Slush Pile: Fall from Allegheny County Jai

2006 Slush Pile

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Fall from Allegheny County Jai

2006 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

*sender's this sounds like a darwin award from one of the books because I have it, but this is a new one that was in todays newspaper so I'd like to share this Darwin award for 2006

Fall from Allegheny County Jail kills inmate attempting to escape Friday, January 13, 2006

By Ed Blazina, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An investigation continues into the death of Franklin Sebetich, an inmate who fell 187 feet from a window near the top of the Allegheny County Jail, apparently while trying to escape. The body was found yesterday along the Second Avenue side of the jail. Click photo for larger image.

Franklin E. Sebetich's final attempt to escape from authorities cost him his life.

Mr. Sebetich, 58, of Ellsworth, Washington County, died yesterday morning when he fell 187 feet from a window at the Allegheny County Jail during a botched escape attempt. During his long criminal history, Mr. Sebetich had escaped from authorities several times.

His body was found at 5:50 a.m. on the Second Avenue side of the jail during a routine search of the grounds.

Although jail officials know Mr. Sebetich pried through three layers of security to get out the window and an inmate in an adjacent cell was prepared to leave, too, they have many questions about how he accomplished his fatal escape.

Warden Ramon Rustin told a news conference yesterday that inmates will remain in their cells with no visitors allowed while the investigation continues and county workers begin reinforcing the jail's 1,800 windows.

Mr. Sebetich was being held in Allegheny County Jail because he had threatened a deputy warden at the Washington County Jail, Warden Rustin said. He had been arrested on charges stemming from a two-day manhunt in May 2004 during which he fired at police several times before he was flushed from a coal mine near New Eagle.

Franklin E. Sebetich

Because he was considered a security risk, Warden Rustin said, Mr. Sebetich was housed on the highest level of the Downtown jail, in a maximum security area. When guards did their usual rounds at 3 a.m. yesterday, Mr. Sebetich appeared to be sleeping in his cell, and nothing was found during the outside search at 4:30 a.m.

Guards doing another routine grounds search found Mr. Sebetich's body at 5:50 a.m., the warden said.

When jail officials checked Mr. Sebetich's cell, they found he had pried off a special security window, pushed away a heavy metal screen and pried away a vertical metal bar to get out of the window. Beyond that, officials aren't clear what happened.

For example, Mr. Sebetich had a rope he had braided from bed sheets and pieces of inmate clothing that was about 200 feet long. But the warden said it was completely inside the cell and, although it was anchored to his bed, it apparently hadn't been used.

He said the rope would have reached the ground, but it was unclear whether it would have been strong enough to hold Mr. Sebetich, who weighed about 185 pounds.

In addition, officials haven't found the tool used by Mr. Sebetich and his jail neighbor, Andre Jacobs, 23, formerly of Harrisburg, to pry open the window. Officials discovered the damage to the window in Mr. Jacobs' cell when they began searching cells around Mr. Sebetich's, but Mr. Jacobs didn't have a rope in his cell.

"We're not exactly clear how he broke that bar," Warden Rustin said.

The warden said guards try to keep track of items such as bed sheets and inmate clothing, but it's not difficult for inmates to build up a stash of items over a long period of time. Although it's not clear whether this happened in this case, inmates in similar situations commonly have their inmate friends store small amounts of such items so they won't be detected, then collect them when they are ready to use them, he said.

This is at least the third time an inmate has died or been seriously injured in an attempt to escape from the high-rise jail. After inmates shattered tempered glass, the jail in 1998 began replacing them with Lexan, the shatter-proof plastic that Mr. Sebetich pried away.

In those instances, inmates failed to escape because their "ropes" were substantially too short and they fell to the ground.

"The height of the building should be a deterrent," Warden Rustin said. "The reason [these inmates] were 16 stories up is so they could realize they couldn't escape. Unfortunately, in this case, an inmate thought he could accomplish that feat."

As a result of yesterday's incident, jail officials will take additional steps to reinforce all of the facility's 1,800 windows, beginning with those on the highest floors, where the most dangerous inmates are housed.

Warden Rustin said he didn't want to specify exactly how they will be reinforced because of security concerns.

The work could take months and the cost hasn't been determined.

In addition, the county recently awarded a contract for about $367,000 to install 200 security cameras outside the jail. Those types of cameras, which will take six to eight months to install, will allow guards to see anyone or anything coming out of jail windows.

Jail officials and Allegheny County police are continuing to investigate yesterday's incident. Mr. Jacobs, who had been in the state prison system but was being held in the county jail on charges of assaulting federal marshals in the U.S. Courthouse, Downtown, will face additional charges of attempted escape.

Mr. Sebetich, who had been in the county jail since April, had a long criminal record, checkered with escapes and attempts to shoot police officers.

After he was indicted in 1979 on federal charges that he stole dynamite and blew up a railroad track in Bentleyville, he escaped and was a fugitive for more than a year. He was acquitted of those charges in 1981.

In 1984, he was convicted of helping two other armed men rob the California University of Pennsylvania credit union and firing shots from a speeding truck at police officers during a 22-mile chase.

Mr. Sebetich was involved with police again in May 2004, about a year after he was released from federal prison. On May 4, Sebetich fled when police tried to arrest him for a home invasion a month earlier.

Several times over the next two days, he fired shots when officers tried to close in on him. He eventually was captured when police used tear gas to flush him out of an abandoned coal mine about three miles away from where police initially had been searching for him.

Submitted on 01/14/2006

Submitted by: Rob Bissell
Reference: PittsburghPost-Gazette 1-13-06

>> Moderator Scores <<

James said:
Maybe Toss: Other
while this is a much more informative piece than the one previously submitted, I still have to vote to toss. Sebetich was a very desperate man bent on escape, and desperate men will often accept the risk of death over continued captivity. This kind of thinking is not really consistent with what we like to see in our award winners. Thanks for submitting just the same!

Jack said:
Neutral: For Darwin's Eyes
With the additional information, I say keep this for Darwin to look at.

Greg said:
Maybe Toss: Other
And we don't really know why he died. By the sounds of it, he might have been unlucky. Authorities admit they don't know how he got as far as he did and his rope WAS long enough. Accident causing failure of what could've been a successful escape?

Charles said:
Maybe Toss: Other
I'll have to side with James and Jack on this one; it does sound more like an accident to me, given that the rope was unused.

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Fall from Allegheny County Jai

2006 Reader Submission Pending Acceptance

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2006 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

>> The Darwin Awards, by Wendy Northcutt <<
Link to Fight Evil.