From the Richmond Whig, 7/24/1861

ATTEMPTED ESCAPE. - Three prisoners attempted to escape from the State Penitentiary, Monday night. They had successfully bored through the partition wall of the adjoining cells, occupied by them, and had nearly succeeded in cutting through the door of one of the cells, when the scheme was discovered and frustrated. One of the convicts is named Douglas. We did not learn the names of the others.