GUNS BLAZE IN RUNNING FIGHT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17878, 21 June 1926, Page 14

GUNS BLAZE IN RUNNING FIGHT.

OUTLAWS DEFY POSSE; TERRORISE SETTLERS. “ THEY WERE HEADING FOR BAD LANDS IN SOUTH.” VANCOUVER, May 6. Guns bristled in every city, village and hamlet of Northern Illinois as the entire region prepared for a pitched battle with the fugitive convicts who yesterday murdered a deputy warden at the State penitentiary, kidnapped a gaoler and escaped in their victim’s automobile. Posses were hastily organised, vigilantes were summoned to duty, and all available firearms were pressed into service in a determined and organised drive to round up the entire band of criminals. In a running gun battle at Lenore, a village of 500 population, five of the fugitives early to-day shot it out with a heavily armed posse of more than twenty men. Two of the convicts were captured—one of them so seriously wounded that he may die—and two officers were wounded. Two more of the desperadoes were captured to-day in a loft of a barn near StreatoF. Captain Forced to Aid Escape. The first news of the disorders leaked out at the State penitentiary here shortly after noon yesterday. From evidence left behind, prison authorities reconstructed the gaol break and decided that the seven convicts had assaulted Deputy Warden Peter M. Klein in his office, stabbed him to death, then kidnapped J. W. Keely, captain of the guard, and forced him to aid their escape. Under threat of death, the convicts marched Keely to the prison garage, where he commandeered Klein’s own automobile and" threw upon the prison gates for the motor-car to drive out to freedom with the seven prisoners. A trusty, John Cassidy, was employed as chauffeur. Keely and Cassidy were forced to accompany the fugitives until they reached Marseilles, where they were unloaded and handcuffed together to a tree with Keely’s handcuffs. The fugitives then continued in their automobile, and Keely and Cassidy were found this morning. Two of the seven fugitives separted from their companions not far from Marseilles. The other five, who continued in the warden’s car, had progressed as far as Sandyford, a creek that crosses the highway three miles south-east of Lenore. There the automobile skidded and landed on its side in a ditch. Attack Farmer with Spears. The five men took to the woods. Shortly after dark they encountered a farmer with a shotgun who had been scouring for game. Rushing upon him with spear blades and iron pipes with which they accomplished their earlier murder, they threatened his life and took his gun. The farmer heard the quintette talking about halting the first passing automobile. He hurried to his home and telephoned Chief of Police of Strator. Chief Hopkins, Captain Frank Duffy and several policemen set out for them. Every man in Lenore volunteered to join the posse. A force qf fifty citizens, atrmed with shotguns and revolvers, had started a march down the railroad tracks towards the supposed hiding place of the men, when, at the edge of the town, the five fugitives suddenly loomed in the dark. When ordered to surrender, the convicts opened fire. In the running battle one convict and two members of the posse were wounded. The convicts then separated. Break Carefully Planned. The break for liberty was carefully planned by a group of the prison’s most dangerous convicts, four of them serving sentences for murder. Filing into the deputy’s office for the customary conference in prison conduct, the men took positions which placed them in full command of the room. Apparently at a signal which all had agreed to recognise, the convicts swung into action, forcing half a dozen office employees, including the deputy, into solitary cells. Judnish was stabbed as the convicts pushed him into one of the small compartments. Klein resisted and was stabbed to death. His body was severely lacerated, indicating that several of the convicts leaped upon him at the same time. Keely, according to first reports, was making his rounds to see that all the guards were in place when the prisoners, now in complete control of the deputy’s office, leaped out into the corridor, two of them holding his arms while the others disarmed him. Keely was then forced to march into the prison yard, followed by the convicts, so that he attracted no unusual notice. Probably on instructions of the convicts he went straight to the prison garage and started Klein's automobile. As the car ran slowly through the yard to the big front gate with the captain of the guards at the steering wheel, the outer guards came to attention and let it pass in the belief that Keely was taking a detail of convicts out to do some work. Shouts Give Trouble Signal. Shouts emanating from the tier of solitary cells, however, soon warned other officials that something was wrong and investigating they found Klein’s body and other employees locked behind bars. An intensive search has been started for the escaped convicts and their captive chauffeur, but the automobile had a long head start. Added to this the car slipped through the streets of Joliet so unobtrusively that no one took particular notice of it. Hastily organised posses set out along all of the main highways to hunt for the fugitives. Captain Keely and Cafferty were brought back to the prison in an automobile by Marseilles police. Immediately they went into conference with Warden Whitman, who was directing the search from his office. Keely stopped a moment to talk to newspapermen. He said the seven convicts, four of whom -were serving sentences for murders, warned him to drive slowly through the towns, but to go “like h ” on the rural highways. “One of them, I believe it was Roa, held a revolver at my back and kept warning me to keep my eyes on the road and ‘step on it.’ ” he said. “Finally I told him I didn’t dare go any faster or we would all be killed in an upset. “Anchored to a Tree.’’ "That was when they put me and the trusty, here. out. I always carry a pair of handcuffs and they took these i and anchored us to a tree. We knew it wasn’t any use resisting, because they had us outnumbered and for a long time I didn’t know but what Cafferty was one of the gang, i thinic they are heading for the bad lands down in the southern part of the State, where probably they have friends.”