ESCAPE FROM GAOL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 October 1940, Page 6

ESCAPE FROM GAOL

MADE BY FOUR PRISONERS IN AUCKLAND AFTER A STRUGGLE WITH WARDERS ONE OF LATTER SERIOUSLY INJURED. FUGITIVES INCLUDE CONVICTED MURDERER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.; AUCKLAND, October 1. Four prisoners, one of them a murderer, escaped from Auckland prison shortly after 6 o’clock tonight, after desperate struggles with the warders, one of whom is in a critical condition in the /Auckland Hospital. Two other warders suffered only superficial injuries, but were kept in hospital for observation during the night. The last seen of the four criminals was when they clambered into a stationary car in Seccombe’s Road, Epsom, and coasted down the incline to Crowhurst Street, Newmarket, about a quarter of a mile away. There was ample benzine in the tank, but the owner had removed the ignition key from the switch. Squads of police in fast cars are combing Auckland province. The warders injured are:— Joseph Graydon Crawford, aged 26, married, of Epsom, who suffered a fractured skull and concussion. His condition is very serious. Joseph Wenzl Scholium, aged 32, married, of Carlton Gore Road, slight concussion and scalp wounds. His condition is not serious.

Arthur Burgess, aged 43, married, of Grafton, who suffered similar injuries to Scholium, and is not in a serious condition. PLANNED ATTACK. The attack upon the warders seemed to have been well planned in advance. From available information it appeared that a little before 6.15 p.m. the prisoners were about to be locked in their cells, when, without warning, five prisoners made a concerted attack upon three warders. A hammer and a piece of lead piping, wrapped in a sack, were found near the spot where Mr Crawford had a long struggle with his assailants, and from the nature of- the injuries to his head, one at least >of those weapons was used upon him. Having silenced Mr Crawford, the men then turned their full attention to the other two warders and in a short time had left them unconscious on the floor. The men seized all the available keys, and after unlocking various grills and communicating doors leading from one section of the prison to another, they at length reached one of the gates.

Meanwhile another warder, Mr James Carson, came on the scene. He grappled with one man and the other four opened an outer gate and slipped away. The fifth man was overpowered ■ and returned to the cells. MOTOR-CAR STOLEN. ' The alarm was given, and shortly afterwards the Newmarket police received a telephone message from Mr Frank Levin, retired civil servant, to say that his motor-car had been stolen from outside the house in which lie was a guest for dinner. Mr Levin was at 34 Seccomes Road having dinner when a woman came to the door and asked for the owner of the motor-car which had stood outside. She told x Mr 1 Levin that four men, clad in prison clothes, had run down the street, clambered into a car and tried to start it, then let in the clutch and coasted down the street. Mr Levin said that only this afterniin he had refilled his petrol tank. NAMES OF ESCAPEES. The fugitives are: — Randall Reginald David Smith, labourer, aged 27, who was sentenced to death at Timaru, on February 4, 1938, for the murder of an aged storekeeper at Arundel, Canterbury. The ' death sentence was commuted to im- j prisonment for life by the Executive Council, and was announced by the Minister of Justice, Mr Mason, on March 8, 1938. David Fraster Watson, aged 21, seaman. and labour, who was sentenced to reformative detention for 18 months for arson. John Henry Silva, alias Shortcliffe, aged 25, labourer and butcher, serving a- term of two years for breaking, entering and theft at Christchurch. Bryan James Ohehir, aged 23, serving 18 months’ reformative detention on nine charges of and recently sentenced at Christchurch to an extra year for escaping from the Christchurch gaol.

KEEN MAN HUNT LARGE FORCE OF POLICE EMPLOYED. CONDITION OF WARDER VERY GRAVE. AUCKLAND, This Day. One of the keenest man hunts ever made in the Auckland district has not so far resulted in the recapture of the four prisoners who escaped from gaol last evening. Throughout the night fifty detectives and constables combed the district, and early this morning other members of the force took up the search, every available detective and constable being pressed into service. The principal roads and bridges are being watched and all motor-cars stopped for examination. The condition of the injured warder, Mr J. G. Crawford, is reported by the Hospital to be extremely grave. Prison officials state that the escaping prisoners opened several iron grilles with keys which they had forcibly taken from the injured warders.