Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1894 — THIEF AT LARGE. [ARTICLE]

THIEF AT LARGE.

Embezzler Cal Arm ttrong Breaks Jail at Kokomo, Calvin Armstrong, the defaulting Tipton county deputy treasurer, who was sentenced at Kokomo, Monday, to three years for embezzling $43,030 of public funds, broke jail Monday night and is now a fugitive. Monday afternoon the prisoner sawed off a two-inch bar of his cell on the second story of the jail, and, sliding down to the first floor, secreted himself behind the cage at the far end of the corridor, taking a section of the bar two inches in diameter and two feet long with him- to mse as-a weapon,He remained there until the sheriff came in to feed the prisoners, and when that officer went upstairs with the supper Cal and a tramp, indicted for stoning a train, made a rush for the open door. Tho officer upstairs did not hear them, and by a combination of singular circumstances the noted embezzler escaped unnoticed. The escape was not discovered until 0 o’clock Tuesday morning, giving the fugitive twelve hours the start of all pursuers. How he got out of town without being recognized is a mystery, but that he had accomplices seems certain. The Tipton county people, whose money the gay young Dcp.ity Treasurer had squandered on the race track and in gambling rooms, are furious over tho escape. They were indignant over the mild sentence given the embezzler, and the escape has intensified tho feeling to tho lynching point. A liberal reward is offered for his capture Ha is twenty-four years old, weighs pounds, has very dark hair, large brows mustache, large steel-gray eyes, fair complexion. white, regular teeth, wore a black cutaway coat, derby hat, wide-collared, heavy ulster of dark-brown Irish freize cloth. He walks with his head erect and has a haughty air. It is believed that Armstrong is headed for Mexico, as he has sporting friends there.