HUSTON, THE CRIMINAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 61, 5 November 1912, Page 3

HUSTON, THE CRIMINAL.

AT THE WHANGAREI COURT

SLIPS THE HANDCUFFS. (Per Press Association.) Whangarei, November 4. Huston, with four aliases, was before the Court to-day on two charges of burglary, and two of breaking custody. During the hearing of the case, while waiting, he freed himself from the. patent American spring handcuffs, and then roared laughing at the police and the detectives. Another search did not reveal any possible instrument likely to be used to assist him to free himself. The detectives and the police are baffled. Huston will not say how he accomplished the feat. POLICE AND SOLICITOR-SOUFFLE. The prisoner Huston aas before

the Court alt day, lie was cmr.m;tti<: on three charges of burglary and theft, and two of breaking custody. Huston submitted the detective to a satirical examination on the search made when lie had a knife concealed, with which he cut his way out of the ceil, finally remarking; “After your search 1 could take a sawmill into the cells.” The prisoner was carefully watched this afternoon, as lie stated that he would repeat the morning’s performance and release himself from the handcuffs. Solicitor Edmunds, at the close of the first case, declared himself as counsel for the prisoner, and asked for an interview. The police'objected, as counsel was not engaged hy Huston. Mr Edmunds addressed the Bench lengthily. The Bench declined to allow him to interview the prisoner. Mr Edmunds then handed prisoner a paper, which was quickly snatched hy the detective. A scuffle ensued between the police and Mr Edmunds, who was finally thrown over a chair. Mr Edmunds appeared in' two later cases against Huston, and then abruptly left the Court without comment. When taking the. prisoner from tiro Court to the cells to-night, a crowd hooted the police and gave cheers for Huston.

A REMARKABLE RECORD

Auckland, November 1

'lnteresting details have been obtained locally regarding Huston, the escaped prisoner who was recaptured yesterday ip the Whangarei district. After he had been taken aboard a launch and while proceeding up the harbour, Huston became communicative to an extraordinary degree. He stated ho effected his escape from Whangarei gaol by means of a small penknife which was eventually found in effective concealment about his person. In vividly describing the means whereby he brought about his release from durapee vile, he said that after cutting through the floor boards he became jammed in tiie narrow aperture so tightly that he actually contemplated screaming for assistance. In fact, his plight was so extreme that for a quarter of an hour he had to saliva his chest beore he could slip through the finched opening. The correctness of this statement was sealed when examination of Huston’s body showed it to be badly lacerated. His cheeks were also severely scratched. Huston also stated he had greater difficulty in burrowing through the gravel and earthwork banked in the cells than in getting through the planks. He further explained that the moisture of the floor of the cell which had puzzled t he police was caused by the sweat of his exertions on two occasions. Huston remarked he had been hunted by blood bounds once in America and again in Western Australia. Once he was caught by this means, but the other time he evaded the sleuth hounds by retracing his steps for a mile and then jumped over a precipice. Subsequently be ascertained that the hounds were in this way fo led, having followed the scent up and down for a very ling time without avail. On the way up in the launch, the prisoner gave a practical demonstration of his ability to release his wrists from a pair of police handcuffs by the use of an ordinary phi. He remarked lie would have given £o at the time he burgled the hotel at Whangarei to have known in which room Detective Hillis was sleep’ivg so that ho could have relieved him of his belongings. The Australian Police Caz-

otto characterises Huston as one of the most cunning and dangerous criminals in the Southern Hemisphere at the present time. He carries a bullet in his back which was fired by a police patrol on one of the occasions when lie escaped from gaol.