Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1913 — MAN LEAPS FROM FAST TRAIN [ARTICLE]

MAN LEAPS FROM FAST TRAIN

Detective Holds to Wrist and Drags Man Four Mlles Before Letting Go. London. —The 2 o’clock express from Liverpool to London was the scene of a dramatic 'struggle between police officers and a prisoner, ending in the temporary escape of the latter. Detective-Inspector Fowler, of Scotland yard, and Detective McCoy of Liverpool, arrested in that city a man named Barker on a warrant issued

three years ago at the instance of the director of public prosecution. The two officers and their prisoner, the latter handcuffed to Detective McCoy, took their seats in the express, and all went well till a point between Leighton Buzzard and Bletchley. Here Barker on a pretext, was temporarily released from the handcuff which bound him to McCoy. He made a dash for the door, pulled it open, and jumped from the train, which was then going at sixty miles an hour. As he did so Detective Inspector Fowler seized him by the wrist with one hand, and though Barker is a heavy man, held him suspended, while Mr. McCoy pulled the communication cord. Inspector Fowler held on to his man for four miles, but his wrist then became numb and he was compelled to release his grasp. Three miles further on the train stopped. The two police officers provided themselves with lanterns, and walked back along the line in search of the fugitive. Finally they came to the spot where he had fallen, and traced him by blood stains to a farmhouse some distance from the railway, where he had taken refuge. He was so badly injured about the head that medical assistance had to be secured. After Barker’s wounds had been dressed he was taken on to Euston. He was formally charged and then taken to the infirmary.