2017 Fall Newsletter

On November 21, 1898 three prisoners escaped by sawing an opening through the bars of a south window of the jail. In vestigation revealed the work preparing for the escape had been going on for weeks before the escape. One prisoner was captured soon after the break, but the others remain at large. The County Commissioners met on March 21, 1899 and voted to “give the city of Paola $2,100 ($53,846) to put in and maintain for all time a sewer for the Miami county court house and jail ….” Appearing in the Numbers Insurance Agency’s Map of Paola is a drawing of the floor plan of the Sheriff’s residence and Jail - which shows improvements. Research did not find any reference to the 1918 date of the rebuild or the cost. On January 21, 1919 three prisoners escaped sometime between 8 and 9 o’clock. They escaped by prying the top bars apart and crawled out into a space between the ceiling and the roof. They then dug a hole through the brick wall. Sheriff Lamm went to investigate when it was unusually quite in the jail. He found one prisoner in the jail and one dropping back into the cell from the hole that had been cut above the cell. The alarm was given, but the prisoners made a clean get away. On the evening of Sunday March 23, 1919 three prisoners sawed their way to freedom by sawing a bolt off an iron bar in the ceiling on the inner part of the jail, which allowed them to squeeze into a narrow attic-way above the cells and to move to the east wall where bricks were taken apart. With the use of blankets tied together they were able to lower themselves to the ground. One of the prisoners J. B. Dean a member of the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World with ties to both socialist and anarchist labor movements) confessed his intentions to kill the Kansas Attorney General. On March 31, 1919 Dean was captured at Sheldon, Iowa after being shot four times by Chickasaw County Sheriff John Tietjen. On or about 2:00 am on December 31, 1919 six prisoners escaped by, once again, using the steel springs from their shoes to saw their way out. This time they sawed their way out of a north window (which had a cross bar shutter) and jumped over the iron fence and made a clean get way. On April 28, 1920 when Sheriff George Lamm went to feed the prisoners, he was assaulted by a prisoner and locked in a cell. Mrs. Lamm came to his rescue with a revolver in her hand and was attacked by the fleeing prisoner. She was disarmed and struck across the face. Freedom didn’t last long when he was recognized by Paola City Marshall Sam Brown. After a one block foot pursuit, the prisoner was apprehended by Marshall Brown and returned to jail. On or about 12:43 PM July 25, 1921 three male prisoners in the county jail jumped Sheriff George Lamm and brutally beat him as he was pouring good water he had obtained from across the street (the city water was muddy) into a drinking bucket setting just inside the door of the cell block. Mrs. Lamm heard the disturbance, picked up a revolver and ran to the north door of the jail corridor where four prisoners were trying to get out. She fired once through the door’s iron grating which caused the prisoners to return to the cell block. Sheriff Lamm having recovered from the beating pulled his revolver and put the four prisoners into separate cell. December 3rd 1921 was the date eight prisoners escaped from the county jail. (Three of the escaped prisoners were the same ones who had on July 21, severally beaten Sheriff Lamm as he poured water into a drinking bucket.) Investigation disclosed the three prisoners had planned to kill Sheriff Lamm as they escaped. The break out was made by sawing bars (over a period of three weeks) in the holding cell and making a hole to crawl through. Once out of the “cage” they went through an upper window: letting themselves down with blankets. Sheriff Lamm sensed something was wrong and went to investigate. As he entered the jail section from the Sheriff’s quarters, he saw the last man drop from the upper window. He returned to his quarters and before he could arm himself and get outside, the prisoners had fled. The prisoners made their way to the Washington School where they built a fire in the stove. The stove fire was too hot and the school house burned down. One of the prisoners was captured in Sugar Creek Township. Three prisoners were known to have made their way to Drexel, where they caught a north bound train. At about midnight April 6, 1946 two prisoners tunneled their way through the south wall of the jail. The prisoners tore a steel plate from the inside of the jail and used a bar from one of the cells to break through the brick wall. The wife of one of the prisoners was charged with being an accessory after the fact after admitting she accompanied her husband to Union Station in Kansas City where she left him there about noon on Sunday April 7th. Monday, April 10th 1950, three prisoners sawed their way to freedom; but by noon Tuesday, two had been returned to Jail. Apprehended with the two was a 17 year old girl who accompanied them on their flight and was later charged with aiding in the jail break. The three used a hack saw to cut window bars on the alley side of the jail. After cutting a 12 by 14 inch hole, soap was applied to the bars and they squeezed through dropping to the ground below the open hole. Investigation revealed the saw blades were purchased at a local store and passed to a prisoner from the outside.

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