Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Prisoners Saw Way Out of City Jail

The Marietta Register, July 31, 1924

Four Men Arrested For Stealing Cable Are Now At Liberty.

Police Believe Outsiders Aided.

Sawing the bars on the east window of the city jail four prisoners made their escape at an early hour this morning and are still at large.  The delivery was discovered by Chief of Police R. G. Putnam when he came on duty shortly after seven.

The men, Henry "Spawn" Rollison, Sherman and Watson Goddard and Ben Lisk, all of this city, were arrested at 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, by Chief Putnam, on a charge of stealing a piece of drilling cable, valued at $15 from the Pearl Daley lease on the Mendenhall farm, near Eight Mile.

They were taken to the city hall and locked in the men's department of the jail.  The prisoners evidently planned their escape a few hours later and started to work on the walls and ceiling seeking to effect an opening.

The sheet metal ceiling was torn loose in several places and one hole was dug in the brick wall above the cells.  Failing to get through police believe confederates came to the prisoners' aid with a steel saw which was passed in the window.

Working on the middle bar which had been repaired with rivets several months ago following a jail break, the prisoners soon got their way to liberty.  Bending back the heavy wire screen which covered the window casing on the outside the men crawled over the top and dropped into the firemen's volley ball court between the city building and the old Baptist church.

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