#wanted fugitives

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"Youthful Pair Fleeing North After Chase," Vancouver News Herald. May 2, 1934. Page 1. --- BELLINGHAM, Wash., May 1. - Canadian border patrols, border officials and sheriffs' deputies sought tonight to intercept a car bearing two heavily armed youths believed to have staged two robberies in Everson last night.

The car was seen headed north today. The youths were said to be armed with rifles. It was believed they planned further depredations across the border.

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"THREE WILL BE TRIED ON CHARGE OF HOLD-UP," Montreal Star. November 6, 1933. Page 3. --- Starke, Dulude and Hogue to Appear ---- George Starke, Philippe Dulude and Lucien Hogue will go on trial in Court of King's Bench on Wednesday on the charge of armed hold-up and theft of the $4,000 payroll of the Catelli Macaroni Company from the two company employes last May 12. The three accused pleaded not guilty to the charge when they appeared before Mr. Justice Wilson this morning.

George Starke, who with Dulude escaped from detective headquarters and was only re-captured after two weeks this summer, told Judge Wilson that he and the other two accused had already asked to have their trial before a judge alone instead of in Court of King's Bench before a jury. He was informed that the Attorney-General's department has ordered that all three accused be tried by jury.

The accused asked to have an English-speaking jury for their case.

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"Fugitives Go Shopping In Village Dodge Police In 'Pea Soup' Mist," Toronto Star. October 28, 1943. Page 33. --- Special to The Star Guelph, Oct. 28 - Rifle shots rang out in Morriston village last night. Four escaped inmates of the Guelph Reformatory were playing a game of hide and seek with provincial police and guards in a "pea soup" mist. Dense bushland and large swamp areas hindered the posse.

Residents of Morriston last night reported that the men were walking up and down the main street talking with children and making chases in one of the village stores. At high speed, police headed into the village from all directions; systematically combed every house and backyard in the rain and mist.

The inmates had tried to steal a car but couldn't get it started.

Provincial Constable Philip Seibert, of Guelph, heard running footsteps in the mist. He fired in the direction of the sounds and gave chase, but in vain.

The swamp area was quickly surrounded and police stood guard all night, intending to make a concentrated search in daylight.

The escaped prisoners are Norman Pringle, 20, Oshawa; George Whitefoot, 17; and Lyle Banks, 18, Sarnia; and Lawrence Johnson, 19, Windsor. Two are in army uniform, stolen from the prison laundry.

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“Railway Section Hand Captures Three Escaped Nazis,” Toronto Star. November 24, 1941. Page 19. ---- ITALIAN AND FINN HELP TO ROUND UP FUGITIVES WHO FLED PRISON TRAIN --- ‘We Will Own This Country Soon,’ Recaptured Prisoners Boast at Sudbury --- LIBERTY IS BRIEF --- By JAMES V. NICOL Sudbury, Nov. 24 - Captured by kindness and in their bare feet, three of Hermann Goering’s pilots today are in the hospitable jail maintained here y the province for malefactors here by the province for malefactors whose sins against society are less than theirs. They are taking turns at being sultry, sulky, defiant, and diplomatic, and in each role they cut very sorry figures.

These noblemen of a pure Aryan nature were caught by as cosmopolitan a passe as ever hung a horse thief or flushed a Luftwaffer. The men to whom they owe their downfall, include several Canadians, one Pole, one Ukrainian, at least one Irishman, plus one Finlander, and last but not least, an Italian.

The notebook of a reporter for The Toronto Star who had a ringside seat for the flushing of the Luftwaffe trop after they had bolted from a prison train at or near Sudbury records the following under the title of ‘We Will With Kindness,’ as suggested by Provincial Police Inspector Percy T. Hake.

Saturday, 11.10 p.m. - Double-header prison train of 15 pasenger cars arrives from a northwestern Ontario point with right of way over everything. The speed is that of a regular through train plus half of what a regular through train could ordinarily do.

Launch Wide Search Sunday 2.10 a.m. - Message from Chief Dispatcher of the C.P.R. at Parry Sound reaches mounted, provincial, and city police reporting following prisoners as having escaped:

Waller, camp number 14923. Malischewski, camp number 51981 Manhert, camp number 14917. All are of the rank of first lieutenant and were sent to Canada after being shot down by British fliers.

Sunday, 2.31 a.m. - Mounted, provincial, and city police on trail comb taxi stands, flop-houses, highways and byways.

7.55 a.m. - Naughton station, 12 miles west of Sudbury, John Fedan, a Ukrainian section hand, begins Sunday patrol of tracks on Soo line.

8.15 a.m. - Fedan reaches red tool shed, notices tracks of ‘drunken’ men in snow outside, sees window of shed broken.

8.15 1/4 a.m. - Fedan unpadlocks door, finds three ‘hoboes’ sitting on hand car and velocipede inside, becomes ‘outraged’ at noticing window in tool shed missing.

8.16 a.m. - ‘You will have to pay for that glass,’ says John Fedan. 8.16 1/4 a.m. - Things begin to happen.

8.20 a.m. - Waller and Malischewski in custody in their stocking feet.

8.21 a.m. - Manhert on the lam and into the northern bush with shoes on.

10.49 a.m. - Manhert captured in bush four miles from Naughton; surrenders with sheepish grin to Constable Jack Campbell, R.C.M.P.

Had Food, Clothes 11 a.m. - All three en route to Sudbury district jail. Manhert still wearing sheepish grin. Malischewski happy, Waller saying ‘This is not the first time I try to escape. Every chance I get I will try to escape.’

All three had maps of Northern Ontario. Malischewski had divested himself of his air force tunic and obtained a red turtle-necked sweater. Waller had discarded his tunic for a navy blue civilian jacket with a tear under the left vest pocket. Manhert had picked up a brown overcoat. They carried a considerable amount of silver. In the Sudbury yard of the C.P.R. there are two block signals which necessitate the slow movement of any train in passing through. When the prison train set out, all of the Nazis aboard were accounted for as being present. Mounted and railway police were on hand at the time.

It was while the train was easing through the signal blocks that the three got away. Reports persist that they opened the windows of their coach and jumped. No notification of their escape was received until the train reached Parry Sound, about 110 miles south.

Guarded With Axe Eight miles from Sudbury, at Romford Junction, two men were noticed on the railway tracks acting suspiciously, but they soon set the authorities at ease.

Police were in the dark until Stanley M. Stadnyk, a Russian Pole, age 51, section foreman, reported over the C.P.R. telephone to J. W. McVey, dispatcher. My man Fedan has two men here. They are wacting suspiciously. Is anything wanted?’ Dispatcher McVey advised Stadnyk to see that the men were kept and then called all three police forces.

When a Star reporter arrived, following Inspector Hake of the provincials, Fedan kept guard at the section shelter with an axe.

‘I got ‘em,’ he explained. ‘I do not know that German prisoners are missing at the tme, though. I am walking the tracks when i come to the tool shed. I see marks in the snow as if they were made by drunken men. I unlock the door, and there I see the three of them.’

‘They had their shoes and stockings off. Waller had his feet wrapped in an old bag: Malischewski had a railway flag around his feet; Mannhert had a handkerchief over his.

‘I look up and see they have put a board over the window. It is about a foot high and a foot and a half wide. The glass is out.’

‘I say, ‘What do you do here?’ They say, ‘Oh, we just come from Sudbury’ and I think they are drunk. But then I get suspicious.

Offered to Pay ‘I ask what nationality they are and Waller says, ‘Two of us are Finns and the other is a Hollander.’ I think to myself, ‘Those men have a German accent. I will kind them and be nice to them so they will not run away.’

‘I tell them, ‘You pay for that window you broke.’ They say, ‘Sure we pay.’ Mannhert offers me 25 cents, then 50 cents and keeps on going until he offers three, four dollars for the window. I say, ‘I cannot take the money, you must see the foreman; that is the way the railway wants it done.’

‘They put on their shoes and stockings and walk on the track. Just then I see the foreman. I am ahead and they are behind. Mannhert says, ‘I forgot my packsack; I must get it.’ I tell him, ‘No, do not do that; we will get it.’ But he runs away and I watch the other two till I get them to our shelter about 400 yards away.’

At this stage the ‘boss’ entered in the person of Constable Ken Brides of the R.C.M.P. and Detective Paul Tapper, of the Sudbury city police, a Finn.

Waller and Malischewski both his eyes are keenly set. Malischewski has a stubby nose and assumes a jollier aspect when under duress.

In the shelter which the section foreman provided for them as he telephoned for help, Waller became loquatious.

‘If you do not treats us properly,’ he said. ‘We will complain to the Swiss consul who sits on the commission that looks after us. If you get nasty with us it will be too bad with the Canadians who are prisoners in Germany.’

‘We Will Own This Country’ Almost as he spoke Detective Pat Moroney of the Sudbury city police (an Irishman) entered the shelter.

‘My goodness, bhoys, what are you doing here?’ he asked, joshingly.

The prisoners said: ‘There is a newspaper reporter here. According to the Geneva convention we are not to be subjected to this sort of publicity. The mounted police tell us that. We shall tell the Swiss consul and he will make it hot for you. Six months from now we will own Canada, be careful what you say. Heil Hitler!’ (They both heiled).

‘My boys,’ replied Officer Moroney. ‘I have a son of mine learning to be a wireless air gunner at Fingal. I am afraid he will not stand for the likes of you - and I have always brought him up as a gentle child. Now, let us be on our way.’ 

KINDNESS GOT ‘EM NAZI FLIERS NABBED Three Nazi prisoners escaped from a train in Northern Ontario and two were promptly rounded up by Sanley Stadnyk (TOP), a section foreman, who practically killed the Hitlerites with kindness. The suspicious foreman offered them food and shelter while he called for help. One of the Germans gave chocolate bars to Stadnyk’s four-year-old daughter, Olga (LOWER).

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“Two of Five Escaped Oakalla Prisoners Are Captured In Vancouver,” The Province (Vancouver). January 4, 1932. Page 1 & 2. ---- Desperadoes Manipulated Centrally-controlled Cell Locks to Reach Corridor of Jail Tier And Then Filed Window Bars. --- USED BLANKET ROPE TO DROP FROM SECOND FLOOR  --- Three of Party Believed to Have Made Attempts to Escape Before - Police Guard All Roads. ---- At 2:45 p.m. Vancouver police received a vicious characters believed to be Hagley and call that three suspicious characters believed to be Bagley and his companions had been seen near Still Creek. Burnaby. Officers were sent to investigate. A party of constables searched Kitsilano Indian reserve where men in prison uniform had been reported. They could find no trace of the suspects, however. 

"We were not part of the jailbreak conspiracy," Lane told officers. "Moore and I saw Bagley going through the fourteen-inch hole which they had cut in the wall and waited for twenty minutes afterwards before we also went out. 

"We met the other three afterwards, but decided to go our separate ways. We haven't seen them since and have no idea where they went."  ---- COLD and hungry, after less than eighteen hours freedom, William Lane and Norman Moore, two of five prisoners who made a sensational escape from Oakalla jail Sunday evening, were captured early this afternoon in vacant brush land near Thirty-third avenue and Prince Edward street, by officers of "B" Division city police. 

Sergeant Charles Thomas and Constable Allan Slattery arrested the unresisting pair after receiving information from a woman resident of the district. "

Cold," was the terse and only comment made by the shivering pair to arresting officers. At city headquarters they admitted that they had separated from Bagley, Fawcett and Sorge immediately after getting away from Oakalla. Moore was dripping wet after trying vainly to hide in swamp undergrowth. 

On information given him, Constable Slattery investigated the presence of a suspect in the vicinity named near Mountain View cemetery. He recognized the prison clothes and arrested Lane without trouble. 

Sergeant Thomas rushed to the scene and called for reinforcements. Before they arrived, however, he saw a movement in the brush from his vantage point on a high stump. He arrested the second fugitive. Motorcycle officers Ambrose and Lloyd arrived within a few minutes and officers soon satisfied themselves that the two were alone. They searched the vicinity thoroughly but found no trace of the other fugitives. 

Lane was arrested at 12 :50 p.m. and Moore at 1 :20 p.m. 

STOLEN CAR RECOVERED NEAR NORTH ARM OF FRASER. Shortly before noon the stolen car used by the convicts following their escape was found in the 2000 block, East Sixty-fifth street. Its discovery led police to believe that the other three prisoners may have had a boat waiting for them on the North Arm of the Fraser River. 

The car was a coupe stolen from Victor Cooper, 3455 Imperial street, Burnaby, which is only half a mile from Oakalla, at 6 :55 o'clock Sunday night. There were no marks to indicate that all five men had crowded into it. No other trace of the men has been found despite a widespread search by all police forces of the lower mainland. 

In the meantime Assistant Commissioner W. R. Dunwoody of the provincial police is conducting an investigation into the jail break. Warden Walter Owen suspended two .guards, D. Campbell and P. D. G. Cunningham, pending investigation into the break. Campbell was on duty in that part of the jail containing the cells from which the men escaped and Cunningham had been in charge of the shift previous to the escape. 

SOME DELAY IN BROADCASTING NEWS. The jailbreak was discovered at 7 o'clock when Guard Campbell was making his rounds. The men, who occupied five cells in a tier of twenty, had been placed in their rooms at 4 :30 o'clock after an early Sunday dinner. 

New Westminster police were informed at 7:15 of the jailbreak and Vancouver police were warned at 7:50. 

Those who escaped were: 

William Bagley, 39, slender, bespectacled bank robber and safecracker, awaiting appeal from a sentence of fourteen years and fifteen lashes, for Harrison Hot Springs Hotel robbery in April, 1931; 

The practice of prison authorities is to permit criminals who appeal sentences to remain in Oakalla pending final judicial decision in their cases. 

Frank Sorge, 27, in Oakalla pending appeal of sentences of four years on each of two charges of possessing burglars' tools; 

Gordon Fawcett, 23, sentenced to eighteen months for automobile theft and three years for complicity in the attempted holdup of Bank of Montreal branch, Sixteenth and Cambie, several months ago; 

Norman Moore, 25, committed for trial in Burnaby on a charge of breaking and entering; 

William Lane, serving one year for car theft in Chilliwack, concurrent with a sentence in Kelowna of two years for receiv-ing stolen property. He was also sentenced in Vernon to two years for breaking and entering, the term to start at expiration of the others. 

DESPERATE FIGHT IS ANTICIPATED. Police officers engaged In the hunt are working with caution. They have they been warned that the fugitives, particularly Bagley and Sorge, will probably lose no time in obtaining arms, if they have not already done so, and that they will fight to the death rather than submit to capture. 

It was only recently that Bagley, held in Whatcom jail, awaiting extradition to Canada on Harrison Hot Springs Hotel robbery charge, attempted to shoot his way to freedom. His gun misfire, however, when he drew it on Jailer Earl Loop, and as he fled, Loop fired and struck him in the thigh.

Bagley is an old time convict, having served a term of ten years with twenty lashes for a bank robbery in Nanaimo.

Sorge also put up a terrific struggle before arrested in Vancouver on charges for which he was sentenced. He seriously injured Detective John Berry when the latter was apprehending him in a West End rooming-house.

‘I’m convinced that Bagley will never he taken alive," said one police official Sunday night. "He'll fight It out to the last" 

There is one peculiar coincidence In the situation. Two of the men who fled Sunday night, and who are believed to have escaped In the coupe - Moore and Lane - were both Involved in former attempted escapes from Oakalla, and in  both instances one of their companions was killed. On March 21, 1927, Lane and a man named McGregor, made a break from from the Jail. MGregor was killed In the attempt. On August 11, 1926, Moore and William Marsden. alias Brewster, made a dash for liberty and Brewster was shot by a guard and fatally Injured. 

The escape will be the subject of an exhaustive investigation, It Is declared j by Deputy Warden C. C. Whebell of Oakalla. Bagley was one of the most carefully-guarded Inmates of the Jail. and since his entry last June officials had been watching with utmost caution to outwit possible plans for escape. 

GUARDED AGAINST PLANS FOR ESCAPE Time and again rumors were carried to them that Bagley was working with outside confederates to gain his liberty, and on each occasion every precaution was taken to guard against a break.

In his routine prison life the man was classed as a good prisoner, but guards never slackened their watch on him. It was Just a few months ago that officials found firearma, ammunition and a bottle of ammonia In a stump near the Jail, which they believe had been secreted by Bagley's friends In readiness for a break. 

Even as recently as four days ago. prison authorities were "tipped off" that Bagley had another scheme brewing and he was moved from a former cell tier to the one from which he escaped. 

"He's a dangerous man," said Whebell ruefully. 

It was at 7 o'clock that absence of the quintette was noticed. Guard D. Campbell was making his  regular rounds and found the five cells empty. There are twenty cells where the men were confined and prisoners were assigned to nineteen. HACKSAW BLADE FURNISHED PRISONERS. In some manner possibly from an outside confederate a hacksaw blade waa obtained, and It is thought the prisoners cut the bars between 4:30 o'clock when they were locked In their cells after dinner and 7 o'clock, when their escape was discovered. One of the five, Lane, had been assigned the task of cleaner for the particular tier occupied by the escaped men. and he was not usually locked In his cell until 7 o'clock. 

The Ingenuity of the men - and the plan is credited to Bagley - is exemplified by the fact that they managed to manipulate the cell locks to gain freedom to the corridor which passes outside the cages. The locks are controlled from a master lever, which can open all, or any one of the cell doors. Never before has a prisoner been able to open these locks. In this case, however, the whole five were opened. 

It is thought that one of the men, possibly Lane, who as cleaner had freedom of the cell-corridor after the others were locked In, sawed his way through the narrow bars at the end of the corridor, first cutting through a light "V-Joint" wooden wall covering the grill. To prevent light from penetrating this opening, a piece of blanket was hung over it. 

TWO BARS CUT AND BLANKET TIED. Through this opening the men could enter a main corridor with access to a barred window. Two bare on this window were cut through, a blanket fastened to a bar, and the five slid to freedom. Prom the end of the blanket to the ground they dropped eighteen feet. Two halves of a hacksaw blade were found near the window. 

The remaining fourteen prisoners In the tier were left In their cells. Officials believe the fugitives did not offer to take the other prisoners with them, as a Jail delivery would hinder their evident plans for a quiet break. 

Once outside, it is conjectured by both police and prison officials, the fugitives found confederates waiting In an automobile with clothing to cover the prison garb and with guns. They point to the fact that two men took a car and fled through New Westmlnster. Since no other automobile was reported stolen in the district, it Is assumed that the other three had made previous arrangements for transportation. 

ALARM BRINGS REINFORCEMENTS. As soon as the escape was noticed Oakalla officials Instituted a hasty but thorough search of the grounds and the district surrounding the Jail. Misty rain added to the difficulties. Police of New Westminster were notified at 7:15 o'clock, and immediately Chief Cameron summoned his entire force and set patrols on Fraser bridge and all possible points of egress, 

Two Vancouver constable were sent to augment the Royal City force and guard the bridge where all cars, moving In either direction, were stopped and searched. Hardware stores were guarded, on the possibility that the fugitives would seek to break Into any store where they might obtain firearms. Chief Cameron also ordered patrols to watch freight trains passing through New Westminster. Fraser River waterfront was thoroughly patrolled. 

Vancouver police were notified at 7:50 o'clock, and other districts were warned to watch for the fugitives. Police have been despatched to the International border, customs and Immigration authorities have been notified, and police of Seattle have been told to be on the lookout for Bagley and his two companions as far east as Hope all roads are guarded. 

"MASTER MIND OF HARRISON ROBBERY.  Bagley was sentenced at the fall Assize Court at New Westminster, November 19, 1931, by Chief Justice Aulay Morrison to fourteen years and fifteen lashes after being convicted of robbery with violence in connection with Harrison Hot Springs Hotel holdup last April. He was in Oakalla prison pending an appeal of this sentence. 

He was the only one of the three bandits captured In connection with the crime. in which he was undoubtedly the "master mind." After blowing the safe in the hotel lobby, holding up the Japanese night watchman, and escaping with about 400, the trio fled in a stolen automobile as far as Mission City. There they engaged In a running gun battle with provincial police and doubled back to Deroche. Near this point they disappeared after abandoning the car.

Bagley was captured by the United States border patrol near Nooksack. Wash. He waa taken to Whatcom County Jail at Bellingham. 

Brought to Oakalla Jail In June. Bagley refused immediate election and his trial was stood over from the spring assizes until the fall court. 

Bagley was one of the six bandits who on Friday. December 12. 1924, Invaded the Royal Bank of Canada at Nanaimo, and at the point of revolver, rifled bank vault of $43,000. They escaped In an automobile. The money was a portion of a mining company'a payroll. Bagley was convicted later. The robbery, which was the first of its kind in Nanaimo for half a century, caused a sensation throughout the lower mainland. Unusual ability and determination was shown by the bandits, who on one occasion escaped from police by strewing nails on a Vancouver Island highway, thus puncturing tires of an auto carrying officers who were close behind them.

[AL: This escape took almost eight months to resolve, with Bagley finally tried in October 1932. I’ll be using the tag ‘1932 oakalla escape’ to track it as I post.]

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“Penitentiary terms Given Two Youths,” Barrie Examiner. March 20, 1941. Page 01. ---- Escape from Reformatory, and Later Burglarize Elmvale Garage --- PLEADED GUIL ---- Two young men originally hailing from Toronto, Lloyd Bastien, 20, married [BOTTOM], and Leonard Waites, 17, single, [TOP] appeared before Magistrate Jeffs on Saturday morning to answer two charges from Toronto and one from Guelph.

The charges were first, theft of a car from a Paslinch owner on March 2, second, theft of license plates, the property of His Majesty; and third, breaking and entering and theft of clothing, jewellery, etc. at the home of Ernest Wass, Toronto, on March 4.

Both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to one year each on the first count, six months each on the second, Bastien received two years at Portsmouth and Waite one year imprisonment, on the third charge.

The story told to the Crown by the young men was that they were both serving time at Guelph Reformatory and both would have been out in a short time but on March 2, they had wandered out of the grounds without intention, discovered that the guards were on their trail and had stolen the car to get away.

Breaking into the Toronto residence, they had secured clothing and had gone from there to the house of an Elmvale farmer with whom Bastien had worked previously. They had stayed there several days and were ultimately apprehended by the Chief of Police at Penetanguishene, after they had broken into a booth owned by Mrs. Beauchamp and also into Archer’s garage at Elmvale, where they took batteries and valuable tools.

Tried at Penetanguishene on March 13, on these additional counts they were each sentenced there to three years in penitentiary. All sentences here will run concurrently with the Penetang term.

[AL: Both men attempted to appeal but this was denied on April 18, 1941, and they were carted off to Kingston Penitentiary. Having never been in prison before and being quite young, Waites was identified by the Classification Board as being suitable for some kind of vocational trade, and he worked in the Printing Department at Kingston, was a well-behaved prisoner, and was paroled in December 1942. Bastien or Bastine, who had a previous reformatory sentence, was not so fortunate, was reported several times for disobedience, and worked in the blacksmith shop. He was released in August 1943.]

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“Fugitive Reported Caught,” The Globe and Mail. September 12, 1938. Page 04. --- Cornwall, Sept. 11 (Special). - Cornwall police have been notified of the arrest at Oneida, N.Y., Friday of Joseph George, 24, one of two Indian prisoners who escaped from the county’s jail here July 30. George is being held by New York State police on a charge of second degree burglary, and it is not expected he will be returned to Cornwall for some time. George and Wilfrid Charrow, 19, who were being held on remand on charges of theft, scaled the wall of the jail yard by means of a mason’s scaffold, being used in repair work, and made good their escape before jail guards noted their absence. They have been sought since by city, Provincial and R.C.M. police, the search centring upon the St. Regis Reservation along both side of the Canadian-United States border.

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“Escaped Convicts Caught At Bowmanville,” Whitby Gazette and Chronicle. February 8, 1917. Page 04. --- Bowmanville, January 23. - Two escaped trusty convicts from the penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa, were arrested here to-day by Chief Richard Jarvis. Earl W. Lindsay, aged twenty-nine years, an aviator and chauffeur, a native of Iowa, for whose arrest $100 is offered by the Iowa State Penitentiary, was one. Chief Jarvis identified Lindsay on the street this morning and shadowed him to discover his place of abode. This afternoon when he went alone to arrest him Lindsay was in bed, having worked on the night shift at the industrial plant here. To his great surprise Chief Jarvis discovered in another bed in the room Arnold Zimmer, another escaped convict from the same institution, and for whose arrest also $100 is offered. Both men were handcuffed and taken to the lockup. Since their escape last October they have been to England and France, and have been working here about six weeks. They offer to go back without extradition papers.