![]() Amazed prison officials could only shake their heads. He then raced for the railroad track and was long gone before discovered missing from his prison factory job. It was a steep drop, but he escaped injury. In a feat of extraordinary strength, he climbed hand over hand to the top of the wall, scrambled over and dropped to the ground below. Smith took a 16-foot scantling and dragged it to the east wall. Convict George Smith, a lifer serving a murder sentence, hid from officers one morning as they escorted the breakfast line to eat. One industrious convict escaped in 1916 using a method that had never been tried before. They were divided into two watches of 12 hours each. The guards were always on the lookout, both day and night. Each guard was heavily armed to prevent escape via the wall route. Some of the towers were very picturesque and at a distance resembled the old feudal castle towers of the old world. These guard stations were numbered and each guard had a special toned whistle signal by which he talked to the central office. The hanging took place in the Cole County jail yard on Monroe Street in front of a huge crowd. Dressed in suits, the men were hanged side-by-side on June 27, 1907. Ryan was upset by the verdict, as he felt he should have been treated more leniently for confessing the details of the escape plot. Spencer, an ex-convict.Īfter a series of trials and appeals, the Missouri Supreme Court finally found the three guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced them to hang. George Ryan confessed to the escape plot and told prison officials that the guns, ammunition and explosives had been brought to them by H.E. A policeman apprehended the escapees and they were returned to the Penitentiary and placed in solitary confinement. Vaughan leapt from the wagon and tried to shoot the boy, but his gun wouldn’t fire. Vaughan and Raymond kept going until a young boy bravely ran into the street and grabbed the bridle of one of the horses, stopping the wagon. In front of the Capital City Brewery, Ryan fainted from sheer fright and fell off the wagon. Using the driver as a shield, they grabbed the reins and whipped the horses to a full gallop down Madison Street south to Dunklin. One of the fleeing prisoners, Hiram Blake, was shot and killed by police officer John Bruner. The four ran down along the railroad tracks towards the train depot, shooting back at the pursuing guards. It blew the lock completely off the gate and made a jagged hole large enough for the men to drive through. The escapees then placed a charge of nitroglycerin on their last remaining hurdle to freedom: a large gate at the end of the driveway. Another guard, Ephriam Allison, noticed the commotion through a grated door and yelled, “What’s going on in there?” He was shot twice and also killed. While in this vulnerable position, one of the four shot him in the head, killing him. Guard John Clay was gatekeeper for the day and was ordered to hold up his hands. After See slumped to the floor, he and another person in the office were grabbed and used as shields for the men as they raced across the yard toward a large iron gate that led outside. Instead, he went for his gun and was shot in the shoulder. See and ordered him to put his hands in the air. The four then entered the office of Deputy Warden R. 44 revolvers and a large supply of ammunition to fellow convicts Harry Vaughan, Edward Raymond and Hiram Blake. ![]() At 3:00 on the afternoon of November 24, 1905, four prisoners met at the stockade gate.
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