On This Day: Van Horn arrested for aiding release

J. Frank Van Horn was arrested after helping an inmate escape. On This Day in 1944, the Intelligencer Journal, out of Lancaster, reported that Chester County detective Francis Grubb arrested Van Horn who allegedly helped inmate Hanna Duff, from Lancaster County, escape.

Van Horn, 61, was a painter at the Pennhurst State School. He was unable to pay the $400 bail. He knew Duff, 35, when she was committed to Sleighton Farm. They article does not say what Duff did to be institutionalized.

Van Horn told police he and Duff had registered at a hotel in Pottstown as man and wife and were in fact waiting for their marriage license, as they were to be wed.

On This Day is a prompt I started this month to further explore historical events. I will make every effort to keep events localized to that of my research or research I am conducting for others. However, from time to time, it will simply be a subject that captured my attention.

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