Evening star., 1950-06-10
Cowors Way Out Grosped By King Kong as Escape Fails

moved. That was the task the
nurse set herself.
! She had an accomplice. He was
another prisoner whose identity
was masked under the nickname
of The Singing Rat" He was
apparently serving q sentence fol
a not too serious offense and
through the efforts of the nurse
was given the job of a cleaning
orderly for sick prisoners like
Lindemans.
! File Struggled In.
/ Somehow or other-and the
how was never afterward salts
Ifactorily explained-the nurse
managed to get a steel-cutting file
smuggled in. And with this she
started to tackle the stout bars
Of King Kong's prison.
1t must have been slow work
Only a little could be done each
day or night. But there was THE
Singing Rat" to help, to take his
turn up at the window while the
nurse kept watch and remained
close at hand with ready explana-
ton should it become necessary.
At last the bars were sawed
through. Not right through. for
they had to appear intact to any
casual inspecting eye. But 50
that the little thrust Of a deter
mined hand would complete the
severance and leave barless gate
way to freedom.
There was now second part
Of the plan that had to be fixed
The room in which King Kong
lay was a good distance from the
ground. Some way had to be
found Of lowering him, once he
had scrambled through the little
window.
This was where 1.-THE Singing
Rat" came in again. On the night
chosen for the escape q rubber
hose was. in apparent carelessness
left hanging out Of a storeroom
window quite close to the window
Of the Lindemans room.
Slid Down Hose.
And it was down this hosepipe
that Lindemans, in the darkness,
slithered and scrambled to the
ground when the moment came.
But his luck was out. He made
too much noise. He could not
help making too much noise, and
patrolling guards heard and in
vestigated. Within a matter of
minutes Lindemans was back be-
hind bars again.
Fate was now ready to write
the final lines in the dramatic
story Of Christian Lindemans. The
date Of his trial had been fixed
But two days before that day
dawned he was found lying upon
the mattress of his prison bed,
dead.
His body was nearly cold. The
nurse was found lying unconscious
across him. She was rushed to
the operating theater, strong
antidotes to poison were applied.
She recovered. the official report
states enough to confess that
she had administered 80 aspirin
tablets to Lindemans. and had
taken a similar number herself.
It was to have been a suicide
pact.
The death Of Lindemans was
mentioned briefly in various news
papers.
I was not able to discover the
name of the nurse, nor have my
Investigations sifice brought it to
light. I do not know if she was
brought to trial for her share in
the suicide pact, and for supplying
Lindemans with 80 aspirin tablets
Nor do I know what became of the
traitor Cornelius Verloop the man
nicknamedS @Satan Face" whose
confession to me had been my first
proof that Lindemans was a paid
spy of the Nazis. and had betrayed
Arnhem to them.
May Still Be Alive.
Verloop may be alive today. II
anything about the fate of Verloor
or the anonymous nurse has ever
been published, it has escaped my
notice. This is possible, despite
the very deep interest I took in
the case. as I was stationed in
Germany at the time. searching
for caches of loot slowed by Nazi
leaders. and. incidentally, dealing
with most interesting murder
case-but that is another story.
For this reason, have had tc
take my facts about the circum-
stances of Lindemans' death from