Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1917-12-03
IS BAD men
FLEE;SAWED
PRISON BARS
Joliet Guards are Made
Helpless By Escaping
Convicts

Joliet, ILL.,, Dec. 3.-Thirteen
conyicts, six of them under sem
tenee for murder, escaped last
night from the state penitentiary
after cell door had been sawed
through and two guards oyerp0w-
t cred. Search for them is being
! made by prison guards, deputy
| sheriffs and well armed posses.
| Every town within a radius Of 40 |
miles of here has been notified Of the |
| escape and police and sheriffs are
watching for the fugitives. Four Of
the men, believed to be the ring lead
ers in the escape plot, were implicated
last September in the dining room dis
order when a number of convicts at
tackled the guards and the disturb
ance was quelled with difficulty.
! The four, Thomas Simmons, Charles
Werner, Edward King and Michael
Gary, had been punished by solitary
confinement and last week were
placed together in a cell known as the
intermediate solitary, an upper tier of
cells, preparatory to being returned to
the usual prison routine.
Beat D Prison GuarGs.
u In some manner, as yet unexplained,
| they obtained possession of a saw and
: cut the bars of their cell. When John
: KannaIly, a guard newly employed at
| the prison. passed on his round, they
;, broke from the cell and beat him into
:, Inconsistencies
: Then they laid in wait for c. J. Carl
son, the night captain, the only guard
within the cell house who carries a
Z revolver. They successfully attacked
Carlson and took from his unconscious
: body other cell keys. with which they
: opened the cells Of their companions.
! The - then opened the cell house
door with Carlson's key. They were
without keys to the outer doors and
: with saw and sledge broke thee locks
of two steel doors and climbed over
e the iron fence which walls the prison
Il Darkness sheltered them from OBJ
servation and their escape was not
= Immediately discovered. Searching
e for clues TO, the direction they took
= the Jail officers found only two persons
i who had seen the men. One, foundry
70 foreman. said he had seen group o.
= men not far from the penitentiary, bu
paid little attention to them, thinking
y them early workers
~ Chauffeur Met Bunch.
,or Edward Trainer, chauffeur, toll
~ the police that early in the morning
- he was accosted by group of mel
90 who sought to take his car away from
him. Il didn't like the looks of tn
~ bunch" said Trainer, 80 beat il
They flashed a revolver but didn'
nv shoot at me"
~ Warden Murphy was summoned q
al soon as the escape was known an
II / personally directed the organiZatio
of the posses, sending men in differ
ne ent directions in pursuit Of the fugi
v tives.
To- Il am making rigid investigated
al to learn how the. men obtained the sa7
M with which they cut the bars, sal
in the warden. I'VE have had troubl
Mt with all the men who escaped. TheI
nv was much trouble in changing frol
v. the honor system, but we are maxim
70: progress. | do not condemn the hone
system. Some of our difficulty is dl
nj to lack of sufficient guards, and the
18th too, many of the guards are new me
lad a number of the experienced guart
having sought other and more lucr
rec tive positions"
hi Mostly From Chicago.
Chicago, Dec 3.-Among the IL co
ev- victs who escaped from the state pc
ty- itentiary at Joliet last night w
Charles Warner, q years old, vi
or with his two brothers was sentence
80f to life Imprisonment in 1914 for Z
and murder of a Chicago saloon keeper.
The others who escaped are:
ar Roy White 90, Negro; william Gil
cad IS; Thomas Salome, 80; Clemuth
Wardell, alias Leo Adams. IS Mic
any aeI Garry, %; Reuben LAHORE,
in Negro; Milish Mongia. alias Pet
GO; Brown, %; Louis H. Eachles,
Thomas Van Buren,, alias Thorn
rec Murray, alias Thomas Warren, 2
40 Edward King, alias Edward Kelly, ali
eek Henry Castle, Is; Frank Miller.
John Cloure, 2S. More than half
lree the escaped prisoners were sentenc
NV from Chicago.
and Whitman Investigates.
Springfield, H., Dec. 3.-John
hin; Whitman. superintendent of prise
ead in the department of public welfa
left at noon today for Joliet to inves
1911 gate the escape Of - conVicts fr'
seq. the state penitentiary early today.
lree received full report by long distar
EN- telephone from Warden Murphy
urt. Attaches of the ienartnent of n
L, dons and marbles said. Eddie" XII
IL who vas serving an fndeferrnin
ago; term for burglary has figured in 9
sational prison escapes In both E
iuI land and France
'deh Those sentenced from outside c.
county, records here show. are:
~ ti,u Roy White, robbery. Kankakee CO.
Vii ty; Aiilsh Mondich, murder, Bur-
county; Reuben La F1ore, murd
,aAs Iroquois county; Thomas Van Bur
&C. robbery and murder. VIII c0un
Louis Eachles, murder, Peoria eour