Broadmoor Revealed_ Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum - Mark Stevens [55]
Meanwhile, Orange was about to have his annus horribilis in terms of escapes. It was as if all the charges he levelled at the convicts were about to be proved. It started on 27th May 1873, when John Batts, a thirty-two year-old, suicidal thief was out walking with an attendant and two other patients in the Asylum grounds. During this gentle stroll, Batts suddenly took off from the path and made for the woods. The attendant in charge of the group quickly deposited the other two patients with a working party nearby and then took off himself in pursuit of Batts. The alarm was raised and a number of other attendants soon joined the search. Batts was found by one of them a short while later in the neighbouring parish of Sandhurst. He put up no resistance, and the attendant enlisted the help of a passing labourer to escort Batts to the village centre, where he was retrieved to the Asylum by cart. Batts was sent back to Millbank, the labourer was given a one pound reward, and there was the opportunity for all to feel that lessons had obviously been learnt from 1871, and that systems were now in place that made it unlikely any patient could escape the estate.
Regrettably, any hint of self-satisfaction would be found misplaced, and sooner than they might have imagined. For it was Orange’s misfortune that the next flight of the year would lead to a third patient vanishing without trace, and the only such loss under Orange’s direct command. The fact that the subject was also the only murderer in Broadmoor’s history to never be recaptured only doubled Orange’s embarrassment.
It was Saturday 12th July 1873, and patient William Bisgrove was exercising in the Asylum grounds, accompanied by Attendant Allan Mason. It was not the first time that Bisgrove had been allowed outside the walls: he had been exercising in this fashion for about 18 months before. On this particular outing, Bisgrove and Mason strolled around the southern fields of the estate before turning, and making their way back towards the Asylum farm, pausing only to talk about the chickens that were running around their enclosure. As they moved on, Bisgrove pointed out some rabbit burrows adjacent to the footpath, and Mason, a big man, bent down to look at one of the burrows. Now that he was off guard, Bisgrove hit him hard on the back of the head with a stone in a sling, in the traditional patient manner. While the attendant reeled from the blow, Bisgrove attempted to throttle him, and then the two men grappled each other, before Bisgrove threw off his custodian and made his way, like previous runners, into the pine woods of Bracknell Forest.
Mason was temporarily incapacitated, but recovered and quickly made his way back to the farm. He raised the alarm, and then set off again in the direction Bisgrove had run. A thorough combing was made of the woods, but with no success. There were no leads until, as the searches were going on, word was received that someone fitting Bisgrove’s description – a man with thick black curly hair and beard, and wearing the plain blue Asylum jacket and waistcoat with fustian trousers – had been spotted in the grounds of Sandhurst Military College. A search party spent the night there. Bisgrove was not found.
On the Sunday morning, a message reached the Asylum that Bisgrove had been seen in Aldershot on Saturday night. So throughout Sunday, a team of constables and attendants visited every lodging house and outbuilding in Aldershot, only to report back empty-handed once again. Then on Monday, a local woman told the Police that she had seen a man jump into the Basingstoke Canal two miles from Aldershot. The Canal was dredged, yet nothing was brought up that was connected to the fugitive. The Police back in Somerset were alerted, and the search closer to home was widened to Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton and Portsmouth. Twelve days later, Orange called off the chase. In the back of his mind was