IN PRISON GARB.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19270, 6 September 1924, Page 10

IN PRISON GARB.

ESCAPE FEOM LONDON GAOL. ' A WALK THROUGH THE CITY. BROAD DAYLIGHT ESCAPE. London is such a wilderness of a place to hide in that prisoners who escape from cel] or prison yard are thought to have a better chance of eluding capture in the ■great city than criminals who try to get away from places like Barkstone or Dartmoor. But it will surprise most people to read the story of a youth who got out of Pentonville in broad daylight and walked unchallenged ' through London’s crowded streets in prison dress until he reached the open country, passing several policemen on the way. The facts of this recent adventure have been given to a London paper bv the young gaol-breaker himself, Edwin Taylor, aged 26. Taylor is a native of Birmingham. During the war he served in the navy, and after hia discharge he might have led an industrious and honest life if he had not found himself mixed up with a Birmingham racecourse gang. After “getting into trouble,” Taylor sailed for India, and for 12 month's was smuggling, silk into Pondicherry, the capital of tho French possessions, on the Coromandel coast, south of Madras, and wine back to Yillupuram, the first jungle station across the frontier on the South Indian railway. There he was caught and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. At the end of two years he was deported. He landed in Liverpool, and, having no friends and no references, he soon found himself in prison again. His latest prison term was one of six months in Pentonville.

SCALING A TWELVE-FOOT WALL. One day, working with a small party in the prison grounds, Taylor was suddenly seized with, the idea of escaping, me smeared with mud the broad arrows on his prison garb, took off bis coat, and rolled up his sleeves, though it was a cola day Tlien, when the warder’s back was turned for a moment, he made a dash for the wall, which is 12 feet high, and topped with three lines of barbed wire. With a quick leap hp hooked his shovel on the barbed wire, pulled himself up, struggled ovpr, and dropped to the pavement in Roman road. It was half-part 3on a Friday afternoon, it being Caledonian Market day, and hundreds of people were about. But Taylor was cunning enough not to run. He walked over the road, down two side turnings, and across other crowded streets. ■ , Taylor’s aim was to work north, but ne dared not ask his way, so he noted the weather vanes on church steeples, and worked through to Camden Town, Higligate and North Finchley. Then he crossed to Hendon, all the time carrying the shovel on his shoulder, like a navvy without a coat At Hendon, just as he bad met and passed a policeman, the constable turned round and called {rim back. 1 thought it was all up with me, said I>ylor - out be only swore at mo for dirtying his* epat with mv shovel.” Then the fugitive took to fields and golf courses. Near Harrow four men in a four-seater touring car nassed Taylor and pulled up about 20 yards ahead. Fearing that they might be detectives already on his track, ho had an impulse to run, but decided to try bluff, which had puffed him through so far. His fears were groundless, for as li© drew level, car one of the occupants asked faun the way to a certain village, and he answered, with a guess, “You’ll see a signpost a bit farther on.” DISCOVERY OP COAT AND HAT. Beyond Harrow, as Taylor passed a concrete works, he found an old ooat and hat, wihch a workman had left behind, and with these to help his disguise ho got a casual job washing a car, and with the pay for this he bought food. Ho slept that night in a hay rick at Rinner, and during the next two, days, with an odd job or two, he worked through Rickman s-woi-th, Watford, Hemel Homatead, Berkhamsted, Tring, and Aylesbury. At this rate of progress Taylor ■ might have reached Birmingham in safety, but, unfortunately for himself, he met- a roan who had only recently been released from Pentonvilje, and who recognised him. This “prison pah” knowing there was a £5 reward offered, gave information to toe police, and Taylor was arrested., after being at liberty for three full days. Taylor has now finishes his term in Pentonville, and hopes to find “work of any sort,” to start afresh and “try to go straight.”