CONVICT’S ESCAPE

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 May 1938, Page 5

CONVICT’S ESCAPE

TUNNELLED FROM MINE. Thirty-six prisoners dynamited their way out of a coal mine at the Brushy Mountain prison on March 27, states tho "New York Tinies.” Five were captured on the same day. Warden Scott Swafford said the break was discoveerd shortly after dawn when only about fifty of eightyfive miners who hud been working in the prison's No. 1 mine came to the surface.

“The men were working about a mile and a half back in the mountain, and 1 would judge they had to dig and blast their way through about thirty feet of earth to escape,” he said. The prison -is situated at the base of the Cumberland Mountains and the No. 4 mine is one of several that extend from the prison back into the Brushy Mountain. The opening through which the men escaped was barely large enough for eno man to squeeze through at a time, the warden was told. . lie said some of the missing prisoners were "desperate men.” A posse of thirty-five guards and about 100 Petros townspeople searched the mountains for the fugitives. Tire five men captured were seized several miles from the prison. The men went into the mine about 6 o’clock at night, Swafford said, and were to work until 1 a.m. “We don*t check them out until about dawn, though,” he added. "Our best guess is that they escaped between 3 and 4 a.m. “At first we suspected the men had mutinied, but finally one of the prisoners who came out of the mine said the others had dynamited their way out of the mine.” The warden said there was a standing reward of 25 dollars each for ths recapture of escaped prisoners.