Crime & Punishment: Wanted Freedom During Holidays

Washington Herald (DC)
23 December 1912

WANTED FREEDOM DURING HOLIDAYS

William Eggleston, Who Escaped from Occoquan, Makes Pleas for Few Days More

"Say, I just wanted to be out on Christmas for a little celebration," said William Eggleston alias William Walton, twenty-four years old, alleged professional bicycle thief, as he left police headquarters last night to finish a term of a year and a half at Occoquan workhouse, whence he escaped on Wednesday.

"I think you fellows might have waited until after Christmas to pinch me," said Eggleston, who began his sentence at the workhouse on Thanksgiving Day. Eggleston was "picked up" on suspicion by the police of Alexandria while, it is alleged, he was trying to sell a bicycle, which the police believe was stolen.

Detectives from Washington identified "William Walton," as the  man called himself, as Eggleston, wanted as an escaped prisoner from Occoquan. Eggleston declared he would have returned to the workhouse voluntarily if he had been allowed to remain at liberty until after Christmas. "A bird in hand is worth two in a bush," said Guard Hall, of Occoquan, as he started for the workhouse with the prisoner. 

Eggleston is unmarried and lived in Arlington,. Va.