MURDERER ESCAPES.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1922, Page 5

MURDERER ESCAPES.

A SENSATIONAL CHASE. RECAPTURED BY POLICE. By Telegraph .—Pres* Assn.—Copyright. Sydney, August 1. There was a sensational escape and recapture of a prisoner. Steiner, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of a Chinaman, in Maitland Gaol. He secured tools in the prison workshop and. after two months* labor, sawed through two iron bars and removed part of the stone work of the window of his cell. He knotted his blankets and reached the ground clad in a singlet and trousers. He burst into the prison store and secured a quantity or cloth, a knife. Loots and twine, ’and with great difficulty scaled the outer wall and. hid in the bush. He made himself a suit out of the cloth and hid under a tarpaulin on a train where the police surprised him. Steiner then jumped off and escaped, doubling back. While the police were searching he three times attempted to get on board the same train, while it was travelling and narrowly escaped death. A little later one of the many police who were searching found him and covered him with a revolver. The escapee surrendered quietly. Steiner, in 1919, escaped from Bathurst Gaol, but was recaptured after a short period of liberty. Soon after Steiner’s arrest two Victorian gaol escapees, Higgins and Loughrev. who escaped from Pentridge Gao! farm under a load of hay, were rearrested at the Newcastle Salvation Army Home.