CONDEMNED CONVICT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18974, 26 March 1936, Page 14

CONDEMNED CONVICT

. MAN IN U.S. GAOL LETTER TO KING EDWARD SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 18. A- letter from a condemned convict imploring King Edward VIII to save his iife sped through the mails to-day. The -writer was Alexander Mac Kay, a British subject who, with Joseph Kristy, is under sentence to be hanged on February 28 for kidnapping State Police Board members during an attempt to escape from San Quentin Prison 13 ..months ago. Mac Kay, who claims he is innocent of tho robbery for which lie was sent to prison, signed his letter ' Alexander Hunter, although prison files carry his name as Alexander Mac Kay. The prison warden was severely beaten and a prisoner killed during the flight. The 22-minute telephone conversation between the London News-Chronicle and Alex. Mac Kay may cost the warden, Mr. •Tames B. Holohan, his job. The newspaper said it conveyed a British Government request that the Governor of California extend executive clemency to the condemned man. It is the first time that a prisoner under the death sentence has been allowed to participate in a telephone interview. The Governor, Mr. Merriam, was powerless to act on the request, under a law which specifies the death sentence for a "two-time loser."

The incident follows upon the recent discovery of prison-made counterfeit bills, complete with plates and bond paper for engraving them, concealed in the penitentiary. Holohan has been warden since 1927.