The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-11-22
Two County Bastile Prisoners
Made the Tools
DISCOVERY BY SHERIFF
William Adams and Harold Mu-
raine Had Turned Knives
Into Saws

| IjlC NiSiiohSN -
Anton Osten, and his deputy Albert
Nerdahl, what appears to have been
plot by two prisoners in the Jail to saw
their way out and escape was frus-
| trated and the opinion of the Officers
that these prisoners were entitled tc
leniency for their crimes was cons1d-
erably changed thereby. 1t appears
that while Sheriff Osten and Deputy
Nerdahl were down with the influence
two prisoners in the jail, William
Adams and Harold Muraine, gained
possession of two steel knives which
the prisoners are allowed to have al
meal times.
Taking advantage of the fact thai
there was no one to watch their &C
lions the prisoners fashioned these
knives into saws with an old file which
| they had secured in some manner
Adams is an old time mechanic and
J the saw which he made out of an or
binary kitchen knife is trophy well
| worth keeping. The teeth of the saw
are perfect in size and spacing and
even the edges of the teeth are slant
ed in the proper manner to make the
deepest impression on the steel. Al
| together the tool is a work of art and
| it is probable that the prisoner would
have had little trouble to have sawed
off the bars and made his getaway.
,Muraine Is Young Man.
Muraine is young man, nineteen
years of age, and the tool which he
fashioned could not compare with
Adams in workmanship, but it was
sufficient for the purpose he made it
nevertheless. Just after he was well
enough to be around, Sheriff Osten
| discovered the tools which the pris.
oners had made. When found, they
were hidden in Adams and Muraine's
hunks.
| Due to the fact that Muraine was q
young man to be in trouble a certain
amount of sympathy had been felt in
his behalf and the officers were of the
opinion that he was not bad fellow
at heart. The same opinion had a
first been felt toward Adams who
seemed to be honest and upright. The
fact that the prisoners took advantage
of the sheriff when he was ill and plot
ted to break Jail, removed any change
of leniency being shown in their cases
Harold Muraine was arrested las
summer just after Ringing Bros. cir
Gus was in town. In company will
Tony Gorwych he had dropped off thu
circus train at Lake Crystal and the
two stole nearly 800 worth O
clothes from a caboose standing OF
the tracks. They were apprehendet
and placed in the county Jail to avail
sentence. Following the discovery o
Muraine's effort to break Jail the twt
were sent to ST. Cloud for indetermi
nate terms in the retormatory.
Adams Given Sentence.
| Adams was sentenced yesterda.
morning to an indeterminate term no
to exceed ten years in the state prison
at Saltwater for forgery. He forge,
a check on the account of w. R. Wig
ley of Judson early in the fall and hat
been held in the county Jail since tina
time. Sheriff Osten was also in pos
session of facts that led him to believ
Adams wrote to friends and aske,
them to send him saws with which t.
escape
In the case of both Adams and Mu
raine considerable sympathy nad beel
manifested by outside parties but tn
fact that they evidently de;iberatel
planned to break Jail and make thei
getaway shows they were deserving O
the sentences melted out to them.
There is certain amount of mys
terry as to how the men gained DOS
session of the file With which the
fashioned the saws. Several prison
ers were discharged from the Jail a
one time and the evening following
Deputy Sheriff Nerdahl discovered
, man alongside the wall of the jai
, He was of the opinion at the time tina
/ it was some passerby who cut across
lots to the alley behind the Jail. Nov
it seems likely that it was one of tn
, discharged men who slipped the fill
under the screen to Adams and MI
raine according to pre- arranged plar