"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." - Chicago Gangster Ted Newberry. Rubbed out January 7, 1933

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Three out of Four escaping convicts agree...

...it is best not to be the last one over the fence.

Like Jack Kerouac before me, I've decided to hit the road. That's right, time to explore the country and report back about the gangsters and general nogoodniks from other parts of this fine land. So with a Vespa and dream I've decided to report from the Mother road, as well as the father, aunt, uncle, cousins, grand niece roads in between.

First stop, southern Ohio, where on this date in 1929 Stanly Starr and three other inmates made a break from the Ohio penitentiary. Stan and the boys worked outside of the pen in a brick factory. Only thing keeping the brick men from freedom was a tall fence...and some armed guards. Well, the boys decided that they had enough of bricks and dashed for the fence. Stanley, however, wasn't as quick as the other fellers.They were up and over just as the guards were able to raise their guns. Stan wasn't so lucky he was in mid climb when the guards yelled for him to stop. The yelling sounded a lot like "Bang" "Crack" "Rat-a-tat-tat" and Stanley fell to the ground with bullets through the abdomen and pelvis.

His cohorts however made it to the woods. This is/was mining country so there was no shortage of tunnels and whatnot for the convicts to successfully hideout. After a handful of days of searching in vain, the authorities called off the manhunt. I guess you could do that back then. Stan went to the prison hospital where the prognosis was that Stan would not serve his full sentence.



4 comments:

John DuMond said...

I'm not sure whether I should make a falling Starr joke or a shooting Starr joke...

Patrick Downey said...

I'd go with latter. I'm going to have to fire a few interns for not coming up with one themselves. Best they could do was a Ringo joke that ended up on the editing room floor.

Anonymous said...

Star light, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might shoot a convict tonight.

Patrick Downey said...

Your wish is granted.