AMAZING GAOL PLOT

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3445, 19 March 1932, Page 7

AMAZING GAOL PLOT

CONVICTS ESCAPE AND KIDNAP GOVERNOR. There are few more amazing exploits in the history of American prisoners than that reported the other day from Kansas. Six convicts, serving long terms, had evidently for some time secretly plotted a daring escape from Leavenworth Gaol. When their plans matured they entered the office of Mr. T. B. White, the governor, armed with revolvers and shotguns, and carrying sticks of dynamite. The desperadoes forced Mr. White to open the prison gates and march out ahead of them. Then they bundled him into his own motor car, which was driven off at a furious pace. The car was wrecked early on the journey into the country, and the convicts commandeered two other cars and made for an isolated farm. Warders who had followed in hot pursuit tracked the fugitives, only to find the farm house barricaded against them. Then began a fierce battle, in which tear gas tombs were used.

When the convicts were forced to surrender three of their number had been killed by gunshot. The governor had also been wounded. It is understood that Mr. White's injuries were the outcome of a struggle with the convicts in an effort to escape. He was known as a strict disciplinarian, and the men gained access to his office by means of forged passes permitting them to leave their cells for the purpose.

Eight miles from Leavenworth the fugitives stopped at a school and attempted to seize a woman teacher's car. When she demanded what they were doing one of the convicts slapped her face and told her to mind her own business.

There were 200 troops engaged in the chase, and the police rushed to

the farm house in lorries carrying machine-guns. An army aeroplane was also used to report the movements of the men by messages dropped to the

ground. After the escape pandemonium broke out in the prison, the soldiers were employed in assisting the warders to restore order.