DEATH TO AVOID DEATH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 446, 11 December 1930, Page 11

DEATH TO AVOID DEATH

DIVE INTO A RIVER. ESCAPE FROM JUSTICE. A Pole, Paul Dezezakowsky, who was arrested in Paris a few weeks ago for having murdered his former companion by clubbing her to death with an iron bar at Maisons Al fort, made a dramatic escape from justice. During his interrogation the Polo gave rather vague replies concerning the spot where he said he had thrown the weapon into the River Marne. It was therefore decided to reconstruct the crime on the spot. Dezezakowsky, accompanied by the magistrate ana several police officers, was taken to the river bank at a spot quite near to a popular bathing resort There he led his escort through a clump of trees to a place where the bank is very steep. That, he said, was the spot at which he had thrown the iron bar into the water.

A detective was holding the prisoner firmly by one arms, but as other members of the party began their search, the prisoner, with a sudden wrench of his shoulder, flung off the detective and dived straight into the river. •x young workman dived in after the man, carrying a lifebelt. After a stiff swim against the current he overtook the Pole. But the fugitive was unwilling to be rescued, and there was a desperate fight in the water. . Finally the workman was compelled to let go his hold. The prisoner then deliberately kept his head under water, evidently determined to drown himself. He succeeded. Before rescuers in boats could approach he disappeared beneath the water, his body being recovered later.