Prison breaks seemed way too common 100 years ago. I see weekly headlines about attempts (our very first video ever was about Gene Alger… I lost track of how many times he escaped). Most of these escapes were successful, too. But today’s was different. I hadn’t seen one like this yet

That’s right, prisoners stopped the escape.

Six prisoners in the District jail had spent days engineering a meticulous escape. They smuggled materials into their cell. Built a rope from torn blankets. The plan was to reach a beam near the skylight, climb to the roof, tie off to a chimney, and slide to the ground.

The only obstacle was a guard named Branagan.

So they knocked him out with bunk irons, pulled a makeshift sack over his head, and got ready to move.

And then their fellow prisoners came for them.

Branagan's cries brought inmates running from their own cells. Frank Dane was first through the door — in jail himself for violating the anti-prize fight law, waiting on his own appeal. Walter Jordan right behind him. Chester Batson came next, charged with murder. Then Arthur Jordon. Then John Middleton.

When guards from the other end of the building couldn't reach the scene because a steel door had been locked from the inside, a prisoner named Joseph Kulick who was awaiting trial for first degree murder, wrenched it off its hinges.

The six plotters were subdued. Put in solitary. Warden Peake posed for photographs holding their bunk irons and their rope made of torn blankets. Branagan recovered.

The men who saved him went back to their cells.

See you tomorrow fellow inmates!

— Chris

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