NOTORIOUS SWINDLER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 3 September 1935, Page 8

NOTORIOUS SWINDLER

• CLEVER ESCAPE FROM GAOL (United Press Association—By Electric TeieKi-apli—Copy right) NEW YORK, Ist September. Victor Lustig, a notorious swindler who is known lo the police of many countries as “The Count,” to-day made a sensational escape from the Federal detention prison at Lower Greenwich Village. In some manner ho managed to get through the barrier of a thirdfloor cell window, and before the gaze of a dozen persons in the street proceeded to work his way along a ledge, industriously washing the windows as lie went. Continuing his pose as a window washer, he lowered himself to the street with a rope made of bed sheets, and disappeared before anyone realised that he was escaping. Lustig, in a criminal career of thirty years, lias been associated with many famous gangsters, and has swindled many prominent persons, and several times, as to-day, has made good his threat that no gaol could hold him. He was arrested a few months ago for counterfeiting 50,000 dollars, which lie brazenly cached in a locker at an underground railway station. He was awaiting trial on two charges which would probably send him to a penitentiary for the remainder of his life.