DARING ESCAPE

Wairarapa Daily Times, 5 March 1934, Page 5

DARING ESCAPE

FROM AMERICAN PRISON. NEW YORK, Saturday. At Crown Point, Indiana, John Diilingor, America’s most notorious bank robber and murderer, walked out of the heavily-guarded and supposedly escape-proof Lake County gaol in a daring bid for liberty rivalling the exploits of Wild West heroes. He cowed his guards with a twoounce piece of wood which he had whittled to resemble a pistol and stained with shoe-blacking, and, with a negro convicted of murder, helped himself to two of the gaol’s machine guns. He commandeered the sheriff 's automobile, taking the deputy-sheriff, whom he later released, as hostage, and escaped. Mrs Lillian Holley, sheriff and warden, became hysterical, but, after giving the alarm to police officials in Chicago, she resolutely placed herself at the head of the search and declared: “If ever I see Diilingor I will shoot him dead with my own pistol.”

The most elaborate precautions in the' country's' criminal history were taken for fear of a possible attempt by gangsters to liberate Dillinger when he was taken to the prison by air from Tucson. When the ’plane landed at Chicago 117 heavily-armed policemen surrounded and escorted Dillinger to a waiting automobile. Then, under a guard of 61 policemen armed with machine guns and pistols and wearing bullet-proof vests, the desperado was brought here. The guard was under the following order: "If any attempt to rescue Dillinger is made, kill him immediately." Specially detailed police and deputy sheriffs with machine guns were assigned to guard the gaol inside and outside.