MAN SET FREE FROM COUNTY JAIL BY HIS FIANCEE
Warren, Pennsylvania (JFK+50) On July 18, 1923, the Associated Press reports that late last evening a young woman, concealing her features "beneath a black hood and flowing cape" managed single-handedly to free her fiance from the county jail here in Warren*.
The woman had first broken in to the Sheriff's home where she took a pistol and keys to the jail. She proceeded to the county jail and herded "more than a score of prisoners into a single tier" before freeing her lover.
Patrick Ponsoll was being held on a "serious charge" and at the time of his escape was in solitary confinement.
The "masked woman" ordered the remaining prisoners to "keep still" and then "fled with her 'hostage'."
*Warren is located along the Allegheny River in Warren County, Pennsylvania. It is headquarters of the Allegheny National Forest. Oil was discovered here in 1875 & came to dominate the city's economy.
SOURCE
"Woman Steals Jail Keys, Aids Lover's Escape," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., July 18, 1923, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
