The Great Escape

I was visiting the Philadelphia area during the recent holidays and found myself driving thru the Fairmount section of the city which housed the former Pennsylvania State Penitentiary - now vacant except  for occasional visitors and curiosity seekers viewing Al Capone's earlier quarters. But on an early spring morning in 1945 as the milkman was making his rounds he saw bodies literally popping up from outside the walls of this formidable structure. It was the day that a dozen inmates tunneled out of the prison and scattered into the surrounding urban neighborhood. Most were rounded up in short order except one - Willie Sutton - an infamous bank robber - who melted into the surroundings. He was known as "Slick Willie" and was a master of disguises who often used uniforms and costumes to catch victims off guard. When asked why he robbed banks it is said he replied that that's where the money was. Fast forward to February 1952 when a young clothing salesman and amateur detective - call him Shuster - recognized Willie on the Brooklyn subway and followed him home - and later went to the police. Now the unwritten rule for subway riding in New York was dozing - reading - panhandling - but never staring. Anyway, young Shuster was not content to be an anonymous hero and sought publicity in the newspapers and on TV which angered the New York mob. A few weeks later I was riding the Seventh Ave. subway enroute to the old Madison Square Garden - it was March Madness week for the basketball tournament - when I opened the New York Post and there was a picture of young Shuster - he had been gunned down outside his home - a brutal example of gangland retribution. The moral is if you find yourself performing your civic duty - please, no pictures, names, addresses or interviews -(Cable News will hate you) -   just have them wire the reward money to your Swiss bank account.
tjs
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