As for famous inmates, how about an axe murderer? In her story “Old Alfred Jail Saw Inmates Come and Go,” Sharon Cummings writes, “The brick jail was just nearing completion in March 1873 when Louis H. F. Wagner was arrested for the famous double murder at Smuttynose Island,” on the Isles of Shoals... [He was] the first inmate of the new jail.” When Wagner escaped from the jail roughly two months into his stay, the New York Times sent a reporter up to Maine to check us all out. Not exactly Sing Sing: “As I approached the building, prisoners could be heard laughing and singing inside... I entered, and a dozen prisoners flocked about me. They are all at perfect liberty to roam about the corridors. They have no handcuffs and, seemingly, no restraint.” Two other inmates had escaped with Wagner. “Wagner put on quite a performance for the guards, convincing them that he was feeling quite ill and planned to confine himself to bed all evening. By the time the guards took their posts at 9 p.m., Wagner was already gone. He had fashioned the likeness of a man huddled under the blankets on his cot with a short broom and a stool from his cell. It was hours before the guards noticed that the “man” wasn’t moving and when they did, they were reluctant to call the warden for fear the murderer would make fools of them again. “The prisoners had made their way through a scuttle in the jail, up through a ventilator and onto the roof with the intention of lowering them- selves down a rope of blanket strips. Noticing a skylight into the warden’s quarters, they decided instead to remove a pane of glass and reach in to unlock the large window. Once inside, they quietly made their way down the stairs and walked right out the door. “Wagner was recaptured by a farmer in Farmington, N.H., three days later. Unaware of the $500 reward on his head, he had been driven by hunger to the farmer’s kitchen door. “The axe-murderer was transferred to the Maine State Prison in Thom- aston, where he was later hanged for his crimes.” Cummings writes that inmates escaped from the York County jail a number of times. “The last escape from the old brick jail took place in September of 1974. The familiar story appeared in the Lewiston Journal. “Four young inmates escaped from York County Jail Friday night. The men apparently forced a section of the ceiling and climbed out through an air duct to the roof and then used blankets to lower themselves to the ground.” Regarding the “riot” that closed the jail, Cummings reports: “The death of an epileptic inmate from untreated seizures on September 27, 1975, was the catalyst for a riot that closed the old brick jailhouse for good. The 15 inmates ripped out sinks, bunks and electrical wiring in every cell, caus- ing significant damage. Forty law enforcement officers, including state police and firefighters with hoses, quelled the riot. All the inmates were transferred to the Cumberland County Jail and the cell block at the Alfred jail was closed by order of the court. “The old jailhouse was deemed unfit for prisoner habitation but it was used for a number of years as York County’s first homeless shelter before being auctioned...” Details,Details Oneof theunsuccessful biddersin2001wasTom Joyallof Kennebunk.“I bid$56,000.Iwasgoing torenovateittobeajail- housesalvage.Itwasa terribletime.Itwouldbe greatif someonewereto putsomemoneyintoit.It’s abeautifuloldbuilding.” road warrior 80 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine