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Show BEn" vHHBwtK; &wHB89s9B BY JOCK BKLLAjftlS. Frank G. Holt aliaa Frank Car-rolJ. Car-rolJ. escaped jail at Hollidaysburg, Pa., recently by eoap. He ate soap until he had reduced his flesh by twenty pounds. Then soaping himself him-self thoroughly, he squeezed through a space between iron bars which measured Just rlz inches. The feat seemed impossible. It resulted in much space in newspapers newspa-pers and considerable comment. Opinion was divided First the trick of soap-eating to force off weight was doubted. This doubt was mainly in the minds of those who do not delve deep into criminology. crim-inology. The student knows that in every penal Institute in the world the trick Is old. Convicts eat soap to give them the appearance of consumptives. con-sumptives. They eat It to get to the hospital and away from work. To mankind generally this seems nauseous. But a convict once told aHW me. ""We cct to like 't. Really." J Eating soap, therefore, is not IP rev. Rut soaping the body that it might be Forced through an incredible incred-ible space, to the vast majority, is. It perhaps was borrowed by I he criminal mind from the ancient custom of soaping the finger Lo liberate lib-erate a tight ring. But aside from this, the scheme worked by Holt, I. revives interest In jall-brcaking and leads to a discussion of famous Jail escapee in various parts of the country. To enumerate all !s Impossible. To even discuss a small percentage of them is out of the question. The jail breaker Is often the creature of impulse. He may bo serving a term for an. ordinary offense, or he may be a man held for murder or I for other crime. Chance offers at a moment when he lit chafing at confinement and he skips. Trusties are frequent offenders. A week or so ago, two trusties "borrowed" the automobile of the Warden of the Jollet, 111., prison, and took n "Joy-ride." "Joy-ride." Both were known as "bad m." One is expected to begin another term as soon as his present one expires. They rodo to Chicago, or near Chicago, drank up all tho whisky they could set hold of and then returned to the orison. Their mKri escape had been heralded to the police departments of tho country m mer.nwhllr- rind v.i.rd sent out that the men were desperate. Both men explained their return by laying the Warden hnd put ihem on their honor, and when thy realized how they had' violated this trust, they went back to their cells. The case ts an exceptional one.-. This may offer a suggestion to many pchon heads. But It Is not always that this trust can be reposed. re-posed. As a rule th jail breaker Is a confirmed criminal. He Is ilther a safe cracksman, a train robber or n highway robber or a had burglar The nest prisoners are those a cused of r.?urder. An official in a large city told once that In fifty yeafS there had been Just one man accused of actnlclde who had broken Jail. Instances are numerous where. In a general Jail acape. men accused of slaying have refused to go out with other prlson-- This is explained by the fact y IF that the man slayer la nearly nl-Ways nl-Ways the creature of impulse. He l not considered a criminal In the trlct sense of the word by prison keepers or Jailor. PRISONER ESCAPES BY DIFFERENT WAYS. But returning tu .Mr. Hdlt and h!s "get-away" from tho Pennsylvania 1 lail. Police savants arc wondering If m 1 Sliding To Frcedompe I Jf ' jjfM ' - V I tills Is not an eld friend known as Frank Wilson, alias Lee, and a few other names, a saf blower and bad man centrally, though not a police fighter. If so, his present"" escape is in keeping with those of his past. Wilson escaped twice from the Brownsville. Tenn., prison and ho also got away from the Fort Dodge. Io., prison. lie served four years In the McAlester, Ok.. Penitentiary and is known as a safe blower ol considerable ubility. His Brownsville Browns-ville escapes were once a "saw out" and the second time the ' squeeze-play," squeeze-play," such as was woiked In Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania in Iowa he was arrested October 5. 1011, for h postoffice and general store safe Job. He escaped jail November 6 of the samo year and got as far as St. Louis, where he was recaught and turned oer to Sheriff It. S. Lund of Fort Dodge, Police records have no further direct trace o. hirrT Hence It would not be surprising If he nhould prove to be the Hollida3-burg Hollida3-burg escaper. One of his escapes puts tho present pres-ent getaway to blush As It Is re-, "la ted in police circles of the large cities where tho man Is known, bo was in prison for a 'sale Job." Tho chances wore against him and he had to eck some means of avoiding avoid-ing trial at that exact time. He managed to get a woman Interested In him and after a ftw weeks induced in-duced her to slip him an ordinary hairpin. With this, he one night picked the lurk of his cell. Then he made for tho window, which for days he had studied This window was guarded' by heavy bars. The guard was In the nature of a swinging swing-ing door, or iron screen. Tho hinges were on one -ide and the lock on the other. The bars wcro not quite C Inches apart. Wilson had rensonod ho had to reduce himself him-self an I for days he had eaten snap. It brought down hid girth so that he had hopes he would be aide to get through But when he tried It hope fled. A crafty mind needs nothing to urge it to Initiation. Wilson grabbed his bedding. fie twisted it until It was a staunch rope. Then ho secured a broomstick. broom-stick. He fastened one end of the twisted bedding to one of th bars of the Window and the other to a radiator pipe. Then he used the broomstick as a lever turning It and thus turning the rope of bedding. bed-ding. Gradually he sprung the bar until he had widened the breich by 2 inches. Still ho sou Id not get through Then the soap came again. He stripped himself to the skin and soaped every inob of h'.s body His clothes he tossed outside out-side and then he followed. "I went through like an eel," he told a young office named Ellas Hoagland, who handled him after his recapture. "It was easy after I got started." The authorities acknowledged that also. But if Wilson Is good as an instance of the Jail breaker, he must be considered a mere novice nov-ice when wo take up Clyde Strat-ton, Strat-ton, who is variously known as Williams. Clinton and so forth, h'tratton Is a peach. Ho is at the present time doing a two to twenty twen-ty "bit" In the "stir" at Jollet. which, transited from Btrattoti's vocabulary, means he is eerving out an indeterminate sentence of from two fo twent years in tho Jollet. 111.. Penitentiary. He Is under a double watch because he has already al-ready served notice they will not be able i' keep him any too long, and those who are aware of his aptitude to get out of cuffs or from behind bars expect to see him make his escape. Stratloo tw.ee escaped from the f'olumhus. Ohio, prison, an almost Incredible feat. He escaped from the Mansfield, Ohio, Reformatory and also from the government prison pris-on at Leavenworth, Kan., itself an almost unparalled feat. This latter lat-ter was bo extraordinary an event that Scratton Is now heralded as tho cne grea' Jail breaker of the country. He Is badly wanted there now, and only the fact that Illinois refused lo give him up after he was caught, red handed, for a Job in Peoria, withholds the vengeance of the Koernment. Whm Stratton Wat received ?it the Leavenworth prison Marrh 13. 1913, Information was conveyed to Warden R W. M laughry, considered one of the ablest prison heads In the Universe at that time, that Stratton was a pippin. He was warned to have a TTtf IJPPER CENTER Frank Watson, who is believed be-lieved to be Holt. Upper left The beginning of the soaping process. Upper right Edward Murray. Lower left Clyde Stratton. Lower right Joe Martin, in corner. Big head of man eating soap. close watch on him. This word was liken to the guards who were instructed in-structed to keep a double watch on the newcomer. Stratton had drawn a nice long sentence for a cafe job in a postoffice at McCool, Ind. He remained In Leavenworth just sixteen six-teen days. Then he got plans of a sewer and with two others made his break. He went three-fourths of a mile through this sewer and cot away. The two men who went with him were overcome by gas and were almost dead when taken from th rewer only a short distance from where they went In. WEARS SCARECROW CLOTHES TO ESCAPE. In one of his Columbus escapes Stratton used soap to get through bars. In the other he used "burrs," that Is. tine saws, to cut his way "lit Pniice tell that he escaped from Mansfield prison bv a clever ruse. He w.ig a ort of a trusty, There was a garden attached to the Institution and this garden had its traditional scarecrow. The rmw was near the center of this field. Stratton Is said to have reahM this effigy and to have donned the clothe und ossumed the part of the crow chaser. When he was mused the chase went right past him. Pursuit was kept up all that afternoon and evening, but It was fruitless, Xext morning the scarecrow scare-crow was gone. Stratton had walkerl away as soon as darkness gave him a chance to leave tho field He has boasted of getting out of three other oth-er prisons of which the police have no record, perhaps due to hs facility fa-cility In changing names. His cmirn is not disputed. He Is classed with the rest of the safe blowers and Jail breakers, not only ns a dangerous danger-ous but also as a desperate man. Then we have tho team of Edward Ed-ward Murray and Jos Martin. There is no telling what their real names are, but each has a score of aliases and each boasted of a fcoro of arrests and of several prison break. Unce. In a friendly spirit, Murray confided to a guard that his right name was Pat Birmingham Birming-ham and that he hailed from Mont-peller, Mont-peller, Ohio. This was never verified veri-fied This pair escaped from the Anamosd lo . Penitentiary for the criminal Insane on November 12, 1909. Thfy had been convicted convict-ed of safe blowing and given each a ten years' sentence. Both soon developed seeming traces of insanity. insan-ity. Tho guards. Warden and the doctors all were fooled. The traces developed and finally a commission pronounced the pair hopelessly Insane. In-sane. "But It was the guards, the doe-tors doe-tors and tiie Warden that v.-re nutty, not us," smiled Murray after they pot hint over in Indianapolis, June IS, 1911. "Can you blamo us fur playing dlppy when It gave us a chance to get away. No sir, we would have been dippy if wo stayed there." They got avay from Anamosa by tho use of "burrs" How they got the saws was never learned. Murray Mur-ray said he and Martin spent days cutting out ".he bars. The filings were carefully caught in a bit of sock and kept bidden. Tho places were covered with soap. The pair were in a third-floor room. They made ropes out of their bedding when the time came, and got out. But If their work was clever there. It was cleverer In St. Louis. Drunk, they stolo a bolt of cloth from a tailor one day and were arrested. They were "slipping by" when the Bertlllon office Identified them and Anamosa officers were rushed to St. I.ono They prepared to take them hack. ESCAPES BY LOCKING Tl K.NKEY IV CELL. The pair were brought from th Workhouse to the Central Station holdover for safe keeping. This holdover hold-over was new and most modern. In fact, It was pronounced escape proof. Tho cells were Iron. Heavy barred doors were provided with double locks. The windows were covered with heavy bars. To make safety doubly sure, tho pair were put back in the woman's ejuarters. This is at the rear of the buildlnsr. A subceljar permitted a sort of moat to be drawn around the building and thus tho holdover. Itself on the first or basement floor, was further guarded by a concrete ditch, nine feet across from the window sill and some twenty feet deep. Murray Mur-ray thought cut the scheme to escape. es-cape. He asked the turnkey to get them .i dime s worth of coffee. It came in a big can. "Pass the ran in." he begged, "we would rather drink It out of the bisr tin." Unsuspectingly tho turnkey opened the door. He was Instantly selxed and hi6 keys torn from him. He was locked In the cell and then the tvu desperadoes unlocked the rear window guard, shoved the bars out and leaped, Murray cleared the space and gained the alley and freedom. free-dom. Martin fell Into the pit and broke his leg. He was immediate l recaught and turned over to the Iowa authorities. Theescape occurred oc-curred December 5, 1909, and for a year and a half Murray enjoyed liberty. lib-erty. Cunning escapes such thm have been numerous. Desperate breaks which brought on loss of life, tire, dynamiting and so forth are not rare. Ona of the most thrilling of these was tho break led by Harry S. Vaughn, alias H. B. Adams, alias New York Harry, safe breaker, train robber and gunmsn. wKKp He was a pal of William Bruce Mor- flP rls. Albert Rosenauer and Jerry HS Franklin. He was with the first In two half an hour before they shot ASk three detectives to death at 1324 ftfj Pine street, Octooer 21, 1904, In SL Hsi Louis. Ewl Tho detectives, John J. Shea, 'mk James McClusky and Thomas Dwy- Rw er killed Morris and Rosenauer. Vaughn, who had been arrested Just IBi before the affray, was given thirty- Bl five years In prison. Ho had been IKm Identified for a hold-up. This gang had held up the Illinois Centra at Harv ey, 1)1., the Chicago, Rock fm' ' Island & Pacific train at Set?, Io., K, held up the station agent at Mat- toon, 111., and did half a dozen oth- H'.' er big misdeeds. Vaughn did not DEv" take kindly to his sentence. He In- Hr duced a discharged convict to smug- K gle pistols and dynamite Into the prison yard at Jefferson City, and IB& using these killed Guards Clay and HE Allison and desperately wounded :K? Deputy Warden See. Tho break was Vn made by Vaughn, George Ryan and Kj Edward Raymond. They were caught within the city limits and fist' all were hanced June 27, 1907. ji Noble Shepard, awaiting sentencs Ki 'fk ilP 1 ill In the St. Louis Jail for the murders g of Thomas Morton and Lizzie Leahy. Ke- escaped by means of saws and by oEt' use of an open sewer June 22, 1896, Bt' and has never been recaucht Bill Rudolph, murderer of Plnkerton IK.,' Detective Charles Schumacher at Spi Stanton, Mo., escaped daringly from R&P' the St Louis Jail, and Jack ShSa, mfe slayer of a policeman, twice led W big breaks from this bastlle. Ar- I I thur O. W ebster, alias the St. Paul f. Tip, escaped from the Wilmington, m Del., Prison September 18, 1S9 while under a five-year sentencs. v-j Later he escaped from the Sar fpk I Francisco, Cal , Jail while awaiting Kir. .. trial for a car barn robbery which netted his tw.- comrades forty yean lfo each. He will never have to faoe gSttfr the California charge, because the ' earthquake wiped out all document HEL . and witnesses. H Those are but a few of the lnnv BP merable records of Jail breaks. Tbey are deeds of daring combined with e the ounnlng of an unnatural brain, not tho least resort of which Is lH ' soaping the body to squirm to lib lEA; erty. mtt |