Attempt to escape --our man shot.
--Yesterday morning, about five o'clock, a bold attempt was made by several prisoners to escape from the city jail. Their names are Wm. Fitzgerald, G. W. Farrell. James Smith, Geo. G. Scott, Gen. Elam, Robert Burch, and Chas. Mitchell. From the officers of the prison we obtained the following particulars of the affairs. At the hour mentioned above the guard on the outside of the jail were made aware of the movements of the escaping prisoners, and stationed themselves at every point commanding a view of the jail, ready to fire at their first appearance. In a very short time Mr. Wm. Hall, one of the Mayor's police, detailed as watchman there, discovered the seven men above cited on the roof of the building, in the act of jumping down in the yard outside the walls next to the street. He was standing about the centre of the high hill leading to the Medical College, nearly on a level with the position occupied by them, and fired directly among the party. One man immediately fell, when the others beat a hasty retreat from the roof down into the yard and through the hole in the cells which they had made, the guard continuing to fire until the whole of them had disappeared. Hastening to the spot, the wounded man was found to be Geo. G. Scott, a person of desperate character, and the same who is charged with the murder in jail, some time since, of a fellow prisoner named Powers. He was lying on his face in a helpless condition, bleeding profusely from his wounds. After his removal from the roof attached to the institution made an examination and found that a musket hall had entered the under part of the hip, coming out about the centre of the spine.There were also several other smaller gunshot abrasions, none of which are considered dangerous. The other prisoners who attempted to escape, finding, themselves discovered, immediately returned to their cells. Upon examination of the route they had taken for escape, we found that the party occupied the three cells on the first floor of the new addition which was recently put up, and had cut out in an exceedingly neat manner a square hole through each about large enough for one man to creep through, thereby gaining the walled yard next to Marshall street set apart for the females. From thence they ascended the steps leading to the second story, reaching the roof from the porch. It was here that the discovery was made, with the result as specified above. The work performed by these men in sawing through their cells must have taken some time to accomplish it, and it was only through the efficiency and vigilance of the keeper, Mr. Frederick Hall, and his assistants, that their designs were frustrated.
