The Axe, the Shackles, and the Noon Run
Roy Le May cut himself loose from a Pend Oreille County chain gang and headed for Colburn before Sheriff Merritt brought him back.
Roy Le May, doing time in the county jail on a sentence of 41 days from Newport for misdemeanor, escaped from the chain gang at the poor farm at noon today. He had the use of an axe while at work and made use of the instrument to cut the chain holding his feet together in shackles. He "dug out" toward Colburn, and Sheriff Merritt and Under Sheriff Wilcox have gone in that direction hoping to overtake him. LeMay will have to find a place to get a file to remove his shackles before he goes far, and the sheriff was in hopes he would get a trace of him before night. LeMay is a bad character. He was on bread and water yesterday for refusing to work on the chain gang.—Pend Oreille Review.
LeMay was recaptured by the sheriff and is now doing his usual stunt on the chain gang.
“He had the use of an axe while at work and made use of the instrument to cut the chain holding his feet together in shackles.”
The Pend Oreille County poor farm and its chain gang are long gone, but the story still asks who gets punished and how. Modern jails and work crews are debated in the same county, with the shackles replaced by booking fees and electronic monitors.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.