Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-19
Saw Way to Freedom and
Escape Under Cover of
Binding Snow.
SEVEN OTHER PRISONERS
REFUSE TO MAKE DASH
Two Serving Life Terms for Murder
Accompany McDermott-Warden
Blames Inside Aid.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
MARIETTA, Ohio, February 1e-
Washington County authorities and
Marietta police were summoned to
Lowell, 10 miles north of here, today
after Sheriff C. B. Henery of Morgan
County reported that w. w. Young,
one of the escaped prisoners, and an
other man had been located there.
Sheriff Henery said that one of
two men had been positively identi-
fed as Young and that he and his
officers were closing in from the rear.
BY the Associated Press.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, February 19.-
Three life-term murderers, including
Pat McDermott, slayer OF Don Mel
lett, Canton publisher, and two other
prisoners. sawed their way to freedom
from the State penitentiary here early
today.
They dropped from the roof Of the
residence of Warden Preston E. Thomas
and escaped ahnder cover of binding
snowstorm that soon obliterated their
tracks.
Besides McDermott, those who es-
capped are:
William Young, 40, Washington
County, serving life term for murder.
Mike Jacko. 81, Cuyahoga County,
serving life term for murder.
James Walton, 80. Cuyahoga County,
serving term of II to Is years for
robbery.
Joe Rosso. 26, Cuyahoga County
serving term Of 10 to IS years for
robbery.
No Clues to Direction.
The binding snowstorm left officials
with no clues as to the direction the
men took in leaving the penitentiary
All extra guards were sent out to search
near the prison Immediately after the
escape was discovered and police of
surrounding towns and cities were noti-
fed to be on the lookout for the men.
Seven other prisoners, including an
other life-term murderer. who were
quartered with the five escaped men
refused to make the dash for liberty.
One bar on each of three cells was
sawed. in two with a hack saw. an
aperture wide enough for a man to
crawl through being made The escape
is believed to have been made between
4 and am.
After the five men left their cells,
they slipped along the corridor Of their
tier, which is in the front of the peni-
tentiary, then mounted to the roof
through a ventilator. From there they
crawled to the roof of the wardens
residence, suspended their improvised
ladder made of mattress material and
bed clothing from the roof and slid to
the ground, disappearing In the snow
filled darkness.
Named as Trigger Man."
The crime for which McDermott was
sentenced--the murder of Don r. Mel
lett, crusading Canton publisher-waS
one of the most sensational Ohio has
known The freckle-faced Pennsylvania
boy who found his place in the gang
lands of Cleveland and Canton was
named as the trigger man" In the Mel
lett staying.
Young was sentenced to life for the
murder of Harrison l.. Boyden, Mariet-
ia policeman, during an attempted safe
robbery at Marietta in the Spring of
1925. He Is said to have been known In
Ashland, KY. as a safe blower.
Jacko was sentenced in 1927. at the
age of 10, for the murder Of John
Souze, a Cleveland butcher, during an
attempted hold-up of the butcher shop.
Walton. alias Walden, was sentenced
to serve IL to Is years for the hold-up
of card game in Cleveland in 1927 in
which $4,000 was stolen. He Is said to
be wanted in Philadelphia for murder.
Rosso was sentenced In 1927 to
term of from 10 to 25 years for minor
robbery.
BIames Disobedience.
In statement issued several hours
after the escapes Warden Thomas
fixed responsibility on Ignorance and
disobedience of orders on the part OF
officers"
He said that some officer had in
trusted the key to the ventilator door
to an inmate plumber and had thereby
paved the way for colluSion between
the plumber and the escaped men.
Thomas also said that the "so-called
6 o'clock count" did not reveal anybody
missing while the prisoners. who re-
manned in the cells, declared that the
men had escaped between 4 and m.
The statement made by Warden
Thomas soon after the escape was dis
covered by Dan Donzo, record clerk,
when he came on duty about 1885 am,
was as follows:
THE whole thing illustrates that no
mechanical device, made or conceived,
will Withstand ignorance and dis
obedience of orders on the part OF Of
ficers Investigation has shown that
some officer trusted the key to the VEN
tilating corridors to an inmate plumber
thereby giving the plumber the means
by which collusion seems to have been
formed between him and those who es
capped by leaving the corridor door un-
locked and only held closed by a small
WIRE
THE so-called o'clock count did not
report any one missing, while testimony
from the seven men left In the three
cells shows that the men left between
4 and 5 am.