HANDCUFFS SHED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 42, 12 May 1927, Page 1

HANDCUFFS SHED

Two Convicts Calmly Leave Main Trunk At Te Kuiti WARDER WAS GETTING THEM TEA rO prisoners made a daring and audacious escape from the train at Te Kuiti at 3.50 o’clock this morning. They were handcuffed together and stepped off the train just as the warder, who was getting some tea for them, stepped on lower down.

The men were: — Lawrence Egmont Windsor and Albert Joseph Windsor, who had been sentenced at Palmerston North yesterday to five years’ hard labour by His Honour Mr. justice Alpers. With another brother, Frederick Joseph Windsor, the men were being brought to Auckland to serve their sentences at the Mount Eden Gaol. All three had been sentenced to the same term of imprisonment on ibarges of breaking and entering and theft, and had been described as a "family of criminals.” The third brother did not escape. The two who did not enjoy their freedom for long were recaptured about nine o'clock this morning. Police in the surrounding districts were notified, and at nine o’clock, Constable Fry, of Otorohanga, noticed two strangers walking down the street. As they answered to the description of the wanted men he arrested them. Later the warder arrived and identified the brothers as the escapees. When they were arrested the men had got free of the handcuffs. A 3 THE TRAIN STARTED "Nothing could have been more simple,” Mr. C. Nordbye, a passenger in the same carriage as the escaped prisoners, told a SUN reporter this . orning. “The two took advantage of the warder’s consideration, and got off the train at one place, as the train was starting, and as* the warder was getting at another. In my opinion they were free of the handcuffs when they left the trai.i."

They were free in Te Kuiti, while the only people who knew anything about their escape were speeding on northward to the n stop at jrohanga Mr. Nordbye did not realise at the time that he and his mother, together wn.ll other man who was left in the carriage at Te Kuiti while the warder went to get tea for his charges, were witnessing a clever and Host audacious escape r m custody.

“Both of the prisoners were well-groomed, good-looking men, very much alike, and _. the way up they had been t sated almost «s the heroes in the piece," stated Mr. Nordbye. “Passengers had been giving them cigarettes and fruit, and the whole carriage-full was generally on good terms. The two were handcuffed together,

and were accompanied by one warder.” PUT UP THE WINDOW “The warder did not leave the men until we got to Te Kuiti, where he went to get sc..ie tea for t. m. Shortly after the warder went o”t they man aged to put up the window, probably, as we realised afterwaru to see hov far .... ware was away. “They said nothing, but rose as one man, and went to the wash-basin lavatory. I was curious, so I followed them on the pretence of getting a drink. They had a drink, and then r-narked casually: “ ‘Good-night. We’re off here.’ “I didn’t take much notice of that, having the impression that Waikeria prison was somewhere in that vicinity, and thinking that they were probably going there. . ey uau on their hats, and went back through the train. “MY GOD, THEY ARE OFF” “A few minutes later the warder arrived with the lea, and said: “ ‘Where are my men?’ “I told him they had gone through to the nexa carriage, but he remarked, ‘My God, they are off!’ “By this time the train had started and was moving too rapidly for further action, by the time the warder had forced the lavatory door, and found that his men were not there, nor in the following carriage, which was the last on the train.” According to Mr. Nordbye the warder got off at Otorohanga. first asking him to let the people with the “Black Maria” in Auckland know that the prisoners had escaped. The van was at the station all ready to convey the latest guests to Mount Eden when the express arrived, but the guests will be a little late in taking up their “residence.”

NO RESISTANCE

FOUND IN HOTEL BATHROOM

STOLEN MOTOR-CAR RIDE Press Association. TE KUITI, To-day. The two escaped prisoners were found at eight o'clock this morning in the bathroom of a private hotel at Otorohanga and taken in charge by Constable Fry without resistance. It appears that one man got clear of the handcuff but the other had his up his sleeve. The men stole a motor-car and drove to Otorohanga, 12 miles away. The men are to be taken to their destination at Mount Eden to-day.