Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-01
NATIONWIDE NET Is THROWN
TO TRAP CONVICT FUGITIVES
AFTER BOLD TUNNEL ESCAPE
Four Squilm TO Freedom by
Underground Passage in
Broad Daylight Three Be-
Iieyed Hidden at Macon

A nationwide search has been in
stituted by federal authorities for
the four prisoners at the Atlanta
federal penitentiary who burrowed
their way to freedom Sunday after
noon by tunnelng under the fifty
foot wall at the institution in one
of the most daring Jail deliveries in
the history of prison.
The supposed leader of the quar-
tet was George Anderson, former
partner Of Gerald Chapman, the
"million.dollar" mail bandit, who
made his escape from the prison
several months ago. Anderson was
serving twenty-five-year sentence
for participation in the 100000
New York mail truck robbery, in
connection with which Chapman was
convicted.
The three others who made their
getaway included:
Hiram Lepper, so years old, SEN
fenced at Baltimore on May /, 1914,
to serve fifteen years for altering
United States treasury obligations
Lepper figured in a previous sensa-
tional escape from the prison, but
was recaptured in Milledgeville.
ludwig Schmidt. sentenced at
Rochester, n. Y, on May rs, 1921.
to serve ten years for robbing the
mails.
Frank Haynes. sentenced at Chat
tanCoga, Tenn, to serve eighteen
NOR tbs Tor counterfeiting. Haynes
would have completed his sentence
in February and was to have been
returned to Tennessee to face a state
charge@A
assses Scour City
Monday morning every police chief
within a radius of 200 miles OF AT.
lanta and officials in every large city
of the country had been notified of
the getaway and officials at the
prison were broadcasting circulars,
containing pictures and complete de-
scriptions of the men.
Posses of prison guards were
securing Atlanta and vicinity and
every railroad station and taxicab
stand was being watched in an eff
fort to apprehend the men in the
event they still are in Atlanta This
was considered improbable, however,
prison officials expressing the be-
lief that they already have left for
other parts Of the country.
The only clue in the hands of
prison authorities Monday morning
came in press dispatches from Ma
con, which stated that three men
had leaped from the Royal Palm
limited train, there Sunday ngiht
and, evading officers who had been
notified of the secape, ran down a
side street and disappeared.
Special Officers to Macon
Dispatches Monday were to the
effect that the three men had not
been located and special federal off
GERS were being sent to Macon.
Prison officials stated that it was
improbable that this trio included
Anderson, expressing the opinion
that he probably had parted com
pany with the others after the es-
cape and was now on his way TO
New York, where Chapman. his for
mer partner, is believed to be in
hiding.
Prison officials stood amazed Mon
day at the cleverness used by the
convicts in making good the escape.
and declared it to be unparalleled in
the history OF southern prisons.
4 tunnel. more than fifty feet in
length, was dug from tent in the
tllbercular ward, occupied by
Haynes, under the great concrete
wall fifty feet away and opened, |
with an aperture barely large enough
to admit the passage of a human
body just outside the wal.
The prisoners were first missed at