The Desperado Who Vanished Into the Brush

Thomas Blanck, murderer and jail breaker, is still at large, although pursued by fully fifty men armed with shotguns and Winchesters. Fickle fortune seems to smile on the bold desperado, for by a most miraculous chain of circumstance he escaped yesterday morning, a few minutes after 10 o'clock, from the very muzzles of a rifle and shotgun in the hands of Mike Kelly and Buck Markman, at a point about half a mile south of Black River Junction, where the Northern Pacific main line and the county road cross.

The officers could have killed him like a dog, but being in deep darkness and in doubt about the persons before them, they refrained from firing—only to learn a moment later that the prize of a lifetime had made his escape a second time. Blanck and Servius Rutten, the Kitsap murderer, were making their way along the county road when they came upon Kelly and Markman. The latter two saw them coming, but did not think they could be any of the escaped convicts, though of course they ordered hands up. The tall man, who proved to be Rutten, threw up his hands and walked directly up to the muzzle of Markman's shotgun, but his partner, Blanck, dodged behind him and in the twinkling of an eye was gone in the bushes at the west side of the road.

The moment Markman said to Rutten, "Where do you come from?" he replied: "The county jail." "And who is your companion?" "Blanck." It took but a moment—less time than it takes to read the words spoken—but Blanck had gone, disappeared as completely as if the earth had opened and swallowed him up. In which direction he went was a complete puzzle to even that old-time hunter and woodsman Kelley.

About the time of the Blanck episode William Cosgrove, alias Harris, the petit larcenist who escaped with the crowd, was captured near O'Brien station by W. I. Staples, J. J. Crow and George Crow, without trouble, and marched to Kent at the point of a Winchester.

From all authentic developments it appears that nearly all of the escaped convicts went south, and that Ford, the famous clothing-house burglar, took time to try to borrow money from Bert Nelson and Win Weir. Ford had a large gun in his possession, which he is supposed to have secreted under a sidewalk sometime before he was arrested, and declared he would never be taken alive.

As stated in the Post-Intelligencer yesterday morning, the energy displayed by Sheriff Van de Vanter in communicating with outside towns, with a view of establishing guard lines from Tacoma east to Puyallup and from the latter place to Franklin, Black Diamond, Renton and Lake Washington, was only equaled by the energetic manner in which he went about the actual carrying out of his plans. City Detective Fuhsrick and ex-City Detective George Cave went to Ballard and then came back to the city by way of the Sound, in hope of cutting off any men that tried to escape by water. Deputy Sheriff Tom Roberts hastened to Renton, and at 1 o'clock in the morning called the peaceful inhabitants of that little town from their beds by means of the church bell. As the iron tongue resounded through the town the inhabitants poured out of their houses in much the same manner as the people of this city came out when the bells rang for a lynching bee. In a few words Roberts told them of the jailbreak and asked them to guard every road and let no man pass. In less than fifteen minutes half the town were on duty with rifles or shotguns. Constable Flagg, Tom Nash and Mr. Groff were on duty all night at the Madison Street landing on Lake Washington. The telegrams sent out to the towns of Kent, Auburn, Olalla and Black River Junction were equally well responded to.

Mike Kelly and Kelley, the South Park pioneer and ex-constable, who will be remembered as the captor of Counterfeiter Methvin, and Buck Markman were sent south along the county road. Markman was armed with a double-barreled shotgun loaded with buckshot; Kelley carried his .38-caliber Marlin rifle. They walked for quite a distance along the Grant Street bridge, when they were overtaken by a carriage sent out by Sheriff Van de Vanter. Once in the carriage, they rode along rapidly until near Black River Junction, where they dismounted and sent the carriage back to the city.

When the two men got to the point where the Northern Pacific track and the county road meet they decided to go into ambush, but did not expect any developments for some time, as they believed they were far ahead of any of the men who might have worked south. Markman stood close by a telegraph pole that can be seen from the Northern Pacific train windows, and for the time being Kelley stood near at hand. At this point the county road comes down over Jefferson hill and crosses the railroad diagonally. After crossing the track the road has a slight pitch down and runs along near the river, whose banks are sloping, quite high and fringed with bushes. It was very dark on the side of Jefferson hill; near the road was a small camp fire that had been made by four tramps. That fire was unfortunate, for it served in force of time to arouse the suspicion of the greatly sought criminal.

Suddenly in the darkness Kelley and Markman heard a noise that led them to think some one was crawling along the road. They listened. They heard footsteps. "I guess we had better hold these fellows up," said Markman, "and find out who they are." Kelley then crept out in the middle of the road and crouched down, one knee on the ground and his other leg crooked, his foot ready on the ground just where the man was walking. Then a ray of light in the darkness revealed the forms of a tall man and a companion that looked like a big boy. The man was in the lead and the "boy" to be about ten feet behind. When they got within about twenty feet the officers cried out almost simultaneously: "Throw up your hands!" The tallest man did as commanded.