SEWN IN MATTRESS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 72, 22 September 1930, Page 17

SEWN IN MATTRESS

BREAK FOR LIBERTY

Jack Levy, a Brooklyn criminal who began a 25-year sentence for robbery a year ago, made a daring and almost successful attempt to escape from Sing Sing prison sowed up in a mattress, says the "New York Times." He had passed two sets of guards when a peculiar bump in the mattress caught a keeper's eye and led to the discovery of Levy, a razor in one hand and a hammer in the other. He was quickly overpowered and placed in solitary confinement, preliminary to his transfer to Clinton prison at Dannemora, where tho most dangerous inmates of the State's penal institutions are concentrated. Levy, who would not have been eligible for parole until 29th January, 1950, must serve at least two years more than that because of his unsuccessful break.

Levy, who is now 44 years old, came to Sing Sing a year ago, following his conviction for robbery iv the Bronx. It was not his first appearance within its walls, as he had served a term for burglary ending in 1912. His slight physique—he weighs only 110 pounds aided his scheme to escape. He decided that if he could induce some ot his fellow-workers in the ' mattress sliop to sew himrup insido of one of .their .products,he might be carried out to freedom, where a bulkier individual would have been sure of detection.

He somehow induced his friends to take the risk of added terms involved in his plan—how he did so and who assisted his scheme the prison authorities are busily endeavouring to find out. Fellow-convicts placed him so that little breathing spaces . were left about his head and carefully sewed up the stout ticking. The mattress enclosing Levy was placed in the middle of a bundle of six which was ready for shipment. The bundle was loaded on a truck by convicts under tho watchful eyes of guards. So skilfully had the job been done, however, that they suspected nothing. •> The truck, driven by Keeper Victor Brown, proceeded about 1000 feet to the south gate in the old wall. There another keeper carefully scrutinised the contents of the truck before signalling the sentry in the watch tower above to open the gate. Only the gate in the new wall, where inspections are not so thorough, remained to be passed. . As he approached it, however, Keeper Br,own chanced to look around and spy the unusual bump which bad developed in one of the piles of mattresses in the truck. He- called Principal Keeper John Sheehy, who stooped over, jackknife in hand, and slit open the ticking of the suspieious-lookiug mattress. He reached within, and under -the feathers felt the coarse fabric of a prisoner's uniform. ' Levy was disarmed before ho ha» a chance to use the razor and the hammer. True to the prison code, ho refused to reveal how he had obtained them or who had helped him.