Imperial Valley press., 1937-04-04

like panther on Harry Tracy. slug from
Merrill toppled him over in spasm OF death.
All was in an uproar in the stove room. The
cracking rifles, the whining lead whipped the
crowded convicts to bedlam of fear and frenzy
No cheap -and-quicky' of modern movieland
has ever shot par with that seven-o' cock-in-
the-morning nielodrama of 1902, Men Go Mad
Among the Prison Stove-moulds"
But now the desperate gunmen raced for the
great outdoors. Before S. r. T. JONES' wall
guard high on the stockade corner, could pull
a trigger Tracy had knocked him out of his
tower with two quick shots. Guard Tiffany spray
ed the ground with a stream of gunfire from
his perch on the wall While his lead spattered
harmlessly about the prison yard Tracy blasted
him from the stockade with one bullet. He
plunged to the ground the outside of his
wall. Merrill sent Guard Duncan Ross sprawl
ing on his face with a bullet that took him out
of the fight.
In the wink of an eye the two fleeing convicts
planted a ladder against their one remaining
barrier-the outside wall. Then, amid the blow
ing of whistles, hoarse shouts, wild panic and
the rush of guards, Tracy and Merrill sprang
for freedom.
Tiffany the guard, lay wounded just outside
the stockade where the men came down. They
jerked him up between them Dragging him
along as a shield from the new force of guards
bleeding man to the edge of the woods. AS their
victim slumped again, final squirt from Tracy's
rifle killed him.
A screech of derision, defiant wave of the
hand at the outsmarted guards plunge into
the forest, and the men were gone.
TRACY = HAS - ESCAPEDw the tele.
graph lines cracked.
The wires of the nation burned with the bold
est, bloodiest jail-break in the story of the
West.
IA /HEN Warden James sent out his S o
Wv every sheriff, cop and constable grimly
reached for his gun. Every manhunting arm
in Oregon went into action. Sheriff Durbin
headed a heavily armed squad of deputies: Sup
erintendent Lee of the penitentiary led band
of guards. All day long they combed the woods
with far-fung line of riflemen.
That night the two outlaws arose as though
by magic in the prison town of Salem They
came out of nowhere to rob man named
Stewart of his clothes in lonely street. A mo-
ment later under the gun truckman named
Welch handed over a second outfit. After that
they whsked two good horses out of the La
baucher stable and vanished once more into the
night
In the morning someone caught a flash of
them at Brooks, small station north of Salem
on the Southern Pacific That night a posse
brought up with the fleeing convicts Tracy and
Merrill stood couple of possemen against a
barn and took their guns
Two days after the prison break so armed
men had the fugitives surrounded in the woods
near Gervais, still farther north. Oregon was
in a panic. Men for miles around were called
to arms The governor ordered out the National
Guard.
BY nightfall hundred deputies and citizens
and Guard company had the murderers beted
in with ring of steel, awaiting the daylight
to make the kill. But when they frightened their
lines at dawn-they had closed in on a vacuum,
Tracy and Merrill had given the slip to the
armed forces of Oregon. For even then they
were heading swiftly for the Columbia River
and the State of Washington that lay beyond
(The pursuit Of Harry Tracy in Wash
ington by Sheriff Cudihee, and the out
IGW's sordid end, toiH foIlot0 in the nert
tssue.)