Page 8
BELLEFONTE, PA. MAY 9,
BRIEF ACCOUNT
OF THE TRAGEDY
How Jerry Condo, Turnkey at the Centre County Ja,
Was Killed Last July.
{
FIVE PRISONERS BROKE JAIL
Lay in Wait with Deadly Weapons—Skull. Crushed---Finally
Were Captured--New Trial Refused---Supreme Court
Disappoints Them---Pardon Board Would Not Interfere.
An Appeal to the Governor for a Respite Made Last
Saturday.
and | long, one and one-half inches wide and
one-half
| pound and one-half,
way broke off th
While the fate of William Dillen
topic of general
in thickness, weighing a
They
1 iin +}
Ira Green has been the inch
3 3 a also in some
discussion since last July, and most per- iron bed
1 iron Oeq,
sons are acquainted with their unfortu- which was &
nate career, it is appropriate at somewhat longer ti
time to give a brief accor ing two and one-fou
had partly
with these irons bro
the
reckless crime, for which they Dav
the penalty w
upper
dents may have been { crawled out
view il In ¢ nistaken light Fort 1a | The brace
Ext . A
reason we have carefully incased
court recCorus
following data from
top
resent a complet te
HISTORY OF THE CRIME.
will
of Centre
iam Dil
len was ¢
county, awaiting
charge of assault and batte
brought t
LO
to commit rape
Session,
. at the time
2904, at the time
INTERIOR OF CENTRE COUNTY JAIL.
View from head of stairs looking down on first floor where Condo was kill
trance. (2) Where Condo was struck. (3; Door of bath roon
Condo was [ound In pool of blood,
ed (1) Main en-
partly open (4) Where
the prisoners were allowed to use at
meal time. Immediately thorough |
search was made of the entire jail and tack. Edward B McCullough was a
one of the knives was found By some | prisoner in the jail at this time, on ac-
unknown device they had converted this | count of his inability in complying with |
knife into what might be termed a saw, | the sentence of the Court to pay certain
No knives of any kind were theredfter | costs and was known as a “trusty” and
admitted into the jail. About two weeks | was out in the resident portion of the jail
later these defendants, together with on this particular night,
three other prisoners, made their escape |
from jail. This was on the evening of |
the agth of July last. The finding of | At a little after eight o'clock in the
these knives if the cell of Green and : evening of July 29th, last, Jerry Condo, |
Dillen, at the time the search was made | the turnkey of the jail, and Edward B,
for them, naturally engendered an ill | McCullough, the “trusty,” entered the
feeling on the part of these defendants | jail’ for the purpose of locking up the
toward Jerry Condo, the turnkey. and on | prisoners ia their cells, who were allowed |
several occasions they said they “would | [the freedom of the corridor, All the |
kill the old bald-headed— o'we.. "| prisoners were to be locked up on the |
and they ** would give the old bald-headed | second floor of the jail. McCullough |
mie an well that was coming to | came in the door first and walked ahead
him.” | of Condo some five or six feet. After |
On or before the evening of July aoth, | | Condo had locked the outside door and |
last, Dillen and Green broke from the | walked a distance of about twenty feet |
iron bedstead in their cell a foot brace, | to the stairway, Dillen, in his stocking |
being a piece of iron thirteen inches | feet, quietly came out of the bath room,
Dillen removed his shoes so as to avoid
a any possible noise at the moment of at-
The Assault and Escape.
CELL DOOR.
and inside door sprung back
(X) where hinge
allowing Dillen and Gre
Was sawed off
Shows outside door open, en to get out
1
Condo from the rear the mountains, and John
}
i
at
approached Jerry
and struck him a heavy blow 1e aid of James Rowan,
back of the head, with the 1 ance
tely Gr appeared and
ondo some ¢ or ten time
head with
laren
ght foo
Renovo
back and down
IRA GREEN.
{ Taken immediately after copture.)
na way to
They turned and 4
towards Mt Ble,
tured near Mill Hall,
stone who left the party in the moun-
tains and never heard of
Dominick Constance was seen by sev.
eral persons in the vicinity of the lime
kilns, two miles west of town. Monday
August 5th, Sheriff Taylor and a posse
of men made an exciting skirmish over
ame
Tuesday were cap THE TRIAL.
Soon after the arrests H. C. Quigley,
was retained by the county to defend
the prisoners. Later Clement Dale was
retained by Ira Green, and Hon. A. O.
Furst by Dillen. The prosecution was
represented by District Attorney Sparg-
| Jer, Col. Edw, R. Chambers and Ellis L
Orvis,
| Constance, previously had been indicted
of jail breaking and were convicted.
Geo, Henderson was indicted for the
| Julian robbery and jail breaking. He
plead guilty and was sentenced to two
| years and eight months in the peniten-
tiary.
Dominick Constance plead guilty to
{jail breaking, but on the charge
‘of felonious arson, for attempting to
excepting Living.
Since was
i | and was convicted,
| to four years in the penitentiary.
The trial of Ira Greene and Wm, Dil.
len came up Thursday, August 25th.
The nature of the assualt was proven
by inmates of the prison, also the threats
against the life of Condo. Whensthe
prisoners took the stand they surprised
all by admitting almost all that was
proven, Their version was that Dillen
carried the *“T" iron, but struck Condo
only with his fist and dropped the iron.
Green admitted pounding the turnkey's
head with the iron bar in the sock.
Both disclaimed any intention of killing
“T" IRON AND BAR IN STOCKING.
Weapons used to kill the Turnkey.
-—
Condo
wanted to render him un ftors were admitted
the keys and evervibing was quiet
The
case to the
only
CONSCIOUS, 80 as 10 secure
make good their escane, defend
pled their
i
dict
ants’ attorneys
. of
The
urday afternoon at 3 o'clock.
morning they
“Murder in First Degree.”
jury for a ver murder in t
second degree, ury retired Sat.
Sunday
reported a verdict of
The jury consisted of
Wm. VanTries,
liams, Worth ; J
I. L. Bunwell,
mel, Philipsburg ;
Haines ; G. W. Ream,
bShontz, Philipsburg: J.
Halfmoon Garbrick,
the following
Ferguson ; Ellis Wil
H. Sands, Bellefonte ;
Wallace Shim.
Daniel Eisenhuth,
Gregg : John
H., Griffin,
Bellefonte
Ferguson |
(reo
iik
DOMINIC CONSTANCE.
ymedialety aft ppl Lye
THE RACKET
INVENT]
er the co
PINCHIN WAIST
ey
Pinchin Waist GOrset
Vv ewing the Scaffold.
}
THE RACKET.
OR Carpet sale last week was a
big success. If you were not
in, ask your neighbor about our Car-
pets Some one in your locality
bought one from us, as we never in
the history of our business career
turned out so many Carpets as we
did last week.
Others ask 50c¢ for
INGRAIN CARPETS
same grade as
KATZ'S SELL FOR 39.
Others ask 65¢ for
INGRAIN CARPETS
same grade as
KATZ'S SELL FOR 49¢
These are only two of our spec-
ial numbers; we quote equally as low
prices on Body Brussels, Velvets,
Taps, Rugs, etc. Our window display
shows but a few of our many bar-