News From the Past: September 15, 1929

This story is from the Sandusky Register, of Sandusky, Ohio.

Five Sing,
And Saw
Way Out
Deputies and Police seek Es-
caped prisoners Near
Steubenville
STEUBENVILLE, O., Sept 14 (AP) - Police and deputy sheriffs were searching the city and surrounding countryside tonight for five prisioners who sang and sawed their way out of the Jefferson-co jail early today.
Sheriff William Yost was disturbed early today by the sound of song pouring forth from one of the cell blocks. Loud and long the song continued and then it stopped suddenly. Sheriff Yost went to investigate and found that five of his prisoners had sawed their way to freedom to the accompaniment of their songs, which drowned out the noise of their saws.
The prisoners at liberty are James Rice, Pittsburgh, charged with highway robbery; Charles Grimm, Steubenville, charged with chicken stealing; Issac Henrickson, Louise, W. Va., charged with a statutory offense; William Afeaner, Columbus, charged with auto theft, and Fred Yates, Chicago, charged with non support.
The five men sawed the bars of their individual cells, then cut the bars on the tier. They slid down a water pipe to the basement where they cut the bars on a window and escaped.

It sounds like a missing scene from "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" I just love all the goofy details - particularly the crimes these gentlemen were charged with and the fact that they made their way to the basement and then sawed their way out of there; kind of implies that the sheriff wasn't exactly quick on the draw when the singing stopped.