PRISONERS ESCAPE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 305, 2 October 1940, Page 2

PRISONERS ESCAPE

ONE A CONVICTED MURDERER. WARDERS LEFT UNCONSCIOUS. A DETERMINED BREAK. (Per Press Association). AUCKLAND, October 1. Four prisoners, one of them a murderer, escaped from the Auckland prison shortly after G o’clock to-night, after desperate struggles with the warders', one of whom is in a critical condition at thd Auckland Hospital. Two other warders suffered only superficial injuries, hut were kept at the hospital for observation during the night. The last seen of the four criminals was when they clambered into a stationary car ip Seceombes’ Road, Epsom, and coasted down the incline to Crowhurst Street, Newmarket, about a quarter of a mile away. There was amplo benzine in the tank, but the owner had removed the ignition key. Slquads' of police in fast cars are combing the Auckland Province. The injured warders are Joseph Cray don Crawford, aged 2G, married, of Elpsom, 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 serious. Well-Planned Attack. The attack on the warders seemed to have been well planned in advance. From available information it appeal's 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 'Crawford had a long struggle with his assailant,4, and front the nature of the injuries to his head one at least of those weapons was used upon him. Having silenced 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 vai'ious grills and communicating doors leading from one section of the prison to another, they at length reached one of the gates. Meanwhile another warder, 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. The alarm was given, and shortly afterward the Nbwmarket police received a telephone message from Mr Frank Levin, a retired civil servant, to say that his motor-car had been stolen from the house in which ho was a guest for dinner. ' Woman Sees Car Leave. Mr Levin was at 34 Seccombe’s Read, haying dinner, when a woman came to the door and asked for the owner of the motor-ear which had stood outside. She told Mr Levin that four men ; clad in prison clothes had run down the street, clambered into the car, and tried to start it. Then they coasted down the street. Mr Levin said that only this afternoon he had refilled his petrol tank. The fugitives • are:—• Randall Reginald David Smith, a labourer, aged 27, who was sentenced to death at Tima-ru on February 4, 1938, for the murder of an aged storekeeper at Arundel, Canterbury. The death sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life by the Executive Council, and was announced by the Minister for Justice (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) on March 8, 1938. David Fraser Watson, aged 21, a seaman and labourer, who was sentenced to reformative detention for 18 months for arson.

John Henry Silva, alias Shortcliffe, aged 25, a labourer and butcher, serving a term of two years for breaking, entering, and theft at Christchurch. Bryan James O’Hehir, aged 23, serving 18 months’ reformative detention on nine charges of burglary, and recently sentenced at Christchurch to an extra year for escaping from the Christchurch gaol.