HE BROKE PRISON-AND HIS NECK.

Lake County Press, Issue 980, 19 September 1901, Page 7

HE BROKE PRISON-AND HIS NECK.

Since Soar and King made their memorable escape from Borstal (England) Prison, t Robert Mackenzie alias Thomas Davis, who

met his death at Wandsworth Prison, would be hard to beat. Although only twentyseven years of age, Mackenzie had had a long career of crime, as is shown by the following list of convictions recorded against him:—.January, 1891, stealing trousers, one month; 'February, 1892, burglary, twelve months; June, 1893, burglary, three years; December, 1895, burglary, three years; January, 1899, burglary, eighteen months, and license revoked; May 15, 1901. burglary, eighteen months. He ■was admitted into Wandsworth Prison to undergo his last sentence on the day of his conviction, and was located in a cell on the third floor. In this cell Mackenzie was given the task of making canvas bags for the navy. On Saturday, June 15, the prisoner had handed to him sufficient canvas and white twine to keep him occupied until the following Tuesday, and when he was visited at 7.30 p.m. on Monday nothin? unusual was noticed in his cell, and his tools were collected in the ordinary way. It was at 3.45 on the morning of the' 18th that Warder Owen happened to look through the glass panel of a door and saw an object lying in front of an area in the exercise yard. A closer examination revealed that it was the lifeless body of Mackenzie, who had evidently fallen from a hole which he had made at the side of his cell window, 40ft aboTe. Beside him lay half of his plank bed, attached to which was an improvised rope, composed of pieces of white and tarred twine. It was only too apparent that *he prisoner was sliding down this rope, which he had fastened to one of the iron bars forming the ventilator of his window, when the cord broke through contact with the sharp edge of the sill. Upon visiting the cell Major Knox, the governor of the gaol, discovered an extraordinary condition of things. Immediately underneath the ctli window the prisoner had placed his mattress to catch the pieces of brickworka* he dug them out with a nail projecting from one of the cross-piecas of his bed, and he had used a portion of his plank as a ladder, the window being near the ceiling. He then, out of bravado, wrote on a slate a report of his escape, and depicted himself escaping over the 22ft wall. On one side of the slate he had written:— AN EXPERT BURGLARY. Great was the surprise and excitement in Wandsworth Prison this morning when it was ascertained that an old sluger had found his way through two feet of brick wall by means of a knife which he had cleverly cheated the warders of when they were searching him to-day: but prisoner was a determined man. He had once before tried to make his escape, when undergoing eighteen months, and would have succeeded then had not a fellow-prisoner given him away to a warder. The cage was empty! The bird has flown. I am off to where Tm known.