ACROBATIC ROBBERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 March 1920, Page 7

ACROBATIC ROBBERS

- YEW YORK HOTEL THRILL. 'A daring 1 robbery was attempted by two sailors at the Knickerbocker Hotel, Yew York, a few weeks ago. After attacking a wealthy oil merchant and his Avife in their bedroom the two men tried to escape by sliding down a rope made of sheets hung out of their AvindoAV in full view of thousands in Broadway and Times Square. They Avere caught by the .hotel employees and A r isitors in one of the lounges. The tAvo men took a room adjoining that of their respectiA-e victim, Mr Aloysius Broderick and his wife, whom they knew had with them jeAvellerv Avortli £20,000. They forced an entrance to the couple’s room by a communicating door. As Mr Broderick tried to stop them they attacked him with a knife and hammer, knocking* him senseless and inflicting- a seA’ere gash on his head. Then they seized Mrs Broderick and tied her to the bed, having gagged her with a toAvel. Her screams attracted servants, and hearing steps in the passage the two thieves darted back, threw out of the /window the rope sheets they had apparently prepared beforehand. Crowds in the busy streets below were amazed to see two iia-n appear from the sixth storey window of the hotel and slide down the sheets to the third floor, where they disappeared again through a window. They were seen, among’others, by three policemen, lavo of whom ran into the hotel, the third opening fire with a revolver on the men as they sAvung on the rope in mid air.

When they were again inside the liotel the fugitives rushed to the nearest lift shaft, forced mien the doors, and slid down the cable to the ground floor, forced open the second set of doors, and found themselves in the midst of a number of visitors in the lounge. The two men were cut and bleed!or--. Several visitors grappled with them and held them until the two policemen entered and secured them. SOLDIER. OF FORTUNE. BREATHLESS ESCAPES. SolcLer of fortune and complete adventurer, wanted by th© British police since 1916, Fritz Joubert I,)uquesne has sent .a message to the United States from Breda, Holland. This is the first news of him since his escape from Bellevue Prison, New York on May 2G, after he had feigned paralysis in a marvellous manner for seven months to avoid being surrendered to the British police on a charge of murder and piracy at sea. Duquesne is a nephew of the Botr general. After fighting against -toe Kaffirs and Matabeles in his early years, he went to Belgium for military training, and later fought in the Boer ranks*. He was captured by the British, but escaped, and was next heard of when Secret Service men arrested! him at a banquet to Lord Kitchener at Capetown. Condemned to death, h© secured a reprieve by offering to translate a. secret Boer code. He ivas sent to an internment camp in the, Bahamas, whence he escaped bv jumping off a cliff and swimming through .shark infested waters. He led a vagabond life among.the beachcombers till the hue-and-cry died down, when he started again on his career as a gentleman of fortune. He sailed for England, from South America in. the steam©'- TennyRon, and be blew dip the slop. IHe was arrested in New York' and placed in Bellevu© Prison whence he effected another spectacular escape.