Evening star., 1928-03-04
effective Skill Is REQUIRED to Prevent Some Jail Breaks

paper. as the man nho wrote the note
evidently did. They we're therefore
eliminated from the deputy's calculs-
tions
OF the remaining nine, one vas going
out in five weeks and one In three
months. IT. wasn't probable that men
who had most Of their time "in" would
risk losing all their good time" in an
attempted getaway. go the deputy c:.-l-
among the seven was old Jerry Jn-
gles," as the prisoners called him, who
had put In II years OF q life term and
was 50 prison simple" that no inmate
ri any intelligence would think OF TAX
ing him into plot 10 escape.
SO Jerry's name camc cut. leaving
six OF the six. cne vas a foreigner,
entirely illiterate and unable to write
word either In his own language or
in English This left fYe, all Old
timers and all prison wise"
The deputy then called the guard In
charge OF the boiler room into his Office,
handed him the five names and in
structed him what to do. Meyers, the
guard nodded his i1ead and, asking
no questions Why. went back 10 his
work Within the course Of week
five notes signed by Meyers came to
Deputy: viii you please approve this
pass for Martin?
Deputy: We will need more coal By
the middle Of the month.
Deputy: I ned to NOR men at onnce.
Deputy: Please send Johnson =. ex
steam pipe leak.
Depty: Will you please sign this
order?
A few minutes after the last note vas
received the deputy sent for Eddie Fran
els, one Of the five men. Il got your
letter about the six gats." said "Old
Calamity" There followed many bitter
protestations and indignant denials on
the part Of the prisoner. and persuasive
promises and threats on the part Of the
deputy. but IN less than an hour The
elusive "six gats" were In the prison
arnory where they would do nc harm.
Francis left the deputy's Office In a
daze. twisting around in his crooked
mind every detail connected with the
writing Of his letter Of warning. and
hoping that the six prisoners in the
getaway plot never learned Of the part
he had played in thTarting it.
But. after the deputy had eliminated
all but the five men, the task Of finding
/ the writer was comparatively easy.
Meyers the boiler-room guard, vas told
TO give each OF the five prisoners some
message to write to the deputy. He
| would say. casually: "Oh, Henderson.
write note to the deputy and ask him
to o. K. this pass" or Sinclair. write
note 10 the deputy that ne need more
coal" and so on. The only one of the
five who spelled the word deputy" as II
was spelled In the letter about the six
guns was Francis: hence the deputy's
conclusion that Francis vas it.
In many instances the officials pay
! with their lives for their failure to keep
out firearms. as was the case in the re-
cent Tombs outbreak in New York,
where the warden and a guard were
both killed BY desperate prisoners en-
deavoring TO make a getaway. There Is
the same struggle to keep out files. saws
and other articles designed to assist In
| an escape. and 70 keep at a minimum
the drugs which seem to seep through
the very walls.
Outside of prisons clever detective
work receives widespread and favorable
publicity. and the failures are soon for
gotten. Failure inside the walls Is wide
" advertised by the bloody acts which
follow in its train. The successes are
not frogettsn: they are simply never
known. For. whatever defects the real
Observation-Disclosures" prison officer may
have. an excessive amount Of selt-ad-
yertis.ng is certainly not one Of them.