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JARING ESCAPES FROM PRISON THAT PROFITED US
NOTHING—How I Escaped from Sing Sing, “Sheeney Mike’s
Ingenious Method of Getting How Eddie Guerin Escaped from Devil’s Island with Frightful Hardships.
Out of a Massachusetts Prison,
Mdie Guerin’s Frightful Expe
riences Escaping from Devil’s
stand, and Other Instances.
99
e
ock turned and
d Winter night,
was precious, I
door behind me
tealing the way
iy my pursuers
Dove me floated
matron’s little
y way through .
with house slip- '
padh. f
g; “why doesn’t
iy dinner?"
ite,’’ the mother
-quite evidently
aused any su^-
t
snowdrift, I ran
;d was standing
big, warm fur
rms. Without a
iat, hopped into
Oe horses a clip
we dashed to-
ylish hat which
s look like any-
nvlct. After a
lughkeepsie. we
New York and
ext morning.
by our escape?
t suggested his
ie promised me
in getting out
id turn to some
That promise
■rse was sbarp-
nge from high
and I was now
utentions really
Alter a few weeks in New York, where
ye received the warm congratulations of
any friends on our escape from Sing
lag, we went to Canada to visit our
hildren who were In school there. It was
lot long before our funds' began to get
1 thought this a favorable time tc
etnind my husband of his promises and
i urge him to get -some honest employ-
ient But he would not listen to me.
"That WGuld be all very well if I had
ny money,” he said; "but I can’t settle
own until I have enough capital to give
ie a decent start. Wait until I do one
lore good bank job and then 1 will think
ut living differently.’’
L a Easy Bank Robbery
I agreed to this reluctantly for I felt
premonition that when this "one more
b’’ was finished, we should both find
rBfilves back in Sing Sing again. And,
it turned out, I was right.
It was not altogether lack of money or
e desire to live a decent life which made
piead with Ned to reform. The fact
at there was a reward on both our heads
id that at any minute soma ambitious
tective was liable to recognize us was
ginning to tell on my nerves. Ned used
try to laugh, my fears away by saying
at 1 saw policemen in my sleep. Prob
ity I didr-at any rate I know that for
onths, asleep Or awake, I would jump at
e slightest sound thinking it was an
fleer come to take ns back to Sing Sing,
e could not live natural lives but had
be constantly dodging about and occa-
wally running to cover for long intef-
The "one more Job" my husband had in
lad was the robbery of a Montreal bank.
e looked the ground over, found it, to
« P liking and then sent for a friend of
rs, Dave Cummings, an experienced
ink robber, to come on from New York
lid iielp us.
it was really a very simple undertak-
lg for three such expert criminals as we
ore. My part of it was merely to stand
the shadow of an alley and watch for
se possible return of one of the bank's
n watchmen. There wa9 small chance
his putting in an appearance, for
iy husband had previously cultivated
acquaintance and on this particular
vening had been plying him with mugs
ale until he had left him fast asleep in
nearby saloon.
Inside the bank there was a second
atchman. He was an old man, but when
! discovered Ned and Dave crawling
irough the rear window, which they had
pened with their jimmies, he put up such
' stiff fight -that they had all they could
) to stun him with a blow on the head,
uff a handkerchief down his throat and
e his hands and feet with a piece of rope,
s tt was, they made so much noise that
nearly had nervous prostration in the
ley where I was crouching half a blcsk
way
I think I’d better keep an eye on this
id chap while you get the coin, Dave,”
iy husband said, ruefully rubbing a
ruised cheek he h_d received in the his-
lg Prison
sie with the faithful guardiian of the bank.
So, as a matter of precaution, my hus
band mounted guard with his revolver
over the watchman, while Dave solved the
combination of the safe Nothing further
happened to interfere with our plans and
by daybreak we were well on our way to
ward the Canadian border.
We had expected to get at least $30,000
from this robbery, but when we came to
empty the satchel in whtch Dave had
placed the plunder, we found there was
not quite half that amount. It was all
Dave’s fauk as we learned later from the
newspapers. He had carelessly over
looked a bundle of currency containing
$25,000. I had always considered Dave
Cummings a thoroughly careful and relia
ble man, but this expensive oversight of
his rather shook my .confidence in him.
My husband and I returned to New York
with our share of the booty. There, a
few days later, we were arrested, but not
for the bank robbery in Montreal. The
detectives who had been searching for us
ever since our escape from Sing Sing, had
found our hiding place at last and they
took us back to prison to serve out our
terms.
In our prison ceils, once more, we had
ample opportunity to consider how fruit
less of results our escape had been. For
all the risks we had run in getting out
and for all the worrisome months we had
spent in dodging detectives we had nothing
to show except the fleeting satisfaction of
a few days with our children. What had
we gained? Nothing.
How Bullard Got Out
A criminal’s reputation for cleverness
among his fellows depends very largely
upon his ability to escape—or to help his
friends to escape. Mark Shinburn used
to take more pride in the way he broke
into the jail at White Plains. New York,
to free Charley Bullard and Ike Marsh,
two friends of his, than he did in some of
his boldest robberies.
After reconnoitering the ground and
carefully planning the jail delivery, Shin-
burn and his companion, Raymond, put in
a hard night’s work burrowing into the
jail. They took Marsh and Bullard out,
but what w'as gained? Marsh was soon in
trouble again and Bullard was taken again
and ended his days in prison.
And now one more instance—a very
curious one.
Of all the ways by which thieves have
cheated the law out of its due the most
ingenious was probably the way “Sheeney
Mike" brought about his release from the
Massachusetts State prison. He feigned
Illness so cleverly that the eminent phy
sicians of the State Medical Board pro
nounced him suffering from a mysterious
and incurable disease and ordered his re
lease after he had served only three years
of his twelve-year sentence for one of his
daring burglaries.
It was the robbery of Scott & Co.'s silk
warehouse in Boston that sent "Sheeney
Mike" to Charlestown prison, from which
he so ingeniously escaped. He discovered
that the watchman was vigilant all through
the night exceDt between tbe hours of 12
d Came Back in Disguise and Got Me Out.
igled
tiling
lined
were
s be.
I out
=? at
thing
ike A
sped
good
Not many days after my husband’s
escape I was out with the prison mat
ron’s children, acting as their nurse.
I noticed an old Indian peddler hang
ing around trying to sell baskets and
beads. He followed us, and I was an
noyed at his persistence, and I finally
bought a pair of slippers to get rid
} him. As I paid him the money he
pressed a tightly folded scrap of paper
'into my hand—and instantly i recog
nized in that copper-colored fane and
long-haired Jjlack wig my husband, Ned
Lyons,
i I
The plans for my esexpe having been
fully arranged and the day agreed
upon, I waited for the signal. Soon it
came—a long, peculiar whistle—and I
slipped my false key into the lock, let
myself out, closed And locked the door
again. A heavy enow was falling, and
I hastened along, bareheaded, in house
slippers and without any wrap. Near,
by, at the plar.e agreed upon, was a
s leigh, and standing beside it, with a
heavy fur coat in his outstretched
arms, ready Tor me, stood iNed Lyon*.
and 1 o’clock, when he went out to get
something to eat. Mike secured a false
key which unlocked a door to the ware
house, and arranged for two trucks to be
on hand at a few minutes past 12 one
night.
When tne truckmen arrived they found
Mike at the door of the warehouse coolly
smoking a cigar. Quite naturally they
thought he was the proprietor. After
helping the men to loa4 the trucks with
$20,000 worth of expensive silks, “Sheeney
Mike’’ turned out the lights, locked the
door and drove away to Medford, a suburb
of Boston, where the goods were unloaded
Before Mike found an opportunity tc
ship his plunder to New York he was ar
rested, found guilty and sentenced to fif
teen years in prison.
He tried every means of escape he could
think of without avail. At last, in his des
peration to get out, he began drinking
large quantities of strong soap suds. This
made him deathly sick and unable to re
tain any nourishment. Hjs sufferings be
came so intense that he had to be re
moved from-his cell to the prison hospital.
In the prison hospital tne doctor in
charge began watching his patient to be
sure that some trick was not being played
on him. A careful examination of Mike
revealed no organic trouble—the doctor
could find no reason for the strange
symptoms. And yet right in front of his
eyes Mike would be taken with violent
pains in the stomach, followed by vomit
ing
The prison doctor was worried. He gave
stomach tonics. Stilf the spasms and
nausea continued. He put his patient on
a cereal diet—but his vomiting was not
lessened. He changed 'the diet; he gave
beef juice; he changed it to milk and
brandy—nothing brought relief.
The prison doctor -was worried. Here
was this once vigorous man wasting away
to a pallid skeleton In spite of his best
efforts. The doctor was a conscientious
man and he called a consultation of two
outside physicians at his own expense.
They patiently went over the record of the
case and examined "Sheeney Mike” mi
nutely—there was nothing to account for
the patient's alarming condition. Still, it
might possibly be this or that, and so
they would recommend trying a few
things that had not yet been tried by the
prison doctor.
“Sheeney Mike’s” Escape
"Sheeney Mike" thought that the time
had come for some new manifestation of
his mysterious disease which would still
further puzzle and frighten the doctor,
So as the new treatment of the con
sulting doctors was begun, Mike made
preparation for some new symptoms. He
scraped an opening in his right side and
each night rubbed salt and pepper into it.
He soon had an angry looking inflamma
tion which shortly produced a flow of
pus. When Mike had reached this achieve
ment with his sore he languidly called the
doctor’s attention to It.
This new development was enough.
The doctor sadly shook his head. Things
were going from bad to worse.
"My poor man,” he said, “you probably
haven’t a month to live—certainly not in
this prison. You might improve if you
had your freedom; 1 don’t know. I am
convinced that it would be murder to keep
you here. I shall at once recommend to
Governor Butler that you be pardoned. I
decline to have your death on my con
science any longer.”
On the ground that the patient could
not possibly live more than a few weeks
in prison all three doctors solemnly cer
tified to the Governor that "Sheeney Mike”
was a dying man and recommended im
mediate pardon. Governor Butler ap
proved the recommendation, and next day
out walked 'Sheeney Mike, free, par
doned and restored *0 full citizenship
Soap suds, a little salt and a sprinkling
of pepper had opened the bars for him.
But what did "Sheeney Mike” gain by
all this? Nothing.
He had his freedom and a laugh on the
doctors—but his astonishing persistence
in his soap-sud poisoning had so under
mined his health that he never recovered
his strength and he finally died in Beille-
vue Hospital in great agony after a long
and painful illness.
And now one more case—also unusual
and remarkable.
Of course, the escape of Kddie Guerin, a
few years ago, from Devil’s Island sur
prised everybody and attracted a great deal
of attention. Guerin is a well-known thief
who has operated in England, America and
more or less all over Europe. Guerin, with
a companion, robbed a bank in Lyons,
France, of $50,000, and a little later stole
$30,000 from the American Express Com
pany in Paris. These two jobs were too
much for the French police, and they
grabbed Guerin.
Guerin, travelling under the name of
Walter Miller, and assisted by an accom
plice, entered the American Express Com
pany’s ofTice in Parils under the pretense
of transacting some business. The other
man busied himself attract teg the atten
tion of the agent while Guerin sprang
across the counter with a drawaepistol At
this moment the agent and a couple of
Clerks noticed Guerin’s peculiar activity,
but they were unable to make any outcry
or move because Guerin s accomplice kept
«
—Devil's Island is one of the French Penal Colony group off the coast of South America, where Cap-
• tain Dreyfus was confined, and from which Eddie Guerin, the American bank burglar, managed to
escape with two other convicts. After leaving the island in a hastily constructed boat Guerin’s com
panions matured a plot to cut his throat and rob him of what money he had. For three days and
nights Guerin dared not close his eyes, but kept his fellow voyagers covered with his revolver
while they paddled industriously in the blistering tropical sun
—Blinded by the glare of the sun
• and half crazed from exposure,
one of Guerin's companions fell over,
board and nearly upset the canoe. The
man was instantly eaten by one of the
shark® that hovered around them, and
Guerin narrowly escaped the same
fate by clambering back into the boat.
the express company's employes covered
with a couple of revolvers. Guerin helped
himself to $30,000 which was lying within
reach in an open safe, ami then the two
thieves coolly walked out the door.
Guerin was caught and convicted of the
express company robbery, and sentenced to
fourteen years’ imprisonment in the French
penal colony on Devil's Island, off the coast
of South America. This is the place where
Captain Dreyfus, the French army officer,
was imprisoned, and it has been the boast
of the French police that nobody can es
cape from Devil's island.
Guerin had served four years of his sen
tence before he succeeded in maturing a
plar. for escape He hud the friendship of
a notorious woman known as "Ohxago
May.” who collected a fund in New York’s
underworld, and managed to get the money
into Guerin’s hanijs on Devil’s Island. By
the judicious use of this money Guerin
arranged for the escape of himself and two
other prisoners, French convicts, whom he
decided would be helpful to him in the
journey through the swamps and wilder
nesses after they left ae penal colony.
The prison officials who had been
reached by Guerinjs fund arranged to have
him and his fellow convicts sent under
guard to the outermost part of the Island,
which is a dense swamp, full of malaria
and poisonous snakes ana insects. The
next day the guards, who had been well
paid, burled a dead convict in the prison
cemetery, arid over the grave they set up
a headboard bearing the name “Eddie
Guerin.” This was to complete the rec
ords of the prison, and a duly certified copy
of the prison record, telling of Guerin’s
death'and burial, was forwarded to France
This much accomplished, Guerin and his
two companions were a’lowed to get away
from the guards and they were soon lost
in the swamp. They were allowed to carry
some tools, water and provisions. While
the guards made a feeble and perfunctory
search in the swamps, the three convicts
set to work busily completing a boaj and
paddies. When these were finished they
loaded the boat with their food supplies,
launched it and headed along the South
American coast for Dutch Guiana, the three
men paddling and sleeping by turns
I have heard Guerin’s own account of
his escape, and I will reneat it Just as he
told it.
Guerin wag armed with a revolver and
cartridges, fortunately, as otherwise all
his planning would have been in vain
After a day or two in the boat he noticed
that his two companions were growing
very chummy They were astonishingly
wiHing to do the paddling and let him
sleep.
So one night Guerin feigned to be asleep
but kept an eye and both ears open. Pres
ently he heard his companions talking to
gether In Spanish, which they hart no rea
son to believe he understood
The men whom he had helped out of
prison had made up their minds that he
had a lot of money, lert They were con
spiring to slit his throat as he slept, rob
his bodv and feed him to the sharks. The
men lost no time in putting the enterprise
into operation, ©ut as they crept upon
him, knives in hand, they found themselves
looking into the muzzlo of his revolver.
"For three days and nights,” Guerin has
told, "I could hardly lower the muzzle of
—Wandering through the trackless
• forests of Dutch Guiana, after the
leaking boat had beer abandoned,
Guerin and his remaining companion
wore captured ond the hank of a river
by a wiild tribe of natives, who fell
upon them, robbed them of everything
and made them prisoners in a hut.
my revolver, and for them to stop paddling
would mean only prolongation of the agony
of our escape.”
At last all were so exhausted that they
decided to try to rig a sail by tying their
3hirts to an oar. A breeze had sprung up
and a moderately large sea was now en
dangering the craft. Everywhere about
the boat were big man-eating sharks.
These creatures swam around the boat,
frequently whirling over on their backs
and snapping their jaws within reaching
distance of tie little craft
One of Guerin’s companions began to
complain about his eyes, and the reflection
of the fierce tropical sun on the water had
almost blinded all three convicts. Sud
denly this man stood up in the boat and
pressed his sun-burned hands to his eyes.
He groped for a moment about him like
a blind man, and then lost his balance and
fell to the side of the canoe. The boat
heeled over and began to take water over
the side and Guerin and this companion
were thrown into the water. A shark
ciose by made a dash for Guerin’s compan
ion, and this gave Guerin a chance to
clanfber back into the canoe, as another
shark swept around the stem, narrowly
missing the American burglar.
Horrors Worse Thau De^th
Tile trsf'ic end of one of tbe party ter
rified Guerin and the remaining convict,
and put an end to the conspiracy against
Guerin. But the straining of the canoe
when it hart nearly upset and tbe rising
sea bad made the boat begin to leak.
Guerin and his fellow voyager decided that
they couid not risk It any longer In tbe
boat, but must make a landing and con
tinue their Journey through the swamps
and wildernesses and run the risk of en
countering hostile natives.
After the canoe was beached they hauled
it up on shore and hid it among the trees
so as to leave no track in case a searching
party should follow after them. They had
no very definite idea of the proper direc
tion to follow—knowing only that they
were on the wild coast of Dutch Guiana,
and must travel inland sever'.I miles to
find a settlement. Both men were as thin
as skeletons, worn out with bailing and
paddling the, leaky boat, and their scanty
food supply was scarcely fit to eat. They
plunged haphazard into the tropica) for
est and swamp. They had nothing to mark
the time but the sun, which was sometimes
completely hidden by the dense foliage.
Threading cautiously through the swamps
and forests filled with treacherous death
traps, they were terrified and tortured by
the constant presence of poisono; s snakes
and venomous insects and lizards. De-
cribing this trip, which lasted several days.
Guerin said:
"After a while we seemed to be strug
gling through an endless maze, that was
leading In the end to nowhere, and this
sort of thing went on and on. Sometimes
—After escaping from the natives,
• Guerin and hie fellow convict,
weak from hunger and hardships and
half dead with the tropical fever,
pushed on through the slimy, treach
erous swamps, constantly threatened
by poisonous snakes ano oeset by ven
omous tropical insect# and lizard#.
the undergrowth, waist high would rustle
as an invisible snake took flight before us.
The next moment we would be floundering
in a quagmire not knowing whether to go
back or to the left or to the right, and con
scious of sinking deeper with each second
of indecision.
•With throbbing head, burning skin, chat
tering teeth, aching and leaden limbs, we
were inclined to throw ourselves down to
miserably die, and we knew that the
swamp fever was upon us.”
Finally Guerin and his companion
reached a river and concluded that they
would follow its bank in the hope of com
ing upon a native camp, where they would
take chances of a friendly or unfriendly
reception. Before long their bloodshot
eyes beheld a hut. As they approached It,
swaying and trembling from their hunger
and hardships and fever, a black native
emerged and set up a shout which soon col
lected many other blacks from neighboring
huts, who rushed at them with spears.
Guerin could not. understand their lan
guage, but endeavored to explain to them
that they wanted food, rest and a guide.
Guerin's companion, in an effort to make
plain their willingness to pay for what they
wanted, showed a couple of francs in silver.
This was an unfortunate move, because
1t excited the cupidity of the blacks, who
promptly fell upon them and searched them
and took awav everything they had of
value, after which they were pushed Into a
hut and kept prisoners.
Blok, weak, almost discouraged, Guerin
and his companion managed to escape, and
stumbling through the treacherous mo
rasses, emerged in the neighborhood of an
Indian village. Unlike the blacks, these
natives greeted the strangers in a friendly
manner and invited Guerin- and his com
panion to stay with them until they were
rested and able to continue their Journey.
After a few days Guerin and the other con
vict were given a guide by the Indians and
he piloted them to a seaport, where they
embarked on a boat loading for New Or
leans. From New Orleans Guerin went to
Boston, and then took passage Tor England,
hoping to find the woman he nad been in
love with when he was sent away to Devil s
Island. Guerin found her, but she was
then the sweetheart of another. • In tbe
row that followed this woman and her
lover tried to shoot Guerin.
And so Eddie Guerin escaped—but he
purchased his freedom at a frightful coat
of agony and ruined health.
Does crime pay? Nobody will claim that
It does if the criminal gets Into prison.
But criminals often escape from prison, it
is urged—what then? And it is to answer
this question that I have to-day on this
page endeavored to take the public behind
the scenes and show them the real truth
about a few famous escapes from prison
and how the escaped convicts profited
nothing, ibut were, indeed, worse off than
they were before.
SOPHIE LYONS.
Opjrlzkt. 1V13, 0> tbe Ster Compear
Next 8unday Sophie Lyons Will Explain How Expert Women Crlm-
Inala Often Accomplish Astonishing Rolifcerles and Swindles Which the
Most Skilful Men in the Underworld Would Never Think of Attempting.—
Surprising Cases in America and Europe in Many qf Which Sophie Lyon*
Herself Figuied.