After two o'clock that afternoon, Pierpont and Russell Clark told shirt factory superintendent George H. Stevens that one of the officials needed to see him in the basement. Stevens was soon overpowered by the rest of the gang. Walter Dietrich sought out deputy superintendent Albert E. Evans, telling him that a fight was in progress, leading him into the trap as well. Evans was greeted by seven men with pistols and three with clubs. Foreman Dudley Triplett came to the basement for supplies and was soon captured. Pierpont had received severe punishment at the hands of Deputy Evans while in prison, and now was prepared to exact revenge. Dietrich stopped him from killing him and letting the whole prison know what was happening. The convicts took their hostages and began to walk carefully to freedom. Stevens led the way, with Dietrich on his left side and Hamilton on his right, their guns concealed beneath the stacks of shirts they were carrying. The other men picked up a steel shaft and followed. Though they walked almost the entire length of the prison, the guards and other prisoners paid no attention to what was happening. When they arrived at the first steel gate, Stevens told guard Frank Swanson to open the gate because the prisoners were armed and would kill if he didn't. Swanson was forced to join the procession. After proceeding through a second and they came to the third gate, where they used the steel shaft as a battering ram. Guard Fred Wellnitz was beaten, and Guard Guy Burklow was forced to open the outer gate. Now the prisoners were in the lobby of the administration building, where they herded eight civilian clerks into the vaults. Seventy-two-year-old Finley Carson was shot in the leg and shoulder by Burns for not moving fast enough. Warden Louis E. Kunkel happened upon the group, and he was quickly made a prisoner as well. Outside the gate, it was every man for himself. It was raining hard. The escaped prisoners ended up splitting into two groups. The first group included Dietrich, James Clark, Fox and Burns. The second group included Pierpont, Hamilton, Russell Clark, Makley, Shouse and Jenkins. With the alarm sounding, the Dietrich group encountered Sheriff Charles Neel, who had just dropped off some prisoners. Overpowering him, they took his weapons, and forced him to take three of them in his automobile. At