EX-CONVICT’S CONFESSION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17229, 8 April 1930, Page 11

EX-CONVICT’S CONFESSION

CRIME NOT WORTH THE CANDLE LONDON, Feb. I.'!. “Some of the happiest hours of my life were spent in Parkhurst Prison, where I became acquainted with the works of Dickens, Thackeray, Fcott, •Shaw, Wells and Bennett, declared an ex-burglar (who was recently released after four years’ incarceral ion), broadcasting from Savoy Hill. The Broadcasting Corporation first submitted to the prison authorities the ex-convict’s revelation of gaol life. Warders and prisoners at Parkhurst, Wormwood Scrubs and other gaols possessing wireless sets listened in while Hie ex-convict .related details of prison menus and treatment.

He described how he worked for two days making a hole in his cell wall With scissors. Somebody “squeaked,’’ ho said, so ho replaced the mortar and covered up the edges with soap, but he was detected and sent to solitary confinement.

He said blackmailers were the most unpopular prisoners, good thieves were admired and murderers were mostly tolerated. The warders allowed longsentence prisoners to keep mice as pets ill beef tins, otherwise they would have “gone balmy.” Old “lags,” lie declared, were agreed that crime was not worth the candle.