Evening star., 1959-12-28

Raid the Arsenal
When the day sergeant ar
rived. he was overpowered and
from him the prisoners got
the keys to the control room
where they found an arsenal of
weapons and clothing.
Stewart and his confederates
took a master key to the other
cellblocks and offered freedom
to the rest Of the prisoners.
Fifteen prisoners elected to re-
main behind. Twenty said they
would go.
Those determined to escape
broke into the gun cabinets
and took eight Colt .38s, six
Smith & Wesson 38s, two Win
chester 30-30 rifles, five Mar
lin 30-30s and one Thompson
submachine gun.
Some of them dressed in
civilian clothing. Others garbed
themselves in parts of the
guards uniforms. Others kept
their prison garb.
The desperadoes then locked
four of the guards in the bar
bershop and two in the cells
they had just vacated. The
armed men then left the prison.
The time was 1910 am.
1t was not until 4:30 am,
when the day-shift guards re-
ported for work, that the jail
break was discovered. E. N.
Pegg, assistant superintendent,
was first man on the scene and
he gave the alarm.
He happened to drive by and
saw IN horror that the elec-
tronic gates Of Ivy Bluff were
swung open and the three
guard towers were unnamed.
Mr.. Pegg reported to State
police and the FBI that the
escapes included IA white men
and six Negroes. He relayed
the information that they had
left the maximum security
prison in a prison truck and
two cars they found in the
vicinity. a 1850 Oldsmobile and
a 1854 Chevrolet.
Mr.. Pegg passed the word
that the criminals had at least
a four-hour start. The next
phase was the manhunt.
Janbreak from a State prison
is not specifically a Federal
offense, but the Charlotte
IN. c. Office of the FBI was
Immediately ordered to offer
maximum assistance to North
Carolina officials.
G-Men Join Hunt
1t was determined that Is of
the fugitives could be sought by
the G-men under the Fugitive
Felon Act because they had
been confined for such crimes
as murder, rape, robbery and
kidnapping. The remaining five
could be sought for unlawful
flight to avoid prosecution be-
cause they had stolen a prison
truck and weapons.
Prison officials formally re-
quested FBI aid and the vast
machinery of Director ]. Edgar
Hoover's organization got un-
derway.
FBI headquarters in WASH
ington took over direction of
the search. The Charlotte field
office began the tedious task of
passing along a detailed look
out for the missing 20 to all
State and local police organi-
cations and FBI Offices.
Teletypes clacked long into
December 8 and telephone wires
were hot with messages. The
FBI Offices in Cincinnati, Knox
vile. Louisville, Norfolk, Pitts
burgh, Richmond and Savannah
were brought into the search.
Eventually, every FBI office ex-
cept the one in Honolulu Joined
the manhunt.
Thousands of photographs,
f1ngerprints, arrest records,
descriptions and sets of back
ground information were passed
from the major cities like
Washington to the smallest
hamletS.
EIrSt rugltlVe SelZeo
But which way had the des-
perate men gone? Apparently
to the four winds and for that
reason, the lookout went in all
directions.
Before noon on December 8,
one of the 20 was recaptured
just 8 miles from jail. He was
Charles Edwards, %, colored, of
Gastonia, N. C. Edwards led
the posse such a chase that he
wore out two sets of blood
hounds.
Where were the others?
"Yank" Stewart, who set of
J the manhunt when he started
saving at the bars of Ivy
Bluff. was dragged from the
rocks under the Smith River
Bridge at Martinsville, Va, on
December II by city, county
. and State nolice