Williams, alias James p. Kelly, alias
Oakland Sammy, alias Sam Ray
mond, yeggman and burglar, after
making a well-planned attempt to es-
cape last night from the Charleston
jail, in the midst Of his trial here
for carrying burglars tools, faced
Judge Prince this morning in the
Court of General Sessions, after the
jury had brought in verdict of
gully, was given sentence of ten
years and one month at hard labor
in the State penitentiary.
Sullen and persisting to the last
that his guilt had not been proved,
Williams asked Judge Prince why his
homer did not give him the limit
while he was about it.
Bring Williams back 10 the
stand" ordered the Judge, as the
prisoner had stepped down. 81 am
going to reform your sentence, Will
liams," announced his honor. 81 SEN
tence you to fifteen years at hard
labor in the State penitentiary."
Under heavy guard Of deputies
Williams slouched back to the pris-
oners' room, apparently eased in
mind about his sentence.
big crowd of spectators throng-
ed the court room this morning to
hear the verdict of the jury on the
Williams case, for the news Of his
attempted escape last night at the
jail and bits Of Information about
his previous record, made notorious
by three previous escapes from Gus
tody that Inspector Gregory had got
word of, together with his history Of
crime, drew hundreds Of men to the
trial.
This morning at $50 o'clock, when
Capt. Gradick went to pay Williams
morning call he found the cage
door and the corridor door open. The
bird had flown. Capt. Gradick had
taken every precaution that he could
think Of, warned and taught by ex-
perience. Here the yeGgman had
got away under his very eyes, so to
speak, as mysteriously as nightfall.
How could the man have escaped
with apparently not tool to help
him?
Before doing anything else Cant.
Gradick ran down from the west
wing Of the third floor, where VIII
liams' cell was located, to Tie jail
yard, to look for traces Of an escape
over the high Jail wall. He found no
evidence that the man had scaled
the wall, and so made a thorough
search Of the lower floor of the jail.
No Williams could be sighted Then
the captain returned to the empty
cell Of the yeggman to look for clues
Williams had been locked up in
steel cell within locked steel cage,
which opens into a corridor on the
third floor, having heavily barred
windows and shut off from the stair
case by sheet iron door, always
kept locked. Williams had been
placed in a cell directly on the corri-
dor that he might be better watched
from without. To reach the stair
case, where trace of him was lost,
he had to pick a heavy Yale lock.
This allowed him to- raise the lever
that unlocks the cells in his cage.
Then he stepped out into the cell cor
ridor within the steel cage. A
heavy Yale lock secured the cage
door. Williams sawed the three
eighths inch ring of this lock, getting
at it by thrusting his arm through
the bars. After he had opened the
cage door, he passed into the corri-
dor and was confronted by the heavy
iron door that shuts off the cells
from the staircases. This door bears
a heavy mortised lock that is opened
with huge brass key. How he got
through this was a mystery, as well
as was his location.
Comforting himself with the de-
duction that Williams, although
Jail bird, could not fly, Capt. Gradick
then proceeded to search in the only
place where the prisoner could possi-
bly, be, namely, the Jail loft Over
the staiI way corridor Is trap door
which gives entrance into the Jail
loft above. 1t Is some Is feet above
the floor. There was no ladder or
rope in sight, but Capt. Gradick had
1t figured out that Williams must be
hiding up in this dark and huge loft.
Calling TO him a tall negro trusty
named "Mink," Capt. Gradick secur-
ed a stepladder and ordered Mink to