The Great Escape Attempt at the King County Jail
A desperate dig through the ceiling of a Seattle jail cell ends with the sheriff turning fire hoses on the inmates to quell the chaos.
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 Cochrane yesterday detected an effort by prisoners at the county jail to make their escape. A gunnysack partially filled with bricks and plaster was found secreted under a bunk in one of the cells. This led to a thorough search, revealing an excavation in the ceiling the size of a man’s body, hidden behind a piece of paper. The bricks had been removed with a wooden stick, and the hole extended nearly through the ceiling into the sheriff's office. It is believed the escape was planned for the night, when only one watchman is on duty. Earlier, an ear-piercing noise was raised by the prisoners, likely to drown out the sound of the work, forcing Sheriff Cochrane to turn the fire hose on the inmates to subdue them. A small saw bound to a wooden handle with wire was also discovered. The jail is severely overcrowded, and the county commissioners are currently preparing to transfer several of the more desperate characters to the United States penitentiary at McNeil Island.
“The brick had evidently been removed with a wooden stick, and the hole extended nearly through the ceiling. It leads into the sheriff's office.”
The 1888 overcrowding at the King County jail and the resulting desperate escape attempts mirror modern, recurring crises within the region's detention facilities. Then as now, the strain on public infrastructure and the handling of 'hard characters' remain flashpoints for city administration and sheriff's departments.
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