143 Years Ago
The May 31, 1882, Colorado Transcript described an attempted jail break from the 4-year-old county courthouse. The article began by praising the security of the structure and bragged that Larimer County sent their toughest prisoners to Jefferson County’s jail in Golden. It then went on to describe a near-miss the previous week.
The Sheriff and a deputy were both sleeping in a room across the hall from the jail when they were awakened by the sound of a board breaking. They rushed across the hall to see a blanket hanging from the top of a cell, obscuring the view of the occupants. They removed the blanket and saw “two of the worst and most desperate characters in the jail trying to force their way through the ceiling to the court room above.” The prisoners immediately abandoned the attempted escape.
A confederate had passed a knife through the jail window. The prisoners were able to use the knife to saw through the bars at the top of their cell. Once through those, they began burrowing through the plaster ceiling and wooden floor above them. In their impatience, they broke a board instead of sawing through it, and it was that noise that woke the jailers.
“Sheriff Johnson found a very tender and affectionate farewell they had written and left in the cell for his consolation.”
In the week between the incident and press time, the county commissioners had added a layer of half-inch thick “boiler iron” and thicker flooring above the cells.
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