The New York herald., 1921-12-27
CONVICT shot DEAD
IN DASH AT AUBURN
Five Smash Death Cells by
Cutting Two Rows of
Bars in Flight.
3 CAPTURED AT WALLS
Clement Pacyna, Serving 48
Years, Loses Life as
Leader of Band.
SEQUEL TO SUMNER RIOT
Killing of Negro i'm Prison Is
Laid to Gang Whose Break
for Liberty Fails.
SEQUEL TO SUMNER RIOT

Special Dispatch to. THE NEw YORK HEnALp
AUBURN, n. Y. Dec. 26.-Clement
Pacyna, 30, Pole from Buffalo, serv-
Ing cumulative sentences totalling
forty-seven years and ten months. was
shot and killed this morning by Pat
rick j. Mohan. a guard in Auburn
Prison. as he and four other Poles
from Buffalo were trying to escape.
The attempt was one of the boldest
ever made in the prison here. Pacyna
John Wydro. Alexandore Kalinowslxi
Walter Gazdik and Frank Lubiclsi
were indicted here last autumn for
participating in a riot in the prison
yards on Sunday. August Z.
The Ave had been transferred to Clin.
ton prison, but were returned q month
ago fer trial In county court. All ha0
been convicted and were to have been
sentenced tomorrow. During the trial
and after the five had been in separate
condemned cells near the death chamber
These cells were considered lmpregnable
saw TWO sets OF Bars.
At the o'clock count last night all
were safe. Twenty-Five minutes later
ttey were gone. Each had sawed
I! rough heavy inch bars and then
through the bars Of an outer cage to the
corridor. Then by standing on each
others shoulders they sawed out the bars
IN the grating OF an air shaft in the
ceiling ten feet above the floor.
The airshaft is smooth on all sides
and runs up twenty feet to the roof
With blankets tied together they lei
themselves down into a rear alley, where
kalinowsk fell and broke an ankle
They broke into shop and got a lad
der, but it was too short to reach the
top of tho outside wall. At that moment
an alarm WIS sounded and guards
swarmed onto the walls.
Pacyna and Wydro fed to the cabinet
shop and it was not until o'clock this
morning tina. they were found. Mohar
found himself alone in the upholstery
chop with Wydro standing In big box
facing him and a heavy hammer in his
tand ready to hurl It. Mohan fred al
the box near Wydro's feet. Pacyna. who
was crouched in the box, received two
bullets in his left side just below the
heart He died in a few minutes.
The saws with which the men cut
the bars are believed to have been
passed to them while going or coming
from the Court House at their recent
trial. When recaptured the saws could
not be found.
Three Serving Twenty Years.
Pacyna was serving sentences for
robbery and assaults while in prison
that would have kept him here until
1866. even with Communication. ,wydro
was serving twenty years for man.
slaughter and Kalanowski and Lubicki
twenty years each for robbery.
There has been Ill feeling In the
prison here ever since the riot between
Poles and negroes last summer The
trials that followed created more Bit
terness. Last week Warden Jennings
heard that an escape was being planned.
It was not known where the attempt
was to be made or by whom. but special
watch was kept over the double holiday.
In spite of this the attempt failed by
the merest margin.
After the riot last August the Dis
trict Attorney conducted an investiga-
ton and a negro convict gave evidence
against the Ave men. Later this negro
was sent to Clinton and was killed there,
with suspicion pointing to these men.
BUFFALO, Dec. ga Canadian penny
sent Clement Pacyna to Auburn prison.
where he was killed in an attempt 10
Escape. When New York Central pas
senger train No. Is was held up here on
October 21. 1920. the big penny was
taken by the robbers from passenger
who had carried 1t for years as a pocket
liece. When Pacyna was arrested two
lays later the penny was found In his
rocket. This fact resulted in his con-
viction and sentence OF forty years.