Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1910-11-11
Diagram of the Escape at Sing Sing.

quite near that where Green and his
followers fed the other night
An clues were found false, and no
attempt to capture the men proved
successful But while on their way
down the river they quarreled. and
one of them shot the other with
Hulses pistol and then committed sui
eide.
Escapes from Sing Sing have not
been very frequent. and no concerted
jail-breaks have been successful. Be-
fore the tall iron fence was built along
the river front prisoners sometimes es-
capped over the Hudson ice in winter.
Once a prisoner constructed duck
| shaped helmet out Of felt obtained
from hat factory operated in the
prison. He fioated out into the river
with 1t drawn over his head, drifting
with the tide for mile, when he land
ed and made good his escape.
Almost Gained Liberty.
| Two men were caught once under
load of barrel-staves a contractor was
hauling away from the prison yard. A
guard stationed on the Ossining bluff
noticed that the horse was straining
harder than usual in making the up
| hill trip and ordered the load thrown
off.
Alfred Walker, who was once
prison contractor, had a flowing beard.
prisoner made up a beard like his
and drove out of the prison in the bug
gy in which he had just driven in,
none of the guards suspecting him. He
was overhauled a mile away and re-
captured Another prisoner. in the
| days before the close supervision and
the practise Of patrolling the walls. at
tempted to ride away on saddle
horse on which a contractor named
Anthem Murray had ridden IN to the
| prison The horse was shot from un-
der him and he was captured.
The most remarkable jail delivery in
recent years, before Green's adventure
was recorded, was thing that hap
pened in Sing Sing on July % last.
The sudden sight of an open gate,
urguarded and within easy reach.
stirred an unprecedented wanderlust
In the hearts Of several hundred pris
oners Twelve had the courage OF
their convictions and broke for liber-
ty. but Of these eight wavered and
turned back when bullets from repeat-
ing rifles In the hands OF assembling
guards began TO kick ND the dust
about them The four who kent going
enjoyed a period Of hunted freedom
lasting for fifteen minutes in the case
Of three Of them and an hour for the
fourth.
Two Hours Of Excitement.
The break occurred at $3.50 O'Clock
and the next two hours were the most
exciting Of any in the big prison since
Warden Frost took charge. up to the
time Of Green's flight The warden
himself was in the prison yard when
| the guards began to shoot from the
north wall, and he assumed command
OF the situation, ordering that the
north gates be swung to and every
prisoner inside marched as speedily as
possible to his cell.
All work was shut down, and while
the guards pursued the four prisoners
outside the 1882 prisoners remaining
that was the number then. in this
prison built to hold 120n-were locked
I'm their cells, from which they could
hear the rife shots and speculate up
on the fate Of the four who were miss
ing.
It was not due to the craftsmanship
of the guards that the prisoners were
! recaptured One Of them ran dis
lance of 300 yards under fire and fell
from exhaustion Another made for
an ice house in the fat north Of the
prison wall, and succeeded In reaching
It, only to be discovered by search
ing party as he was attempting to
crawl under the floor. A third made a
clump of bushes 400 yards away IN
spite of the bullets that spattered
around him, and was hunted out of
his hiding place.
The fourth had as exciting an ex-
perience as any dime novel hero could
wish for. He worked his way along
the prison wall directly beneath the
guard towers. where he was in easy
range. scaled a stone wall that was
higher than his head, braved a maze
of railroad signal wires In leaping to