Black Sheep Sunday: Bandit Suspects' Plot For Escape Is Frustrated

Source: Pharos Tribune, Logansport, Indiana, April 7, 1925, page 11


BANDIT SUSPECTS' PLOT FOR ESCAPE IS FRUSTRATED


Kokomo, Ind., April 7 - Discovery of ten saws, concealed in the cells of Harry Pierpont and Thaddeus Skeer, held here on charges of looting the Southside bank, following their arrest in Detroit last week, frustrated their escape and probably a wholesale jail delivery.  F.C. Hunington, Pinkerton operative, found the saws yesterday afternoon when the prisoners were being examined in city court.  A thorough search of the entire jail failed to reval [sic] additional saws or tools for escape.  One bar in Skeer's cell had been severed.


Homer Miller, prosecuting attorney, is investigating today in an effort to determine how the saws were smuggled into the jail.


A cordon of police guards, heavily armed, has been thrown around the jail in apprehension that gangsters may attempt to release the prisoners.  Pierpont is said to have boasted when captured in Detroit that he would never face trial.


Miss Louise Brunner of Fort Wayne, whose unconcious indiscretion furnished police with the clue that led to the arrest of the alleged bandits, has been released on bond and has returned to the home of her mother.


Police deny that Skeer, said to be the lover of Miss Brunner, confessed to the Kokomo holdup to save his sweetheart, whom he feared was to be prosecuted.  In this confession it is alleged that Skeer also implicated Pierpont in the Kokomo, Noblesville, Upland and Marion bank robberies, together with Everett Bridgewater, who is still at large.


The accused men will be given a preliminary hearing in city court Thursday.


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Harry PIERPONT (1902-1934), was my maternal 2nd cousin twice removed. Later an associate of John Dillinger, Harry was finally executed by the State of Ohio.  This is one of the articles I've discovered in documenting his criminal history.

Black Sheep Sunday – create a post with the main focus being an ancestor with a “shaded past.” Bring out your ne’er-do-wells, your cads, your black widows, your horse thieves and tell their stories. And don’t forget to check out the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists (IBSSG). This is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers.