On Auburn's Anniversary

A grey little old Kansas farmer hobbled out on his porch one day last week to greet three men who were coming up to his house with guns in their hands. "Morning, boys," he said. "Going hunting?"

"We're being hunted," one of the men replied. "We're going to stay here for a while."

That was the first that Farmer Emerson Salisbury, 73, knew about the jail break that had taken place four hours prior and nine miles away at the Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth ("The Bankers Institute"). Six men had escaped, dragging spectacled Warden Thomas B. White, onetime Texas Ranger, along with them as hostage. No one knew how they got their arms or passes to enter the warden's office.

Leaving Leavenworth, the convicts and their prisoner met four colored soldiers going out hunting. They took the car and shotguns. When this car bogged down, the convicts became frenzied. They confiscated another passing car, commandeered two young women for shields. Warden White protested. They blew his arm almost off, left him for dead. Then they split up into two groups. One group-- Charles Berta, Stanley Brown, Tom Underwood--ran into the woods where they were soon captured.

Convicts Grover Durrill, William Green and George Curtis were the men who turned up at the Salisbury farm. They took Farmer Salisbury upstairs with them, knocked out the windows, started firing on the posse of soldiers and prison guards who soon surrounded the frame farmhouse. Discomforted by the lead which buzzed and whined about him, old Farmer Salisbury climbed up to the attic. Peeping over a window ledge, he waved his handkerchief at the besiegers for recognition. Much to his surprise, two slugs instantly whistled through his flag of truce. After a while the posse's fire was no longer returned. It was then found that Prisoner Green had shot his comrades and himself when the ammunition gave out.

Captured three days later was 64-year-old Convict Earl Thayer, mail robber. He had escaped alone during the confusion.

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