Two Convicts Kidnap Ann Arbor Patrolman

Two Convicts Kidnap Ann Arbor Patrolman

Officer George Stauch Released After Losing Car, Gun, Uniform

State police today joined in the search for two escaped convicts who, early this morning, overpowered an Ann Arbor policeman, took his police department automobile, stripped him of uniform, gun and badge, tied him up and finally abandoned him in an untenanted farmhouse on Crane Rd., near Merritt Rd., southwest of Ypsilanti.

Victim of the attack was patrolman George Stauch who this morning said the men identified themselves to him as Nelson King, 29, and Marion Buczynski, 25, both Detroiters and escapees from a Southern Michigan Prison maintenance detail at nearby Cassidy Lake, newly established honor camp for Michigan prisoners.

Lacked Identification

Stauch, weeping over loss of his gun, related at police headquarters that he had been cruising Ann Arbor streets during early morning hours and had stopped the two men for questioning at Stadium Blvd. and Edgewood Ave. about 6:30 a.m. He decided to take them to the police station for further questioning, he explained, because of their lack of proper identification.

The attack on Stauch came at Main and Packard Sts., he said. One of the men, seated in the back of the car, grabbed him around the neck, Stauch stated, while the second, on the front seat beside him, wrested his gun from him. Stauch then was forced away from the wheel under threat of his own gun while the second man took over the driving and headed out Fifth Ave., siren screaming. Stauch said he tried to signal his plight to the driver of a Gauss Bakery truck at Hill St. only to be told by his captors that another such attempt would cost him his life.

Sometime later Stauch's captors stripped him down to his shorts, tied his arms and legs and left him in the abandoned farm house. The officer said the pair attempted to bribe him into a favorable report by the return of his gun, minus cartridges. The convicts left several coins from Stauch’s uniform pockets on the farmhouse floor.

Still bound and gagged, Stauch managed to hobble out of the farmhouse and onto the road where he was picked up by a passing motorist who took him to the Ypsilanti state police post.

Seen In Dearborn

Later this morning the police car and its occupants, one of them wearing Stauch’s uniform, reportedly were seen in Dearborn heading toward Detroit. Detroit police have posted guards at the homes of friends and relatives of the two men and have begun an intensive search of Detroit's west side for the Ann Arbor police car.

Both fugitives had police records extending back into their boyhood and both were serving sentences for robbery armed, given them in 1937.

Buczynski escaped from the juvenile detention home several times before he was 17 years old. King, who also had been a juvenile offender, led a daring escape attempt during his trial in 1937, leading police a chase of several blocks after tossing a coat over the head of the officer who was taking him from the county jail to recorder’s court. He was serving a 10 to 20 year sentence.

Buczynski was convicted with his father, Zigmund, in connection was a street holdup. The elder Buczynski is serving a prison term for his part in the robbery. Marion Buczynski was paroled in 1942, but was returned to prison the same year for violating his parole. His sentence was three to 15 years.