The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-05-20
The RUNAWAY
not CAPTURED
Prisoner Hatch Who Escaped From
the PenitentIary on Tuesday
Noon Has Not as Yet
Been Located.
THE WAY IT WAS DONE
He PrIed Open the Bars With Home
Made Jaekscrew and Crawl
ed TO Liberty Through the
Small Opening.

| There Is nothing quite SO interest
Ing as the story OF q prisoner who es
tscapes from penitentiary and the fol
lowing from last evenings Fort Madt-
son Democrat about the successful es-
cape Of Thomas Hatch. will be very In
lteresting:
The exact manner Of the escape OF I
Thomas Hatch, convict 9099, from
the Fort Madison penitentiary Tues
day noon was as follows:
Receiving permission to 60 to the
at about ten o'clock in the forenoon,
4 Hatch went to the hospital building,
but instead OF going upstairs to the
dentist went down into the basement.
1 Occupying the north end Of the
basement is store room. with
large grated window below the level
Of the ground outside the building
with walled space outside to afford
light. Vita chisel Hatch sprung
back the bolt OF the ordinary lock of
the door OF the store room, went into
the room closed the door behind him
and was ready for operations to ef-
feet his escape from the prison.
\ He had with him "Trimo" pipe
cutter, Jack screw Of fifteen inches
capacity. hack saw, chisel- all
, cribbed from the machine shop In
which he had been working and al
, SO small jack evidently made by
himself These tools he LETT behind
when he departed, together with a
two-foot length Of inch gas pipe Ito
!, have been used as a billy" had oc-
& casion required), small steel rods for
working the jacks, two-foot rule
], and his leather belt. He also left his
] prison cap. having taken an old hat
4 from the shop in which he worked.
9 The bars Of the grated window
a through which Hatch escaped are
e four inches apart with transverse
> horizontal bars eighteen inches apart
/ to strengthen. He sawed but one
5 piece, eighteen inches long, making
$ an aperture eight inches wide by
eighteen inches high. This aperture
he widened about two inches by the
use of the Jack. prying the adjoining
!. bars apart to that extent. Athletical-
!, ~ drawing himself through the aper-
ture he was in the walled space out
:. side the window. AS soon as the
! whistle blew and the outside men had
: time to form in line and go in
: side the walls to dinner, he drew him
J. self out OF the walled space to the
: ground. The situation was such that
: the wall guards were not apt to see
: him. nor did they do so.
: From then on the escape was easy.
: Had Hatch not been noticed by the
workmen at the gas works, his
absence would probably not have
!, been noticed till supper time. AS 1t
:, was, the telephone message from the
workmen conveyed to the warden and
:, deputy was that man had come
= down the prison embankment and
;. had gone across the road and up the
hill" Not deeming 1t possible that
anyone could have escaped unless 1t
might have been one of those work
ing outside the walls, the outside
! workers (then inside the walls) were
j, checked up and all accounted for.
f1dLCL CSC0PC was CiACA 10 iAOt
;. known to the prison authorities until
all the prisoners we're locked in their
!. cells while pursuit Of Dwyer was be-
ing made
! Frank Culp, the fireman at the gas
! works. says it was about 1915
!. o'clock when he saw Hatch come
q down the prison embankment, cross
the road and jump the high wire
! fence he says he would have
a thought nothing of seeing the man
. come down the bank, but when he
. jumped the fence and started up the
: hill he was at once suspicious and
4 told one of the men In the Office to
/ telephone to the prison. The convict
Q having on common hat and the
prison gray being a common color,
Culp could not identify Hatch as a
convict from the distance at which he
saw him.
! At o'clock when Guard j. T.
~ L.