A FRENCH JACK SHEPPARD.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2644, 4 September 1906, Page 2

A FRENCH JACK SHEPPARD.

Extraordinary ingenuity was shown by a burglar named Yandenwegaete, who escaped on Monday night, January 25, 1904, from the underground condemned cell in Lille Gaol, Paris, where ho had been specially confined, on aeeount of his notorious cunning, and his open boast that he would find a way out before long. The cell was furnished with a single massive door opening on to a corridor, at the end of which was another door provided with a "safety lock." On the Monday evening the prisoner was locked up for the night, and on Tuesday morning his cell was found to be empty. The bird had flown, and two false keys made of tin found outside the door of the corridor told their own tale. A search in the cell enabled the prison oflicials to piece together their story of this daring deed With part of the bread supplied to him, Yandenwegaete took the impression of the lock of his cell, and with some more bread he made a mould, in which he cast a key cut' out of a tin cup, the metal being melted in his stove. The same night he opem-d his door, took a breadcrumb impression of the corridor lock, made another key, and soon found himself outside the corridor. From a cupboard he extracted a sheet and a broom-handle, and made his way into the prison yard, which is surrounded by a wall topped with broken glass. Fixing the broomhandle between two bottle ends, he threw the knotted sheet over the wall, and slid down it into the street His next move was to break into a house, and exchange his prison costume for ordinary attire, and he was not heard of again. Ten years was the term he was to serve, but he did not slay in his prison ten hours.