Bloody Jailbreak at Walla Walla
Two prisoners pull off a brutal escape, leaving a sheriff and jailer wounded as a citizens' committee takes up the hunt.
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.
The escaped murderers crossed at Pepper's crossing after stealing two horses from a sewing machine agent. Directly after the attack on the sheriff and jailer, a few citizens formed themselves into a committee of action. They called on Mr. Ward, the only county commissioner living here, and obtained his consent to their action, and armed men were sent in every direction to intercept the murderers. Owenby struck the sheriff on the head with a brick as he entered the cell. They laid the sheriff out and dragged him into the cell, then attacked the jailer. Elfas took up a jackknife and butchered the jailer, cutting a fearful gash in his throat.
“Elfas took up a jackknife laying on a window sill and commenced butchering him with it.”
This report captures the raw, often vigilante-adjacent response to crime in the frontier era, where 'committees of action' bypassed standard law enforcement. It serves as a stark reminder of the violence inherent in the 19th-century criminal justice system in the Washington Territory.
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