It was well after midnight when the huge audience left the theatre, and broke up into excited, gesticulating groups.
Condemned Murderers Released by Houdini.
The Washington Post, Sunday, Jan. 7, 1906.
OUT OF GUITEAU CELL.
HOUDINI MIXES THINGS UP AT THE UNITED STATES JAIL.
PRISONERS CHANGED IN CELLS.
Consternation Accompanies Feats of the Expert Lock-picker, Who Gets Laurels from the American Police Chairman After His Third Exploit in Washington—Crowds Are Transfixed.
Two condemned murderers, four others under indictment, and two noted criminals were released from the United States jail yesterday and for a brief time tasted a counterfeit liberty.
Harry Houdini, the international Prison Breaker and Handcuff King, as he is styled, was the hero of a sensational exploit. On the invitation of Warden Harris and the jail authorities he ravaged bolts and locks.
Houdini escaped from the cell in which Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, was confined, released all the other inmates of the murderers' row cells, and transferred each into some other cell than the one to which he was originally committed.