Claude Stonecipher frees Sheriff Walter Baxley and Deputy Clarence Klee from jail cell

Description: Corydon mechanic Claude Stonecipher holds a blowtorch that he used to free Sheriff Walter Baxley, at left, and Deputy Sheriff Clarence Klee, at far left in background, from a locked jail cell. Stonecipher was assisted by Dudley Cammack, at right. Harrison County Jail prisoner William D. Messamore, tricked the sheriff and his deputy into the cell and locked them in while he escaped by jumping out of a second-story window. The lawmen were trapped in the cell for about an hour before Stonecipher freed them. Messamore was being held for questioning concerning the disappearance of a family from English, Indiana. During the questioning, he admitted taking part in a bank robbery in Kevil, Kentucky. The Corydon escape was not Messamores first. After being sentenced to life in Louisville, Kentucky for armed robbery, he escaped from City Hospital in 1938 by jumping out of a window.
Origin: 1949-03-14
Created By: Wallace, Albert (1909-2002)
Source: http://cdm17251.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p17251coll23/id/36
Collection: People at Work
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/
Copyright: This image may be printed or downloaded by individuals, schools or libraries for study, research or classroom teaching without permission. For other uses contact: genealogy@hcpl.lib.in.us
Subjects: jails
prisons
welders (persons)
sheriffs
police officers
prisoners
escaped prisoners

Further information on this record can be found at its source.