A Bold Breakout

Harry Tracy escapes a Utah prison.

October 8, 1897. Harry Tracy (photo) and Dave Lant escape from the Utah penitentiary, where they are doing time for robbery. Six months later, they are recaptured (after killing a posseman) and incarcerated in a Colorado jail–where they again escape. They’re picked up again. This time, they’re jailed in Aspen…but they break out again in August 1898.

Lant joins the military and fights in the Spanish American War, then disappears. Tracy makes his way to the Pacific Northwest, where he leaves a trail of dead bodies until he commits suicide in August 1902.