The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-04
ESCAPES PRISON
 IN A SHIRT BOX
 AT WATERSHED
Charles Dewey, Serving Term for Assault, Gets Himself Ship ped Out into Box Car-Trick
 Carefully Planned

Wethersfield, April 4-One of the
 most remarkable prison escapes in the history of the state occurred here early yesterday afternoon when Charles Dewey, of New Haven, serV- ing a five to nine year term, step ped to freedom after he had been carried from inside the high walls to a freight car, in a large packing box into which he had squeezed himself with some shirts about to be shipped away A half hour later one of the
 prison guards noted -Dewey's absence from the packing room. A nasty in- vestigation revealed that he had es- capped and the idea of getting away in the boxes immediately suggested itself to Warden Garner who rushed squad of guards over to the weth- ersfeld freight depot where stood the box car that was to carry away the shipment. They found one of the eases with the lid off and inside some
 mussel shirts and a prison jacket left by the fugitive to console his pur- suers.
 The warden promptly ordered his deputies and all the available guards
 to SCOUT the neighborhood for any
 trace of the missing prisoner A gen
 era1 alarm was spread to the police
 throughout the state but up to late
 hour last night Dewey had not been
 located. The only trace was furnish
 
 from Wethersfield. She told one of
 the men engaged in the nunt that she
 had seen man, hatless, and without
 a coat, running through a field short
 1y after the time the prisoner is be-
 ueved to have made his break. He
 was travelling westerly, apparently
 making for a thickly wooded district
 that lies in that direction. Warden
 Garner believes he may be in hiding
 there, and plans today to push with
 renewed vigor the search through
 that district.
 Dewey had proved himself a model prisoner at WethersfieId and in con- sequence was placed in charge of the shipping room. Two and sometimes
 three times during the week, shirts are shipped out of the institution to concerns about the country. The cases in which they are packed are about three feet square, containing fifty dozen shirts when packed and weighs 400 pounds. There were six eases consigned to a city in Pennsy1- vania, prepared for shipment yester- day afternoon. About 1:30 o'clock Guard Robert Fulton called at the shipping room. Dewey directed the removal of three of the boxes but when Fulton returned to get the rest l the former was not aDout- However, l the guard failed to pay any attention | to that, believing the man had been l called to another part of the prison. 1 The boxes were all loaded on the | wagon, carted to the railroad depot l slightest suspicion being aroused on the part of those handling them.
 When Fulton returned he noticed that Dewey had not reappeared. Then It seems that the prisoner had only | partly filled one of the cases, putting 1 in just enough shirts, that, combined | with his weight, would make it seem all right He crouched inside, took | one last look at the interior of the | prison.
 He wore the regulation prison garb of gray. So far as known he had no | other clothes and this theory is borne 1 out by the statement of the woman who saw the coatless man running across the field. Warden Garner de- light complexion, smooth shaven, slightly stopped shoulders, cur1ey hair weight 150 pounds, and height 5 feet 8 1-2 inches.
 This is the first escape of it's kind ever made at Wethersfeld and the second that has occurred since two prisoners, feigning sickness, got out of the prison hospital twelve years ago. Last Sunday night, another prisoner, William Gardner doing a one to five year term, escaped from the hospital after he had sevred three years.
 New Haven, April 4-The New Ha- ven police have been notified to be on the lookout for any sign of Dewey in this city, where he has a father and brother living in scranton street. He is well known to the police here for he gave them more or less trou- ble for some time before he was sent away for assaulting and robbing Ar thur E. Hayward, a farmer, in High wood on November IS, 1910.
 About o'clock that night, Dewey, with another youth named Munson, their faces hidden by nandkerchiefs tied about their heads walked into the barn in the rear of Haywards home in Dixwell avenue, where he was milking his cows. At the point of a revolver they demanded his money and when: he demurred against giving it up, one of them set upon with a pitchfork, while the other beat him over the head with the butt end of his revolver. They left him un- conscious in the stable, departing with s115 and his watch. r.
 The pair promptly left town taking Constable Fred Sturtz ,ective work learned that the quar- set were in Salem, Mass. Less than l week after the assault he had Dew l ey and Munson under arrest. They 1 confessed and pleaded guilty to the charge of robbery with personal | abuse in the superior court, and on Tanuary 4, 1911, were sentenced to ,tate's prison for not less than five 1 1or more than nine years