EXTRAS

JAIL BREAK

In August 1941, a prisoner who was locked up for the night in the Bell Island Gaol made his escape whilst the police were called away to another matter. Breaking a hole through the wall in his cell, he got into the next cell, the door of which was open. He then made his way into the Court Room and wrenched the bar in front of the bench from its moorings. After upsetting the Magistrate's chair, he proceeded to the Magistrate's Office and strewed the floor with papers. Then he visited the Police Office and, in rummaging around, found two revolvers. Pocketing these, he let himself out the front door and decamped. He was rounded up the next day. The stolen property was recovered and he was removed to the Penitentiary in St. John's. 

Source: The Bell Islander as reprinted in The Daily News, Aug. 14, 1941.