The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1915-10-28

PRISONERS
At LARGE
MAKE TEEIR ESCAPE FROM
THE KNOX COUNTY JAIL
SAW WAY OUT TO LIBERTY
Led BY Deaderick Seguines, Johnson
City Negro Under Death SEN
tence For Killing of Chief OF
Police Campbell.

KNOXVILLE, TENN, Oct. 90
Led by Deaderick Segulnes, who is
under death sentence, having been
convicted of numbering Chief of Po'
lice George F. Campbell, of Johnson
City, eighteen colored prisoners, con-
fined on the second floor of the
county Jail, made their escape about
8 O'Clock Monday night. The prison
ers got out into the corridor by saw
ing the bars of the bath room window
and then using heavy bar torn
from a door, loosened bricks in the
wall of the Jail until hole large
enough for them to pass through
was made and then reached the
ground by going down a rope made
by tying number of blankets to-
gether.
After reaching the ground the pris-
oners scaled the ten-foot fence in the
rear OF the Jail and ran toward the
river, MOST of them, it is said, start
ing down the river. At an early hour
this morning none of the prisoners
had been recaptured except one,
Moses Ault, who telephoned to the
jail that he desired to give himself
up and he was secured at the Office
of the Knoxville Transfer Co., from
which he had telephoned to the Jail.
Sang While They Sawed.
Accordingt Ault while some of the
prisoners sawed on the bars across
the bath room window the others
sang at the top of their voices in or
der to drown the noise of the saws,
for the negro Ault claimed that two
saws we're used. Then when the
prisoners had gotten out into the
corridor the singing was resumed
while the hole was burrowed through
the wall which is about Is inches
thick
There were twenty-eight prisoners
all colored, on the second floor of
the Jail at the time of the delivery,
but ten of them did not escape. OF
those who did not escape four said
that they were not awakened by the
escaping prisoners, while three 9th
ers told representatives of The Jour-
nal and Tribune that they were un-
able to get from their cells into the
hall as the door was locked. Two
others said that they did want to go,
while one declared that his grand
father died Monday and that this
made him, the prisoner, so sick that
he did not try to escape.
Although the attaches of the Jail
said that it was about 9:30 o'clock
when the prisoners made their es-
cape, Ault claimed that they got
away before the lights on the floor
were turned off and the lights are
turned off ordinarily at o'clock. AT
the time the prisoners escaped the
only officers at the Jail were j. w.
Crudington, chief deputy under Sher-
iff Blankenship, who was working on
some accounts in the office, and
Night Jailer j. D. Tucker.
Notified Too Late.
Messrs. Crudgington and Tucker
first learned of the escape of the
prisoners when some one ran up in
front Of the Jail on Hill avenue and
cried out that the prisoners were es
Gaping from the Jail. Mr.. Crudging-
ton seized a gun and billy from
the drawer of the table at which he
was working, and ran to the base
ment of the JAIL while Jailer Tucker
did the same. When the officers
reached the back yard of the jail
through a door from the basement
they saw the blanket rope hanging
from the second floor, and hastened
to the second floor. The prisoners
still on the floor were locked in then
cells and the officers at once endeav-
ored to reach Sheriff BlankenahiI
and deputies. Sheriff BlankenshiI
reached the Jail in few minutes and
a "hur1y CALI was sent out for dep
uties with the result that several
squads of officers we're soon search
ing for the escaped prisoners.
! Those Who Escaped.
i OF the prisoners that escaped Seq.
uines was the only murderer and i
is said that most of the others hat
been arrested on charges of misde
meanor, etc. One of the prisoners