PRISONER’S BID.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15627, 1 August 1922, Page 5

PRISONER’S BID.

BRIEF LIBERTY.

A RESOURCEFUL CRIMINAL.

(A. and N.Z. Cable.) (Received 11.35 a.m.)

SYDNEY, August 1

There was a sensational escape and capture of a prisoner named Steiner, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of ,a Chinaman, in Maitland gaol. He secured tools in the prison workshop, and after two months’ labour, sawed through two iron bars and removed part of the stonework of the window of his cell. He then knotted and reached the ground, clad only in a singlet and trousers. He burst into the prison store, secured a quantity of cloth, ■ a knife, boots and twine, and with great difficulty scaled the outer wall. He hid in the bush, and made himself a suit out of the cloth.

Steiner hid under a tarpaulin on a train where the police surprised him. He then jumped off and escaped, doubling back while the police were searching. Thrice he attempted to get aboard the train while it was travelling, and narrowly escaped, death. A little! later one of the many police who were searching met and covered him with a revolver, the escapee surrendering quietly.

Steiner, in 1919, escaped from Bathurst gaol, but was recaptured after a short period of liberty. Soon after Steiner’s arrest, the two Victorian gaol escapees, Higgins and Loughly, who escaped from Pentridge gaol farm under a load mi hay, were arrested at Newcastle in the Salvation Army home.