DARING DROP FROM GAOL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 9

DARING DROP FROM GAOL

ROPE OF MANY SHEETS Robert Miller, known to the police ot many countries as “ The Count,” or “ Count Lustig,” engineered a spectacular escape in broad daylight from the Federal Government detendon prison in the heart of Greenwich Village, New York, on September 1. While other prisoners .waiting trial were enjoying the rest period on the roof the 6ount suddenly appeared outside a window on the tnird storey of the prison facing Eleventh street and began industriously wiping the window with a white cloth. A do sen customers in bars on the opposite side of the street and a number of occupants of flats watched the unusual Sunday procedure. Suddenly the cloth which the Count was using fell, lengthening into u rope of sheets, down which he quickly slid. He fell the last 15 feet, but picked himself up, trotted across the street and disappeared into a waiting motor car. The car sped away before anyone thought to take its number and it was some minutes before anyone decided that the gaolers should be notifieu. The authorities admitted the identity of the fugitive and the fact that the rope was made from the sheets of pine beds. The Count had cut the metal grilhvork inside the window. When Miller was arrested on May 12 Federal agents stated thac they found in his pocket the key of a public locker, in which they discovered cleverly engraved plates and 51,000 dollars in counterfeit bank notes. Bail was set at 50,000 dollars, in de? fault of which Miller had been in prison pending his trial.