Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-12-04
PRISON BREAK CASE
OPENS TOMORROW
Four Convicts and Former
LeavenWorth Inmate
to Go on Trial.
BY the Associated Press.


KANSAS CITY, Kans., December 8.
-Four participants and an alleged con-
spirator in q break for liberty at the
Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary De-
cember IL, 1881, which resulted fatally
for three other convictS, are defendants
IN trial opening here tomorrow.
The Federal Court proceedings may
! bring out inside and hitherto unrevealed
developments surrounding the shipment
OF dynamite and firearms in barrel
OF shoe polish to the prison shoe shop
where the seven convictS involved OBJ
tanned them.
Warden Thomas B. White was taken
along as hostage by the escaping men
and before he was abandoned by the
desperate fugitives he was wounded
severely in the left arm.
Harold Fontaine, former inmate OF
Leavenworth, is charged with snug
Cling the firearms into the prison. He
was extradited from Canada in proceed
ings which involved the attention of the
President of the United States. Fed
eral authorities will seek to prove that
Fontaine, former worker in the prison
shoe shop, made a private purchase OF
the same kind Of polish which the
prison uses and put the firearms and
dynamite In the barrel before shipping
1t from st. Louis.
Mail Robbers Accused.
Charges Of escaping by violence. Of
assault with intent to murder and Of
smuggling firearms into the prison are
faced by the other defendants. The
four, all serving long terms for mail
robberies. are Thomas Underwood, 40,
sentenced from Duluth, Mimi; Stanley
Brown, 43, sentenced from Fargo, N.
OAK; Charles Berta, 80, sentenced from
San Francisco and Earl Thayer, 65,
sentenced from Oklahoma City, Okla.
Three others, William Green, 81,
leader of the plotters Grover D. Dur
rell, Al, and George Curtis, 50. also
mail robbers, were found dead in the
tear gas-filled attic of the nearby farm
of E. G. Salisbury, after a siege by
posses.
The common belief was that Green,
seeing the cause was hopeless, shot
down his companions and then killed
himself. Salisbury was an enforced
companion of the trio during most OF
the siege, but escaped through a trap
door just prior to the end Of the battle
Using forged passes to get past a
guard, the seven had gone to the war
den's Office about 9 o'clock the morn
ing OF the outbreak and compelled
White and his secretary, e. H. Eckholot,
to accompany them past the main gate.
White later disclosed that one of the
prisoners warned If there was a hitch
in their plans at the gate, explosives
would be discharged sufficient to kill
all persons near at hand and to wreck
the prison entrance.
Warden Was Wounded.
Eckholdt was then released, but White
was forced to accompany the prison.
ers In motor car taken from five Fort
Leavenworth soldiers who were passing
the prison. Later, after the fugitives
broke up into two bands, Warden White
attempted to snatch gun from one
OF his kidnapers. He was fired upon,
presumably by Green, and the shot
shattered his left arm. Apparently be-
lieving the warden was wounded fatally,
the convicts abandoned him
Three of the convicts went on to the
Salisbury farm where they made their
last stand. Three others, forced to
abandon car after car, finally tried to
escape on some farm horses, but were
oyertaken by prison guards nd recap
tured.
Thayer. exhausted by lack of shelter
ana food. was taken into custody with
out resistance three days later when he
appeared at farm house In the vicin-
ity