The Case of the Jailhouse Cat

When slim, 29-year-old ex-Convict Leland Ferre was locked up in the little county jail at Monticello, Ill. (pop. 2,612) last March, Sheriff Jason Ripperdam couldn't help feeling sorry for him. Ferre had been indicted for burglarizing a filling station, two stores and a couple of houses. But a chest infection had left him looking sickly. On-top of that, he was a local boy. When a doctor advised that Ferre be given "as much freedom as possible," the sheriff felt it his neighborly duty to agree.

Early last month, while taking his exercise, Ferre snitched the key to his cell and made a soap impression of it. A little later he rambled over to McKinley's Hardware Store and lifted a couple of files and a metal saw. Working at leisure, he made himself a cell key from a piece of metal bed slat and, thus equipped, went back into the burglary business.

One night he slipped out of the jail and stole $485 worth of clothing and luggage from Burgin Bros, store; he hid the loot in the shrubbery outside the jail, sauntered back inside and locked himself up. On another expedition he stole $73 from Raycraft's Drugstore. His ambition growing, he lifted the courthouse keys from the sheriff's pocket, made a nocturnal visit to the vault containing the records of his burglary case. Though he failed to open it, he eased the sting of defeat by swiping $23 from the sheriff's desk.

One night as he sneaked out, the jail cat sneaked out with him. Ferre tiptoed frantically around the jail lawn after it for half an hour. The cat was always one jump ahead of him, and after he retreated, it hopped up on the sheriff's window and meowed. The sheriff was absolutely certain that he had locked the cat in the jail. The next day, full of unspeakable suspicion, the sheriff moved Ferre to a new cell. Another prisoner found the home-made key. Ferre confessed. "It sure has knocked my faith in human nature for a loop," said the sheriff morosely.

"I don't even trust my deputy no more."

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