Evening star., 1933-02-12

like Paul NUM- shosUn in a scene
from the mop;e ,Uhich ,Uas made from
Burns story of his imprisonment.
HE life of a man who escapes from
prison is usually ~ pretty uncom-
Portable one No matter how far
away he gets, no matter how COM
pletely he may seem to bury his past,
he can never be quite sure that
hand will not fall on his shoulder some day.
to call him back to the life he left behind.
So when something finally does happen to
clear things up. the escaped convict gets feel
ing Of relief that the ordinary, law-abidlng
mortal never knows.
Two or three cases of this kind have ap-
peared In the newspapers in recent times.
Most noted, probably, was the case Of Robert
=. Burns, the man who fed from Georgia
chain gang established himself as a respected
business man, got recaptured, escaped again
and finally, just a short time ago, won what
may be permanent freedom when the Governor
Of New Jersey refused to extradite him back to
Georgia for further punishment.
Before Burns case got in the headlines there
was another one slightly xmilar-that OF
Arthur Van Pel, q young Kansan. who escaped
from San Quentin Prison, in California. made
his way back to Kansas, went straight" and
finally was recaptured. Van Pelt was assured of
his complete freedom when California
thorities, impressed by his record, gave him a
parole.
Then there was Lamont signor of New Jer-
sey, who was exposed last year as an escaped
convict from the Ohio State Prison. Because
he, too, had lived an honest life and had estab-
hshed himself as a leading citizen in his COM
munity Gov. George White of Ohio gave him
. full pardon.
DUBILC attention focused itself chiefly on
Burns case, which, for a variety of reasons,
was the most spectacular of all
Burns, World War veteran who had been
wounded in action overseas, found himself pen
niless in Florida early in the Spring Of 1922.
He started to beat his way back North, and in
Atlanta fell in with couple Of wanderers at a
Salvation Army flop house.
BY them. he says. he was enticed into a hold
up-he says that he did not know what was
planned until he had become too deeply in
volved to back out-and the three robbed cor
ner grocery store of approximately S..
The Atlanta police picked the robbers up a
few hours afterward. They were brought to
trial and were sentenced to prison-Burns for
. term Of six to eight years. He was transferred
ut once to the Campbell County chain gang to
serve his term.
In book which he later wrote, Burns made
. scathing attack on the chain gang system, de-
claring it was brutally conducted that prison.
ers were surrounded by shockingly bad sanitary
conditions that the food was atrocious that
the work was inhumanly hard, and that the
guards were cruel
These plans matured soon. Burns says he
got fellow convict to strike his leg shackles
with sledge hammer. cracking them SO that
when Burns slipped of the road into a clump
OF bushes he could easily slip them of. Then
he set out, running across the country with
three camp bloodhounds In pursuit
The dogs overlook him but did not attack
him; instead, they ran with him nearly all day,
apparently thinking that this cross-country
ramble was a sort of game. Burns finally left
them behind by swimming q river: then he got
. ride into Atlanta in a passing nivver and hiu
svernight in the room of friend.
Sopphed with a change of clothing and
Aftie money by this friend Burns set out for
ne NORTH. He hitch-hiked his way out of At