The Great Escape from the County Courthouse
A notorious local thief rigged an ingenious 'Spanish windlass' to dismantle his cell window and vanished into the night—completely naked.
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.
Charles McDonald, a notorious thief who has given Whitman County trouble for years, made an ingenious jail break Saturday night and cleared out for parts unknown. He left all his clothing except his hat in the jail, suggesting he had outside help to facilitate his escape. McDonald had been arrested a month prior by Sheriff Canutt for stealing wheat. Confined in the women’s ward in the courthouse basement to prevent contact with his brothers, he utilized a strong cord, two pieces of board, and a pocket knife—likely passed to him through the bars—to rig a 'Spanish windlass.' This powerful device allowed him to spring the corner of his grated window until he could crawl through by stripping off his clothes. Once in the corridor, he pried loose two soft iron bars to squeeze outside. All of his clothes and the pocket knife were left on the floor. His escape is considered a 'good thing for the county' by the press, as he had been a constant plague to his neighbors.
“He played exactly the same trick that William Herbert did when he made his famous escape... all of the escape's clothes were left lying on the floor.”
The old Whitman County courthouse, where this 1900 breakout occurred, is long gone, reflecting the transition of civic infrastructure from the pioneer era to modern administration. The story highlights the constant battle between jail security and the ingenuity of those desperate to flee, a theme that persists in modern debates over the design and efficacy of correctional facilities.
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