JAILBREAK AND SHOOTOUT IN DOWNTOWN ELLENSBURG The barn stood where the Faltus & Peterson service station now stands. Lewis stuck his head around the corner of the courthouse once and saw a shotgun pointed at him from across the street. He pulled up his revolver and shot the man in the arm, making him drop the gun. Later he said he could have shot him through the heart just as easily, had he wanted to. Mrs. Lewis had tied the horses for the getaway in the alley in back of the barn, but the men didnt try to use them. they did make a dash for a house just north of the barn and made the short distance without getting shot. They got inside and the officers, who had arrived by this time surrounded the place. Lewis held out, with no firing on either side, for several hours, and finally spied City Marshal McGrath in the crowd and offered to surrender. (Starting February 11, 1938 the Ellensburg Evening Record published remembrances of outlaw Matt Warners (a.k.a. Raz Lewis) escapades after he admitted to the 1892 Roslyn Robbery of the Ben Snipes Bank. The heist yielded upwards of $30,000 . . . most of which was used by attorneys to bribe officials for the release of their captives. In the interim, a jailbreak occurred when a metal saw, crowbar and six-shooters were smuggled into their cell. In his autobiography, Last of the Bandit Riders Warner talks about his exploits with Butch, Sundance and the McCarty Brothers.)
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 22:56:01 +0000
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