National Affairs: Breaks

Over the wall of the old Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet one night last week clambered three long-term prisoners. They had been detailed to early morning duty in the bakery, had overpowered a guard, made a ladder of oven poles, a cable of wire and tin cans. Guards, who had lain in wait for the break for three weeks, flashed floodlights, opened fire with machine guns as the last man swung down the cable. Paralyzed with fear, he hung for a moment in the glare before being swept off, slug-riddled. His two companions were also killed. When the other inmates heard the bursts of fire, they united in one great long groan.

A steel girder left leaning against the wall of Arizona’s State Penitentiary at Florence provided the means of a leisurely escape for 15 prisoners, who climbed over at intervals while a guard’s back was turned. One was recaptured, the rest made off across the badlands in a body.