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Earlier Escape Attempts RecalledHUNTSVILLE, Tex. (AP) -Gangster Fred Carrasco’s at* tempted prison, break here bears little of the color—andbloodshed- of earlier escape at* tempts •when bootleg 'Whisky, rolled stockings and souped «up sedans were in vogue.But Bonnie and Clyde, Ray* mond Hamilton, Joe Palmer and the likes are a hard act tofollow.The first successful break from Texas * death row was al* most40 years to the day before Carrasco, 34, tried his July 24 breakout from the downtown Walls Unit where the row used to be located.On July 22, 1934, Hamilton, Palmer and *%iackie” Thomp* son escaped from death row in a hail of bullets.Within a year, Thompson waskilled in a gunfight with police. Hamilton and Palmer were re* captured and both died in the electric chair May 10, 1935.Hamilton was linked with the fabled team of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, who news accounts said helped Hamilton in an earlier escape from an* other Texas prison. By the time Hamilton, Palmer and Thomp* son escaped in July 1934, Bon* nie and Clyde had died in a po* lice ambush.Associated Press dispatches of 1934 gave these details;The big event in the Walls Uniton July 22, 1934 seemed to be a ball game inside the pris* on between inmates and an amateur team, the Humble Oil* era. In the maximum security unit, guards were distributing the evening meal.When a guard entered the cell of lifer Charlie Frailer. Frazier pulled two guns and forced the guard into death row. There Frazier released Hamilton, Palmer and Thomp* sou.The quartet attempted to per* suade another death row in* mate. Pete McKenzie, who killed a San Antonio detective, to flee with them. McKenzie re* fused the offer.The four men then moved to* ward the prison yard and werejoined by three lifers, Whitey Walker. Roy Johnson and Her* bert Stanley, They took an •unarmed guard as nostage andstole a ladder from the prison carpenter shop.“Just keep your head, Thompson said to his hostage, “and we won’t hurt you. Any funny stuff and you are a deadman,”Hamilton went over the brick wall first. Walker was next but he caught a bullet in the chest and fell back, knocking two oth* ers off the ladder. Walker lay dead in the prison yard, John* son, wounded, never made the fist rung. Stanley ran when the shooting erupted and hid behind a wood pile in the prison. Palmer and Thompson joined Hamilton and the three men sped off in cars in the hot sum*mer evening.One story at the time said Hamilton “was re^rded as the most desperate criminal in theSouthwest since Barrow andthe Parker woman were slain by officers.,/’McKenzie, who chose to re* main in his death row cell, lived a long life. Instead of go* ingtothe electric chair, he was paroled in 1957 by Gov, Price Daniel, He broke down and cried when he heard the news. He vowed he*J go straight,But McKenzie died in prison in 1965, He did not like it on the outside and longed for his old prison cronies, He armed himself, entered a bar where he was well known shot up the place and then surrendered, The July 1934 escape of Ham* iiton. Palmer and Thompson was the only successful armed breakout from the Walls unit death row. In the 1920s. several prisoners who forced their way into the unit’s armory shot their way out through the frontdoor. Without arms, others have escaped by tunneling out, The July 22, 1934 escape was the big Texas news of the day. But the story fought for frontpage display with a story from the Biograph Theater In Chi* eago where federal agents killed another criminal.His name was John Diliinger.
Newspaper Details
Del Rio News Herald
Del Rio, Texas, US
Wed, Jul 31, 1974
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 31 Jul 2019
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