The Toy-Pistol Jailbreak That Left a Killer at Large

Thomas Blanck is still at large. The convicted murderer, thanks to the efforts of his attorneys—who took his case for the notoriety that there was in it—escaped the hanging to which he was sentenced, and is now free to continue his career of bloodshed and crime.

This experience raises a very serious question as to how far attorneys are justified in going in the defense of a client. Here was a man who by his own confession was guilty of a cold-blooded, premeditated murder, a man absolutely devoid of all those qualities that distinguish a human being from a wild beast. And yet he was tried, convicted and sentenced to be hanged; his attorneys deemed it professional and proper to attempt to avert the penalty of the law, or at least to postpone it, on purely technical grounds.

There was no question as to the man's guilt; there was no question but that he should have been hanged. The interests of the community demanded his speedy punishment. As a result of the delay—wholly uncalled for and inexcusable—a terrible outrage has been committed and the doors are opened for a renewal of the sensational murders in which Blanck has heretofore figured.

For this state of affairs the attorneys are of course not wholly responsible. While it is true that their good sense should have dictated a contrary course, it is also true that they only took advantage of the law as they found it.

The fact that nine convicted murderers are now at the county jail, well housed, well fed and in every way made comfortable at the expense of the county, is a sad commentary upon the criminal code of our state. It is just such a condition of affairs that engenders a widespread distrust of the law and its methods. These abuses should be remedied. The law must be obeyed, but it must also be enforced.

According to the paper, Blanck carried off all the keys to the jail and all the revolvers in sight, though he very bravely left the toy pistol.