The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-08-05
Frank MccooI Fe|Ied st.
Peter Attendant
FIGHTS OFF THE GUARD
Three Others Attempted to Get
Away, But Are Held
Back
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch.l

McCool, one of the slayers OF Patrol
man George Connery OF Minneapolis
and accomplice in the murder OF Mrs
Alice McQuillan Dunn in st. Paul II
August, 1917, escaped last night from
the ward for the criminally insane a.
the state hospital here. -
FEELING one guard in his bold dasf
for liberty, fighting fiiendishly with 9
mop handle through crowd of nurses
and patients three Of the latter plan.
ming to escape with him, McCool made
his way to window, jumped a story
to porch roof, leaped another story
to the ground and disappeared in the
wooded bottoms Of the Minnesota
river.
Guards are securing the country.
side. but at midnight no trace hat
been found.
In Place Two Months.
Two months ago McCool was taker
quietly from the states prison al
sentence of thirty years for his con
nection with the crime that was re-
vealed when the body of Patrolmar
Connery was found in a lonely marsh
to the ward for the criminal insane a,
the st. Peter hospital. The change
was made when the prisoners chronic
Ill humor, moroseness and sullenness
by turn, was ascribed to insanity.
McCool, it is believed, was the
prime mover in a plot to effect a
wholesale delivery from the hospital
Trouble started at $50 p. m. yester-
day when Olaf Holmstrom, a nurse
retired from large room on the third
floor OF the ward where the patients
had returned from supper on a lower
floor.
Holmstrom went into the cell room
McCool and Frank Vaughn, who had
come up from Saltwater, where he
had been serving time for assault and
burglary, and Frank Schoenborn, an
other patient who had come from the
penitentiary recently, followed the
nurse. G. ]. Olson, a patient from
Luck, Wis, was knocked unconscious
when he attempted to thwart the eff
fort to close the door.
The Guard Is overpowered.
Alone with Holmstrom, the three
Prisoners quickly oVerpowered him
nurse, unconscious on the floor, and
locked the door leading the nurses
quarters, thereby closing off approach
FROM that direction. They started a
desperate effort to escape through the
only two windows of the building
which were not securely barred.
Clifford McCloskey, an attendant In
the outer room, saw the door close
missed McCool and noticed Olson ly-
ing unconscious nearby. McCloskey
called for help, and while he shouted
he was himself attacted by Charles
Forbes. implicated with another man
In the murder of a farmer near Glen
coe, whose body was found in a corn
field where he had been left to die,
Forbes was easily subdued.
Three attendants then forced open
the door. A desperate melee follow
ed. McCool broke away and threw
himself into the screen of one of the
windows. The weight of his BODY
carried him past the slight resistance
Fell to the Porch Roof.
McCool fell to the porch roof be-
low. He sprang up nimbly and let
himself down to the ground, appar-
emily without suffering injury. He
ran to the timbered river bottoms,
and, before a pursuit body respond
ed to the alarm, he had vanished.
An airplane was lowering over the
river. circumstance giving rise to
the theory that McCool had accom- :
plices outside the institution, and
that, as climax to a sensational de-
livery, he had escaped in the plane.
There Is landing field at Kasota,
just across the river from the state
hospital. Authorities, while conced :
ing that McCool may have, been as
sisted from the outside, discredited
the suggestion that he may have CON
spired with an aviator for his escape.
Was Only One to Escape.
McCool was the only patient to
get away. The three who conspired
with him were overpowered and all
the prisoners, highly excited, were re-
turned to their cells.
Hospital guards are beating their
way through the bottoms All sur
rounding communities, twin cities
police and authorities at Saltwater
have been notified of the escape and
have taken measures to apprehend
the fugitive.
At the hospital here McCool has
sustained the reputation, gained at
Saltwater, Of being a bad man."
Often he refused to work, and fits of
dependency were followed by surli-
ness. When he refused to re- act to
prison discipline he was thoroughly
examined by prison officials and ad-
judged insane, it was said last night
by Ralph w. Wheelock, member of
the state board of control.
Visited BY His Brother.
McCool had been visited by a
brother recently, it was said by Mr..
Wheelock during a discussion Of the
suggestion that he may have been
assisted by conferderates outside the
hospital. The permit for the visit was
given by the board. He was seen
frequently by his wife, but her visits
were limited to fifteen minutes and
she was obliged to speak to her hus
band through bars.
Mrs. McCool formerly lived al
Omaha, it was said by Herman Vail
chief of detectives in st. Paul.
and that fellow wasn't crazy, not
a bit Of it" Captain Vail added.
The opinion that McCool was not
suffering from serious mental de.
rangement was shared by attendants
at the hospital. He was mean" eve,
dangerous, often violent in his RACES
but usually he seemed to retain his
mental faculties, it was said.
McCooi Caused Much Trouble.
.McCool, ever since his transfer
here, has been the hospitals chic!
source of anxiety. He was suspected
of fomenting dissension among pa.
tients who long had been contented.
Some time ago 1t was suspected
that he might be planning an escape
and precautionary measures were
taken in anticipation of an attempt
to break away. Heavy screens were
placed on windows and bars were or.
dered for windows of even those