Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1915 — LIBERTY “ALMOST” FOR HORSE THIEF [ARTICLE]

LIBERTY “ALMOST” FOR HORSE THIEF

Walter Miller Recaptured (by Sheriff McColly at 2:30 a. m. Sunday When Near Freedom. To the light sleeping of Mrs. McColly, wife of County Sheriff Ben D. McColly, belongs • the credit for detecting the effort of Walter Miller, self-confessed horse thief, to secure his freedom from the Jasper county jail Saturday night or rather early Sunday morning. Miller is again in a cell and his liberties will be cut to the minimum. He is the man who stole three horses, a buggy and some harness from County Commissioner G. H. Hillis, of Newton county, two weeks ago. As recounted at the time Mr. Hilils, aided by Sheriff Hess and a posse of Newton county, overhauled the thief near Momence and after a preliminary hearing at Kentland, he was brought here for safekeeping. Miller made confession to the authorities and also to the newspaper reporters. His complacency while relating his plans to steal the horses seemed altogether too easy for a beginner and it was the conviction of some who talked with him that he was a smooth criminal. His bold effort to escape adds to that belief.

Miller occupied one of the chain of cells in the jail. The other occupants are Dunlap and Howard, the automobile insurance men.' Saturday night Sheriff McColly pushed an iron bar in place to fasten the door at the end of the cells but did not draw and lock the center bar. Miller used a piece of broken broom handle, which he notched at one end, to work the bar across the door back so that it would not catch. Painters had been working in the jail that day and had left a stepladder in the room where the prisoners are kept and where the cells are located. Miller climbed to the top of the cells and used a plank about 5 feet long, 2 inches thick and 8 inchta wide to pull a section of the metal ceiling loose. When he had a hole large enough to pass through he put the stepladder under the hole, got his overcoat, cap and three blankets and passed them up into the attic and then climbed up there himself. Evidently he expected to break through the roof and by using the blankets for a rope, lower himself to the ground. At the north end of the attic a small door enters into the bathroom which is at the top of the stairs in the residence part of the jail. A light was burning in the hail and it is thought Miller saw a ray of light through the small door. At any rate instead of going through the roof he tried to open the door into the bathroom. The door fastens with two small clasps on the bathroom side. Miller succeeded in getting one of these open and was trying to open the other when Mrs. McColly heard the noise. She awakened her husband and he hopped frpm his bed with a revolver in his hand. He turned on a light and asked what was going on. Miller was afraid he would be shot and lost no time in explaining who he was and that he was

trying to escape. “Don’t move or I’ll kill you,” was the sheriff’s reply. Miller assured Ben that he would not move and he didn’t The sheriff had his son, Harry, get a pair of handcuffs and opened the door and had Miller come out He placed the cuffs on him and took him back to his cell, taking the precaution to see that he was locked in tight Miller was covered with dirt and cobwebs from climbing about the attic and he told of his plans to escape with the same bravado that had characterized his confession. He will be watched the remainder of the time he is in the jail. He is a Newton county prisoner and his trial will probably come up at Kentland next week. His attempt to escape will probably influence his sentence. Sheriff McColly expects to furnish a description of the man to

the Chicago police and believes he i? apt to be identified with other crimes and also thinks he has probably done time in the penitentiary before. Had he carried out the plan of getting through the roof it is probable that he would have made his escape. It Was about 2:30 in the morning when discovered and his absence would not have been discovered until tn the morning and he would doubtless have left t°wn on the early morning train for the north. Neither Dunlap nor Howard made any effort to escape. Neither did they make any effort to arouse the sheriff and warn him about the plans of Miller.