The San Francisco call. [volume], July 30, 1903, Image 1

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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Continued onlPage 4,. Column 1. „
P OLSOM, July 29.— At 9
./^V o'clock to-night a telephone
message was received at the prison
from Deputy Sheriff Bosquit at
Placerville, saying that he had re
ceived word from his father,
Sheriff Bosquit, that eight of the
convicts had been located at Black
Hawk Canyon, and that three of
the convicts, including Seavis, the
colored man, were at Pilot Hill.
The message also stated that
scouts had been thrown out from
the posse.
-¦ • Shortly after the above message
arrived a telephone message was
received here from Harry Wilkiri-
ySOLSOM, July. 29. — The
jH startling news was received
#< * here to-night that a consid
erable number of ex-convicts have
gathered in the region where the
murderous fugitives from the
penitentiary are supposed to be
hiding, and are supplying .the
runaway jailbirds with food and
ammunition.^- '¦;
It is related from an authorita
tive source that some men who
"were at one time imprisoned here
have associated themselves with
independent posses and '¦ are ; se
riously : interfering with the work
of the official pursuers. This news
has caused consternation : among
the law officers, and efforts -are
Posses Hurry
to the Scene
for a Combat
Special Dispatch to The Call.
secretly being made to apprehend
the alleged friends of the murder
ous band.
It is not doubted here that the
convicts have received some aid
already, because, with scant pro
visions and very little ammunition
at the time of their rapid depart
ure from Pilot Hill, they have
succeeded in , keeping well under
cover. Had they been dependent
solely upon the food they pos
sessed at' that time they" would
surely have raided a farmhouse or
sought by some means to replenish
their inadequate store.
' The officials here are convinced
that; friends of the desperate men
are "hear, at: hand,, and no effort
Former Criminals vJlre Suspected of Jlid*
ing the Runaway Band. \
crossroad, and this makes rapid
progress by the convicts impos
sible, as the advance through the
brush is wearisome and slow. One
of the convicts is known to be sick
and was an additional drag up to
the time the party was lost
sight of.
The search is conducted by day
light almost entirely. Thus far it
has been unproductive of results,
but there seems no other way to
conduct the campaign. A small
guard is stationed in every village.
The different detacHments in pur
suit of the jailbreakers communi
cate with each other thrice daily,
that the chase may progress
smoothly.
Sheriff Keena left for Chinese
Camp at 10 o'clock this morning
on a still hunt, with a posse of
twelve men. It was thought that
the convicts, being addicted to the
use of opium and familiar with the
locality, might make for the dig
gings, in order to receive a supply
of the baneful drug. Nothing new
was discovered, however, and
Sheriff Keena will now work
toward the north.
FUGITIVES RECEIVE
HELP FROM FRIENDS
. MAP SHOWING THE. COUNTRY, OVER WHICH THE .FOLSOM CON
¦2 VICTS HAVE .PASSED, AND SCENES AND PERSONS IDENTIFIED
WITH .SENSATIONAL* -HAPPEN INGS WHICH BEGAN AT PRISON.
Hour for a Battle
Now Rapidly
son, the Warden's grandson, say
ing that the. band of convicts were
heading' for Butcher's ranch, and
that the posses were ready to give
them battle if they appeared.
Unconfirmed
Reports of a
Small Battle
£* OLSOM, July 29.— A mes
x sage was received at the
prison this morning stating that
the posses under the direction of
Sheriff Keena of Placer and Sher
iff Bosquit of El Dorado had a
brush with the fugitive convicts,
and a number of shots were ex
changed, but this has not been con
firmed. .
The .story says L the fugitives
were located on Greenwood Creek,
north of .Granite Hill postoffice
and above Greenwood, where they
had* evidently "camped over night.
One posse was;on one side of the
creek and the other . posse on \ the
other side: •'. '':[¦ ' {
• '.The posses were a considerable
(distance ; away wh en; . tl ley/ . dis-
Hill. There is p!entv of game in
the mountains, but the report of a
rifle in this district is a summons
and a warning, hence the convicts
fear to shoot. Their only chance
lies in a successful raid from well-
might remain for months undis
turbed. There are wooded re
gions which the foot of man has
never touched. On every hand
arc almost impregnable thickets
of chemise, manzanita and chap-
The peace officers fully realize
the tremendous handicap under
which they labor, but remain
manfully at their work. The heat
is almost prostrating them. 'Hour
after hour stern-faced men are
appearing at the settlements for
a moment in quest of news and
then return to the search. They
travel in threes or sixes, prepared
to meet a dozen of the desper
adoes in defense of their homes
and their families.
The hunted outlaws are known
to have with them no more than
two days' provisions, which they
stole at Deihl's grocery at Pilot
GREENWOOD, July
29. — Somewhere in
this region of for
ests and almost im
penetrable fastnesses
eight of the eleven
Villainous convicts who escaped
Iron? Folsom prison are secreted,
awaiting another dawn in whose
light they may press nearer to the
inhospitable mountains to the
eastward.
% Nearly two hundred armed
mejt, most of them officers of the
]3,n r , are stamping through the
thickets and breaking trails in the
tortuous depths of canyons, seek
ing, with fingers on triggers, the
murderous crew that overpowered
the authorities at the penitentiary.
CONVICTS SURROUNDED.
The officers congregated at this
point are convinced that the entire
eleven fugitives are surrounded,
and that a cautious tightening of
the cordon will soon reveal their
hiding places. Three of the con :
victs have been seen near-Conl, a.
*hort distance from here, and have
been pursued by troops.
George M. Brown, who lives
on the Spanish Dry Diggings,
twelve miles from Cool, has just
appeared here with information
that three convicts passed by his
house at 2 o'clock this morning.
He hailed them, thinking they
were neighbors. The convicts
swung about, leveled their rifles,
conversed among themselves for
a few moments and then fled to
the brush.
MAN-HUNTERS AFIELD.
Rumors of the visit of the con
victs are flying from iip to lip
throughout the county. The head
of every family haf his rifle near
at hand and women and children
stay indoors. The whole section
from Placerville to Auburn and
from Folsom to Greenwood is
terrorized. The country offers
even,* protection to the outlaws.
The towns are all very small in
this region, consisting generally
of a house or two and a farm.
Narrow, dusty and infrequently
traveled roads connect the little
centers of p'opulation. There are
dry ravines in which the convicts
Special Dispatch to The CalL
stocked farmhouses or country
stores, and that move is 'just the
one for which the manhunters
watch.
GUARDS AT THE ROADS.
The escaped prisoners travel by
night, but it is impossible to main
tain the pursuit in the darkness.
Guards arc stationed at every
The identity of the convict who
was killed in the affray at Pilot
Hill on Monday evening is not
now disputed. It was Convict Al
lison, who was serving a four
years' sentence. He was drawn
into the plot at the last moment,
according to the statements made
by some of the convicts to-day in
the prison. It was stated to War
den Wilkinson that Allison had
never mentioned a word as to be
ing in the plot, but was always
talking of the time when he would
be set at liberty.
Joseph Cochrane, the officer
who was wounded in the fight that
took place on Monday morning in
the office of the captain of the
guard, is a little better to-day, but
'his condition is very serious. The
doctors fear blood-poisoning.
will now ~bz spared to locate and
punish them. The officers at the
scene of the search have been no
tified to watch for persons upon
whom suspicion may rest,
DRAWN INTO PLOT.
away.
The statement made by Convict
Woods to Guard Klenzendorf,
when the latter was a prisoner of
the convicts on theirway to Pilot
Hill, which was published in The
Call to-day, is looked upon as be
ing very close to the truth. The
plot was undoubtedly the work of
the thirteen men who broke from
the prison, and Convict Al Myers,
who failed to get away, was also
one of the band. That a general
prison delivery was planned is
not thought of here as ever having
anv existence.
DENIAL BY CONVICTS.
Warden Wilkinson and Dis
trict Attorney Seymour of Sacra
mento County have questioned a
number of the convicts, but they
all deny that they knew of the ex
istence of the plot to escape. Some
of them said that if they had been
in the. plot they would not be in
the prison to-day, which is a good
proof that the plan was confined
to the men who escaped and per
haps two or three others who got
Special Dispatch to The Call.
y OLSOM, July 29.—
£ At the prison tvery-
M 1 thing is now quiet.
B All the convicts are
locked in their cells
and will be kept
there for an indefinite time. The
staff of guards consists of forty
five men, exclusive of the force of
executive officials, which numbers
twenty-four. Of the regular
guards more than half are now
out with the posses, and their
places are being temporarily filled
by outsiders. It is not deemed
wise to put the convicts to work in
the rock quarries for the present
All the prison officials laugh at
the statements that have been pub
lished in certain quarters that the
plot to escape was a wide one and
embraced many dozens of prison
ers.
Convicts Confined
Behind Bolts
and Bars.
Armed Men Search the For
ests Where Murderers
Had Their Camp.
Guards at Folsom
Now Take No
Chances.
VIGILANT
EYES ARE
ON CELLS
COOL, El Dorado County, July 29. — At a trifle after 6 o'clock this evening about 100 men of different posses went on
tin- hills near here in search of the convicts, tt'/io arc reported to be in this vicinity. J. C. Collins and Walter Jackson
reported to-night that while going through the brush in the district two miles southeast of here they heard three con
z-icts talking, but could not see them on account of the thickness of the undergrowth. Guided by the directions of these
frco men the assembled manhuntcrs divided into three parties and began a systematic search. Parties composed of W.
Jackson and tivo other men and a Call correspondent found the trails over the hills as stated, .but zverc compelled to
zvithdrau- on account of darkness. Harry Gray of Lincoln states that he sazu two men whom he took to be convicts on\ the road
near Greenwood. He also declared that a body of militia is pursuing these convicts along the ridge extending from, Cool toward
Greenwood. Darkness has put a stop 1o further operations here until daylight.
FOLSOM CONVICTS HIDE IN THICKSETS OF EL DORADO COUNTY
AND MANHUNTEHS CAUTIOUSLY CLOSE IN ON THE FUGITIVES
The San Francisco Call.
VOLUME XCIV— NO. 60.
SAN FRANCISCO, THURSDAY, JUL.Y .30, 1903.
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