Detective Swineheart settled himself and fired with a revolver at the man. Jack Biddle raised from the seat, and discharged his revolver at the three officers. Detectives McGovern and Roach discharged their Winchesters at Ed Biddle.
He aimed badly, and the shot scattered on the road alongside of McGovern. Ed Biddle jumped up from his seat and, raising a shotgun, fired it at McGovern. "Hold up your hands and surrender," Detective McGovern commanded. The Biddles were sitting on the right side of the cutter. One of the detectives recounted the story: Īfter some time the brothers approached, bringing the sleigh to a halt as they realized they were surrounded.
McGovern stationed his men at the Graham Farm in Butler County and waited. Meanwhile, Charles "Buck" McGovern (one of the detectives who had originally arrested the Biddles) gathered a posse,Īssuming the fugitives were headed for Canada The three took a trolley to West View, Pennsylvania, then walked a mile to a farm on Route 19, where they stole a sleigh and a shotgun and started for Butler County. Pursuit and recapture Ĭapture of the Biddle Brothers, January 31, 1902, showing the sleigh in which they and Soffel had attempted to escape authorities.
Only at the guards' 6 am shift change was the escape discovered. They left the prison to rendezvous with Soffel. The Biddles locked the wounded guards, and the third guard on duty, in the prison "dungeon".Īfter changing from their prison jumpsuits into the guards' street clothes, Įd Biddle shot and wounded a second guard. The brothers sawed openings in the bars of their cells,Īnd at 4 am on Januone of them called out that his brother was ill.Īs a guard approached, Jack Biddle lunged through the opening between the bars and, seizing the guard by the waist, threw him over a railing to the stone floor sixteen feet below. She developed an infatuation with Ed Biddle, and eventually agreed to help the brothers escape by smuggling saws and guns to them. Kate Soffel, wife of warden Peter Soffel, įrequently came into contact with prisoners in her efforts to rehabilitate them. Washington shopkeeper, they were imprisoned in Allegheny County Jail to await hanging. Tried and convicted on Decem of the murder of a Mt. The Biddles were arrested on Apat a house in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania as leaders of the "Chloroform Gang", which for more than a year had been overpowering victims with chloroform or ether before robbing them. Soffel was born Anna Katharina Dietrich in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jack and Ed Biddle were born (Januand December 27, 1876, respectively) in Anderdon Township, Essex County, Ontario (now part of Amherstburg, Ontario) to George and Mary Ann ( née McQuaide) Biddle.
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