The Jailbreak Tools Hidden in the Steel
A search of the county jail reveals two hack saws and a DIY heating lamp hidden in the structural pipework, intended for a prisoner's escape.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Sheriff Woolery and Acting Jailer George Cave yesterday solved the mystery of the saws smuggled into the county jail to aid Joe Young, the blackmailer, to break out. They performed a search of the steel cage in the north end, where dangerous criminals are confined, and found the saws hidden away in an inaccessible place. In another spot, a lamp designed for heating the bars of the cage to make them soft enough to saw was also recovered. The result of the search brings great relief to the jailers. The saws, which were about seven or eight inches long, were made of fine steel. However, they would not scratch the 'glass-hard' steel bars of the cage, which is why the heating lamp was needed. The lamp was an ingenious device made from a condensed milk can with wicks made from cotton rags, intended to soften the bars with heat. The discovery brings an end to a long-standing fear of a jailbreak at the facility.
“The trough or pipe is made of heavy steel and protects one of the rods running from the door to the automatic locking and unlocking apparatus... The space in which the saws were hidden would barely contain them.”
Security and contraband management in local jails remain a perennial challenge in Seattle, echoing these 19th-century anxieties about the vulnerability of stone-and-steel lockups. Just as in 1894, the 'cat-and-mouse' game between inmates and jailers reveals the extreme lengths taken to secure—or escape—incarceration.
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