Show 0 0 0 i 0 i AN ESCAPE VIA THE GRAVE I 4 By GEORGE T PARDY I Did Justice Go Wrong in the Case of Luke Phipps Tale of a Long Search the Disappearance Disap-pearance of a Criminal Crim-inal and the Hanging of Man by Essex County Authorities An Achievement of That Master Sleuth John Wilson Murray F NT March 1884 a man by the name of Luke Phlpps r was the proprietor of u billiard room In Detroit Mich Phlpps was about 31 years of age of fair complexion with brown hair and a sandy mustache mus-tache His family consisted con-sisted of his wife and two children a boy and a girl Mrs Phlpps was a pretty little woman apparently very fond of her husband But fate decreed that tho serpent of Jealousy should creep Into this Eden of domestic bliss Mrs Phlpps without with-out tho knowledge of her husband had been In tho habit of making secret t trips across the river to Windsor and jf it chanced that Luke Phipps received Information of this fact Passionately devoted to his wife this discovery filled fill-ed him with madness Ho watched 1 ° r carefully and shadowed her move elits Ono fateful night she left her homo and boarded the ferry boat for Windsor Close on her heels followed the Infuriated husband armed and under the influence of strong liquor In which he had been Indulging freely I since ho had been Informed of his vices supposed unfaithfulness Not until tho boat was well out In Ito river and approaching the Can V i nadian shore did Phipps reveal himself him-self to the woman Angry words passed between them the husband accusing the wife of infidelity Mrs Phipps repllttd Harshly and the words p had scarcely left her lips when the man drew n revolver and fired pointblank point-blank at her The bullet sped true to the mark and Mrs Phipps fell to the lock dead The murder was witnessed liy a score of passengers and Phlpps was Instantly seized He made no resistance but meekly gave up tho weapon with which the deed was commuted t com-muted and when the boat landed at Windsor was taken In charge by the Canadian authorities Ho was takon at once to Sandwich Jail three miles from Windsor and committed for trial j Into this illomened place of confinement con-finement came PJiipps sobered by the realization of tho awful tragedy of which he had been the author The future looked black Indeed for Canadian Cana-dian Justice frowns grimly upon the destroyer of human life no matter what her or his provocation may have been and the gloomy shadow of the gallows loomed threateningly before j him Among the Inmatea of Sandwich Jail was one Rucky Greenfield apr A a-pr fesslonul thief who like Phipps was awaiting trial but on a far less serious charge To this man Phipps was assigned as cell mate and glad to find someone In whom ho could confide con-fide the wife slayer told him tho story As a result of this conference n mysterious mys-terious female shortly afterwards paid a visit to Greenfield and for ten days following her call lucky kept close In his cell During this Interval Luke PhIpps became seized with a mania for music Ho whistled and sang continually con-tinually In a loud voice for hours at a time None of tho warders offered any objection Lifo In Sandwich Jail was a monotonous existence at the best and If a prisoner found comfort In the sound If his own voice they saw no particular reason for silencing himThe The truth of tho matter was that Phipps had resorted to the perform onto of these nocturnal concerts fort for-t the purpose of stilling the sounds of Greenfields labors In tho cell U last the persistent gnawing of the fflio conquered the stubborn resist ace of tho steel bars They were cut hough and the way of escape lay ojn before tho prisoners In tho Iiii1 of night the two men slipped out t + l the darkness Greenfield got tjffeugh the narrow opening with little dlgwalty but Phlpps when halt way thjrSSgh stuck fast His comrade tara + 11 4 for tar-a few moments making des r i4tjj efforts to extricate him but PIpremained Immovable as theitglgrlppod In a vice Self preser vaUOf being the first law of nature f uckyareonlield resolved to obey Its tlietatwland seized with sudden panic r + yhlftdy Into the night VnetStr seized tho heart of Phipps I IL1 > 5JiV clutch when his comrade dhlm A few seconds passed ke Will lay in the narrow openS open-S from his exertions Then e I rlr I i t i rIii 111 n 1 ° t u p tNGtlSilr ilIt Ira d l + If t I Y II IN I III Ili yll I I I utusiy li rl i lh I Jnt V ItKt ti4Rr1 wl tt I I N ii1i9 W 1 v w 4SHK l r ELL HEAD TOfcEWOTT INTO 6 A NEWLY DUGGRAVE ii1 a wild fury filled his veins Ho strug sled savagely desperately and finally tore himself loose with a wrench so powerful that the momentum hurled hIm over the wall and he fell heavily heav-ily to the ground below There he lay i for some time severely bruised and only half conscious Ho was aroused by hearing voices In the jail and stag Bering to his feet dragged himself away In search of a hiding place Ho came to a graveyard and as he crawled along in the darkness fell head foremost Into a newly dug grave Silent he lay without moving with fustclosed eyes and rigid body Ho heard a creaking and bumping and faintly as though far away ho heard the harsh rattle of earth falling on the casket Yet no weight seemed to press upon him but this did not surprise sur-prise him for he was long past the stage of astonishment It was the end and nothing mattered now He heard the rumble of wheels as the carriages departed and tho footsteps of the mourners died away His awakening came suddenly accompanied ac-companied by a cold thrill of horror as his eyes opened upon the utter darkness He tried to move but his entire frame seemed to bo paralyzed With a rush of recollection there crossed his mind the memory of the burial tho prayer and singing lIe moved his head feebly and through tho hay caught sight of the twinkling stars Slowly and with great pain ho managed to rise to a sitting posture Whero was the coffin where tho six feet of earth underneath which It lay Ho staggered to his feet and saw that I the grave he occupied was empty His brain whirled madly In a maze of torturing tor-turing conjectures What did It all mean Ho tried to clamber out but fell back exhausted Ho lay back on the hay rested and tried again Jit was the work of an hour for him to drag his feeble limbs over the edge of the pit but at last he succeeded Then the mystery was solved Close beside the open grave from which ho had emerged a newmade mound stood darkly In the moonlight Tho burial had indeed taken place but In the grave adjoining that in which ho lay The escaped murderer stood up and laughed hysterically as ho looked around and saw the distant outlines of Sandwich Jail looming black and gigantic In the moonlight Rallying his failing strength he staggered away from the grave that had been his place of refuge On the newmade mound stood u vase jf flowers and bending town weakly ho plucked ono and tossed It Into tho empty grave Then painfully ho turned and crept out of the cemetery across the road through tho fields traveling like an Injured dog limping on ah fours His progress was very slow His destination was the rlvor which he reached an hour after midnight and where he found an old boat halt full of water lIe discovered a piece of board crawled Into the boat shoved off and began to paddle When dawn was breaking ho reached the American shore below Detroit nine miles downstream down-stream wet to the skin wounded bloodstained and faint But ho knew tho country round about and made his way Into tho city to the homo of a friend knocked and was taken In clothed and fed When his wounds were healed and his strength returned he left Detroit resolved to enter upon a new life But the Canadian authorities wore not disposed to tamely relinquish the possession of a prisoner who had broken their laws and set them at do fiance Orders wero Issued to capture Phlpps wherever ho might be and the task of hunting him down was assigned as-signed to Detective John Wilson Murray Mur-ray He sent out a description of Phipps to police headqudrters all over tho continent The fugitive was a billiard room keeper and Murray calculated that It would bo simply a question of time until his money gave out and he would be obliged to look for a Job Inn in-n billiard room Every man to his trade Is a maxim that also holds good in tho case of a fugitive from justice and the detectives surmise moved cor rect Phipps was located In Pullman Ill where he had obtained a position in a billiard room Murray prepared extradition papers went to Illinois and took Phipps from Pullman to Chicago In tho latter city the fugitive employed em-ployed Jesse Ball an able lawyer and made a hard fight against extradition His counsel endeavored to show that the shooting was dono In American waters and there Is no hanging In Michigan If tho crime had been com mltted In American waters Phipps would have been tried In Michigan and If convicted he would not have been hanged Murray proved by the captain of the boat and a number of I Its passengers that tile shooting was dono In Canada waters on the Canada side of the river The legal tIght lasted a couple of days both sides calling witnesses and Phipps lost An appeal was taken and a writ of habeas corpus Issued but tho proceeding was dismissed dis-missed and Murray and his prisoner started for Canada At Ann Arbor two newspaper men after going through the car stopped In front of Phlpps and asked him in a whisper as they pointed towards a wellknown Detroit minister who was slumbering in a nearby seat Is that Phlpps the murderer Phipps merely smiled In reply but It was evident that the title of murderer mur-derer used in conjunction with his name made him flinch considerably and Murray was about to explain the situation to the reporters when the train started and the two seekers for information left tho car hurriedly Tho news of Phipps coming had gone be foio him and when tho train reached Detroit there were nearly two hundred of his former friends waiting at the station to see him The reception they gave the prisoner testified strongly to the high tide of popularity In his hometown home-town und Murray felt still more favorably fa-vorably inclined toward the man whom duty compelled him to handover hand-over to the grim mercies of Canadian law I Ill see you fellows at the Michigan exchange called out Phipps to bin friends us ho followed Murray Into n cab that Chief Bains of Windsor had waiting for them Id like to take a farewell drink there added tho prisoner pris-oner to Murray and the latter nodded assent and ordered the cabman to drive to the barroom In question Phipps friends gathered there in full force and crowded around him slinkIng slink-ing hands and giving vent to loud expressions ex-pressions of sympathy Finally Murray Mur-ray delivered himself of a short speech to the crowd that was trenchant and very much to the point Its all very well to bo sorry boys said the detective bluntly but Phlpps needs something more than that What he wants Is money for his defense and Im ready to start a collection col-lection right now Murray backed up his statement by making a handsome donation and the crowd growing enthusiastic en-thusiastic over tho Idea followed suit with tho result that a comfortably large sum was soon subscribed and given to tho prisoner That done Murray Mur-ray asked him If there was any other place In Detroit ho wanted to visit before be-fore crossing the river Id like to drive past my old home on Jefferson street said the prisoner pris-oner wistfully Many times In after life tho dotes tlco was glad that ho acceded to this last request of his unfortunate prisoner pris-oner Tho cab drove along Jefferson street and Phlpps gazed with soul hungry eyes upon the house wherein he had once lived so happily lie watched It out of the cab window and then from the window In tho back until un-til It had faded from his view 0 0 Im ready to go now he said and Murray took him across the river and back to tho jail front which he hail made such u daring escape There wore several circumstances that weighed heavily against Phlpps chances of escaping death on the gallows gal-lows In the first place his Jailbreak ing exploit In company with Bucky Greenfield was against him Greenfield Green-field got away safely to Mexico and i as thero was no extrivlltlon treaty between be-tween Canada and the former country at that time covering his offense ho was never brought back Doubtless Greenfield meant well by his cellmate when ho planned their escape but II would have been far better for Phlpps had ho not broken Jail Then there was tho episode of Billy Callaghan It Sandwich Jail which had much to do with influencing public opinion In the I County of Essex at the lima of the Phlpps trial Callaghan belonged to Detroit lIe cnmo of a respectable family and Ic his younger days was a dry goods clerk but became a professional burglar burg-lar and desperate crook Ho and a burglar named Kennedy were being held in Sandwich jail and on March 1G they made a dash for liberty George OCallghan Leech the old governor of the Jail tried to Intercept the escaping prisoners and Billy Cal Inglmn drew a revolver which had been smuggled Into his cell shot and killed tho governor and escaped with Kennedy Callaghan got safely away out of the country but Kennedy was caught and sent to Kingston penitentiary peniten-tiary for seven years While there Kennedy became pals with another convict named Bllnky Morgan who was serving flvo years for manslaughter Shortly after becoming be-coming acquainted the pair broke out of Kingston penitentiary Morgan was traced to Reno Ohio by a detective named Hoollhan and In tho fight that occurred when they met tho ofllcei was killed Morgan escaped after slaying Hoollhan but was run down In Alpena Mich whore ho shot the sheriff and wounded another man He was captured taker to Cleveland and hanged Kennedy got away In the meantime Callaghan after killing Gov Leech of Sandwich jail had disappeared completely Murray sent out circulars offering a reward for his arrest and finally received a telegram from the police of Hannibal Mo which read Come at once Callaghan In Jail acknowledges Identity Murray wired back Will come but I do not believe It Is Callaghan Ho would not acknowledge Identity Ho prepared the necessary extradition extradi-tion papers and wont to Hannibal taking tak-ing with him Turnkey Smith of Sand vlch jail who know Callaghan well Arriving at their destination they were Informed by tho police that two crooks known as Joe Rico and John Carr had burglarized Banker Patter I sons house In Barry III making him get out of bed open up his safe and turn over the contents besides taking his goldmounted revolver They had been caught in Hannibal and Rico had the stolon revolver On the way to the Jail Rice whlspeicd with Carr and I in the jail he had said to a fellow prisoner I wonder If these cops know who 1 am They offer a reward for me In Canada The prisoner reported tho conversation Rico was questioned and confessed he was Bill Callaghan Then Murray was sent for The detective was shown to tho cell occupied by tho supposed Callag han It was a gloomy hole but even In the semidarkness a single glance at tho inmate convinced Murray that he was not tho murderer of tho Sandwich Sand-wich Jail governor Turnkey Smith also shared his opinion Tho prisoner was ordered to stop Into a better light and Murray looked at him closely No said the detective ho is not Callaghan Tills is Jim Leavitt of New York Jim I have seen you at Dilly Drowns In Bleecker street and at The Allens Tho prisoner laughed and admitted that Murrays statement was correct Murray returned to Toronto without Callaghan whom he next heard of In Mexico It was later reported that Callaghan was drowned In South America but however that may have been ho was never captured Detween Greenfield and Callaghao the fate of Luke Phipps was sealed The murder of Gov OCallaghan Leech enraged the people of Essex county and when Phipps who had escaped from the same jail came up for trial some months after tho Leech killing public opinion was against him Ho was found guilty of murder hanged In Sandwich jail In November 1884 and I burled near the grave whore he had once sought refuge and lay hidden from tho eyes ot his hunters for the space of a night and a day Copyright 1909 by W a ChapminJ Copyright In Great BrltalaJ |