OUTLAW WITH MONOCLE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16606, 9 December 1924, Page 10

OUTLAW WITH MONOCLE.

KILLS POLICEMAN.AND STROLLS AWAY.

TWICE ESCAPED FROM PRISON

NEW YORK, Oct, 24.—Gerald Chapman, the notorious highwayman, who three years ago at the head of six aimed men captured in one of the busiest parts of Broadway a post office van containing securities worth more than £2OO,CCO, was discovered yesterday in the act of breaking open a safe in a leading store at New Britain (Connecticut).

He calmly shot and killed one policeman who surprised; him and then escaped. His accomplice was caught. Chapman is one of the most daring outlaws in the history of American crime. A year after his Broadway exploit ho was arrested and sentenced, with other members of his gang, to- 26 years' imprisonment, but after serving six months he dramatically escaped from the Federal gaol at> Atlanta. Ho was caught after a desperate light in Georgia, and a few days later, though badly wounded., ho escaped again from the- prison hospital. Since then his photograph has been exhibited all oyer the country, together with an offer of a reward of i!200 for his arrest.-

After shooting the policeman yesterday and causing four other policemen to take cover, lie walked, out of the front doer of the store and remarked to bystanders, "I think someone has been shot." He then disappeared: down an alley, leaving his accomplice and an oxpensive motor-car in the hands of tho police. Chapman is described in circulars as a stylishly dressed man of medium height, with brown hair, blue eyes, and the manners of a gentleman. When engaged: on his burglarious enterprises he usuallv wears a monocl*.

Oeraldl Chapman was one of the three American criminals for whom the English police were searching in the early part of the year. .