Convicts Run Amok

Three Days of Terrorism in Samoa

From Our Own Correspondent APIA, June 20.

FOUR Samoan natives, all convicted criminals of evil character, broke out of Tafaigata gaol (six miles south of Apia) on June 10, possessed themselves of arms, roamed the countryside for three days, shot and gravely wounded a police man, terrorised the citizens, and were finally rounded up and captured by the police after an excising chase. They were Luapo (usually called Mano) of Saleufi, who is serving five years for the theft of a motor-boat, last year, and who had broken gaol before. He was ringleader.

Fetuiai of Faleasiu, serving a life sentence for wife-murder.

Mene of Vailima, serving seven years for rape.

Paulo Tuala of Leauvaa, serving 21 years for theft.

The escape was carefully planned. They got out of gaol at 8 a.m. on Friday, June 10, made straight for the house of the European gaoler, Mr. Bower, (who was absent at the time), broke in and took from a cupboard a .303 rifle, a .22 rifle and an automatic revolver, and much am-

TOP: The thief and gaol-breaker Mago, in hospital in Apia, with a 303 bullet in the muscles of his left shoulder.

MIDDLE: The taxi-cab, showing the holes made by the bullets of the pursuing police.

Beside the car is Constable Tavita Fitisemanu who shot and arrested Mago.

LOWER: Sergeant Muliaga with Fetuiai, the only one of the four gaol-breakers who gave himself up.

munition Thev stole also some spirits

Td supplieswVtonly shotkilled

the eaoler’s two dairy cows and disap- {Sired into the bush Search parties, headed by police, were soon scouring the country. Somehow, one of the searching police was cornered by the convicts. They took from him his shot-gun and ammunition, and then debated, among themselves, whether they should kill him. They let him go.

A small police patrol, led by Sergeant F. Kruse, got into a clash with the convicts and Sergeant Kruse was shot at close range with a shotgun and suffered serious injuries to face and chest.

By this time the wildest reports were in circulation, and the district was terror-stricken.

On Saturday morning the Fautua, High Chiefs Tamasese and Malietoa. went out to Faleasiu and Leauvaa villages, where the families of two of the prisoners live, and tried to make contact with the men to persuade them to give themselves up.

Amongst other statements, the prisoners were reported to have made the threat that they would get hold of a motorcar and drive through Apia town, shooting and killing until they were killed themselves.

Late on Saturday, it was reported that the prisoners had sent a letter to Tofa Tomasi (Samoan member of the Legislative Assembly* who lives at Faleasiu, on the West Coast. This letter set out grievances which had allegedly caused the four prisoners to revolt. The letter requested that an answer be broadcast on Saturday evening over Apia Station 2AP, and seemed to indicate a willingness to surrender.

The Hon Tofa Tomasi, with the consent of the High Commissioner (Mr. G. R.

Powles) broadcast an appeal to the men to give themselves up, promising that any grievance would be investigated. He

asked tne men to come to his house at Faleasiu on Sunday morning, at 7 a.m., so that he might accompany them to Apia Police Station.

TJOWEVER. when the Assembly man XX returned the same evening from Apia, after his broadcast, the four men were awaiting him at the roadside, near Faleula. They begged him to allow them to spend the night with their families, before surrendering themselves on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. They were still fully armed, and refused to surrender their weapons. The Hon. Tofa left them with the Leauvaa village authorities, expecting them to present themselves at Faleasiu at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

Instead, however, two of the convicts, Mano and Mene, went in to Apia by motor bus and in Apia, still fully armed, they engaged a taxi and forced the driver, at gunpoint, to drive them to Vailima, where the family of Mene lives. Defiantly and jeeringly, they drove past the Apia Police Station.

The Apia police at once took up the chase. On the convict’s return from Vailima, near Saleufi, home of Mano, the police caught up with the taxi. The taxi driver then wrestled with Mano, and took the gun away from him, and brought the taxi to a stop.

Mano jumped from the taxi, and was wounded in the shoulder by a shot fired by the police, who then arrested him and took him to the Apia Hospital. A shot fired by the police at the back of the taxi went right through the back and front seats, and narrowly missed the driver.

After that, Mene was arrested at Saleufi, where he had stayed with his family.

Paulo Tuala was arrested by a police party at Leauvaa, at his family’s fale.

Several shots were fired before he found it advisable to surrender tamely.

The only prisoner who abided by the agreement with the, Horn To a was the wife-murderer, Fetuiai of Faleasiu, who surrendered to Tofa and was brought to Apia police station at noon on Sunday. . npHUS, a dangerous incident ended with- X out loss of life. The situation, dur ing the three days, caused a near panic amongst European women and children in Apia and on the cocoa plan tations. A commendable feature of the activities was the co-operation between the Government authorities, particularly the police, and the Samoan leaders, who exerted all their influence to prevent more ugly aspects and bloodshed, Both Sergeant Kruse and Mano are recovering and out of danger. The trial of the escapees will take place when Sergeant Kruse can appear m Court.

“ Dynamite Mac Again!

J rpHE leader of the gaol escapees seems X to be none ether than our old friend, the pinheaded and bombastic Samoan thief. “Dynamite Mac Mago.”

This is the buffoon who, early in January, 1950, induced a couple of other Samoan hoodlums (who already had achieved notoriety by running away with Mr. A. G. Smyth’s little vessel, Wyben, and losing her in the Solomons) to accom pany him in stealing O. F. Nelson and Co.s motor-vessel, Gaumatau. They sneaked out of Apia port at midnight; and “Dyna : mite Mac” decided they should sail forth with to Tahiti, and spend their lives in luxury and romance.

After a month of wandering around— they did not know where—they came upon an island, which “Dynamite Mac” assured them was Tahiti. But they were actually in Eastern Samoa—only 160 miles from their starting-point. Although they had

clumsily disguised themselves and their ship, they soon were arrested, and sent back to Apia, where they got five years.

This Samoan criminal and public nuisance has been more or less under police observation for years—ever since he sought public adulation as a boxer, and assumed the name of “Dynamite Mac.”

Certain aspects of this Samoan gaolbreak of June 10-12 are dealt with in an article on page 6.