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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

100 years ago: Teen girls break out of county lockup

From our archives, 100 years ago

Freda Woolsburn and Louise Canner, both 16, made daring escapes from the county’s juvenile detention lockup — and they did it with help of “a number of young men of the city.”

The two girls were being held as delinquents. The window of the second-floor detention room looked out on a street. Some young men, numbering five or six, attracted the attention of the girls and began chatting with them.

The conversation turned to escape and the men and the girls hatched a plan.

“It was agreed that the men would bring a file, and the girls tore their hair ribbons up and made a string to which the file was attached.”

The girls reeled in the file and proceeded to cut through a padlock. The men were waiting below and the girls tossed their suitcases out the window. The men gathered up the suitcases, but at that moment, a city patrol car drove up with some prisoners. The men ran.

The girls were determined to make their escape, though, so when the patrol had left, they dropped out of the window, a fall of 8 to 10 feet. The girls ran in separate directions, with plans to meet later.

However, freedom did not work out well for Freda. She sprained her ankle in the fall and was unable to make it to the rendezvous. She wandered around all night — with a limp — and the next day she called the county probation officer and asked him to come get her. Louise, however, was still at large.

Meanwhile, the probation officer said he planned to purchase a better set of padlocks.