Think “Life in prison is also a permanent . . .

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deterrent”?

As you read this remember: As long as dangerous and deadly felons live; they are a threat to others:
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1/29/03
Manhunt for escaped prisoner focuses on the First Coast

JACKSONVILLE, FL - There is a nationwide manhunt for a murderer and the focus of the manhunt is in Northeast Florida. First Coast News obtained an alert issued by the Northeast Florida Realtors Association that says escaped murderer Jerry Vernon may be in the area. Police in New Mexico say Vernon should be considered dangerous because has nothing to lose if caught. According to authorities Jerry Vernon was serving a life plus 19-year term when he escaped from prison. Vernon, a real estate tycoon, who has several rental properties out west, has allegedly been spotted on the First Coast doing what he does best; real estate. According to Glenn East of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors, "This individual could act as an investor, could be buying or sell property out here, could be in one of the golf course communities, especially since the background shows he's an avid golfer." Vernon allegedly loves golf, high stakes casino gambling, and became a real estate legend in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the 70's. His skyrocketing success later sputtered to a halt when he was convicted of a 1989 drug related shooting that left a business partner dead. Prison officials say he made his escape by faking an ailment to get moved to a geriatric unit in another less secure part of the prison complex he was in. Using accomplices within the complex authorities he got the tools he needed to cut through a fence to freedom. Now New Mexico authorities say they have confirmed that Vernon is in the Jacksonville area and may be working in real estate once again. Jerry Vernon's two daughters in the meantime have been indicted for helping him escape from prison.
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12/18/02
Convicted Durham Murderer Who Escaped Sentenced To Life
Security Tight In Durham Courthouse During Reed's Sentencing

DURHAM, N.C. -- A convicted killer who escaped from the Durham County Courthouse was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday. Omar Reed, who escaped from custody last week while at a courthouse, was sentenced to life in prison. Omar Reed winked as he walked into the courtroom Wednesday afternoon, WRAL reported. The convicted murderer was under heavy guard as several armed officers stood post at the doorways and in the hall. The Durham County Sheriff's Office increased security after last week's escape. On Friday, Reed used a homemade knife to overpower a guard and escaped. After his escape, the courthouse was placed on lockdown and a manhunt was launched throughout the city.
Six hours later, a tip came in and officers tracked down Reed and arrested him. The Durham County Sheriff's Office is conducting an internal investigation to determine where things went wrong. Sheriff's officials expect to wrap that up in just a few days.
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2/24/02
Officials capture Texas murderer

RALEIGH, N.C. - An escaped Texas murderer was arrested at a North Carolina motel Saturday, almost a week after he overpowered a corrections officer and fled in a pickup truck. John William Roland III, 33, was arrested about 5 p.m. after police negotiated with him for about an hour, said Lt. Tom Earnhardt of the Raleigh Police Department. Police evacuated the fourth floor of the Red Roof Inn where Roland was staying and made contact by phone. During negotiations, Roland made threats on himself and toward police but eventually gave himself up peacefully, Earnhardt said. No weapons were found in the room, Earnhardt said, and Roland was alone. "We were very pleased that no one was hurt during this surrender," Earnhardt said. Parked outside the hotel was the gray pickup truck belonging to Sgt. Wesley Hurt, the guard Roland attacked before dawn Feb. 17. Roland had been tracked to the Red Roof Inn through a stolen credit card he was thought to be using, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Todd said. "We plan to file felony escape charges against him, which could get him another life sentence since he used a weapon in assaulting the sergeant during the escape," Todd said. John Moriarty, the prison system's inspector general who led a fugitive command post in Huntsville, Texas, said authorities detected that Roland was placing phone calls as they closed in on his fourth floor room. "Roland called his father and his mother, who were very instrumental in getting him to surrender without injury to himself or others," Todd said. Roland was serving a life term at the Robertson Unit, near Abilene, for gunning down former roommate Thomas Columbus Barrett. He had been in prison since 1993. ________________________________________
5/2001
After 27 years, escaped murderer apprehended, returned to New Jersey
On the evening of May 10, 55-year-old Daniel "Danny C" Catalano was fishing from a dock near his home in sunny St. Petersburg, Fla. A carefree smile might have split his tanned face as he belted out an impromptu doo-wop song. He might have bragged about the good life within St. Petersburg's entertainment and political circles. Or perhaps he touted his website, which offered a virtual tour of his palatial estate overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. With a wink, he might have told you he'd been the self-proclaimed "bad-boy" of the oldies group, Sha Na Na. Yet what Catalano had built for himself was not an ideal existence, but an elaborate house of cards built on deception and murder. He has no ties to Sha Na Na. His web designer admits the site and the estate are shams. Even his name is fake. By 9:30 p.m. on May 10, Catalano, known to New Jersey law enforcement officials as Edward Solly, inmate number 03140, was surrounded by six deputy U.S. marshals, his arrest a swan song for a fugitive. Solly, a former resident of Gloucester City and Runnemede, sang a different tune in 1969 when he was sentenced to 25 years for fatally beating his girlfriend's 2-year old son in Camden County. State police investigators called the incident "a pummeling" delivered during a drunken rage. But investigators say Solly never planned to stay behind bars. In 1974, he escaped from medium security Leesburg State Prison (now known as Bayside State Prison), where he was serving his sentence. He originally was sentenced to Trenton State Prison (now New Jersey State Prison), but was transferred to Leesburg in the aftermath of a letter-writing campaign spearheaded by his mother and grandmother. Law enforcement officials believe the letter-writing campaign was part of an elaborate escape plan that commenced as soon as Solly was arrested. Reinventing himself in Florida as a club singer, Solly performed at oldies shows and posed with local police officers and politicians. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, his recklessly built cover was kept shrouded in secrecy by his mother, Edna Bolt, and family. "The mother was very insistent in keeping us away," Detective Louis Kinkle of the New Jersey State Police said at a May 18 press conference held immediately after Solly's return to New Jersey State Prison. But when she died in the year 2000, Solly's family finally led Department of Corrections investigators, the State Police and the U.S. Marshal's Service to Florida. Armed with the lead, the NJDOC Special Investigations' Fugitive Unit and State Police reached out to the U.S. Marshals Service and assisted in Solly's recapture. "A psychologist told us he's a manipulator, and that's how he's survived," Kinkle noted. "That held true right up until his arrest (when he initially denied his true identity). He manipulated the system, and he manipulated people throughout Florida." At first, Kinkle related, he was shocked that an escaped murderer would maintain such a high profile. Then, he was angered. "Here he was, living that way, and we have a 2-year-old child who died at his hands," the detective said. "It just wasn't right." Handcuffed and shackled at the prison intake, Solly's flashy image crumbled before an onslaught of media cameras and tape recorders. "I eventually knew it would happen," a tearful Solly admitted. "All I can say is I've been sorry for all these years. I've tried to do the right thing. I made a mistake when I was young." Acting Commissioner Susan Maurer later told reporters, "We have just seen Edward Solly returned to serve out his sentence and to face new escape charges. We know that justice is blind. We also now know that she is very patient."
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3/1/01
Murderer slips Oregon prison
Two inmates, including one serving a life sentence for murder, escaped prison Wednesday after cutting a hole in a perimeter fence. One has been recaptured. The murderer remained at large, while the other, a convicted rapist, was captured after the escape from the Snake River Correctional Institution. Oregon State Police and Malheur County sheriff's deputies were searching the area for Lee John Knoch, 23, convicted in 1998 on five counts of aggravated murder and charges of assault kidnapping, theft by extortion and harassment. He was convicted of murdering Robert Holliday, 30, to keep Holliday from testifying against him in a torture case in which Holliday was the victim. Holliday was brutalized and buried alive in March 1997, just days before Knoch's trial was to begin. Knoch was serving a life sentence without parole. The other inmate, Aaron O'Hara, 23, was caught by an officer patrolling the roads outside of the prison, said Perrin Damon, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. O'Hara is serving a six-year sentence for sodomy, sex abuse and two counts of rape.
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2/16/01
1993 Escaped Murderer Captured

The Florida Department of Corrections is pleased to announce the recapture of escaped killer Thomas Menut, DC# 0819i7. Menut was apprehended in Conway, Arkansas with information from an informant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Menut has been at large for 8 years. At the time of his escape on Nov. 11, 1993, Menut was serving a life sentence for first degree murder at Polk Correctional Institution in Polk County. He scaled two 12 foot perimeter fences and ran into the woods. He evaded the combined law enforcement and k-9 units in the area. Menut will be taken before a judge in Arkansas and given the opportunity to sign a waiver of extradition and return to Florida voluntarily. Should he refuse, the Florida Department of Corrections will request a Governor's warrant for his extradition. "We are relieved that this dangerous individual is back in custody," said Department Secretary Michael W. Moore. "The state of Florida owes a debt of gratitude to all the law enforcement agencies involved in the apprehension of this felon." Menut will be returned to the North Florida Reception center where he will be reprocessed and serve the remainder of his sentence. He will also be facing the additional charges of escape.
3/3/01
Escaped murderer lives on the lam for seven years

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CONWAY, Ark. -- Neck-deep and alone in a Florida swamp, Theodore "Teddy" Menut could hear himself breathing. His heart beat in his head. Hound dogs barked in the distance. Helicopters buzzed the bayou. It was just before 6 p.m. on Nov. 11, 1993, shortly after Menut broke out of prison. Using a makeshift ladder he built in the prison shop, he scaled two 15-foot razor wire fences, then crossed an open field, a road and a drainage ditch and hit the swamp. As the sun set, he could see the swirling search lights of the Polk Correctional Institution in Polk City, Fla. He was determined not to go back to where he was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. Menut says he spent three days hiding in the mud amid the alligators and cypress trees, then made a run for freedom that took him to Arkansas and dropped him back into society for seven years. That's the tale Menut told last week while sitting in lock-up at the Faulkner County Detention Center in Conway, waiting for an armed escort back to a maximum-security Florida prison. "I felt I had done enough time after 13 years. All I wanted to do was be free and live a regular life," Menut said. "And I guess all it really takes is determination and the will for freedom." With help from some friends, Menut caught a bus out of south Florida and headed for Arkansas, where he thought he could blend in. He stopped running in El Paso, Ark., a rural farming community a short drive north of Little Rock. Menut picked up construction jobs in surrounding towns, and always asked to be paid in cash. He says he borrowed cars from friends and bought stolen driver's licenses and Social Security cards for $500 a pop. "I just figured I'd blend back into society and hope they never find me again," Menut said, his head hung low, tears streaming from his eyes. "You see, a man on the run has nowhere to go. You have no identity, no money of your own, nothin' at all." He was known as Tommy to those who befriended him. Knowing that his nervousness would be a dead giveaway that he was on the run, Menut said he would tell close friends that he was wanted for back child support. "That's a whole lot better than telling them I was wanted for first-degree murder," he said. Menut said he felt he didn't deserve a life sentence. After all, he said, he was only the driver in 1981 when his passenger opened fire on some bouncers standing outside a Broward County, Fla., bar, killing a 19-year-old man. Menut said his wife had been tossed out of the bar earlier that night so he went back in a fit of anger to find out what had happened. "I never meant for anyone to get killed," he said. He said he was represented by the same lawyer who defended the shooter, who testified against him in exchange for immunity. When the last of his appeals failed, Menut believed he had nothing to lose by escaping. Cheryle Lewis, a friend of the slain man who was at the bar the night of the shooting, has quite a different view. She told a South Florida newspaper that she cracked open a bottle of champagne upon hearing that Menut was again in custody. "I cried tears of joy when I heard they caught Teddy," Lewis told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. She says Menut belongs behind bars. Menut was 23 when Bryce Waldman, a University of Miami student, died outside the Agora Ballroom in Hallandale, Fla. Menut is 43 now and blames his predicament on youthful ignorance. "I made some pretty stupid, rash decisions when I was younger," he said. "This was my chance to start over." In El Paso, a cow town of 300, Menut saved money, bought four acres of land under a fake name and lived a lie. "You could go out on some of these back roads and no one would ever know you're there," said Oscar Jones, who owns a nearby fruit orchard. He said everyone pretty much knows everyone around these parts, but few knew Menut. "We're just a tiny circle on the map," said Randy Patrom, who owns a small engine repair shop in El Paso. "People don't bother each other out here. Everybody pretty much takes care of themselves." In 1998, Menut met a woman who lived on a houseboat near Little Rock. The two became close, and he would alternate his time between his mobile home at El Paso and her home on the Little Maumelle River. Cassandra Moore, whose parents live on a boat on the same dock as Menut's girlfriend, said there was no reason to believe Menut was living a secret life. "We all loved Tommy," Moore said. "He is such a sweetheart. We spent a lot of time together at cookouts along the river. He was just the funniest guy. "I wish we could change places with him," she said. "He's got a bunch of friends here ... that will welcome him back when he gets out." Mike Kierre, who owns a construction company in North Little Rock and says he's been friends with Menut for six years, said nothing led him to believe Menut had a criminal past. "I had no reason to ever question him about anything," Kierre said. "He's always been a super nice guy. I trusted him with everything, even the keys to my office." Menut had subcontracted work through Kierre's company. "He was the most responsible subcontractor I had," Kierre said. "One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. I guess he just got caught up in something he shouldn't have." While in Arkansas, Menut said he spent his weekdays working odd jobs and would head into the Ozark Mountains on the weekends to sight-see and shop at craft markets. It was the life he always wanted and finally found. He made the last payment on his land days before he was recaptured and thought he was free and clear. "I know I just took the wrong road back then," he said. "And now I'm going back to Florida to spend the rest of my life in jail. I got nothin' to look forward to." It was Friday, Feb. 16, and Menut had driven to a friend's house in North Little Rock to dry some clothes. He says he was there for maybe a half-hour when he heard the police outside. Arkansas State Police spokeswoman Kim Fontaine said officers with the FBI, the state police and the Faulkner County SWAT team surrounded the home after receiving an anonymous tip. She said the agents could see smoke coming from the chimney and later learned Menut had been burning his false identification records, driver's licenses and Social Security cards. After about another half-hour, she said, Menut gave himself up. "It's pretty depressing," Menut said, sobbing uncontrollably in a holding cell. "This ain't no kind of life." Debbie Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections, said Menut would have been eligible for parole in 2004. He'll now face charges for escape, she said. Buchanan said an inmate who escaped with Menut was recaptured about a month later. He was sentenced to an additional five years and Buchanan said she suspects Menut will face a similar sentence. "I just threw my real identity away and now I got it back," Menut said. "There goes my normal life."
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1/31/01
Six inmates, two serving life without parole, escape from Alabama prison
PELL CITY, Ala., Jan. 31 -- Authorities using dogs and a helicopter searched Wednesday for six prison inmates who escaped from the St. Clair Correctional Facility 30 miles northeast of Birmingham, Ala. The six, including three convicted killers, escaped through two security fences Tuesday night. "We have 100 law enforcement officials with canine units on the ground and have a helicopter doing an aerial search," prison spokesman John Hamm said. "We're searching over about a 20-mile radius from the prison." They could have escaped as early as 5:30 p.m., but their disappearance was not noticed until 8 p.m., Hamm said. Prison officials said O.C. Borden, 33; and Gary Scott, 31; were serving sentences of life without parole for murder. Steve Murphy, 45, was also serving life for murder, but would have been eligible for parole in the future. Jack Allred, 43; and Billy Gamble, 24; were serving time for robbery, and James McClain, 35; was in prison for burglary. Prison Commissioner Mike Haley said the men used a broom stick to lift an electrified fence so they could slip under without touching it. Then they went under a second fence that wasn't electrified. Haley said the electrified fence had been operating erratically since it was installed in 1996. He also said he and other officials were not sure whether it was a copycat escape following the example of seven escapees from a Texas prison last month. Six were captured last week and a seventh committed suicide. St. Clair is one of three maximum security prisons in Alabama and has 1,301 inmates to 188 correctional officers, a ratio that Haley called insufficient.
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1/15/01
Two inmates escape from Oklahoma prison

McALESTER, Okla.- Two inmates, one of them a convicted rapist-murderer, escaped from the state prison early Monday. The inmates were reported missing from a maximum-security wing at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary about 5 a.m., said Jerry Massie, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. The pair's escape went unnoticed until they were discovered missing from their cells. Massie identified the escapees as James Robert Thomas, 25, and Willie Lee Hoffman, 21. Thomas was sentenced to life without parole for first-degree murder in November 1997. He received an additional 400 years in prison for rape, Massie said. Hoffman is serving a 20-year sentence for kidnapping and other charges. He had no details on the nature of their crimes. The escape is the first from the high-security unit at the prison known as H Unit, Massie said. Authorities do not know how the pair managed the escape, Massie said. "That's what we're looking at," he said. Massie said corrections officials and local law enforcement agencies have mounted a search using tracking dogs in the remote area around the prison. "They were able to get some type of track, but I don't have any update on it," he said. Both inmates are considered dangerous but there was no evidence that the two had armed themselves before they fled, Massie said. Authorities in neighboring Texas are grappling with the escape of seven convicts who disappeared Dec. 13 from the maximum-security Connally Unit, 60 miles southeast of San Antonio. They have since been charged with the Christmas Eve slaying of a Dallas-area police officer, and are still missing.
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12/14/00
Seven inmates slip Texas prison, believed well-armed
KENEDY, Texas - Authorities searched Thursday morning for seven inmates, including two convicted murderers, who took guards hostage, commandeered a cache of weapons then fled from a south Texas prison in a stolen pickup truck. Corrections officers, tracking dogs and Texas Rangers converged on the area outside the Connally Unit prison after the daring escape Wednesday. Two of the inmates were believed to be armed with 14 .357 Magnum pistols and 238 rounds of ammunition. "We think this is a well-planned and well-executed escape that may have been under consideration by some of the inmates for several weeks," said Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Todd said the inmates - all sentenced for violent crimes - took 11 employees and three other inmates hostage in the maintenance shop, where they worked as trusties. They then dressed in clothes taken from the civilian workers and raided a guard tower for weapons and ammunition. They surprised two guards near the back gate and tied them up before making their getaway, Todd said. The white pickup was found later at a Wal-Mart store near Kenedy, about 50 miles southeast of San Antonio. About 100 correctional officers - some with tracking dogs, some on horseback - searched nearby fields for the inmates. The Connally Unit has been locked down while prison workers and other inmates are questioned. Though all the escapees were convicted of violent offenses, they had clean enough records behind bars to earn trusty status in the maintenance shop, Todd said. They were serving sentences ranging from 30 years to life in prison for kidnapping, robbery, sex assault, child abuse or murder.
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12/9/00
Man who murdered Delaware woman after escape from prison to be executed
David F. Dawson was sentenced to be executed March 9 for the 1986 stabbing death of a Kenton woman. The sentencing came 14 years and 7 days after Dawson, who had escaped from Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna, broke into Madeline Marie Kisner's home and stabbed her 12 times. Dawson, his head bowed, brown hair cascading over his shoulders, uttered a quiet "No, sir," when Superior Court President Judge Henry duPont Ridgely asked him if he had anything to say before the sentence was read. Ridgely, who sentenced Dawson to death after his trial in 1988 and again in 1993 after the case was returned to Delaware by the U.S. Supreme Court, pronounced sentence for what could be the last time. "Between the hours of 12:01 a.m. and 3 a.m.," Ridgely said, "[Dawson] shall be taken to some place of private execution within the prison enclosure, and then and there ... shall be injected intravenously with a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death, until you are dead." Ridgely omitted the traditional closing line: "God have mercy on your soul." Dawson, 45, whose abdomen is tattooed with the name "Abaddon," the demon of the abyss from the Book of Revelation, showed no emotion. Several members of Kisner's family attended the sentencing and left immediately afterward. Kevin J. O'Connell, Dawson's attorney, told Ridgely that he would file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. O'Connell hopes the high court will agree to review a Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision that Dawson and 3 other inmates could be sentenced under Delaware's 1991 death-penalty law even though they committed their crimes before the law was enacted. If the justices refuse to hear the case, Dawson's last hope would be for the state Board of Pardons to recommend that his sentence be commuted to life in prison. Such a recommendation would leave the decision up to Gov.-elect Ruth Ann Minner. During her tenure as head of the Board of Pardons, the board has never recommended a commutation in a capital case.
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4/15/00
Police search for escaped murderer, find partner dead

Reno police wearily wound down Friday from an intensive manhunt for prison escapee and convicted murderer James Prestridge, believed to be hiding in the Reno area. Officers chased more than 15 reported sightings of the man Thursday, ruling out each one and exhausting all leads. “Last night I thought we were close, now I feel just as far away as when we started,” Lt. Rick Saulnier said Friday morning after a night of little sleep. “I probably drove every street in Reno yesterday looking for this guy.” Meanwhile, the body of John Doran, the man Prestridge escaped with on March 25, was discovered on March 29 in Mexico, authorities reported Friday. San Diego Sheriff’s Department officials said Doran, 26, was found alongside a toll road south of the border city of Tijuana. He appeared to have been shot in the back of the head, the Sheriff’s Department said Friday. Since no identification was found on the body, authorities weren’t able to determine his identity until his fingerprints were matched this week, department spokesman Lt. Ron VanRaaphorst said. Doran’s body was found four days after he and Prestridge, 38, overpowered two private extradition guards who were transporting them from Nevada to prisons in other states. The guards had driven to San Diego to pick up other inmates. This week in Reno, nearly every detective stood ready to chase sightings of Prestridge. Other officers set up surveillance at areas they thought the fugitive had been frequenting. Police have investigated several sightings throughout the week, stopping a city bus Tuesday and closing a Bank of America branch Wednesday. “We have to be ready to jump on these quickly, even if they are false,” Saulnier said. Officers began to regroup Friday and plan other ways to find Prestridge. “We don’t even know if he is still in the area,” Saulnier said. “We’re still trying to solicit information from Secret Witness and the public. This guy has got to eat somewhere and sleep somewhere.” Prestridge and Doran escaped at a rest stop near Chula Vista, Calif. as Prestridge was being taken from Nevada State Prison in Ely to a prison in North Dakota under an exchange agreement. Doran was in prison for a Las Vegas robbery. Prestridge was sentenced to life in prison without parole for shooting pizza parlor manager Esfandiar “Essie” Ateighechi as he begged for his life in 1989 in a dark field near Reno/Tahoe International Airport. Prestridge’s co-defendant in the murder, Sean Hendricks, also was sentenced to life without parole.
4/29/00
Murder fugitive collared peacefully in Reno

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4/7/00
Escaped murderer returns to N.H. after doing time in Tennessee

BARNSTEAD, N.H. -- An escaped murderer who was sent back to prison in Tennessee after living the straight life in New Hampshire for more than 20 years has returned home to Barnstead. Robert Corliss, 53, was released from prison this week. Corliss maintains he shot and killed Phillip Edwards in 1967 in self defense during a scuffle in a parking lot at a teen nightspot in Springfield, Tenn. He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but escaped soon after, in 1971, from the Turney Center in Tennessee. He and the Barnstead police chief said the FBI came to town years later and told Corliss he was no longer wanted. He lived in Barnstead for more than 20 years without incident until a newspaper article in Nashville alerted the victim's family that Corliss was free. He was arrested and served three more years in prison before his release this week.
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12/31/99
Guard captures escaped murderer; second escaped murderer captured shortly after
CLALLAM BAY, WA — A convicted murderer who escaped from Clallam Bay Corrections Center was apprehended this morning, officials at the Olympic Peninsula prison said. Daniel Jolliffe, a Bellevue construction worker convicted of killing two men in Seattle's Pioneer Square, was found hiding beneath a truck by a guard near the prison. Jolliffe and another man scaled a fence and escaped into the woods about 1 a.m. Wednesday. The other inmate, Steven Henderson, 25, was soon caught just outside the perimeter, prison spokeswoman Patricia Woolcock said. Jolliffe, 27, was convicted by a King County jury of two counts of second-degree murder. He shot two men to death March 27, 1993, outside a First Avenue cafe. He was described by his family as a former Army Ranger — an elite force trained in advanced survival and combat skills. Henderson is serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder in the death of a Lynnwood man who was thrown into the Skykomish River and drowned. It's still not known how the men got out of their locked cells in one of the prison's close-custody units. The units house inmates who need more than medium but less than maximum security, Woolcock said. She said the men apparently tricked guards by leaving a human-like dummy and a puffed-up bed in their cells. Jolliffe said he acted in self-defense in the 1993 shooting, but a judge said he followed two men out of the J&M Cafe and gunned them down as they were leaving.

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12/19/99
Escaped murderer and prison guard caught
'America's Most Wanted' aided in the capture of the fugitives from Victoria trailer park

VICTORIA, TX - A convicted murderer and the Missouri prison guard who allegedly helped him escape were awaiting extradition Saturday after a tip to "America's Most Wanted" led investigators to their trailer-park hideout. Terry William Banks, 26, and Lynette J. Barnett, 27, had not been seen since Oct. 29 when Banks, who was serving a life sentence for a 1992 murder, walked out of the maximum-security Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Mo., wearing a prison guard's uniform. The pair, who were considered armed and dangerous, were arrested in a trailer park on the outskirts of Victoria about 7:30 a.m. Saturday, officials said. The FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Victoria County Sheriff's Office and Victoria Police Department participated in the raid. Also arrested were Banks' father, 51-year-old Charles Lawrence Banks, Roberta Jean Jones, 37, and Paul Reuben Hoard, 39, all of Victoria, who were inside an adjoining trailer. They were held on suspicion of hindering apprehension and prosecution of a known felon - a felony charge, Sheriff Michael Ratcliff said. All five remained jailed without bond pending arraignment on Monday, a jailer said.
The arrests followed an anonymous tip to the Fox TV show, "America's Most Wanted," which aired a segment on the case Dec. 11. Ratcliff said the show's producers apparently contacted the FBI, which recruited the help of local law enforcement. Banks, a Benton Harbor, Mich., resident, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 in Greene County in southwestern Missouri. He was serving life without parole for the 1992 shooting death of Tim Eastburn of Rocky Comfort, Mo., whose wife was also sentenced to life in prison. Banks faces state and federal escape charges. Barnett faces a Missouri charge of aiding in Banks' escape and a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Those charges carry sentences of two to five years in prison.
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12/8/99
Killer charged with murdering while on the loose

STAR CITY, Ark. - A convicted killer who escaped and was recaptured in Missouri after crashing into another vehicle was charged in the death of the man whose truck he was driving. Kenneth Williams, 20, of Pine Bluff, will be arraigned Wednesday on a capital murder charge in the shooting death of Cecil Boren which happened after he escaped in October. Williams was charged Tuesday in Lincoln County Circuit Court with murdering Boren at his home near Grady on Oct. 3. Williams left the Cummins Unit of the state prison system in a 500-gallon vat of table scraps from the prison kitchen, which was headed for a barn. Police say after he got off prison grounds, he made his way to Boren's house, KILLED HIM and stole his truck. Missouri police spotted the truck at Lebanon, Mo., and gave chase. Officers arrested Williams at Urbana, Mo., after he slammed into a Culligan delivery vehicle, killing the driver. Police found guns and jewelry from the Boren home in Boren's truck after the crash. Williams was returned to Arkansas after waiving extradition. He's also being charged with aggravated robbery, theft of property and escape. He is being held in the more-secure Tucker Unit in an isolation cell. Prison officials say Williams is allowed out of his cell only three hours a week, except for court appearances and medical visits. At Cummins, Williams was in a 34-man barracks, officials said, which gave him some freedom. Williams was sentenced to life in prison for the December 1998 murder of Dominique Hurd of Fort Worth. The girl was a cheerleader at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and was on her first date with Peter Robertson of Vineland, N.J., when she was shot. Robertson also was wounded. Jurors were split over imposing a death sentence for the Hurd slaying. Tuesday's announcement by Prosecutor Steve Dalrymple that Williams had been charged in Boren's death did not say if Dalrymple would seek the death penalty in the Boren case.
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11/2/99
Authorities search for escaped murderer
Prisoner cut the fence at psychiatric facility

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - A federal fugitive warrant was issued Monday for Charles Selby, who escaped late Sunday from the Huron Valley Center, a psychiatric hospital for prisoners in Pittsfield Township. Selby, 30, crawled through the window of his first-floor room and cut through a 16-foot fence before scaling a second fence, said Matt Davis, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. Officials do not know how Selby cut the fence. After escaping about 8:25 p.m., Selby stole a dark blue 1988 Ford pickup from a home on Tess Lane, south of the prison, according to investigators at the State Police post in Ypsilanti. He was last seen about 9:45 p.m. at a gas station off U.S.-23 at Sterns Road in Monroe County, gassing up a truck similar to the truck which was stolen. The stolen truck has Michigan license plate 38JRA. Selby, who was sentenced in 1988 to life without parole for a murder in Jackson County, attempted an escape in September 1998 from the Riverside Correctional Facility in Ionia, Davis said. After that attempt, he was transferred to the Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility, Davis said. From there he was transferred to the Huron Valley Center, on the grounds of the Huron Valley Men's
November 7, 1999

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10/25/99
Escaped murderer's family remembers troubled past

RIVERDALE, N.D. - As the search for escaped murderer Kyle Bell nears its second week, his aunt and uncle are reflecting on their nephew's troubled past and wondering what he might do next. "He has no love lost for us," Kim Bell said. "Now Tom and I are forced to live with locked doors in a manner we are not accustomed to, not in our state." Kyle Bell, who escaped from a prisoner transport bus in New Mexico on Oct. 13, has been in trouble since he was a child growing up in South Dakota and has an extensive criminal background. Kim Bell said she and Kyle's grandmother sought mental health counseling for him when he was only 3 years old - when she said Kyle began showing signs of abnormal sexual behavior and a violent side. "He would go from the sweetest little 3-year-old you ever saw to almost violent, uncontrolled behavior," she said. Authorities said Kyle Bell, who was sentenced to life in prison in September for killing 11-year-old Jeanna North of Fargo in June 1993, still has a charming side, especially with single women. That might aid him in his escape, police said. "I think he'd try to set up some kind of housekeeping, find somebody who would harbor him for a while, probably a woman," said Fargo police Detective Jim LeDoux, who helped investigate Jeanna's disappearance six years ago. "He's a good talker." Kyle Bell fathered five children, four with his three ex-wives and one with an Aberdeen, S.D., woman, Tom Bell said. Memories of Kyle's numerous arrests for traffic violations, burglary, assault and sex offenses while growing up in towns north of Aberdeen, S.D., are entrenched in the minds of Tom and Kim Bell.
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9/19/99
Two Escaped Convicts Recaptured

A murderer and arsonist who broke out of a state prison two weeks after a four-time murderer escaped, prompting the governor to order a 72-hour lockdown of all state prisons, were recaptured Thursday evening, state police said. Escaped prisoners Michael McCloskey and Anthony Yang were apprehended at 6:45 p.m. Thursday, said Trooper John Scuch of the Wyoming barracks near Wilkes-Barre. More than 100 police officers had been combing the area for Yang, who is believed to have been the man who tried to steal money from an elderly woman at about 12:45 p.m. at a supermarket about five miles from the prison, state police said. After bystanders came to help, the man fled into the surrounding woods, Trooper Joe Lakkis said. Fingerprints taken at the scene confirmed that Yang had been present, and prison clothing was found abandoned in the wooded area. Yang and McCloskey, both from Philadelphia, were cellmates. They escaped Monday from the state prison in Dallas, Luzerne County. Police continued to search for Johnston, a convicted killer of four, who escaped Aug. 2 from the prison in Huntingdon County.
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8/8/99
Police say escaped murderer likely stole car in escape
NOTTINGHAM, Pa. -- Police found no trace today of an escaped quadruple murderer in their search of a wooded park near the Maryland border, and said the suspect likely left the area in a stolen car. Norman Johnston, who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison earlier in the week, is considered "armed and extremely dangerous," state police Lt. David M. Presto said today. Authorities said it was likely that he has left the Nottingham area in a silver Buick that was stolen Friday night. Local residents described a cautious and curious mood. "Some people are locking their door," resident Jim Murray said this morning as he stopped outside a convenience store. "There's a lot of curiosity because this is a town that doesn't get a lot of attention." Johnston, 48, was spotted talking on a pay phone Friday night but escaped into the 600-acre Nottingham County Park after a scuffle with one of the rangers, said state police Capt. Henry Oleyniczak. Johnston was convicted in 1980 of killing four teen-agers to cover up a multimillion-dollar burglary ring he ran with his two brothers. The film "At Close Range," starring Sean Penn, was based on the case. He escaped Monday from a prison where he was serving a life sentence. Police said he opened the window in his cell, sneaked across a grassy yard and wriggled through a fence at the maximum-security complex.
8/21/99
Escaped killer captured after 19-day manhunt

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7/13/99
Escape attempts bring change in work-detail rules
JACKSON, NC -- Prisoners awaiting trial on first-degree rape or murder charges will no longer be eligible to work outside prison walls, the state Correction Department said Monday. The change follows the attempted escape of three prisoners from the Odom Correctional Institute last month and the fatal shooting of one -- 22-year-old Bem Holloway -- by a correctional officer. In addition, a prisoner who faces a combined total of 40 years in custody must spend at least one full year in confinement before qualifying for work detail. "The policy we had in place worked," Patty McQuillan, Correction Department spokeswoman, said Monday. "But we were concerned that Holloway had previous charges. We would never work death row inmates outside the walls." Corrections came under fire when Holloway; Bennie Culver Joyner Jr., 23; and Wesley Eugene Turner, 22, were shot by guards June 28 while trying to escape from a work detail in Northampton County. Turner and Joyner were wounded. "These inmates know that running is suicide," McQuillan said. Holloway was in prison for the attempted murder and rape of two Raleigh women. But he also was awaiting trial on two counts of first-degree murder in separate slayings in Robeson and Bladen counties. If convicted, he could have been sentenced to death, and death row inmates are not allowed off death row.
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6/23/99
Three inmates including one murderer at large after daring escape during transport

RALEIGH, NC -- Three work-release inmates -- including a convicted murderer -- overpowered a prison van driver Tuesday, pushing him and four other prisoners into a Southeast Raleigh street and escaping in the van. The escapees quickly switched into civilian clothes at the nearby home of one of the convicts and fled in his father's 1979 Toyota Corolla, authorities said. They remained at large late Tuesday. Police identified the escapees -- all violent offenders -- as Samuel James Cooper, 22, who was serving 20 years for robbery with a dangerous weapon; Wayne D. Wilson, 27, serving 17 years for second-degree murder; and Demetrius Bryant, 22, serving 20 years for armed robbery. He had served a previous sentence for assaulting a police officer. The daring escape happened about 4:30 p.m. as a group of prisoners returned to the Wake Correctional Institution, a minimum-security prison at 1000 Rock Quarry Road. The seven inmates, clad in olive-green prison uniforms, had spent the day in Moore County installing school awnings, said Patty McQuillan, the Department of Correction spokeswoman
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December 3, 1998
Killer on FBI Most Wanted List captured at her Levy hideout
BRONSON, FL - Theresa Grosso - an escaped murderer from Maryland on the FBI's most wanted list who was arrested Tuesday in Levy County - apparently picked a popular hiding spot for prisoners on the lam. Levy Sheriff Ted Glass said Grosso, 50, who lived under the alias "Bertha Theresa Keene," was the third fugitive found in the county this year. "I asked her why Levy County?" said Glass, who spoke to Grosso for about 5 minutes after her first appearance Tuesday. After waiving extradition in court Tuesday, Grosso is awaiting transportation back to the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women, where she escaped in 1979. She was serving a life sentence for the 1969 murder of a bouncer. Before Grosso, Levy County had arrested a fugitive wanted for an 11-year-old murder in San Francisco and a escaped prisoner from Georgia. Grosso told the sheriff that she came to the county in June because her 18-year-old son, Richard Palm, who was born in Gainesville, was returning to attend college. ________________________________________
11/30/98
Texas Lawmen Search for Death Row Fugitive
More than 500 Texas lawmen are searching for a fugitive from death row who escaped from a Huntsville, Texas prison Friday. Convicted murderer Martin Gurule, 29, broke out of the jail with six other death row inmates after midnight Thanksgiving evening by cutting a fence with a hacksaw. When the group reached a second fence, a motion detector was set off and prison guards opened fire. Six men surrendered but Gurule dodged bullets, climbed over a razor-wire perimeter fence and disappeared into the thick, snake-infested woodlands. "We continue not to have any hard evidence that he is outside of the perimeters of the prison area. We continue not to have any hard evidence that he had outside help," Glen Castlebury, Director of Public Information for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice told CNS
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10/10/98
Police protect man's wife, son
GULFPORT, MS - News that accused murderer Mario Giovanni Centobie had escaped from an Alabama jail Friday morning forced Coast law enforcement to tighten security around the former Harrison County firefighter's estranged family. HIS SECOND JAILBREAK IN FOUR MONTHS also renewed a nightmare for those who know him. They worried that he might return to the Coast to try to seek revenge against his former wife and son. Centobie is serving a 40-year sentence for kidnapping his former wife, and those who know him say he can be abusive, jealous and violent. So, as the information about the escape from the Etowah County jail in Gadsden, Ala., spread Friday, Gulfport patrolmen hustled Cheryl Centobie and her son from Bayou View Elementary School, where she works as a teacher's assistant. ________________________________________
7/20/98
Smashing Pumpkins Catch Escaped Murderer At Free Concert
Minneapolis, MN - A free concert staged by the Smashing Pumpkins Friday night in Minneapolis drew more than 100,000 people, including a convicted murderer who escaped from prison to attend the show. A spokesperson for the Pumpkins confirmed that Pamela Keary, who was convicted of second degree murder for her part in the stabbing and stoning of a Somalian immigrant, walked away from the minimum security facility where she was serving a 12-year sentence before heading to the show. Keary was arrested that evening at the concert. According to the Minneapolis "Star Tribune," Keary actually told her fellow inmates that she was heading to the Pumpkins show before leaving the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Shakope, which reportedly does not have walls or fences surrounding it.
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7/17/96
Escapee calls radio station to apologize
PLATTSBURGH, NY - A convicted murderer who escaped from jail while awaiting sentencing for his wife's death has apologized for his flight from the law. Darrell Brand, now being held in Franklin County Jail following his four-day escape from Clinton County Jail, told WIRY radio in Plattsburgh Tuesday that he was sorry for leaving the jail. "I would like to apologize to the people of Plattsburgh, N.Y., for their inconvenience and any violation that occurred while the police agencies searched for my whereabouts, whether it was in their car or their homes," Brand said, calling the police gun-toting thugs. He also said he was sorry for trouble he may have caused workers at the Clinton County Jail. Brand escaped from the jail July 4 while awaiting sentencing.
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4/30/96
Escaped Rhode Island killer captured after 10-hour manhunt
'Gruesome murderer' Eugene Travis tracked down 'before he struck again'
Escaped double killer Gene E. Travis -- called a poster child for the death penalty by a former prosecutor -- was arrested last night ending a 10-hour manhunt. The killer, a Freetown native, was captured in Providence, about 9:30 p.m. after police, using dogs, flushed him out on Pocasset Street in the city's Silver Lake section. Details were sketchy at press time, but police throughout the region breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad they caught him before he struck again," Freetown Detective Sgt. Alan Alves said. "He's a very dangerous individual." State Trooper Eric Swenson said state police were scouring the Fall River and Freetown areas in the hours before the capture. "Everyone was very glad he was caught. Everyone was out there looking for him because there was a chance he could have come this way," Trooper Swenson said. The 54-year-old escaped convict was serving two life sentences at the Rhode Island state prison in Cranston at the time of the escape: one for the 1985 abduction and murder of a Fall River woman and another for the murder of a Rhode Island woman a day later. "If I had a poster child for the death penalty, he would be it," said former Bristol County District Attorney Ronald A. Pina, who had interviewed Mr. Travis after his arrest for the Fall River slaying. "He was just an animal. He was proud of what he did," Mr. Pina said.

[wildfire]

This doesn't count the many many more incidents where guards, medical staff, or other prisoners are injured or murdered.

[greymoya]

I'm sorry, I couldn't read all that! But I wanted to weigh in and say that, while I do support the death penalty, I don't think it's a deterrant any more than life in prison is. If it were we wouldn't be putting people to death! I think murderers are arrogant enough that they don't think they will get caught, so they don't consider the consequences if they DO get caught. I don't think possible punishment enters their thoughts at all. They think they are smarter than the police and will be free forever, so they don't care what the punishment is-it doesn't apply to them.

[BillieJus]

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