Evening star., 1928-03-04

VIC had in our possession two guns. two
boxes Of cartridges and a note signed
Success" wishing the intended rccipt-
ent luck In his attempted getaway.
# 4
IT Is when gun is known to b"
already in the prison. however. that
the officers must act with the greatest
speed. ingenuity and rcsourcefulnes3.
Then slight mistake. careless move.
the choosing of the wrong stool pigeon
any one of dozen potential errors
may result in a getaway or the injury
OF several officers or both. And 1t Is
extraordinary how word will get about
In a penal institution that there is
gun somewhere inside. although no one
seems to know definitely where 1t Is
nor who has it.
I have personally known cases in
which for months there was a persist
ent underground flash" known to
every man IN the institution. that there
was "gat" inside. and yet. although
certain OF its truth, the officials were
unable to obtain any definite informa-
ton about 1t. Just short time ago
the warden OF one OF the New York
City prisons told me Of such an occur
renee In his institution. For months
gun rumor had persisted. One stool
pigeon after another had been put on
the scent, but the gun was particu-
larly elusive and refused to be found
Then one day a certain prisoner re-
quested an interview with the warden
There's a gun in the place" he an
nounced. land think / can get II for
you The warden told him to go
the warden sent for another prisoner
he knew he could trust and told him
to keep his eyes on the first one. The
very fact that the first one had told
something that every prisoner in the
institution already knew aroused the
sixth sense-that Of suspicion--which
all good prison officials seem to have.
And the suspicion was we'll justified.
as it subsequently turned out that the
| first prisoner was one who had been
, instrumental in bringing the gun in.
| While the rumor persisted, the officials
| we're so vigilant and careful that he
couldn't get a good chance to use 1t. so
| he conceived the idea OF offering him.
self as a stool pigeon. throwing sus-
| picion on some one else and then
carrying out whatever coup he had in
mind
Generally speaking. prisoners are
much more afraid of their fellow pris-
onere than they are Of the officers. so
| that 1t Is no unusual thing for the offl-
! cials to get anonymous notes from In
mates who are afraid that even being
seen holding a conversation with a
guard may fasten suspicion upon them
as stool pigeons.
Usually the information contained in
these notes Is so meager that 1t becomes
necessary to locate the writer In order
to obtain enough TO enable the officers
~ ~ E{,>d "A Af n
nous note among two or thre thou
sand convicts. many Of them past mas
tiers In the art of deceit and dissimu-
lation. would make even the famous
detectives OF fiction step bit. But
many prison officials. who Go not seem
on the surface to be particularly smart
or intelligent. do IL dozens OF times a
year and lock upon the work as a
matter of routine
4 PRISON official whom I know very
( \ we'll found OH the floor in front OF
his door q note. reading:
Deputy there is 6 gats In the place.
That was all. The letter was
printed" so that there was no hand
writing clue. The deputy went over
the note carefully with large magEi-
lying glass. On Inc DaCK ne lcunQ q
small piece of cotton waste. But cot
ton waste was used in almost every
shop In the institution where there was
machinery of any kind. Fifty or sixty
prisoners engaged In cleaning used cot
ton waste all the time.
The deputy sent for his prisoner
! chemist. who soon found coal dust on
the paper. This possibly narrowed the
hunt down TO the men who worked in
/ the boiler room. the only place in the
I institution where coal was used. The
! note then went 10 the fingerprint en-
pert of the institution. who sprinkied
fine white powder over 1t in order 10
br;ns out any hnserprints OF the kind
, invariably made by even the slightest
pcrspiration on the thumbs or fingers
There we're no prints OF any kind on
the paper.
The deputy then went over his list
Of consictS assigned 10 work in the
boiler room. There were -. Three Of
these were moun'aiaecrs convicted Of
moonsh!ning. simple country fellows
who never knew there were such things
as fingerprints until they got 10 the
pcnitnntiary. They would never have
thought Of Keeping flngerp-ints of the