New-York tribune., 1918-06-13
Gafney Descends 20 Feet
in Safety, While Compan-
ion Fractures Leg
Fights Duel With
Police and Vanishes
Two Children in Street Are
Wounded by Flying
Bullets

eoiy ol tHe lOHnDS Z TiSOI was maze
yesterday afternoon at $3.50 o'clock by
Vincent Gaffney, twenty-one years old,
a member of the Gopher Gang" who
was facing long term at Sing Sing
for manslaughter.
Gaffney leaped through a window
seventy feet from the ground and land
ed on the roof of the womens prison.
twenty feet below. Then he jumped
to the roof of the visitors room, fif-
teen feet below that, and, running
south on the roof for about fifty feet,
he again dropped another ten feet to
the level of the great granite wall that
surrounds the prison and finally let
himself over the edge Of the wall and.
hanging by his fingers, threw himself
backward and landed sprawling on the
sidewalk in Leonard Street, fully eigh-
teen feet below.
John Callahan, twenty-five years old,
a "trusty," who engineered the escape
for Gaffney, tried to follow, but the
fates were unkind to him. He tract
ured his left leg in making the first
jump. He pulled himself together, how
ever, and. almost fainting from pain,
he actually jumped again to the next
rung of the ladder of freedom. He
could go no further and collapsed on
the roof of the visitors room.
Fights Duel With Detectives
Two hours later Detectives Flood
and Whitney, or the Second Branch,
found Gaffney in an automobile with
two companions at Tenth Avenue and
West Forty-seventh Street Gaffney
saw them coming and opened fire.
Flood and Whitney emptied their re-
volvers at Gaffney, and all three re-
loaded and again emptied them at each
other. About thirty shots were fired
without either Gaffney or the detec-
tives being hit.
Tenth Avenue was crowded with
women and children when the firing
Two small children were hit by flying
bullets, but only flesh wounds were In
flicted. One of them was the year-old
SON Of Mrs. Thomas Lucas, of 457
Boulevard, Long Island City. She was
wheeling him in a go-cart on the
northeast corner of Tenth Avenue and
Forty-seventh Street. The other was
Grace Lesire, six-year-old daughter OF
George Lesire. an electrician of 44o
West Fortyseventh Street.
Gaffney. firing as he ran, disappeared
in the hallway of 446 West Forty
seventh Street and went to the roof,
Whitney and Flood at his heels. Ee
descended by means of fire escapes to
the rear and, scaling q ten-foot fence,
disappeared in the hallway of a house
in West Forty y-sixth Street. Flood and
Whitney with a score of detectives
secured the neighborhood for him all
night.
The window from which the prison
ers escaped is in the prison kitchen on
the top floor of the new wing. One OF
/ the employees entered the room just
as Callahan was preparing to drop out.
He called for a keeper and then gave
the alarm to keepers on the ground.
! They had just passed into the prison
behind nearly 800 prisoners who had
finished taking their usual afternoon
exercise in the courtyard.
Too Late for Gaffney
The keepers were too late for CAT
ney who, by that time, was making
tracks for uptown, but they saw Gala
han trying to get to his feet. Drawins
their revolvers they shouted to him 70
lie down or they would shoot him.
By that time there was great COM
motion in the street, and from the WIN
dows of the tall Office buildings IN
Lafayette Street hundreds of men sno
girls were peering, curious to know Wnss
was happeing. By the time the Keep
ers had put up ladders to capture ~, ~,
| lahan, the police had their hands Iun
unsnarling traffic at Lalayet'e "n1
Leonard streets. -,
AS soon as Warden Hanley learned
that a prisoner had escaped and tnas
Callahan had been caught he orderec
keepers out to search for Gafney. 49,
After DR.. Perry Lichtenstein, sns
prison physician, had attended to Gar
lahan the latter sent for the WARDEN
and confessed that he had smuggiea
into Gaffney's cell pair OF :, knass nssa
trousers, such as the "trussies vIs sh;s
work about the prison wear. IN unis
way he succeeded in getting Carney
out of the exercise period, past severs1
keepers and up into the kitchen. on ins
sixth floor. It was clear coasting 70, 10,
Gaffney after that. The light iron grl.l
which covers the window looking ous
onto the roof of the womens prison u
easily detached by removing seycIs.
wooden screws, because the worklass a
repair the roof by letting tnemss.ars nsrs
down hand over hand on a stout r"ps
fastened to this window ledge. b,
The first thing Warden Hanley aS
when he was ce3tain that CARNEY nav
escaped was to telephone to Pollcs ~,
spector John Cray, who knows Garnss
and all his Gopher Gang pals. ucn
he sent three of the keepers VINO smys w.
Gaffney we'll to those sections OF "
city where he believd Gaffney miens
find refuge. Inspector Cray sent oas .'as
general alarm and scores OF oeteessas
were ordered out to look for the ius'
tive. ..to
Gaffney on May % pleaded guilty.
charge of killing Charles IucKsMI Mast ~
March 81 at Tenth Avenue and VIZ
Fifty-first Street. Judge Muiqueen n
posed fat sentence of twenty yss y:s
and Gaffney was sent to sing % S,ns
Last week it was discovered thai tnsss
had been a technical error IN impoen
sentence, and he was brought oack ~
resentenced by Judge Mulqueen IA
Monday to a term Of nineteen years s"S
seven months. An
Gaffney had served two terms ~
Blackwell's Island for petty is;.
and burglary. He is S feet sncneas, a,ss -
height, weighs lao pounds. and mas i'SS
eyes and sandy hair. 10
Callahan was serving six-monss
sentence in the Tombs for diso!osI
conduct. and would have been retess
July Is but for the fact that ne -
wanted at Elmira Reformatory lot vss8sN
lation of parole last year. s
Warden Haniey reported tns ~ s.7sS