BURGLING A PRISON

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 47, 23 August 1930, Page 26

BURGLING A PRISON

CONVICT TRIES TO RAID A GAOL

It is not uncommon to hear a breakout or escape from prison. In the "Sunday News," James Murray gives the story of a man who did his breaking the other way round. But to break into prison seems a senseless act, and probably only ono such case is on record. Dartmoor Convict Prison was the scene of action, and a coloured man who had previously served a term of penal servitude there was the principal actor. He had been a badly-conducted prisoner and of violent disposition, and in addition to other punishments had been flogged. Ho had developed a violent dislike to certain of the officials whom he had threatened to murder when he attained his liberty. Such threats by v: 'ent prisoners are by no means uncommon in prison, but I cannot rumember any case in which they have been carried out or even an attempt made to do so. However, soon after this prisoner had been liberated it was reported that he had been seen hanging about in the neighbourhood of the prison, and the officers whom he had threatened became on the gui vive and took precautionary measures for their safety, as ho was known to bo a determined and desperate man. In those days a strand of wiro ran round the top of the prison wall. If the wire wero disturbed, as it would be by anyone trying to escape by getting over the wall, a bell would ring in the gatekeeper's room, and thus early indication of the escape would be giyen and the alarm would be sounded on the big bell of the prison by the gatekeeper. One night at. this time the wall bell did ring, and on the alarm being sounded all officers mustered, and a search was instituted inside and outside the prison. No prisoner was found missing, bu,t on a search of the outbuildings (•within the wall) the coloured man was found hiding. His object in returning to the prison was not revenge but robbery. He knew that, as next day was pay day for the officials, there was a considerable amount of money iv the storekeeper's office, and he had conceived the idea of breaking in and appropriating this cash. He naturally knew a good deal about the moor" life and the arrangements of the prison, but he either did not know or had forgotten the existence of the tell-tale wire on the top of the wall. But for this omission he would probably have been successful in his enterprise, at all events for tho time, as he had provided himself with the means of getting over the wall and back again to the outside of the prison. In regard to escapes from prisons, those who actually attain liberty for any length of time ire few in comparison with those who make the attempt, and are either frustrated at the beginning or only enjoy a few hours or days of liberty.

On Dartmoor attempts used to be fair-

ly frequently made as the mist coming suddenly down on the out parties favoured the attempt. Some 30 years ago two convicts while attempting to escape from the quarry, were shot down by the civil guards, who surround each party of out-workers, and were killed. Up to that time the. guards' rifles were loaded with ball, but as a consequence of this happening the then Secretary of State gave orders that only buckshot should be used in future. At times a prisoner would get clear away for a few days, but as the attempts wer- usually made in winter time and the individual had little knowledge of the moor the discomforts of lying out all night with little to eat drove them from their hiding places and into the arms of warders who were watching all the roads and avenues leading from the moor. Perhaps one of the most daring escapes was that once made from a local prison in the Midlands. The man, who was of fair size, wps employed at outdoor work in the prison yard, where some building operations were going on and ladders were in. use. He knew that it he could get out of his cell he would have no difficulty in getting over the wall. Cell windows are protected by fixed iron bars placed at such a distance from each other that it is thought to be impossible for a man to squeeze his body between them. However, this man did so in some way or other, and, as his cell was on the ground floor, ho had no difficulty in detaching a ladder and getting on the top of the wall. Unfortunately, a road well lighted ran alongside the wall, and, 'ooking along the road, he saw someone coming towards him at some distance. As he knew he would be seen if he waited to pull up the ladder, he resolved to make a jump for it. He alighted on the hard road, but had received such an injury to his leg that he could only crawl across the road. He had some friends living close by, and to them he managed to scramble. But his luck was out, for the passerby at once reported what he had seen to the nearby police station. On the alarm being given the prison cells were searched, and his was found vacant, and, on the police inspector on duty being informed of his! identity he at once, knowing his haunts and. habits, dispatched two of his men to this house. He was found in an outhouse and taken back to prison within '.alf an hour —the only reward for his daring attempt being a broke, ankle. -Measurements of his body and of, the distance between the window bars were carefully made. His head breadth was found to be greater than the distance between the bars, but apparently the bones of the head were compressible to a sufficient extent to allow the head tv go through. His body, he said, gave him less trouble after he had got his head through.