The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1927-03-15
POISON PLOT.
Is REVEALED
TO OFFICERS
Attempt Had Been Planned
For Next Saturday to Emp
ty Joliet Penitentiary
LEOPOLD is INVOLVED
Authorities Are Told That
Bobby Franks Killer Fl.
nanced Jail Break

Chicago, March 15.--tR-A plot to
empty Joliet penitentiary Of it's 1900
inmates by the wholesale slaughter
~ poisoning Of the guards has been
revealed to prison authorities and
Chicago police by paroled convict.
The plot, set for execution next
Saturday, is the third of series be-
hind all of which now looms the
youthful sinister figure of Nathan
Leopold, Jr., plottcr and co-executor
Of the murder in Chicago of little
Bobbie Franks.
1t was Leopold, the officers have
been told, who conceived the origin
al prison break in which seven men
escaped after killing a deputy war
den, only to have six of the seven
recaptured and sentenced to hang for
murder.
Leopold Financed Jail Break
1t was Leopold, too, said the detail
ed stories over which the officers
now are working, who financed last
Saturdays break from the Joliet
jail-a break in which three Of the
six recaptured in the first escape
reached freedom and shot to death
a policeman. Two later were recap
tured.
the latest escape plot as told to Off
but it was LeOpOld's original plot
ting, Delgoda related, that inspired
the scheme to evacuate the peniten-
tiary next Saturday by killing the
guards with arsenic, to be put in
their coffee.
Leopold planned the original pen
itentiary escape Delgoda. said in q
story printed today in the Herald
and Examiner. "From his friends
outside he obtained $4,000 which was
to finance the flight of himself and
his pic..ed associates first to Detroit,
thence to Canada and finally to Mex
ico."
Planned to Live in Luxury
Palcs Verdes, Mex, was the place
picked as the refuge for those who
escaped, said Delgoda, who obtained
his information from letters in Span
ish to the plotters, which he was
called upon to translate. The plans
provided that the men who escaped
were to live in luxury in the Mexican
town with funds furnished by Leo
pold's Chicago friends.
Delgoda said the original plot pro-
vided for the escape besides Leopold
Of Bernado Roa, Gregorio Rizzo and
Robert Torrez, the three Mexicans
who broke from the Joliet Jail last
Saturday. OF this trio, Roa Is still
at large. Charles Shader, Charles
Duschowski and Walter Stalesky--
three men who were under sentence
with the Mexicans to hang for slay-
ing the deputy warden In the origin
al penitcntiary break-also were to
have been included.
Leopold, according to Delgoda's
story, lost his courage and turned
sick at the sight of the blood of the
deputy warden killed by his fellow
convicts, and that was why he did
not attempt flight.
One Gamble on Decency
After telling of the poison plot.
plans for which he said, had been
completed, Dclgoda said:
Il am what the police call hard
boiled egg, but draw the line at
wholesale poisoning. The chances
gre that every criminal walking the
streets Of Chicago will feel called
upon to avcngc my violation OF the
ex-convict's code Of ethics. But I'm
taking ny chances and stalking every
thing on this one gamble on de-
cency."
Chief of Detectives William Scho-
maker, one of those who heard Del
goda's story, said that early check
ing of its details indicated tho story
to be virtually correct.
DelgOda's story was that arsenic
was to be infused into the coffee
served the guards, with the flight Of
all inmates to follow Immediately.
The coffee which is given the guards
is prepared by convict workers in
the prison kitchens. Delgoda was
employed in the kitchen.
Although this latest development
detracted attention from the Jail
break of Saturday, search for the
one prisoner still at large-Bernardo
ROa-continued.
Chicago police were told early to-
day by Mexican pool room proprie-
tor that Roa is lying in . secret
stronghold, armed with two shot
guns and two revolvers, awaiting an
opportunity to make good his boast:
'I'll kill Is policemen and shoot
myself with the last bullet"
I Woofhovs RoY,npf 1