Claude Stonecipher uses blowtorch on jail cell door

Description:	Corydon mechanic Claude Stonecipher uses a blowtorch to free Sheriff Walter Baxley and Deputy Sheriff Clarence Klee from a locked jail cell. 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 by using the torch to cut around the cell lock. 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/54
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

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