of the prison, and also
that the perpetrators of the bloody work were Charles Taylor, alias Shorty
Gray, No. 5762, John Dowd, No. 5873, and Charles Morley, No. 5569. These men
had sneaked out of the broom shop and gone to the chapel. They
entered through the south door, which was never locked at that
time, and while one of them covered Jim Thomas the cigar clerk,
with a gun, the other two went to the deputy warden's office.
They did not give Mr. Wagner a chance to defend himself, but
fired several shots into his breast, from which he died almost
instantly. Hearing the noise, Mr. Thomas Doody, keeper of the
west cell house, armed himself and ran into the chapel. The desperadoes
jumped behind pillars and kept firing at him. Mr. Doody returned
the fire, but soon he fell, seriously wounded. He managed to
crawl out of the building, was assisted back into the cell house,
and Mr. Dinsmore was sent for to administer to him. Had not the "Convict
Physician,"
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the doctor without a license, as Judge Frost calls
him, arrived, there is no doubt but what Doody would have lost
his life. Shortly after the shooting of Doody, came the explosion
and the escape of the murderers. The guards on the wails and
in the shops heard the explosion. They did not know what was
going on but all watched carefully. Every man seized arms of
some kind and prison discipline prevailed. In the shops not a
man was permitted to leave his machine. Mr. Cokeley, for many
years yardmaster at the prison and in charge of the yard on the
day of the outbreak, now gave orders to the convicts to cease
work and march to their cells. His conduct during the excitement
showed bravery and devotion to duty. He was assisted by Sheriff
Hyers.
One by one the shops were emptied and all the men locked in
their cells. The boys behaved nicely except one, a horse thief
from Benkelman, who was noisy. He was
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