Evening star., 1931-12-12
Outside Aid Suspected in
Flight of Seven Prisoners
From LeavenWorth.
GATE GUARD UNDER FIRE
FOR FAILURE TO ACT
Acting Warden Says He Possibly
Could Have Shot One Man and
Prevented Escape.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LEAVENWORTH, Kans.. December
IA manhunt for one missing con-
vict was pressed by prison guards today
as Government authorities probed the
sensational break from Leavenworth
Federal Penltentiary yesterday which
ended in the death of three convict
mail robbers and the recapture of three
others.
Department Of Justice agents and
prison officials sought to learn how the
seven convicts obtained the weapons
with which they overpowered Warden
Thomas B. White and effected their
escape with the warden as their pris-
oner.
The general belief was that the con-
victs had outside aid and that the rifle,
shotgun and pistols in their possession
had been smuggled into the prison with
the assistance of underworld friends.
Fugitive Reported Armed.
Earl Thayer, 65-year-old mail robber
from Oklahoma, was still at large and
ives being hunted by a group of prison
guards using bloodhounds. Army planes
and soldiers from Fort Leavenworth
were not used as had been planned
'Thayer is old and can't get far"
said Fred Zerbst, warden of the prison
annex and acting warden in place of
White, who is in the hospital with a
on ~ in hi Iaft
when he wrested loose from his cap
tors on a highway.
Thayer was reported to be armed
with a rife.
zerbst said the inquiry will stress
among other things why Guard Gray
at the main gate tower of the prison
did not fire on the convicts even
though they held the warden and his
secretary, E. H. Eckholdt, as hostages
to shield themselves.
Offered Good Target.
AS the party went across the lawn to
the warden's house outside the gate,
Zerbst said, the prisoners offered
good target and were not too closely
punched but what some of them might
have been picked off.
Asked If the presence Of the warden
and other hostages might have been the
reason for not firing, Zerbst replied:
We are like soldiers; we have to
take risks"
The investigation also will seek to
develop how the armed convicts, who
entered the warden's office with forged
passes, could have escaped the scrutiny
Of guards.
The acting warden said the men had
rlrle' saWed-of shotgun and pistols.
Trio to Be Prosecuted.
zerbst said Gray had rifle, machine
gun and pistol The acting warden
said he understood there were only two
other hostages besides White Eckholdt,s
version was that six men were COM
PEELED to accompany the convicts to the
gate-White, Eckholdt three clerks and
one guard '''-0
Inc guard should have been able
10 shoot at least one of the conyicts "
SAID Aerost. 4 believe the escape wo1lid
nave been broken up at once if he has
opened fire"
s. M. Brewster United States district
attorney said the captured trio would
be prosecuted on escape charges. which
carry penalty Of five years. Charges
OF smuggling arms, 10-year penalty:
Kionaplng and assault are other possi-
bilitieS. H'''
Questioned on Weapons.
questioning of the men, Tom Under
wood and Stanley Brown. North DAKOTA
mail robbers, and Charles Berta Cali
tornia mail robber, failed to elicit anv
information as to how the escape plot
was engineered or how the weapons
were obtained --@
The bodies Of the slain convicts. who
apparently died by their own hands
when trapped by a posse in a farm
mouse, were held today for word from
The dead are William Green, 81, mail
roboer, sentenced from Kansas Citv
ana Groyer 9. Durrill, Al, and George
S' SuL u.s. 90, oKlahoma mail train rob-
berS. Green is believed to have killed
Continued on Page 2, Column 81