Pitkin County jailbreaks

It's hard to say exactly when these dashes from confinement actually began, as the Pitkin County Courthouse, jail included, was only completed as recently as 1891, but there is an 1881 account of an ugly act committed by a man named Harrington against another fellow, Jackson. Following an argument, Harrington fired two pistol shots at Jackson, merely whistling them through his hat, which was enough to charge Harrington with attempted murder. Poor marksmanship should have been the accusation. Harrington, being escorted to the Canon City jail (there wasn't one stout enough in Aspen) escaped near Buena Vista. The chagrined sheriff, embarrassed by his predicament, appointed a “dead-eyed” James Van Pelt as deputy with instructions to bring in Harrington, “dead or alive.” Riding the slower horse, Harrington turned and drew first on Van Pelt, but Van Pelt, clearly the better shot, deftly put two slugs into Harrington, saving further expense to Pitkin County. One of the most famous escape artists of all-time, a man who put “jail” and “break” into the same sentence more often than most killers, was a man named Harry Tracy. For a time he was part of Butch Cassidy's gang and hung out at Brown's Park in northwestern Colorado, a popular hideout...more