A Look Back - 1896: ‘Bold, bad man’ jumped ship to escape

A fast runner and a good jumper, notorious outlaw William “Christ Kid” Mead once leaped over the side of a steam ship while the vessel was docked at Newport Pier in 1896 to escape a three-year prison sentence for highway robbery.

In the days after Mead’s escape, all that could be found of the outlaw was a pair of discarded leg shackles, miles from Newport Beach.

San Diego sheriff’s deputy O.J. Ellsworth was tasked with escorting Mead to San Quentin State Prison in August 1896. A judge in San Diego had sentenced Mead to serve three years in prison after he was convicted of highway robbery.

Mead, who was about 20 years old at the time, was already a prolific robber and thief, according to historical news accounts. The outlaw was “known all up and down the coast as a bold, bad man,” the Los Angeles Times reported Aug. 18, 1896.

The sheriff’s deputy and his prisoner boarded the steam ship Corona in San Diego one summer Sunday evening in 1896, bound north to San Quentin.

There was no secure room on the Corona to transport prisoners, so Ellsworth put Mead in shackles and gave him a bunk in the cheap, crowded steerage section of the ship, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Ellsworth took a berth on the upper deck of the Corona where the more affluent passengers of the ship slept. The sheriff’s deputy then gave the night steward aboard the Corona $5 to let him know as the ship passed each port, so he could check to see that his prisoner did not try to escape as the vessel approached each landing.

“When Newport was sighted, the officer was awakened and he went to the ‘Kid’s’ booth, but he was nowhere to be found,” the Times reported. “Rushing up on the upper deck, he expected to intercept the prisoner, but already the vessel had swung in near the wharf, and the ‘Kid’ had leaped over onto the thick floor.”

Days later, a man in Santa Ana would find the leg irons Mead was wearing, buried more than a foot underground on Santa Clara Avenue.

Then-Orange County Sheriff Joe Nichols arranged to have the shackles sent to the San Diego Sheriff’s Department after they were found.

Law enforcement officials in Tucson, Ariz., captured Mead about a week and a half after his daring escape at Newport Beach, nearly 500 miles away from Newport Pier, the Los Angeles Times reported Aug. 28, 1896.

Mead was identified by police in Tucson from his numerous false teeth, the Times reported.

“Have Mead. Come at once,” the telegraph message from Tucson read.