The Donaldsonville chief., 1919-11-15
BURGLARS BREAK JAIL.
Negroes Held Fer Israel Store kob'
berry Max. Their Escape.

Frank Burns and Oscar Burns,
negroes, charged with burglarlzlng
the store of David Israel, in Railroad
avenue, about one month ago and
held in the parish prison for trial at
the next criminal term OF court,
broke out of Jail last Wednesday
night and made their escape.
The escape was discovered by an
other inmate of the parish prison ear
ly Thursday morning. when he went
to the cell of one Of the negroes to
ask him for match. He imme-
diately notified Jailer Acosta, who
in turn advised Sheriff Hanson, and
in a short while the officers were on
the scene making an investigation
It was found that the prisoners gain.
ed their liberty by saving three OF
the steel bars of the hallway of the
cage, under the lavatory, and boring
hole through the solid brickwail
near the southwest corner OF the
building. The steel bars which were
cut are two inches wide by about a
third of an inch thick, and were
sawed with a hack saw. The opening
made by the removal of these bars
is scarcely ten inches square, and the
men squeezed themselves through
this small aperture, and gained &C
cess to the hall which leads to the
toilet in the rear of the building and
which is not protected by steel bars.
A hole about ~ inches in diameter
in the outer brick wall Of the prison
directly over the waste pipe OF the
sanitary closet, explains how the ne
groes gained their liberty. The hole
in the wall is about fourteen feet
from the ground, and a ladder found
leaning against the building direct.
" under the holep shows that at least
one of the prisoners used this means
of getting to ths ground. Frank
Burns, one of the escaped prisoners,
is suffering from bullet wound In
the leg which was inflicted by the
officers at the time of his arrest. 1t
is presumed that Oscar Burns went
through the opening in the wall first
and slipped down on the waste pipe
and then placed the ladder which ne
found in the yard against the wall
to aid the crippled negro in gaining
the ground. How the negroes OBJ
tanned possession Of the hack saw
with which they sawed the steel bars
and how they managed to cut through
the brick wall, is mystery. No
tools or instruments of any kind with
which the work was or could have
been done, were found. Some of
those who saw the hole in the brick
wall express the opinion that it was
cut of chiseled from the outside.
While this is mere conjecture, the
fact that the negroes were provided
with a saw to cut the steel bars on
the inside of the Jail shows 'conclu-
sively that they were assisted in max
ing their escape by persons from the
The prisoners are still at
liberty. .
L. w. Armitage who for many
years has conducted general ner-
chandise store at Darrow, has decided
owing to i'll health, to retire from
business and in an ad in this issue
of the Chief, he offers for sale his en-
tire stock of goods and wares, and
also the building if desired by the
purchaser. The store has been es
tablished for thirty-six years and
enjoys an excellent patronage. This
is a splenudid opportunity for an en-
tcrprising person to acquire a well
established and going business at a
'eaonable price.