Sonoma Democrat, 27 January 1872
Prisoners’ Tricks.
Len Harris, late Turnkey at the State Prison, has deposited at the station-house some specimens of the skill and ingenuity of prisoners. They are a pair of dummy hands, made out of sole leather and hay, and with finger-nails cut from horn, they much resemble labor-stained human hands. Their use was to enable prisoners to make their escape. In each door of the prison cells a small hole is cut; after locking-up time each prisoner would put his hands in the hole of his door, so that the Turnkey as he passed along the corridor could see them and know that the man was in his proper place.
The trick of the dummy was this: While in the yard a prisoner intending to make his escape would give his dummies to a confederate, and then hide; the confederate would, as he passed to his own cell, place the dummies in place and shut the door, provided the keeper was not looking at the time. Should the deception not be discovered, the prisoner might escape. But the trick seldom, if ever worked, for the cheat would be discovered, an alarm sounded, and the hiding trickster captured.— [Sacramento Record.“BLACKFOOT” the notorious horse-thief, has been arrested at Los Angeles.