DEVIL'S ISLAND

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 225, 17 May 1932, Page 7

DEVIL'S ISLAND

RRIVIUEGilP CDNVIPTS SENSATIONAL ESCAPE OF TWENTY-EIGHT PRISONERS. R^ACI^ED THE MAINLANp. One of the most daring escape plots in the history of the Freneh penal settlements of the Devil's Isle group has recently come to light, no feiwer than 28 out of 30 prisoners sqcceeding in getting away to the mainland. Although the French authorities ' are holding back as many details as possible, it is known that a little colony of 30 privileged convicts, including three notorious murderers, escaped, and though two were eaten by sharks after a boat had capsized, the remainder landed safely on British, Dutch, Brazilian and Venezuelan territory. It is learned also that the sensationaP escape was organised by a woman of English origin who is kpdwn to the Continental police as Diana Daly, though that is certainly not her real name. This woman was ac- . tive for some time in the Seven Dials district of London as the associate of a gang in that district; but after the mysterious murder of a young Frenchman in Air Street some years ago the woman and her associates fled to Paris, where they have been operating since, save for oecasional terms of imprisonment. Two of the fugitives, Julius Richards, stated to be an American citizen, and Pat King, a Canadian Irishman, were members of the Seven Dials Gang, and continued their criminal activities on the Continent until their condemnation to long terms of imprisonment involving deportation to the Devil's Isle group. When they left France the woman was serving a term in Versailles Pr:-: son, and on her release she seems to have gone to Trinidad in the service of an English business man as secretary, using forged testimonials and passing herself off as being connected with a well known West Country family. Lay Their Plans There she was joined by two other members of the gang, and they started at once to lay their plans for the escape. In some way, as yet unknpwn to the authorities, the plotters got into touch with King and Richards, and the latter advised them that to ensure the success of the plan it would be necessary to include in it the whole of the privileged group of prisoners with whom they were billeted in a corner of the island of St. Laurent. When plans were ready the woman and her accomplices left Trinidad ou a "little fishing expedition for pleasure" in a numb'er of boats bought from local fishermen. They had engaged native fishermen to manage the boats, and it seema that they were landed under cover of night in a secluded part of the island and hidden in the bush; where tha potters also hid until the prisonera decided that it was safe to attempt the get away. The fact that unauthorised persons could land on the island and remain there for at least three days and nights,* one of them a woman, is one of the features of the affair that has caused most amazement in French social quarters, and resulted in a searching inquiry being ordered. A narcotic of some sort, so it is declared, was put into the rum ration of the solitary sentinel who comes on duty at midnight, and when this man lapsed into the state of unconsciousness in which he was found next morning, the 30 prisoners made for the bush and seem to have taken to the boats at once. When the alarm was given they had had a start of foui- hours, and this was increased to sixteen, because the officials, failing to detect suspicious craft on the horizon, assunied that they were still in the bush, and organised a search with the aid of native hunters ,keen on earning the reward for the head of a fugitive dead or alive. News Four Days Later It was not until ten days later that news came of the landing of the boats on the adjacent islands under British, Dutch, Brazilian, Venezuelan and Portuguese governments. It seems that a small skiff containing four of the fugitives and two natives had been attaclced by a school of sharks and had overtufned, with the result that the occupants were thrown into the sea. Two of the fugitives and two natives were eaten by the monsters, and another two fugitives were only hauled into the nearest boat in time to pscape the same fate. A larger boat containing th's wo1 man supposed to have organised the escape ran into fog and went far out of the right course, qfterwards being caught in a sudden tempest. When the occupants "had given . themselves up as lost they were found ' by a French steamer, which towed them into the nearest port, without noticing that they were fugitives. They had all suffered terribly from exposure, and the woman had a severe attack of pneumonia. An escape on this scale is without precedent, and coming on top of an unusually large number of successful flights from' the settlements, it has increased the consternation in the adjoining islands. Moreover, it has added to the anxiety of the French Government, which is finding these escapes a difficult international prohlem bpcause of protests frpr neighbouring Governments about the danger incurred from the presence in the area of dangefous convicts ^^fficiintlv guarded that escapes are almost of daily occurrence. In face of 'these protests the French authorities are now discussing the possibility of abandoning the system pf diportation altogether and finding prison accommodation for long-sen-tence men in France itself. The French Treasury, however, is relqctant to vote the sums necessary for the provision of prison accommodation.