◆ SpookStack

= FD-350 (Rev. 7-16-63) f ’ See ¥ Escape of The escape of a Manson "family" member from the 13th floor of the Hall of Justice Wednesday added a new chapter to an already colorful history of daring jailbreaks from the old county keep. More than one "human fly" has , ied the ro aken. Tuesday by (Kenneth Com lown the side of , 15-story BtFiding to an eighth- floor ledge—some of it without a rope. . At Jeast one man has fallen to his death in the attempt. One man, called a "modern Loch- invar" in the 1939 accounts of his es- cape, used only his. bare hands to descend six floors from the roof of the building, hanging on to the flanges ‘of an exterior ventilator shaft, all because he. wanted to see his girlfriend in Arkansas. "Those flanges are only 11/4 inches wide!" the chief jailer inter- -rupted the 1939 fugitive's story after his recapture. "Weren't you afraid of falling?" "] knew I was taking a chance,” the escapee answered, “but.I didn't care. It was death or freedom—and I took the gamble." His risk didn't end on the eighth- floor ledge. He managed to climb through an open window into an ele- vator shaft and continued his des- cent.another five floors on the eleva- tor . Recalls Other Daring Breaks BY DOROTHY TOWNSEND Times Staff Writer ‘hours. .of Morgan and his. companion. & we, Ya Ye d * ot] 7 mene *. Byt, not since the night. 10 years ago when a one-legged convicted murderer picked a lock and led 11 prisoners to freedom under the noses of booking officers and 150. other prisoners, has a jailbreak here caused such a stir as Como's did Wednesday. . ; That 1961 escape, described at the time as the biggest and perhaps quietest, in the old jail's history, was not detected for more than six Deputies gave this account: A Folsom convict with an artificial right leg, Joseph Morgan, apparént- ly-instigated the exodus by picking a lock of an access door to a utility tunnel off the booking office and :ex~ iting with another: prisoner. They climbed through: the. small door, then crawled 30 feet, kicked a hole in a plaster wall-and fled by dropping through a narrow “pipe shaft at the rear of the Hall of Jus- tice, 1 During the next. two hours, ‘nine (or 10, there is confusion about: this) other inmates waiting to. be processed in thé overcrowded. book- ing, office, slipped away on the, heels "I hadn't planned to escape," one said on his return to the jail several | days later, “but the more I looked at | that hole the bigger it got." Dh (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) I-l Los Angeles Times bos Angeles, Calif. Date: 10/21/71 Edition: Thursday Final ‘Author: Editor: Title: Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: Log Angeles CL) Being Investigated ? ox ~ fy 4 _— yy) v | SEARCHED__4-> _INDEXED_____ SERIALIZED-°“FILED Joe ABPsl 2 4 1971 me FBl— LOS ANGELES | is a