BUCKLEY’S AUDACITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 409, 18 July 1928, Page 1

BUCKLEY’S AUDACITY

Net Closes on Gaol-Breaker ESCAPED MAN TALKED TO CONSTABLE

(Special to THE SUN)

WELLINGTON, To-day. AFTER enjoying over seven weeks of liberty John Bnckley, who escaped from Mount Eden Gaol on May 25, was captured in Wellington yesterday afternoon. Last week he spoke to a constable in the street and asked whether there was a warrant out for Buckley’s arrest. The constable went away to make inquiries, but found that the bird had flown when he returned.

Last Friday Buckley’s letter to the Editor of THE SUN, telling why he escaped from Mount Eden, created quite a stir and drew a reply from the Comptroller of Prisons. Buckley will appear at the Police Court to-day on a charge of housebreaking. The recapture was effected by Detectives McLennan and Jarrold. Although only 26 years of age Buckley has already been declared an habitual criminal. He is a native of England.

from the street or hovered round the exit gates. But Buckley did not arrive. Another prisoner, in charge of a constable, walked off the train carrying a suitcase and smoking a pipe. Except for the fact that a man in uniform escorted him to the police van he might have been an ordinary passenger, as the police desire to attract as little attention as posisble when escorting a prisoner.

The escape of the prisoners Bailer and Buckley, were discovered on May 29, when detectives found a discarded convict’s outfit in the workshop of Allen and Vibert, cabinetmakers, Newton. A few days later Bailer was surprised bathing in a pool at Shark Bay. Birkenhead. During the next week or so several houses on the North Shore were entered, Buckley being suspected as the intruder. In every case food was either eaten on the premises or taken away. It was believed that later he stole a powerful motor-car, owned by Mr. Alfred P. Robinson, of Karaka, from Omahu Road, Remuera. On Juno Y came the news that the car had been abandoned three miles from Ta'omarunui in a desolate part of the country. , _ . Since then nothing was heard of Buckley until a letter, signed by him and posted in Christchurch, was received by the Editor of The Sun.