The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1912-08-02
ONE ESCAPES PLOT
FLIGHT OF TWO OTHER SLAYERs
AND FOURTH PRISONER FOOLED
BY ATTENDANT.
WOMAN U o O
Wife Of Inmate Said to Have Done
This-SteeI Bars Cut Through
In Readiness for Wholesale
Delivery.

ST. Peter.-What proved a partial
ly successful Jail delivery was carried
out at the st. Peter state hospital for
the criminal insane. One prisoner
escaped, and only the vigilance of an
attendant prevented three others from
following him to liberty.
Bjorn Ostby, patricide, lowered him.
self from n of the grated windows in
the second story of the building and
disappeared into the woods. In doing
so he unwittingly exposed a plot
which would have given freedom to
two other murderers, James Cunning
ham n George Parker, and to a
fourth prisoner Andrew Sweider.
Great cunning was shown by James
Cunningham, the leader Of the quartet,
in planning and executing the coup
Craftily ~concealing his scheme from
all the prisoners but his four confeder-
ates, and using only the crudest kind
of tools, Cunningham sawed a steel
bar from n window and was nearly
ready to remove another from a Sec
ond. He was completing his work
when his escape was prevented by the
clumsiness of Ostby.
Cunningham, believed by the hos
pital authorities to have furnished the
brains of the plot, is a burly negro,
n is known as a dangerous and des-
perate criminal. He was sent to the
saltwater penitentiary from Hennepin
county for the crime of burglary, and
while confined in states prison stab
bed and killed a fellow prisoner. On
the expiration of his original sentence
he was tried for murder and SEN
fenced to a term of life Imprisonment.
Subsequently he became demented
and was brought here.
1t is believed he began making pre-
p~arations for the escape several
months ago. He removed the steel
shanks from 4 pair of shoes and
fashioned one of them into a rude saw.
with this saw, less than three inches
in length, Cunningham severed the
bars.
Another murderer, George Parker,
was admitted to partnership, Cunning
ham drafting him to act as a sentry.
Cunningham'S method was to take a
daily shower bath. The noise made
by the water enabled him to work at
the bar without fear of detection, and
the attendants now recall that when
ever anyone approached the Mushroom
Parker began singing or whistling,
doubtless signaling the other of the
impending danger. Soap was rubbed
into the cut made by the saw, and in
time Cunningham cut through the bar
in two places. Carefully restoring
it to it's proper position, he awaited an
opportunity to escape.
Finding that he could not hope to
escape in daylight, Cunningham di-
rected his energies toward cutting
through a bar in a window on the first
floor, but at the opposite end of the
building. 1t would appear that he
grew impatient over the delay, and
took in another accomplice, Andrew
Sweider. Sweider is a petty criminal
who was arrested last spring for
breaking into a box car In the Mime
apolis railway yards. He was sent to
the reformatory at st. Cloud, and two
weeks later was transferred to the
hospital for the criminal insane.
His usefulness to the plotters lay in
the fact that his wife had been al
lowed access to the building on a few
occasions. When she was with her
husband she was kept under close sur
veillance, but it is supposed that on
one of her visits she managed to pass
him a small file, which he turned over
to Cunningham. The latter started to
make another saw from the remaining
piece of steel, and it was about two
discovered.
Ostby managed to descend from a
window twenty-five feet from the
ground with the aid of a sheet taken
from his bed. Once on the ground, he
gathered up the raiment of his COM
panions, which he had thrown out, and
T.. carried it to a point about a hundred
yards south of the building. 1t is
probable that at least two trips we're
necessary, and on the last of these he
was discovered by Albin Ecklun, an
attendant.
st. Peter. The most diligent
inquiry has been made by the au-
thorities at the ST. Peter state hos
pital for the insane. but they have
been unable to find any trace of
Bjorne Ostby, the insane murderer
who escaped from the criminal ward.
Ostby is believed to be hiding in the
ravines along the Minnesota river.
Hunger may drive him to some habi-
tation and it is expected that he will
"a recaptured at his first appearance.
Minneapolis Woman Honored.
Hampton, Virginia. The Nation
al Association of the Colored Women,