DARING ESCAPE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 23 August 1935, Page 9

DARING ESCAPE

UNPRECEDENTED METHOD ’PLANE TRIP BY SUBTERFUGE POLICE SEARCH IN VAIN SYDNEY, Aug. I). An unprecedented method was used by Arthur Charles Watson, 21, in escaping from Boggo road gaol, Brisbane. Watson, who was employed as a kitchen boy and gardener at the home of the superintendent, successfully left the prison in stolen clothes and headed straight for Arclierfield Aerodrome. There he presented himself as the son of the prison superintendent, Mr F. J. Whitney, who is also acting as Comptroller-general of Prisons. The escapee took his seat as a passenger in the plane for Toowoomba, and, unknown to the authorities of that city, he landed and disappeared while the police were still searching for him in Brisbane.

Watson had apparently planned his escape for a time when the house was unoccupied. It is believed that he went to the room of Alan Whitney, son of the superintendent, where he changed his garb for a suit belonging to the young man. In the pocket of Whitney’s suit he found a wallet containing a motor driving license and a £1 note. As soon as the guard of the tower overlooking the yard had turned his back, it is believed the escajiee crept close to the wall of the house towards the main door of the prison. He then -made his escape with comparative ease. Watson sprang over a low fence said a railway official, who saw him and walked leisurely down the road, where he hailed a taxi and got to the aerodrome in time to catch the New England Airways plane for Toowoomba.

SUSPICIONS LULLED The taxi drove up, and Watson sprang out. He breathlessly explained that he had to get to Toowoomba in a desperate hurry, as he wished to reach the bedside of his mother, who was dangerously ill. There was little time to argue, as the machine was due to leave, but to lull any suspicion the would-be passenger produced young Air Whitney’s driving license, by which he identified himself. He said: “Everything will be all right, and the fare can be charged to my father, Mr Whitney.” He was allowed to enter Hie plane, and a moment later it was soaring.

It was not until the warders and police had been scouring the city for hours that it was found he had taken the suit containing the wallet. Three hours after he boarded the plane, New England Airways, its suspicions aroused. communicated with the prison, and it was established that the passenger was Watson. News was then sent to Toowoomba, but the escapee had a good start. Watson was convicted last May on a charge of illegally using a motorcar and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Later he was sentenced to a similar term for stealing petrol. The sentences were made cumulative. ‘ The amazing luck which attended him in his daring escape was illustrated I the next day. At Archerfield Aerodrome, Watson evaded certain capture only because a telephone box chanced to be. locked. The pilot of the plan? (P. H. Moody) was thus unable to verify Watson’s story that he was the son of the prison superintendent. As the man who had the key to the telephone box happened to be in another part of the aerodrome, the pilot decided not to delay longer, so he returned to the plane and Watson took his place with the other passengers. The falsity of Watson’s story was not discovered till more than an hour after the plane arrived in Toowoomba, when the manager of the company telephoned Mr Whitney to inform him that his son had “left to see his dying mother.” Watson’s movements after leaving Toowoomba are a matter of conjecture, but the police threw out a net embracing Queensland and New South Wales. So far, despite police activity Watson has not been sighted. It is believed he is travelling by jmght and hiding hy day.