PRISONER'S DASH FOR LIBERTY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19735, 27 September 1929, Page 7

PRISONER'S DASH FOR LIBERTY.

CLOSE GUARD KEPT ON BUCKLEY. [TBS PRESS Special Bertie*.] AUCKLAND, September 26. After hovering between life and death since he was shot last Friday afternoon while attempting to escape from Mount Eden Gaol, John Ijeslie Buckley, the 26-year-otd prisoner who escaped on a previous occasion, is now making good headway at the Auckland Hoepital, and his complete recovery is probable. Since his admission to hospital a warder has been continually by his bed. It has now been ascertained that Buckley had openly said in gaol that he intended to make a break if he ever got a chance, and for that reason a close watch was kept on him. Last Friday afternoon he was drilling with other prisoners in one of, the yards. He saw the shadow of a chance when a warder's back was turned, and with a promptitude which characterises all his movements he made a dash for the eastern wall of the prison. He climbed swiftly up a drain-pipe and was poising himself for the 30 foot drop to the ground. There was a crack of a rifle; Buckley fell in a heap, staggered through the grounds of the warders' home adjoining the gaol, heaved himself with a desperate effort across the low stone wall, and then staggered fully ten yards through the rocks and fennel before he collapsed. "I didn't think they'd shoot me, but they did " said Buckley to his mother when she visited him at the hospital. He was flinch brighter this morning, and remarked to those at the bedside: "I'm getting better now. I'm going to pull through."