Jailbreak in Walla Walla
Emil Bordeneuf escapes county jail, leaving behind a bizarre, rambling farewell letter.
Emil Bordeneuf, who has been confined in the county jail since last fall, awaiting trial for the murder of John Selhie, escaped on Sunday night. He cut a hole through the floor of his cell, made his way under the floor, and passed out through the hole in the west wall made by Grow in his escape a year ago. An auger and file, with which he had cut the hole, were found in his cell after his departure, presumably furnished from the outside. In imitation of Porter in his first attempt to escape, he wrote a farewell address to the Deputy Sheriff, which began with his claim that he was not guilty and that the catastrophe he was accused of was against his nature.
“I am sorrow to not can not whaitin my trial. That catastrophe whom God inflict for me is agains my nature.”
Jailbreaks were a common occurrence in the loosely secured frontier jails of the 1860s. The site of this old county jail, while no longer standing, reflects the rudimentary nature of 19th-century public infrastructure in Walla Walla before more permanent civic institutions were built.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.