GAOL ESCAPE.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 July 1922, Page 4

GAOL ESCAPE.

SQUEEZE THROUGH 7-INCH BARS

"LONDON, May 20. ! A remarkable prison escape look place early yesterday morning at Wandsworth Prison, S.W. - After a night of feverish activity a slightly built matt made good his j escape after creeping through’ iron bars only 7in wide, descending a 40ft wall from his cell window, and climbing over the 18ft outer wall of the prison. He is still at liberty. This modern Count of Monte Cristo is Ronald McKinnon, a man of 34, who wtis serving tit Wandsworth Prison a sentence of 21 months for larceny. He had been at the prison only a few weeks, and, found to he suffering from tuberculosis, he was placed in the tuberculosis wing oT the hospital on the top floor—the fourth. There he had a room and worked as a sailmaker. TWO ROPES MADE.

On Thursday night at nine o’clock tin l light in his room was put out as usual,- and almost at once McKinnon began to prepare the two long ro]>es necessary for his escape. His scissors , and his needle and thread were kept j in his room, and with their aid he cut his sheets and blankets into strips, rolled up each strip and sewed it up with thread to form a short length of rope. Knotting these short lengths together, he made a blanket rope some 4()ft long for his descent from his room window, and another ,181 t long for climbing over the outer wall of the prison. To this second tone he fixed loops made of sheet, at intervals of about 2ft. to act as stops to help him in his ascent of the outer wall the most difficult. part of the problem which faced him. This work must have occupied him some time—two hours at least, it is thought—even if he worked at a great speed. When at last his two ropes had been completed he prepared to lea\e the little, room. DUMMY IN THE BED. Before starting his hazardous climb he prepared a dummy in his bed, so that any warder who should look into the room during the night might not suspect that he had gone- By arranging pots and other aitieles ol the n urn’s furniture under the b> d clothes he made a very life-like replica of a sleeping man. I He now had to face a 111-feet descent i down the outer wall ot the prison. He tied his blanket rope very firmly on to one of the bars of the window, am v.ith remarkable agility _ climbed through two bars only / incues apait. One ( f these bars was very slightly bent the natural distance between the two bars being fi inches—and it is not known whether lie himself bent it or if he found it thus. Taking his sheet rone with him, he slid down the Wit wall ot the prison building to the ground. Now lie was faced with his greatest difficulty—the scaling of an 18it brick well am! the ingenious way in which he solved Inis problem is tin* most remarkable ieature of the escape. IMPROVISED ROLE.

lie had evidently decided betorehaml wlmt to do. Quickly he made Ins way in the darkness through the open gt on ml between the prison buildings and the miter wall to a vegetable garden. There he had previously observed a number of little sticks placed in the earth and connected by pieces of string for keeping birds away. With a large number of these sticks, which were very slight and only about u foot and a half long, he made an 18-1 eel pole hv binding the sticks in bundles and making the I,untiles overlap. In the prison grounds there were several itoti brackets, like large metal croquet hoops, for use ip fixing hotwater pipes. To om* oi tiiese he fixed his sheet rope, then lashed the metal bracket to the end of the wall till the bracket was resting firmly on the top. All this was done in darkness and probably quite silently. It must also have taken a long time, and it is likely that (lawn was not far oil' when the prisoner had rested his pole against the wall and had placed in position the rope ladder that led to treedom. Using the foot-rests in the rope,, be climbed up tlie 18-fcci wall, and sitting on tlie top drew up the tone and threw it down the other side. He also removed the bracket from tin* top ol the pole. Quickie lie slid down the knotted rope to the ground, rail through some allotments, crossed the elect tic; railway line which runs in a cutting parallel to the wall, and made his escape through i the garden door of one ol the houses in Earlslield-i(iml opposite.