The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1919-08-15

\ Mrs. Brown was hustled off to Sing
Sing to begin her sentence So old
| acquaintance would not be forgotten
she was given Mrs. Lttle's old cell
\ Mary Ann Watts, an inveterate
shOplifter, made one Of the most SEN
sational getaways from the female
prison. On the night OF March 81,
1874, when tine other inmates were
all slumbering she picked the lock OF
her cell and &ot out into the corri-
dor while th0Sguard was busy else
where. Fastening a. rope which she
had smuggled into her cell under her
uniform skirt to the window sill she
climbed through !, and lowered her
fself to the igroiild. Wheel tracks
found in the mud indicated that !. a
conveyance OF some sort carried her
away.
/ While sought by the prison authori-
ties she was rearFested aboard q
4 Fourth avenue car two years later by
Detective Titus for stealing merchan-
disc.
Jane Brooks, who had served five
years of a. life sentence for murder i'm
j Allegheny county, got away during
the night of September 20, 1858. She
opened the door OF her cell with a
jacket and started homeward afoot.
Warden Beardsiey sent out guards on
horseback in pursuit. They over
took her at Matteawan and returned
her to her old quarters after she had
enjoyed As hours freedom
Some veteran prison employees
still remember the exploits of Kate
Connolly, shopHfter and chronic jail
breaker. When only 16 she learned
the latter art by getting on to a
floating gate and padding her way
from BlackwelPs island across the
East river She fashioned a dunn
N.Y. to fool the Sing Sing guards, left
it in her cell, got up on the roof and
slid down lightning rod on the
night of November q, 1859. Warden
Henry G. Nelson had posses search
for her in vain. She got into trouble
again four years later and went back
to her old quarters. She saw a good
opening to escape again on May s,
1875. The prison was short of
guards. Warden Alfred Walker had
dispatched every available attendant
to try to catch five desperate con-
victs, led by Steve Boyle, who had
escaped the day before. They had
held up train, forced Engineer Den
mis- Cassin off the locomotive, un-
coupled and run away with it.
She had no trouble getting away
in the confusion. She pried up the
cell door sufficient to unhinge it and
gained the roof. This time she went
down rope. Jackson was detailed
to search for her and she was re-
turned in due time.
I Sophie Lyons, serving five years
for stealing woman's pocketbook
in McCreery's store, also gave the
keepers and matrons the slip. Her
husband, Robert Lyons, alias Hap
good, fled the mems prison at Sing
Sing on December 4, 1872. He had
a fake telegram, summoning Warden
Nelson to New Fork, %ssent to the
prison as a ruse. When the warden
had gone the convict went too.
4 a carriage carried him off Fif-
teen days later the same carriage,
it developed afterward, drew up to
the female prison after nightfall
Mrs. Lyons, following her husbands 3
example, made her getaway in it.
The female escape records, obtain
ed by research as far back as 1857,
show but one "double-header." Two
went the evening of September 10,
1870, when Warden Russell ruled the
institution. Mary Smith and Sarah
Christian, tiring of the monOtony of
prison life, donned clothes they stole
from the matrons' lockers and walk
ed to Sing Sing village depot. There
they left unnoticed ON a train for
New York.
During Warden Walkers regime
Mrs. Mary jackson was fatally in
jured October 10, 1874. She plunged
from a corridor on to the floor below,
fracturing her skull. She died two
days later.
Mrs. Emma Hickey, one of the
PRISONS eccentric characters, died
August 6, 1874, while prisoner.
She had received life sentence 12
years before for poisoning her two
daughters at Ithaca.
Most of the mothers imprisoned i'm
Sing Sing prison were allowed to re-
tain small children, some of whom
were born there. Miss M. e. Johnson,
principal matron, terrified half
dozen mothers by issuing an order
March -, 1874, requiring all children
over 1 year to 60 to the poorhouse
Warden Hubbell charitably inter
vened and permitted the women to
keep their youngsters.