PRISONERS' ESCAPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20562, 13 May 1930, Page 9

PRISONERS' ESCAPE.

CUNNING RUSE SUCCEEDS.

DIVERSION IN CAOL CREATED

Two notorious prisoners in tho Moabit gaol at Berlin, one a reprieved, murderer named Goldbach and tho other a hardened burglar named Schroeder, escaped by a cunning ruse organised among their demented fellow-prisoners. An epileptic prisonor of great strength, named Bohko, was the tool employed by tho two convicts.

This prisoner, according to a prearranged plan, toro an iron stay from his bedstead, and with this furiously attacked tho radiator of a central-heating apparatus until tho room in which it stood was filled with steam and boiling water.

His insane fellow-prisoners added to the confusion by splashing about in tho water and battering at the door and windows, scroaining that they were being scalded to death. Warders at once hurried to tho scene, leaving the prison courtyard unguarded, and while they were calming tho frenzied prisoners Goldbach and Schroeder made their escape by letting themselves down from the window of their cell with a rope mado of blankets. Tho alarm was first given by a wardress, who saw tho improvised rope dangling from tho window, and noticed that tho bars of cell 23 had been forced apart to allow the passage of a human form between them. The prisoners had dropped down into tho unguarded courtyard and escaped. Tho recently-appointed governor of the gaol stated that he knew nothing of the affair, as ho was not living in the gaol, but with friends, whom he was unwilling to have disturbed by telephone calls late at night. He heard nothing of tho prisoners' escape until breakfast time next day.