An escaped patient of the North Dakota State Asylum was found on this day 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.

-Jayme L. Job

Sources:
Fargo Forum and Daily Republican. May 6, 1916: p. 2.

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