Manhunt: the Simmonds escape and arrest, 1959
When Kevin John Simmonds and prison cellmate Leslie Alan Newcombe escaped from Sydney's Long Bay jail on October 9, 1959, the manhunt that followed was the biggest in Australian history. Their killing of a prison guard at Emu Plains Prison Farm - where the pair had gone to steal supplies - guaranteed the full resources of the state would be put behind their recapture. Newcombe was picked up relatively quickly, about a fortnight after the escape, but Simmonds led the police a long chase, becoming in the process something of a celebrity. When the manhunt moved…