Dakota Datebook: Escaped patient

An escaped patient of the North Dakota State Asylum was found on May 6 in 1916. The patient, Clarence McCord, escaped from the asylum five months earlier during a severe blizzard, and was believed to have frozen to death after a search party did not find him.

Grand Forks County Judge was therefore surprised after receiving a call from Iowa informing him that McCord had been found in his childhood town months earlier. Since McCord escaped without any money in sub-zero temperatures, authorities could only guess how he managed to travel to Iowa.

A couple weeks after arriving in Iowa, McCord caused a scene in Iowa during a fit of insanity and was sent to the Iowa State Asylum. Turns out, this was McCord's second successful escape from the asylum; he escaped to Fergus Falls the previous summer for a few months.

Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job.