GAOL-BREAKER

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4958, 20 February 1937, Page 2

GAOL-BREAKER

CHAMPION OF FRANCE. NOW SENTENCED TO BE GUILLOTINED. London, February 13. Though he swore his innocence on the heads of his family, Armand Spilers, Devil’s Island escapee, was found guilty of murder to-day at Pau (France). He will be guillotined. The charge against him in this case was one of murdering a policeman, Fautroux, who surprised him when breaking into a house at St. Jean de Luz (Pyrenees). “I am a robber, but not a murderer!” he cried. “I swear on the heads of my wife and of my little daughter that it was not I who fired.” Counsel pleaded that Spilers had saved a little girl of six from drown-

ing while he was doing military service and that he risked death to save lives from a shipwreck when he was a prisoner in Guiana. The jury found Spilers not only guilty of murder, but also of 17 burglaries in a month in five different towns. He heard the sentence without emotion. Spilers is known as the champion gaol-breaker of France. He is accused at Pau of shooting and killing a policeman who surprised him when he was housebreaking at St. Jean de Luz (Pyrenees). Spilers twice escaped from Devil’s Island and from Loos and Bayonne prisons. Even the grim Sante prison in Paris failed to hold him. He is guarded in court by six armed policemen and his wrists are chained together. Three years ago, Spilers escaped with six others from Devil's Island. They tried to swim to the mainland, but only Spiler and two others got there alive.

They wandered along the barren coast until hunger forced them to draw lots to decide which should be eaten. Spilers was finally rescued by a Dutch vessel and was recaptured in France in November, 1935. Spilers recently tried to reassure his guards by remarking: “I won’t escape until after the verdict is given.’’ He is a melancholy man of 32, with evasive eyes and slim figure and looks anything but dangerous and desperate.