WILD MAN OF THE WOODS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 June 1927, Page 9

WILD MAN OF THE WOODS

REMARKABLE ESCAPES. After many months of fruitless attempts, the Hereford police succeeded in arresting a man, after a chase that was more like a film scene than the ordinary process of the law. The scene was a lonely cottage on the fringe of woods at Showlers Hill, Weobley, near Hereford, and the time the chill hours just before dawn. Whenever the police had tried to catch him before, the 'man, whose name is Alfred James Williams, had made astonishing escapes, due to remarkable jumping and swimming feats. As soon as his pursuers came within a mile of the cottage Williams took to the woods, where be ( remained for days and nights in a. secret, hiding place, evidently living on food lie had secreted there. At 1.30 one. morning a. sergeant and two constables for the first time managed to get to Williams’ cottage without any warning of their approach. Williams then attempted to escape by an upstairs window. Further police reinforcements, including the deputy chief constable of the county, were rushed up by motor car, and the house was surrounded by a cordon. A battering ram was brought into use and the police smashed an entrance through the back door, and found the man hidden in a, cupboard. He was taken to Hereford. Williams is a. fine athlete, although an elderly man, and is credited in the district with having made almost superhuman leaps over walls and hedges. When in hiding he was known as “the wild man of the woods.”