Posed As a Parson

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 10

Posed As a Parson

CONVICT’S DASH TO LIBERTY Morning Raid on Garages I ONE of the most remarkable escapes from a convict prison ever achieved by a prisoner has just been accomplished by a man named Whitehead, from Prineetown. England. To effect his escape from prison. Whitehead is said to have climbed through the window of a room into which he had been locked to do work; broke into the prison blacksmith's shop to secure tools; lashed two ladders together to scale the wall; cut the telephone wires; broke into the Roman Catholic chaplain's garage by making a hole in the roof; and drove off in the chaplain’s car. saluting the constable on point duty near the prison.

Whitehead remained at large for more than 24 hours, and it is possible that had the weather not been entirely against him he would still have been free. Whitehead, alias Smith, who was undergoing a sentence of seven years' penal servitude for stealing motorcars, was a “good conduct" man, and in consequence w r as allowed a considerable degree of liberty. About 11 o’clock on Sunday morning he got out of the part of the prison in which he was employed as a stoker, and, securing a ladder, scaled the 2(>ft. prison wall and dropped down on the other side. There he commandeered a motorcar belonging to the Roman Catholic chaplain, Father Finnigan, and drove away through the main street of Prineetown. His escape was soon discovered and a number of warders started in pursuit across the dreary moorland through a blinding downpour of rain and snow. An expert motorist. Whitehead made good use of the car he had seized. In an hour and a-half he had reached Totnes after driving nearly 40 miles. Avoiding a Trap Here, at the corner of Station Road, he caught sight of Police-Sergeant Marshall and a constable. Warned from Prineetown of Whitehead's escape, they were on the lookout for him. Promptly turning the car, Whitehead went back along the way he had come. Less than half a mile down the road he turned into the private way to Dartington Hall and drove through the heavily-wooded estate, past the mansion and into a by-road. Here the car got into difficulties, and Whitehead abandoned it and continued his way on foot. Apparently he spent the night in the open, tramping ten miles to Paignton in a blinding snow and rain storm, while police and warders soaked to the skin were scouring the district. Early next morning he is alleged to have broken into three garages. Jn the first two, one of which belonged to Councillor Eggins, he had no luck.

but in the third he obtained a new saloon car, the property of Mr. S. Cornhill, a dentist, and drove away. Some hours later a resident of Torquay, while walking on Marine Drive, noticed a saloon car in a small pine copse with the driver asleep inside. The driver awoke as the resident approached; but the latter had noticed convict garb beneath the dilapidated raincoat and yellow muffler the man ■ in the car was wearing. The resident immediately telephoned the police, but by the time they arrived the convict had motored off in the direction of Wellswood, a suburb of Torquaj'. Hunters and Hunted Bogged Detective Drew and Sergeant Gill, who responded to the telephone call, found a distinguishing mark on one of the tyre tracks, and. calling a police car, followed the marks along Marine Drive, through Wellswood and Babbacombe to Newton Road, the main road to Exeter and Bristol. Turning into a lane leading to Coffinswell, the police car became embedded in mud up to the axles, and the detectives had to continue on foot. Rounding a corner of the lane they suddenly came upon Whitehead bending over his car. Like that of the police, it also had been bogged, and he was trying desperately to extricate it. Detective Drew called ou him to surrender, threatening to fire, but Whitehead made one final bid for liberty, ran down the lane, jumped the hedge, and raced across a field, with the police officers after him. In spite of his all-night ordeal he ran surprisingly well, but was soon overtaken, and, after a struggle, overpowered and handcuffed. He burst ; into tears when captured. When the police examined the saloon car they found that Whitehead had removed the governor from the carburettor in order to increase the speed. The governor is a device placed on the carburettors of new cars to prevent them being driven at a greater ; speed than about 20 miles an hour till they have done at least 500 miles, it being harmful to drive a new car at greater speed. Whitehead had evidently been stuck ' in the mud for some time, as the lift- j

mg jack was in position to car out. To secure a found, mud for the jack he had sia number or stones and bra* v P * c * 4 * it. ““cae, "Clevereat E»ea pe - Whitehead was formerlv „ as a bus and charabanc Torquay companv and * r » had an intimate knowied. trict. He used to drive th * the prison from which h PPers escape. ae mad® While being driven ba, t . - Whitehead is marked that he would 1 k | been shot than recaptured™* 11 " h »* He looked a figure of »• dejection as he was taken'®" 7 »4 Prineetown. still wearing , ***? k over bis prison dress At Prineetown his escam, , j daring, speed and careful ni'.^ lke •• ; considered the clevo re , t Plaa »ias.i, prison-breaking in the historf^-*