Year: 1871




The recent escape of twenty-nine con-
victs from the Nevada State prison, of
which we gave an imperfect and brief ac-
count last week, proves, now that the full
particulars have come to hand, to have
been one of the most extraordinary occur
rences OF the kind ever recorded. We
copy the complete account from the Gold
Hill News:


About 6 O'Clock last evening Sunday
the convlcts at the State prison, situated a
mile and quarter from Carson City, made
the most desperate and successful attempt
to escape ever yet known at that establish
ment On Sunday the prisoner have moth
ing to do, and are permitted to stand out
side their cells in a common room allotted
to them. In addition to this. their design
OF escaping was aided by the wind, which
swept impenetrable clouds of dust into the
valley. Shortly after, the captain of the
guard came into the room to scatter the in
mates to their different cells to be locked
up for the night He had just stepped
inside the door when he was knocked
down by blow upon the head with bot
tie, by one of the prisoners, another strik-
ing him over the left eye with slung-shot
at the same time. He fell bleeding and
senseless to the floor, and was seized by Pat
Hurley, one Of the convicts, and thrown
into cell near by and the door closed
This was done without alarming the guard
or any one else outside the CRATE The
prisoners then climbed to the top of the
upper tier of cells, and with an axe cut
hole in the roof large enough to crawl
through. Each prisoner was armed with
sort of slung-shot, made of bits Of iron
OF metal sewed or surreptitiously tied up
in strips of cloth, while few had knives
made by themselves or obtained. The
roof was too high at the point of egress
for them to jump to the ground; therefore,
calculating the distance correctly, they
passed along to just over room at the
head of the main staircase leading from
the second story to the ground floor. Cut
ting hole through the roof as hastily as
possible, all the scamps Immediately
jumped down through, and passing down
the stairway were directly in possession of
the office and armory. The guards and
officers of the prison were taken complete
ly by surprise, but as soon as the alarm
was given the fighting commenced. 1t
was desperate hand-to-hand conflict, in
which the guards and officers stood up to
it manfully, and the prisoners fought with
all the energy of desperation. 1t was of
short duration, however, when the eonvicts
becoming masters of the situation, twen-
ty-nine of them took leave of the prison.
There were seventy-two, in all confined
there, but the remainder were secured be-
fore they could make effectual resistance


At this time Lieut.-Gov. Denver, with
his family and a few guests, was eating
supper in the warden's room, while Bob
Dedhan, life convict sentenced for muir
der, was serving the table. Suddenly the
clanking of the prisoners chains was
heard on the roof Immediately above their
heads. The whole party thought it was
an earthquake, and started in dismay
Meantime the convicts had cut through
the roof of the next apartment at the head
of the stairs. The cause of the uproar now
became evident. Some of the ladies came
screaming down stairs, just ahead of the
prisoners, and into the front yard, not
knowing what was about to happen. Two
of the prisoners came to the dining-room
when they were met by Lieut.. .-Gov. Den
yer and Dedman. Denver drew his re-
volver and shot one of them, Clifford, and
! Dedman drove the other back with a
chair. Both retreated down the staircase,
but Clifford subsequently returned and
gave himself up, desiring to be hidden
away from the rest, rs he said they would
kill him because he had opposed this break
before it was made. The convicts, now
well armed, were fighting desperately
with the guard below and some of them
tried to come up the staircase, but at the
top were met warmly by Gov. Denver and
Dedman. Mr.. Denver gave them what he
had in his revolver, while Dedm an fought
with all the chairs he could get hold of,
knocking them down stairs one after the
other. One fellow came at Bob three
times with a long knife, and each time he
was knocked down. The third time he
was knocked or pitched over the balus-
trade head first. Meanwhile Gov. Den
yer was shot through the hip or fleshy
| part of the thigh, and received one or two
severe scalp-wounds form blows on the
head He bled profusely, and would
doutless have been killed had it not been
for the bravery of Bob Dedman in defend
ing him.


When the ladies ran down screaming
into the yard, Matt Pixley, of the Warm
Springs Hotel, close by the gate, hearing
them, ran to the rescue with a couple of
pistols, but was shot dead on the porch of
the prison by Charles Jones, one of the
convicts. through window. The ball is
thought to have been from Henry rifle,
and entered his head just below the left
eye, killing him instantly. The prison
guard generally consists of but five or
seven men, and at the time the first alarm
was given they were mostly outside the
prison One of them. f. NJ Isaac, former
ly of Virginia City, Immediately confront
ed the motley crowd issuing from the front
door, with his revolver, doing some very
effective shooting, as well as being shot
down himself in return. His right knee
, was broken by bal, which passed through


it, and lodged in the rear portion of the
left knee. Johnny Newhouse, another OF
the guard, from Gold Hill rushed into
the fray regardless of danger, fighting
with the utmost GOODNESS and bravery. He
shot Parsons, one of the Verdi railroad
robbers, through the body, and directly
afterward was himself shot in the back and
the rear portion of his head, so that he


fell powerless Perasieh, Sclavonian,


from Carson, another Of the guard, was


outside the gate. but hurried to ''stand i'm
with the rest He did some lively shoot