The Yale expositor., 1911-01-13
PLOT TO BLOW UP
JACKSON PRISON
FUSES, CAPS, DRILLS AND CART
= RIDGES UNEARTHED SHOW
PLAN TO LlBERATE ALL.
FRUSTRATED PLOT " CARRIED
OUT WOULD HAVE BEEN
A HORROR.
Free" Labor is Believed to Have
Struggled in Explosives; visi-
tors Barred From Shops.

A plot to blow up Jackson prison
and make a general prison delivery
was probably frustrated by the timely
discovery of Is ounces of nitrogly
GERM and the subsequent discovery
OF five sticks of dynamite inside the
prison walls.
Just how the explosives got there
is not known, but an investigation
which has been secretly carried on
may solve the mystery. That it was
struggled in by free men is without
question, but the identity of that per-
son or persons is unknown, or at
least has not been given out.
Had the plot been carried out and
the explosives at hand used, it would
have blown the whole institution into
fragments and resulted, doubtless, in
the loss of many lives. while hun
dreds might have lived to escape.
1t is said that quarter of an ounce
OF nitroglycerin is powerful enough
TO blow up the biggest iron safe in
Michigan, and with Is ounces and
five sticks Of dynamite exploded. it
is startling TO imagine what the re-
suit might have been.
The discovery of the plot will make
It mighty uneasy for the 700 odd in
mates of the institution locked in
cells every night as IL is not known
whether more explosives are secreted
within the walls or not
Warden Simpson issued an order
forbidding admission of visitors to the
shops or yards of Jackson prison.
pending completion OF the search for
explosives, and the unraveling Of the
plot to blow up the prison.
Under the warden's order visitors
will only be permitted in the guard
rooms and at chapel services. Free"
men will be excluded from mingling
with convicts and all traffic in con-
traband. of whatever nature, will nee
essarily abruptly end.
The following articles were dug up
in the prison yard
Two big drills.
Two big boxes of 3S-caliber cart
ridges.
\One 1G-ounce bottle OF nitroglycerin.
One Bounce bottle OF nitroglycerin.
tanning fuse.
A number of dynamite caps.
No revolvers or other weapons were
found at this time.
One bottle containing fuse.
Later the diligent searchers found
five sticks of dynamite of so per cent
nitroglycerin. This is enough. alone,
to blow the whole prison 70 frag-
ments.
Warden Simpson and the investiga-
tors are naming no names, but they
are convinced that the explosives
were brought where they were found
as part of a wholesale jail delivery
plot, which contemplated the assas-
sination of guards and the destruction
Of the prison; that the plotters were
free" men In the prison shops and
convicts; that continued investigation
will result in the capture of all the
paraphernalia and the plotters them
selves and the extinction of smuggling
in Jackson prison, at least for long
time to come.
1t is believed in Jackson that James
Burke, one OF the five convicts trans
ferred from Jackson prison to Mar
| quette recently, was the man who
tipped off" to Warden Russell of the
latter institution the plot of the con-
victs to blow up Jackson prison with
nitro-glycerin and escape, which was
frustrated Saturday by the discovery
of the explosive in the yards.
Burke. who is now in Lansing seek
ing to secure Gov Osborn's promise
Of pardon, tried to win the same
promise from Warden Fuller in re-
turn for his information about the
dynamite plot. 1t is said. Russell made
no promises, but by adroitly question.
ing him and agreeing to do what he
could to secure the mans freedom,
learned enough TO cause him immedi-
ately to put the Jackson authorities
on their guard.