Mickey Starling
reporter3@greenepublishing.com
In March of 1902, Madison sometimes resembled the fictitious community of Mayberry, from the Andy Griffith Show. Our version of Barney Fife was Deputy Sheriff Mike Bass, who slept regularly in the county jail. One Tuesday morning, just before daylight, Bass was awakened by the sound of sawing. Like a stealthy cat, Bass eased his way around the jail, attempting to locate the source of the noise.
All of the prisoners were pleasantly confined and quiet, so Bass returned to his room but did not go back to sleep. When morning came, Bass and Marsha Dale made a thorough examination of the jail and found that there had been quite a bit of activity. Two hinges on the cage door and two hinges on the back cage were nearly sawed asunder. Some of the outside bars had been cut as well. It was believed that an accomplice had cut those bars during a recent special court session when the jail would have been empty.
The inside bars would have taken a prisoner only a few more days of sawing before a successful escape could have taken place. Bass and Dale also found an empty frame for a hacksaw, but the blade was never located. Bass, no doubt, slept with “one eye open” for the next few nights, but all was well.