HOW A PRISONER ESCAPED FROM GAOL.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue III, 16 January 1897, Page 61

HOW A PRISONER ESCAPED FROM GAOL.

A correspondent writes : —'Jack Sheppard’s imitators are, happily, few and far between, and the recent remarkable attempt to escape from one of our Government prisons has on that account attracted much attention. It may be interesting, therefore, to recall a local instance of prison breaking which for its boldness deserves to rank with the leading achievements in that direction. It occurred at Lawford’s Gate House of Correction, and I remember on the morning of the escape being shown round the gloomy building, and having explained to me exactly what had happened. The prisoner, a man of much determination and ingenuity, evidently had a belief that when his case came to be adjudicated upon and his antecedents inquired into he would be sentenced to a long term. This was his incentive to his bold and temporary successful endeavour to get free from his captors. ‘ With the aid of a big nail he removed the bricks in the corner of his cell and crept through into the next cell, which was not only empty but had its door unfastened. Thus he reached the corridor in the interior of the prison, with warders close at hand and no means of an outlet before him. The prison was heated by hot air flues, and by removing one of the iron gratings in the corridor he forced himself into the flue and crawled through it to the cellar where the heating apparatus was. Of course it was not in use. With hre-irons found there he speedily broke away the bars between him and the gaol garden and reached the open air. He was still inside a high wall and so returned through the flue to his cell ; took part of his bedding to make a rope, left his bed looking as if he was still lying in it. and returned to the garden. The end of the improvised rope was weighted with something found in the garden, thrown over the wall so that it hitched in the coping and in a few minutes the plucky adventurer was free. But the police and telegraph were too much for him. He travelled some twenty miles and was then captured.’