William Joseph Frederick Day

William Joseph Frederick Day was found dead in Burrator Reservoir on Monday 16 February 1959.

He had recently escaped from Dartmoor Prison on 5 January 1959.

He had escaped with another prisoner, a 25-year-old who was later captured in London's West End on the night of Friday 20 February 1959.

William Day's friend said that he had tried to save William Day from drowning and that he had dived into the reservoir to rescue him.

They had escaped together by scaling a 30ft high prison wall and made off in thick fog. It was said to have been the worst weather of the winter on the moor and that heavy rain that fell during the next few days had caused floors and reduced much of the moorland to quagmire. It was said that the men had both hidden in the corner of the mat-shop before the work-parties knocked off for tea and that they had then broken into an anteroom and forced open the window into the jail yard and then climbed over the outer wall with the aid of a piece of scaffolding that it appeared they had just planted there shortly before.

Following their escape, prison officers ran to the spot but nothing could be seen of them. A window in the mat shop where they had been working was found to be broken.

It was noted that the day after their escape that a lifebelt was found missing from its box at the side of the reservoir and it was later found floating at almost the exact spot where William Day's body was later found.

On Tuesday 6 January 1959 it was reported that the police were paying special attention to the outskirts of Plymouth after householders in the Yelverton area, about ten miles from Plymouth, said that they thought that the escaped men might have been making use of the wooded valleys to reach the city.  One woman said that she had been awakened by footsteps in her house drive early on 6 January 1959. She said that she then awoke her husband and that they then called 999 and that it wasn't until the police arrived that they had heard anything about the escaped prisoners.

It was also reported that sometime later at Bickleigh, about four miles nearer Plymouth, that a farmer was disturbed by his dogs, but could see nothing. When he called the police they found tracks leading off towards Bickleigh in the direction of Plymouth.

It was also thought that the men had got away in a stolen car which was later found abandoned at Bere Regis in Dorset.

When William Day was found he was still wearing his prison clothing.

He was found by a maintenance worker at the reservoir who saw it in 10ft of water whilst making his rounds. The maintenance worker said that he then went and fetched the foreman and that they went back to where the body was but said that it was inshore near a dam and they could not get it out themselves and that eventually Naval frogmen removed it from the water at about 3pm.

William Day's body was identified by fingerprints and a clotting check.

William Day had previously lived in Tooting, London and had been serving a six-year sentence for house, garage and shop-breaking. He had been convicted at Devon Quarter Sessions in October 1956. He had previously escaped from a working party at Exeter prison in June 1957 but was recaptured two days later about ten miles away.

William Day's inquest was held on Wednesday 18 February 1959 in Tavistock, Devon, where an open verdict was returned and his cause of death was given as drowning. The Coroner said that he did not think that any stress should be put on the lifebelt that was found in the reservoir near the spot where William Day's body was found, saying, 'We don't know how it was thrown into the water or by whom'.

The other man that had escaped with William Day was arrested in London after he was seen walking along the street by two detectives that had been on a routine patrol in a flying squad car. It was reported that they had pulled up a few yards behind him and then jumped out and run up behind him and grabbed him by both arms. It was said that he tried to struggle but quickly gave up. It was noted that a man that had been with him as well as a woman that had been in the street both ran off.

The other escapee was said to have been wearing a well-cut suit and overcoat and to have had a few pounds in his pocket.

It was later reported that his escape had been master-minded by a 'beautiful blonde woman' and that a telegram that he had sent to her from prison a week earlier had about a book had been code for the breakout and that the blonde woman had arranged for a car to be parked near the prison wall for their escape.

The other prisoner was described as a 'playboy-gunman'.

Before the other prisoner was arrested there had been reports that he had been seen in a hotel in Kingston, Jamaica. He was noted for having previously escaped from Wormwood Scrubs Prison in November 1956 and having been later arrested in Port of Spain, Trinidad in March 1957.

Burrator Reservoir was described as being a 651m gallon reservoir. It was eight miles from Dartmoor Prison.

On Friday 17 April 1959 it was reported that another 39-year-old man had also escaped from Dartmoor Prison on 13 March 1959 but was recaptured the following day.

On Friday 24 April 1959 it was reported that another prisoner had escaped from Dartmoor, a 6ft 2in tall man that had been serving a total of eight years for shop breaking and housebreaking. He had sawn through the bars in his cell window and jumped 20ft down to the ground and then used a scaffolding plank to hoist himself over the outer wall of the prison.

Additionally on Friday 3 July 1959 it was reported that three men were convicted for having plotted to break a 29-year-old man out of Dartmoor Prison.

On Saturday 24 October 1959 it was reported that another man, a 33-year-old had also escaped from Dartmoor but was recaptured 33 hours later after being caught in a field near Crownhill after being seen by a milkman. He had been serving a five year sentence at the time for housebreaking.

In December 1966 an prisoner was also helped to escape from Dartmoor by associates of the Kray twins, notorious London gangsters. The man had escaped whilst out on a working party after asking a sole prison guard if he could feed the ponies after which he went off to a nearby road where a car was waiting for him. However, it was said that his behaviour proved difficult and that he was later shot dead in a van and his body wrapped up in chicken wire and weighted down and thrown into the English Channel. His body was never recovered.

Another infamous breakout from Dartmoor happened in 1951 when a man known as 'Rubber Bones' wriggled his way out along a narrow airshaft that ran under his cell. He was free for six days. In a previous escape in 1947 he was also free for three days.

It was noted on 1 May 1959 that the girlfriend of the other prisoner that had escaped with William Day had suffered serious injuries after being involved in a car accident in southwest London on Tuesday 28 April 1959 resulting in her skull being smashed. She had been taken to Mayday Hospital in Croydon where she was described as 'still seriously ill'. She had lived in Cranley Gardens, South Kensington.

An article in Friday 29 May 1959 detailed the cost to the tax-payers for prison breaks, stating that when a prisoner made a break for freedom that it cost the tax-payer about £83 for every day that they were at large. The estimate was given by an Assistant County Treasurer who said that two years earlier the County Council was told that the average overall cost to the taxpayer for the police hunt following an escaped prisoner was £666 every 24 hours. It was said that a quart of that sum was additional expenses created by the escape and that a Home Office grant reduced that cost to £83 per day. It was noted that Devon police's 'Dartmoor Escape Scheme' was run quite cheaply and that whilst £83 a day was not thought to have been a staggering bill to pay for the recapture of a prisoner, that it as thought that more could be done to strengthen prison security at the Moor'.