Jail Break01

 

Waupaca Record

February 20, 1908

 

THREE PRISONERS ESCAPE FROM JAIL

Sheriff Flanagan Finds One of Them in Chicago

Push Aside the Sheriff’s Wife to Escape

 

            Three prisoners escaped from the county jail on Saturday afternoon.  Ralph Jones, who is bound over to appear at the next term of circuit court, an Indian, who was serving sentence for abusing his wife and Babcock, whose time for petit larceny had almost expired.

            Harvey, one of the prisoners, who is granted privileges, was outside at work and had come in to go to his cell.  Mrs. Flanagan, the sheriff’s wife opened the door for him and Jones stepped forward, pushed her aside and fled followed by the other two prisoners.

            The alarm was given at once and a search made, but no trace of them could be found.

            On Monday Sheriff Flanagan found Jones in Chicago, where he had gone in a potato car, intending to go on to St. Louis.  He was brot back to the city Tuesday night and is now occupying a cell on the upper floor.

            Eight prisoners were in the jail at the time. Sheriff Flanagan was in Iola and Undersheriff Hess was not at the jail, so the plucky little bride of Mr. Flanagan, when she recovered from the shock of the moment, locked the remainder of the prisoners in and turned in an alarm.

 

Waupaca Post

February 20, 1908

 

PRISONERS ESCAPE

 

            Last Saturday afternoon as Mrs. Flanagan, the wife of the sheriff, unlocked the door to the jail to let a man in, three inmates, Ralph Jones, Sam Wallace and Adams, who it seems had previously planned to make an escape and were waiting for an opportunity, shoved Mrs. Flanagan behind the door as it was opened and ran out of the building.  The parties got out of town without leaving any trace and as the sheriff anticipated that Ralph Jones would undoubtedly work his way to Chicago, he wired Mr. Nicholson, an employee of the A.M. Penney co., to be on the lookout for Jones, with the result that on Monday the sheriff received word from Mr. Nicholson that Jones was in Chicago, and planning to go to St. Louis with a car of potatoes.  Mr. Flanagan left here on the early train Tuesday morning and brought the prisoner back, returning the same afternoon over the Waupaca Green Bay Railway.  The other prisoners will undoubtedly be captured in a couple days.

 

Waupaca Republican

February 20, 1908

 

BROUGHT BACK

 

            Ralph Jones, who, with two others, broke jail last Saturday by shoving Mrs. Flanagan behind the door as she was letting one of the other prisoners enter the jail, and running to the Third ward, was brought back Tuesday night.  He went to Chicago in a potato car, where he was seen by Mr. Nicholson, A.M. Penney’s yard man there, and detained by him on the pretext of going to St. Louis with a car of potatoes.  Mr. Nicholson had been apprised of the escape by Sheriff Flannagan and he at once notified him that the man was there.  The sheriff left on the early train Tuesday morning, arrived in the city at 10:20 a.m., got his man and left at 11:30 a.m. for home, arriving here over the Waupaca-Green Bay at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

 

 

Waupaca Post

March 26, 1908

 

RALPH JONES PLEADS GUILTY

 

            The trial of Ralph Jones took place before Judge Guernsey Monday, for petty larceny, to which charge Jones plead guilty and was sentenced to four months in the county jail, where he has been confined the past two months.  It will be recalled that Jones and two other prisoners escaped from the jail about a month ago and was captured in Chicago, as he was ready to start for St. Louis.

 

Waupaca Record

May 7, 1908

 

RALPH JONES AGAIN ESCAPES FROM JAIL

Escape is Quickly Discovered and a Race Follows

 

            Ralph Jones, a prisoner in the county jail, awaiting trial at the June term of circuit court for theft, escaped again on Monday evening.

            F.D. Burgess was making repairs on the sewer in the jail and Jones was assisting.  Sheriff Flanagan was out of town and under-sheriff Hess had gone home to supper. It was five minutes to six and the prisoners including Jones were all in the jail and their suppers had been sent in.  Mr. Burgess intending to go out at once, had left the door unlocked.  Jones deliberately opened the door and walked out, but his absence was discovered before he had gone half a block.  Burgegss called to him to stop but he started to run and outdistance his pursuers.  He hid in the store room of the foundry and later in the lumber yard of the A.G. Nelson Lumber Co., where he hid under lumber piles.  It is supposed he boarded a freight train for the south.

            After breaking jail this spring he was recaptured in a potato car in Chicago.