Evening star., 1947-04-28
) GI Mental Patients
Caught After Break;
Fourth Still al Large
BY ths Assecioied Press

SAN FRANCISCO, April 28.-
Three of four dangerous mental pa
tients who escaped from the Army's
Letterrnan General Hospital after
slugging five attendants yesterday
were back in custody today while
search widened for the fourth and
a hospital orderly they took as a
hostage.
Still at large, more than "a hours
after the escape, was Frank p. Wall
rath, "a, of Long Island City, N. Y.
The orderly Is Wallace Williams of
Fort Worth, Tex.
Wallrath, a paratrooper with the
11th Airborne Division during the
war, was convicted by an 9th Army
court-martial last August % for de-
serting under fire and for escaping
twice from Army confinement. He
was sentenced to death and the di-
vision commander upheld the SEN
tence, but President Truman later
committed it to life Imprisonment.
The four patients made their es-.
cape from the doublelocked psyche
pathic ward at am, after slugging
four ordeIlies who were summoned
one by one. They opened the ward
doors with keys taken from the or
derlies and then slugged guard,
taking his .45-caliber pistol.
First Captured at Nightfall.
At nightfan the first of the
escapes was captured. Joe Salin-
dron, "a, of Hawaii, recently trans
ferred from the disciplinary bar
racks at Camp Cooke, near Lompoc,
Calf, under f1ve-year sentence
for larceny, was caught at .Sacra-
mento, 80 miles northeast of San
Francisco.
Salindron was arrested by High
way Patrolman Emerson Reed.
after he had terrorized two taxi
cab drivers with a straight-edge
razor. He violently resisted arrest.
out the windshield of
Patrolman Reeds patrol car en- route
to the city jail.
There he tried twice to take his
life, once slashing his wrist and
then attempting to hang himself
with his shirt.
Salindron told officers he had
left the other three at the gate
of the Preside and hitch -hiked to
Sacramento.
A few hours later, police at
so miles south OF sSacra-
nento, broke in the door of a down
town hotel and arrested two other
escapees, Homer Richie, 30, Hazard,
KY, and George Heiser, 80, Billings,
Mont. The stolen Army automatic
pistol was found under the bed.
The men did not resist arrest.
Obtained Fraudulent Papers.
Richie, who was transferred to
Letterman from Fort Leavenworth,
Kans., on a 14-year sentence for
assault with a deadly weapon in
New Guinea, admitted he obtained
fraudulent passes March 10 with the
idea of escaping. Heiser was serving
five years for forgery and desertion.
Neither Richie nor Heiser offered
information as to the whereabouts
of Wallrath and the orderly.
One of the medical corpsmen who
was overpowered, husky Pfc Delbert
E. Price, "a, Charleston, w. Va,
said he was called to administer
aid to Salindron and the first thing
he knew he was surrounded"
Richie had a lead pipe which
he held over my head" Price re-
lated. "Heiser had a knife against
my back. They ordered me to strip.
Then they bound me to the bed and
gagged me-"
The other orderlies overpowered
were Williams, Pfc. A. F. Pittman
of Kelso, Wash, and T/5 Fess Hens
ley of Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The four escapes stripped the
white uniforms from three Of the
orderlies and the guard, Pvt. Zach
Eidred, but they apparently de-
cided not to wear the garb, since
it would attract immediate atten-
ton in public.
Within Is minutes of the escape
the vast Presidio area was swarm
ing with Army and city police, but
no trace could be found of the es-
capees. Search in the Presidio was
abandoned in midmorning and con-
centrated in the water front area
and through the city. Road blocks
were established on all roads lead
ing out of San Francisco.
Silver Spring Unit to Meet