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6. The Great Escape—and Recapture
- University of Illinois Press
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dUD 6 The Great Escape— and Recapture When the Maxwells were brought in, first to the court in Blandinsville and then to the jail in Macomb, there was considerable talk of lynching— not just because nearby victims of their raids were angry and wanted revenge, but because people feared they would escape. They had little confidence in what the Macomb Eagle called “our badly demoralized and dilapidated county jail.” That was, in fact, McDonough County’s second jail. The first one had been a two-story log building constructed in 1832 on West Jackson Street, just two blocks from the square. During twenty-four years of use, many prisoners had escaped from it, including two accused murderers—Thomas Morgan, in about 1840, and David Burress, in 1854. Neither man was ever caught. When the railroad came through and the frontier period was over, the log jail was regarded as an outdated structure, unworthy of a progressive county, so in 1856 a new brick jail was built. Located at the southeast corner of Lafayette and Carroll streets, just beyond the northwest corner of the square, it was a somber-looking, twostory , red-brick structure, with rows of four to five windows on each level, on all sides but the rear. Surrounded by a high board fence, it looked substantial. Inside, the sheriff’s office and three large cells were on the ground floor, and quarters for his family or a deputy were upstairs. i-xvi_1-408_Hall.indd 93 3/22/11 2:00:02 PM Dime Novel Desperadoes 94 Unfortunately, it was not constructed very well—with only a thin metal lining on the cell walls and floor—so prisoners escaped from it as readily as they had from the old log jail. Complete records are lacking, but when Sheriff Jack Lane finished two years in office, late in 1870, and decided to leave law enforcement, the Journal editor praised him because “during his entire term . . . not one [prisoner] escaped, this being the first such instance in the history of sheriffs since the erection of the present jail.” There had been half a dozen other sheriffs since 1856, so escapes were numerous. Between 1871 and 1875 there were several more, and by then the jail had become the butt of local jokes and derogatory comments. Sheriff Josephus Venard was determined to end the jailbreak tradition, which had become a sort of challenge to prisoners—prompting more escape attempts where so many had previously succeeded, and making Macomb renowned for the failure of its criminal justice system. An 1876 article in the Macomb Journal reflects the ongoing contest of ingenuity and determination that engaged the beleaguered sheriff in the mid-1870s: The Beauties of Being Sheriff, Especially When You Have the Worst Prisoners And the Poorest Jail in the State. While [Venard] has been sheriff, it is safe to say that the meanest set of prisoners in all America have fallen to his lot, and he has had the meanest jail in America to keep them in. His two years have been an incessant campaign against desperate men breaking out of the old rickety jail, whose rotten walls invite prisoners to “hack in and crawl out.” Catching prisoners in various attempts of escape has been his weekly pastime. He has placed patch upon patch where the iron lining was ripped off the walls; has pulled men from beneath the floor, where they were at work burrowing under the foundation; has snaked them from the vaults [i.e., the septic system]; has arrested them in their bold dashes for the door. His nights have been disturbed by the rasping sound of file and saw, working steadily upon grates or bolts; and he has captured enough tools to equip a brigade of housebreakers. He has been successful in keeping his prisoners, but has been kept mighty busy in doing it. . . . i-xvi_1-408_Hall.indd 94 3/22/11 2:00:02 PM [3.239.208.72] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:38 GMT) 95 The Great Escape—and Recapture Despite Venard’s vigilance, the public was apprehensive about the incarceration of the Maxwells, “the most desperate outlaws ever confined in the county jail,” as the Journal later put it. It was as if some ultimate contest were being waged: Would the finest sheriff in recent times be a match for the notorious outlaws? Venard was especially cautious and watchful, and had the assistance of Deputy Sheriff Hays, as well as a new deputy...