Evening star., 1933-05-31
NEW CRIMES LAID
| TO CONV|CTS Who
| FREED HOSTAGES
Might Watchman Killed Near
Spot Where Warden Was
Released.
FILLING STATION ROBBED
AND MANAGER KIDNAPPED
Three Women Set Free Last Night
Unharmed-Search Extends
to Three States.
BY the Associated Press.


LANSING, Kans., May 3l.-A police
man was slain at Chetopa, Kans., and
an Oklahoma filling station operator
was kidnapped and robbed today as the
IL conVicts who made a daring break
from the Kansas Penitentiary here yes
terday continued to elude host of
pfncers combing the Southwest.
The six hostages taken by the con-
victs yesterday-Warden Kirk Prather,
two prison guards and three women
whose automobile was commandeered-
were safe. having been released by the
two groups Of fugitives, who went sep
arate ways after the escape.
Otto L. Durkee, AZ, night policeman,
was shot to death in an alley at Che
topa, Kans., early today in a gun fight
with unidentified assailants.
Hunt in Three States.
Authorities expressed the belief he
may have encountered some Of the six
convicts who escaped into the hills OF
Northeast Oklahoma and released
Warden Prather and Guards L. A. Laws
AffQ JOIlil idot AaSoA
Welch, Okla, Is miles from Chetopa.
The hunt for the six fugitives, in
cluding Wilbur Underhill and Harvey
Bailey, notorious criminals and lead
ers of the Memorial day prison break,
centered today around Picher and
Miami, Okla, and spread through the
Tristate mining district of Oklahoma.
Kansas and Missouri.
JEFF Weatherby, who operates a I'LL
ing station north of Miami, was robbed
of a few dollars by four men, one OF
whom he identified as Underhill and
forced to accompany them in car
to Narcissa, south of Miami, where he
was released,
Police expressed the belief Bailey.
who was shot in the leg by prison
guard. and a companion might be In
some hideout and feared the other four
might kidnap a doctor TO give medical
aid to Bailey.
Investigation Begun.
A sharp lockout was being main
tained around Picfier, Okla, mining
town, where UnderhErs wife lives.
No trace had been found Of the five
other conyicts who held captive Mrs.
M j. Wood of Kansas City, Kans., her
daughter Louise, II, and Miss Clovis
wears j 6llQ liCCu tAACln NAAA40A &ACA
near Pleasanton, Kans.
Warden Prather and the two guards
returned to the psnitentiary this morn
ing. An investigation by the State
Board of Administration got under way
at the orders of Gov. ALI M. Landon.
4who directed q thorough inquiry "of
<fhe causes, lack of rulcs or discipline
khat might have re.lnitted the trouble
And the failure to confine it to the
3psnitentiary once it occurred"
Prather, a Democrat, who has been
warden two years, will turn over the
office tonight to Lacey Simpson of Can
ton, Republican, recently named by Gov.
Landon.
Women Freed Last Night.
Prather said the escape plot had been
planned for the first day under Simp-
sons wardenship but that the convicts
decided not to wait when they found
a perfect set-up" during the Memorial
day base ball game on the prison
grounds yesterday. He said the guards
were preoccupied by the exciting base
ball game between two American Le-
gion teans-the score being tied to
and his own appearance in the yard
made the time ripe for the break.
Mrs Wood and the girls said they
were released at 1890 o'clock last night
after a wild ride with the five convicts.
They said they were not mistreated.
They remained over night at a farm
house where the telephone wires had
been cut. This morning they notified
relatives in Kansas City, Kans., Of their
safety.
Warden Prather credited his safety
and that of bis companions, L. A. Laws
and John Sherman, to bottle of whis
ky the convicts drank after crossing the
State line into Oklahoma after a zig
gag journey through Eastern Kansas
The drink mellowed them, said the
warden, but he feared for his life even
lip to the time the three hostages were
elected from the car about 10 miles
from Welch, Okla.
After a day of hard driving, during
which the six convicts with the warden
and two guards commandeered several
motor cars, the six with their hostages
crossed the Southern border of the
State into Oklahoma. the old stamping
ground of Underhill. Underhill is the
supposed leader of the fleeing convicts
Continued on Page 8, Column D.