BURGLARS LEAP TO DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11872, 25 January 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

BURGLARS LEAP TO DEATH.

ALIGHTED ON HIS HEAD FROM A FALL OF FORTY FEET. A young burglar escaping from the roof of a house at Islington in the early , hours one morning recently, jumped into the flagged area forty feet below, and received fatal injuries. . - . ■ 1 .■

In the darkness he had climbed stealthily up by the iron piping at the rear, had gained the roof of the Metropolitan Boot Company's premises in High-street, Islington, and had taken up a few of the slates to make an entrance for himself. - He vent on very successfully until in a clumsy moment he dropped a slate. The manager of the boot shop awoke and called out. "What are you doing?" " "Rats!" was the surprisingly flippant reply of the burglar as he fled. He made his way along the roof to the rear of the premises. Here there was a sheer drop from the roof not only to the level of the ground but several feet lower, for beneath the frowning edge of the slates there is a deep area fenced with stout iron railings. With pursuers at his heels the burglar must either crawl slowly along the piping and be captured or makef a dash for liberty. Had there been time he could have escaped as he had come.

But a moment after he had reached the edge of the roof he shot right off, and fell down the end.of the building and into the railed area below. When the police came up they found him lying on the flagstones at the bottom of the area' with blood flowing from bis head, on ji'hich he had evidently fallen. He died shortly afterwards in; the Royal Free Hospital. A "jemmy" and some silent matches were found on the body, which was identified as that of John Quinn, aged 21, of St. James' Gardens, close to the scene of his attempted burglary. "He was always a good boy at home," said Quinn's father, '"and he usually came home early. It is the old story, lam afraid led away by bad companions."