The log cabin Democrat. [volume] (Conway, Ark.) 1908-current, 1916-01-21
EXPECT BLOUNT TO
RETURN TO COUNTY
"a ESCAPE FROM farm
PRISONERS OF FORMER WAR
DEN MARTINS CAMP IN
WHOLESALE GETAWAY.

Dhoi III OSSaI II. IoHea, VINO with 70
other convicts, escaped from the state
farm at Cummins yesterday, will re-
turn to his old haunts in the vicinity
OF Mayf1ower, is the opinion of local
officers and persons who are ac-
quainted with the prisoners. The fact
that he killed an officer who was
pursuing him after an escape from
Jail at Conway and that he is a des
perate character will probably make
his arrest a difficult one if he once
regains the wilderness where he hid
successfully for several weeks.
Blounts escape was predicted by
many at the time he was sentenced
to the penitentiary, and it is said that
he has boasted since beginning his
term that he would be out of prison
by Christmas. He failed by only
few weeks to accomplish his escape
in the time he predicted.
The prisoners who escaped were
from the camp of which W. H. Mar
tin of Conway was warden until
the first Of the year. Mr.. Mar
tin was removed on the order of Gov
ernor Hays, who charged him with
cruelty to the prisoners The men
We're the most desperate in the peni-
tentiary, but Mr.. Martin had little
difficulty in controlling them.
Four of "a convicts who escaped
were captured yesterday afternoon
near Warner by posses which started
in pursuit when the escapes were dis
covered at midnight
Officials of the penitentiary and the
state farm placed the blame for the
wholesale escape upon Jake Jenkins,
guard at the Middle camp, from which
the convicts escaped. This camp is at
the east side of the farm, and is two
miles from the main stockade at Cum
Minis.
Penitentiary officials say if Jenkins
had been alert it would have been i'm
possible Yor more than one or two of
the men to irhave escaped before he no.
ticed their absence. The escapes were
reported to Warden j. w. Lumpkins
by a prisoner named Thomas. Head
Warden L. D. Bailey said the men
who, escaped We're among the most
desperate at the farm They recently
were removed from the Willy camp,
where the bad convicts were con-
fined.
One Of the recaptured men is F.
years old, sentenced from Sebastian
county November IL, 1913, to three
years for robbery Weader was cap
tured about 2 o'clock yesterday after
noon three miles east of Warner by
possee from the state farm. He was
hiding in the woods.
Tom Smith and Jack Doyle, two
others who escaped, were captured
one-half mile north of Warner at 5
O'Clock yesterday afternoon by an
other posse. Smith, aged 19, was
sentenced in Clay county last June to
one year for grand larceny. Doyle,
81 years old, was sentenced from
White county September 3, 1915, to
four years for burglary and grand
larceny. The other man recapturet
was Robert Moore, alias Rolla Mil
Ter, 1S years old, sentenced from Lo-
gan county in September to three
years for burglary. He was caught
near Grady at 4:30 o'clock yesterday
-.
: The "a men gained liberty BY saw
ing a section of the floor out of a
lavatory at one end of the stockade
building. Officials at the farmtbelieve
the floor was cut with saw made
from a steel table knife, and that
those in the plot had worked and
planned for the escape fol, days. The
boards that were sawed. out are of
oak two by eight inches. AS each
prisoner dropped through the floor
and chawled from under the building
he replaced the boards in the floor
so they would not be noticed.
Sam Bell, the Conway county man
who slew four of his divorced wife's
last April, and who is at
the farm pending an appeal from a
sentence to the electric chair, was in
the stockade from which the men es-
capped, but declined to go with them,
farm officials say. Sixty-seven other
prisoners declined to escape or were
prevented by the discovery of the
hole in the floor.
The middle camp is new one, COM
pleted last fall The wooden build
ing is set upon posts about two feet
from the ground. Once through the
floor, the men were able to crawl from
under the building without digging.
Heavily timbered land lies on two