TRAIL OF CRIME

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 July 1933, Page 6

TRAIL OF CRIME

" REFUGE IN BAD LANDS. KANSAS CITY, June 1. Doctors in four States have been warned that, the' eleven convicts who broke out of Kansas State Prison and abducted Mr Prathers, the governor, together with two warders and three women, may try to kidnap a. medical man to attend to Harvey Bailey, one of the ringleaders, who has been badly wounded in a leg. Safely hidden in the .wild hill country of Oklahoma, the convicts have every chance of a long spell of freedom. They have taken refuge in the district known as the “Bad Lands,” which a generation ago was the haunt of the most desperate characters in the South-West. They have left a trail of murders, wounding and abduction behind them. It is now almost certain that the discovery of the bullet-riddled body of a night-watchman at Chepota, Kansas, was a sequel to his attempt to stop the group of convicts who had kidnapped the women and held them captive for ten hours. But it is the other group, headed by Wilbur “Killer” Underhill, which held Mr Prathers prisoner for some hours, that is considered the more dangerous.

“SHOOT TO KILL.” The police do not know whether or not the two gangs have reunited. The search has been extended over the four States of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas. Orders have been given to the police to “shoot to kill.” Meanwhile, Underhill’s wife, who lives at Richer, near where the fugitives are hiding, is under close supervision lest the men try to communicate with her. Throughout last evening reports were coming from along the convicts’ route of garages having been held up and of the men in charge being made to accompany the convicts in their car for several miles, and then beingleft at the roadside. Two of the runaways seem to have separated from the main gang and stolen another car by forcing the occupants to leave it. They then drove off in the same direction as their confederates. Mr Prathers returned to the prison yesterday, and was to-day succeeded by the new governor, Mr Simpson, who was, in any case, due to take over the office on June 1. It has now been discovered that the outbreak was originally planned for the first day of Mr Simpson’s administration. But the convicts told Mr Prathers when he was their prisoner that a baseball game on Tuesday had provided “too good a chance to miss.”

RUNNING FIGHT WITH POLICE. MIAMI (Oklahoma), June 5. After four days’ freedom, punctuated by murder, robbery, several abductions and a bank hold-up, there is every hope that the eleven convicts who escaped from Kansas City State Penitentiary on Tuesday will all be rounded up in the next few days. Already one of them, Lewis Betchel, who was fleeing from a light sentence, has been captured. He was found this afternoon at a farm near Siloani Springs, Arkansas. Late this evening, ■ it was reported that a sheriff and his posse believe they have surrounded three of the fugitives in the Ozark Hills of Oklahoma.

The latest exploit of (lie men is the most daring of all since their escape and the kidnapping of the prison warden. Five of them, headed by the notorious ringleader Wilbur Underhill, burst into the town bank at Chelsea, Oklahoma, and held it up, removing about £5OO in cash. The clerks, menaced with pistols, had to lie on the floor behind the counter. Just as the gang wore leaving the bank the city marshal and his men opened fire from across the main street. But the robbers managed to reach their motor-car and race away unharmed. Three others last night stole another motor-car and had a running fight, the police firing at them as they escaped.