greystone park psychiatric hospital

Insane patient escaped

Dangerous Criminal Sawed His Way to Liberty
from the Morris Plains Asylum

September 3, 1901 - New York Times

Morristown, N.J., Sept. 2- Thomas Donahue, one of the most dangerous insane criminals ever confined in the asylum, has escaped from the State institution at Morris Plains. Donahue was committed to the State Prison at Trenton in November, 1900 for “tapping a till” in Mill’s saloon at 127 Ogden Street, Newark, and on March 20 last he was transferred to Morris Plains, as an insane criminal. Donahue continually stated he would escape, and threatened his keepers, and said he would kill a person by whom he claimed he was being persecuted.

Every precaution was taken to guard him, and he was kept in what is called the strong rom, the chilled steel inner door of which was helf by a patent lock that the manufacturers claimed was non-pickable. The bars of the one window are also of chilled steel. The window opens on a corridor in which there is a single window leading to the yard and which is protected by soft iron bars.

Every day Donahue’s cell was searched and his clothing also to discover if he had any weapons or tool. At 10 o’clock last night the patrol examined the fastenings of the prisoner’s cell and everything was apparently secure. Donahue appeared to be asleep.

It is supposed that immediately after the keepers leftm Donahue went to work on the patent lock, which apparently he found little difficulty in unlocking. He then sawed through the bars of the window in the outer corridor, lowered himself by means of a rope made of strips from the bed coverings to the yard below, scaled the fence, and disappeared. His flight was discovered within an hour, but no trace of his could be found.A fine steel saw and an implement for picking the lock must have been in his possession, but how he got them and concealed them is still a mystery.

Donahue is 30 years of age, is 5 feet 9 inches in heights, weights 165 pounds, has dark-brown hair and blue eyes. His features are regular, although his nose is rather prominent. His complexion is dark. A scar one and a half inches long disfigures his right eyebrow. Chielf of Detectives Cosgrove of Newark when told of the escape said Donahue was one of the most dangerous of living criminals owing to his utter disregard for human life. Also that he was not insane, but simulated insanity well enough to fool physicians and thus get to a place from which he could escape.

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