Saw blades, a flood and a negligee:
The story of Kerr County jailbreaks
Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on March 14, 2025
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| The Kerr County Courthouse shortly after construction in 1926. The small third-story on top of the building served as the county jail until 1958 |
While doing my research for this week’s column, I got sidetracked. It happens often. I find something that interests me and start digging only to end up a great distance from my starting point.
What distracted me was an account of an escape from the Kerr County Jail in 1938. The ingenuity behind the jailbreak made me laugh and led me to explore the history of jail breaks between 1926 and 1960. I also came across the story about how a “Friendly Cowboy” (who didn’t seem so friendly) managed to flood the jail.
In 1925, the local newspapers reported on the sad state of affairs at the Kerr County Courthouse and Jail. The county was growing. As a result, the county offices were also expanding. The attractive Victorian-era courthouse was getting crowded, and the building was considered unsafe. The old courthouse had developed cracks in its masonry, and those working in the building were afraid the building would eventually topple down around them.
The jail was also a problem. The small building that housed the jail was also deteriorating. The small, sturdy-looking jail had served as the county courthouse prior to 1875, and the mortar that held the building’s stonework together was so crumbly that an inmate had been able to pick the mortar from around a large stone so he could remove the stone and crawl to freedom through his newly created portal.
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| This building served as the Kerr County Courthouse from 1875 until 1926. The small structure to the left served as courthouse prior to 1875 and became a jail when the Victorian structure was built |
The ground breaking for the courthouse, sporting the trendy Bauhaus style of the day, took place in June of 1926. This building has served as the Kerr County Courthouse ever since.
While most of the county needs were well served by the new building, it was apparent that the design for the third floor jail fell short of ideal. The narrow metal staircase leading to the jail, described by one reporter as “14 miles of straight up and down stairways,” presented a challenge for transporting prisoners from the main courthouse floors to the jail cells, particularly when the prisoner was inebriated.
The third floor location and the design of the jail also made it difficult to keep inmates under surveillance. This lack of supervision and isolation from the “business areas” of the courthouse provided a prime opportunity for determined escape artists.
Below is an account of some (but not all) of the jail breaks I found through my research. I have withheld some of the names of the escape artists out of respect for the families who still live here.
THREE MEN AND A SAW
The first jail break occurred on May 5, 1930. Three men who were awaiting transport to the State Penitentiary in Huntsville — an escapee from the San Antonio Hospital for the Insane who was charged with murder in Kendall County, a Kerrville man sentenced to 25 years for murder and a man sentenced to serve one year for selling liquor during prohibition — sawed through the bars of their shared cell and then the bars on an exterior window.
Once on the roof of the courthouse, they entered a window that gave them access to the main part of the building. From there, the trio simply walked down the main staircase and out the front door to liberty.
The escape was not discovered until the next morning when breakfast was delivered to the jail. A lone man, serving a term for driving while intoxicated, was left behind to give an account of the escape to Kerr County Sheriff J.T. Moore.
Newspaper accounts of the escape said officials had “no clue” as to where the saws used in the jail break were obtained or how they were smuggled into the jail.
The three men were all eventually recaptured to face their sentences. The escaped asylum convict/murderer was found in San Antonio a few days after his escape. The Kerrville man sentenced for murder was captured in August 1930 after being deported from Villa Acuna, Mexico. The final escapee, the bootlegger, turned himself in to the authorities in late September of 1930.
SMUGGLED SAW BLADES
On June 22, 1932, five men escaped from the jail. Those escaping were Claude Newton, Claude Phillips, Arthur Babineaux, Alton Harville and Joe Rotge. Two other men who were housed in the jail at the time refused to join the fugitives in the escape.
Newton and Phillips each were awaiting appeal on charges relating to a burglary of a business on Earl Garrett Street, Babineaux and Rotge were being held on charges of chicken theft, and Harville was awaiting trial on a theft charge.
Once again, saw blades were used to hack through the bars of jail cells. It was believed that the blades were smuggled in by friends who visited some of the prisoners earlier in the day.
Three of the five escaped convicts were found hiding in Fort Worth and recaptured in December 1932, Phillips was apprehended in Georgetown in February 1933. Chicken thief Babineaux was captured in Kerr County in August 1933. Babineaux had been hiding in Louisiana during most of his 14 months of freedom but made the mistake of visiting family in Kerr County. He was apprehended only a few hours after his arrival in the county.
THIRSTY FOR FREEDOM
Then I came across this weird story: In January 1933, a man known as “The Friendly Cowboy,” Howard Sifford, managed to flood the Kerr County Jail while serving a term for defaulting on a payment of a $26 fine related to a charge of disturbing the peace.
Constable Jeff Duncan heard a noise that sounded like a “tractor running amok” coming from the jail above his office and decided to investigate. As he started up the stairway, he was met with a rush of water. After returning to his office and equipping himself with a pair of rubber boots, Duncan again climbed the stairs to discover 5 inches of water flooding the cells, leaving prisoners marooned on their bunks.
SMUGGLED SAW BLADES
On June 22, 1932, five men escaped from the jail. Those escaping were Claude Newton, Claude Phillips, Arthur Babineaux, Alton Harville and Joe Rotge. Two other men who were housed in the jail at the time refused to join the fugitives in the escape.
Newton and Phillips each were awaiting appeal on charges relating to a burglary of a business on Earl Garrett Street, Babineaux and Rotge were being held on charges of chicken theft, and Harville was awaiting trial on a theft charge.
Once again, saw blades were used to hack through the bars of jail cells. It was believed that the blades were smuggled in by friends who visited some of the prisoners earlier in the day.
Three of the five escaped convicts were found hiding in Fort Worth and recaptured in December 1932, Phillips was apprehended in Georgetown in February 1933. Chicken thief Babineaux was captured in Kerr County in August 1933. Babineaux had been hiding in Louisiana during most of his 14 months of freedom but made the mistake of visiting family in Kerr County. He was apprehended only a few hours after his arrival in the county.
THIRSTY FOR FREEDOM
Then I came across this weird story: In January 1933, a man known as “The Friendly Cowboy,” Howard Sifford, managed to flood the Kerr County Jail while serving a term for defaulting on a payment of a $26 fine related to a charge of disturbing the peace.
Constable Jeff Duncan heard a noise that sounded like a “tractor running amok” coming from the jail above his office and decided to investigate. As he started up the stairway, he was met with a rush of water. After returning to his office and equipping himself with a pair of rubber boots, Duncan again climbed the stairs to discover 5 inches of water flooding the cells, leaving prisoners marooned on their bunks.
While it was drizzling outside, it was not enough to cause the kind of water found inside.
According to an account in the Kerrville Mountain Sun:
“What the blankety-blank-blank is going on in here?” Constable Duncan shouted above the din of the flood. Just then, he discovered a prisoner in one of the cells waving a section of water pipe above his head. “I craved some water and I craved it bad,” answered the caged one. “Well, it appears to me that you have got it,” quoth Constable Duncan in his customary laconic manner.
Further questioning by the officer elicited the information from the prisoner, who travels under the nom de plume of “The Friendly Cowboy,” that in his opinion there was a shortage of water in his cell. He became sorely vexed and forthwith proceeded by bare hands and muscular strength to tear out the section of water pipe and also the steam heating pipes in the cell, thereby bringing on an avalanche of the elixir he so greatly desired.
To further add to the gaiety of the occasion, the cowboy had torn up the mattress in his cell and set fire to the remnants.
A plumber was called to fix the damage, and Sifford continued to serve his sentence without further incident.
A LITTLE HELP FROM A FRIEND
Saw blades, an apparent favorite among Kerr County escapees, were again used to escape from the Kerr Jail on April 23, 1935. Leo Curry, alias Jack Carter, was facing burglary and theft charges when he sawed his way to freedom. The blades were smuggled in by his friend, Fannie Duncan, during a visit.
Shortly after Curry’s escape, Duncan found herself in jail for her role in the caper. Curry was found in Odessa and returned to Kerr County in July 1935.
SAWS & BLANKETS
On Sept. 24, 1938, a young man facing charges relating to car theft was being kept in the jail roundabout when he made his escape. He sawed through the iron bars on a window and then lowered himself to the ground with a rope made of blankets. The young man was quickly recaptured and once again held in the Kerr County Jail.
INGENUITY IN ACTION
In November 1938, a pair of ingenious prisoners, Herbert Leverett and C.O. Colston, found their way out of the jail. The prisoners reached an outside corridor of the jail by tediously working a combination lock outside their cell door.
The men used a mirror as a reflector, attached to a broom handle with a small piece of wire, to monitor their progress with the lock. They also fashioned a lamp made of a milk bottle and a piece of waxed paper salvaged from a loaf of bread to illuminate their efforts.
Once out of their cell, they fashioned a rope made of blankets and escaped through the hole the earlier escapist made in a window.
TEEN SLIPS PAST GUARD
The last recorded escape was accomplished in October 1953 by a 15-year-old male who was facing charges for over 30 burglaries. He escaped from his cell when a jailer delivered his breakfast.
The teen employed a ruse of rolling his mattress and blankets to make it appear he couldn’t be roused from his cell bunk. When the jailer went into the cell to investigate, the young jailbird slipped out the door unnoticed. He then made his way to the second floor district courtroom and used a window to jump to the soft dirt in the flower beds below and somehow managed to flee without being noticed.
The teen spent the night in his uncle’s barn west of town. He was discovered the next morning by the uncle, who took him to his mother’s home, where the two adults convinced the young man to return himself to custody.
JAIL FOUND TO BE ‘SUBSTANDARD’
Many other escapes involved convicts making a run for it as meals were being delivered and, of course, smuggled saw blades. One jailbird smuggled the blades into the jail by hiding them in the soles of his shoes.
By 1958, the Texas State Department of Health had passed new standards for county jails. The Kerr County Jail, along with 38 other jails across the state, were found to be substandard. The department had given these jails until 1961 to bring their facilities up to standard or be forced to house prisoners in the closest jail that met the standards.
Side note: The neighboring jails in Edwards, Gillespie, Kendall and Real counties were also on the list of substandard jails.
By 1960, the Kerr County Courthouse had been renovated, and a new ground-level wing was added to house a jail. The third floor jail was converted to rooms used to sequester juries, which leads me to the story of the the most daring, clever escape from the old jail. This is a story told to me by Eva Jo Auld, the granddaughter and namesake of Eva Ruth Stovall.
A LACE NIGHTIE CAN WORK WONDERS
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| Eva Ruth Stovall |
Eva Ruth was very active in Kerrville society. She attended a lot of civic events, and the newspapers covering those events always noted the beautiful outfits worn by Mrs. Stovall. She was a local fashion icon with two beautiful daughters, who also earned several mentions throughout the years.
In October 1960, Eva Ruth was selected to serve on a jury for the trial of Verna Bob Gates, a woman accused of shooting her abusive husband with a shotgun while he was in the shower. The trial was presided by Judge Marvin Blackburn.
The jury was housed in the converted cells on the third floor of the courthouse. Eva was not satisfied with the lodging provided by the county. The rooms were cold and drafty, and the beds (old jail house cots) were incredibly uncomfortable.
Eva Ruth went to Judge Blackburn to complain about the state of the jury rooms and suggested that the jury be moved to the Bluebonnet Hotel. Eva Ruth knew the management of the hotel extremely well and was sure they would be willing to make a deal with the county to house the jury at the hotel.
The judge refused Mrs. Stovall’s offer and told her to make do with the room she was assigned for the duration of the trial.
Mrs. Stovall returned to her room and, in protest, hung a red lace negligee from the window of her room, where anyone passing by the courthouse would see it.
Suddenly, the judge and several county officials were plagued with phone calls from Kerrville citizens, wondering why there was a red lace nightie hanging from the window of the courthouse. It wasn’t long before Eva Ruth, and hopefully the other members of the jury, were moved from the drafty former jail into more luxurious accommodations at the hotel.
A PLACE TO STORE THE GHOSTS
Today, the third floor of the courthouse serves mostly as a storage area. While I have never been up there, I have been told by those who work in the building the third floor is a creepy area of the courthouse, and of course, local legend says that part of the building is haunted.
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