The Great Jailbreak Attempt of 1888
A desperate group of prisoners, including a local forger and a pair of Vancouver burglars, came within thirty minutes of freedom before being thwarted by a vigilant guard.
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.
Yesterday, Stewart Leckie, a guard at the county jail, discovered a prisoner sawing at one of the beams in the east window of the north corridor. In this corridor, several of the worst characters in the jail are confined, among them being White, the forger; Moore and Mestas, the highwaymen; and McMillan and Crofany, the Vancouver, B.C. burglars charged with smuggling.
Yesterday, the offices of the auditor and sheriff over the jail were closed and the jail left in charge of Deputy Jailer Leckie from 10 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The prisoners were aware of this fact and thought they saw an opportunity for making their escape. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Guard Leckie, while sitting in front of the sheriff's office, heard a filing noise from the jail and at once commenced investigating its cause. Creeping cautiously around the fence enclosing the jail yard, he saw through a crack in the fence one of the prisoners standing up in the window sawing away at one of the bars. He made a noise, and the prisoner jumped from the window, leaving the saw in the aperture.
Chief Butterfield, accompanied by Captain Jones and several policemen, went to the jail at once and commenced searching for tools. The saw was found in the window, and a piece of iron fashioned into a rough cold-chisel was discovered in one of the cells. Two bars in the window had nearly been cut off, and half an hour's more work would have made a hole large enough for every man in the jail to crawl out. The officers learned that Howard McMillan, the Vancouver burglar, was the one who was sawing at the bars.
While Officer Kelly was searching John Moore, he felt something suspiciously like money between the lining of his pantaloons. Upon making further search, two $20 and one $10 gold piece were found sewn up in leather bags inside of the highwayman's garments. How this money came to be there is a mystery, as he was thoroughly searched when arrested. The prisoners were all locked up in their cells after the attempted delivery was discovered. They all commenced to yell at the top of their voices, and a large crowd gathered about the jail. Threats of no breakfast this morning finally brought the prisoners to their senses.
“Two bars in the window had nearly been cut off, and half an hour's more work would have made a hole large enough for every man in the jail to crawl out.”
This 1888 account of a jailbreak attempt highlights the perennial struggles of Seattle’s carceral infrastructure, which was as porous and overcrowded then as it remains a point of intense civic contention today. The mention of 'Vancouver burglars' also serves as a reminder of the historical permeability of the Pacific Northwest border long before it became the heavily managed international checkpoint of the modern era.
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