Convicts Who Escaped From Prison And Are Still At Large

According to Associated Press’s coast-to-coast survey, there are over 130 state prison escapees in the United States. Most of these escapees have gone for several decades, meaning that their chances of recapture have dramatically dwindled. No one is even certain if some of them are still alive. Despite these facts, the authorities do not forget the escapees. According to James Saffle, Oklahoma Corrections Chief, who served 11 years tracking escaped prisoners, at times, some little action from the escapees may trigger something.

When most escapee sightings diminish and investigations come empty, some states typically revisit escape cases. In addition, they keep an eye on the vanished convicts’ associates, examine fingerprint databases, death certificates, and various sources for new leads. However, investigators must often hold on to the hope that they will get something or that the convict will resurface. They usually achieve this by contacting a relative or if the escapee is arrested for another crime.

Statistics

Successful escapes from high-security, fenced correctional facilities are scarce. It is essential to note that at least 24 states do not have high-security prisons. The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that 2000 federal and state prisoners escaped in 2013. However, this figure does not indicate how many inmates were recaptured. Additionally, it does not differentiate between breaking out of prison and walking away from work details or other unfenced settings of imprisonment.

The Associated Press asked all states for an updated list of escapees from secure and locked state correctional facilities. Some states, such as California (the most populous), did not immediately provide the figures. On the other hand, those that provided the statistics only for the recent decades. Therefore, the total is probably higher than the number AP recorded.

According to the authorities, most of the breakouts in the United States are more than decades-old since prisons have become more secure. Some of the escapees have probably died. For instance, one 1955 from Illinois would now be 112. Some fugitives’ whereabouts are no mystery, while others could be anywhere.

In the initial going, law authorities can search on the ground and send out a “be on the lookout for” (bolo). Authorities achieve this through a federal clearinghouse that shares alerts electronically to every United States criminal justice system. There existed 13 million active records, including a list of sex offenders, stolen properties, and wanted notices. Investigators attempt to figure out their target’s associates, past addresses, survival skills, likes, and dislikes. Additionally, they look into such aspects as to whether the convict has military experience or other skills such as hunting and fishing.

List of Escapees

Typically, captures are often quick. Authorities recapture prison escapees within days. However, sometimes they manage to slip away. Ideally, the convict’s trail begins to fade after six months, according to the President of the National Association of Fugitive Recovery Agents, Chuck Jordan. Pursuing decade-old fugitive cases has proven complicated, particularly by the difficulties associated with working with paper records and time.

Here are some prisoners who escaped prison and are still at large:

1. The Alcatraz 1962 Escapees

Alcatraz, also known as “The Rock,” while operational was a prison secured by San Francisco Bay waters. The prison presented high-security features that made it impossible to escape. However, three dozen men attempted to escape. Authorities recaptured some of these inmates, some killed, and three never seen again.

The three inmates, including John Anglin, Clarence Anglin, and Frank Morris, drafted the plan six months before executing on June 12, 1962. They placed realistic-looking dummies in their beds and climbed through the holes they had drilled in the back of their cells. The three then made their way through the corridor into the open air. According to the FBI, they had stashed a makeshift raft in the open air using an inflated musical instrument.

What happened after the escape is still unknown. Whether the fugitives made it across the Bay or were carried by the winds and waves remains a mystery. During the 50th anniversary of this escape, two sisters of the Anglin brothers told the Daily Mail that they are still hopeful five decades later. The sisters hope that their brothers and Morris floated to safety.

2. Jerry Bergevin, 1969

According to Angela Michaels, Bergevin’s granddaughter, Bergevin, and his wife were the Bonnie and Clyde of the 1950s. He was a repeat criminal and described as doing it for altruistic reasons. The couple were poor and had three children to feed, and so Bergevin turned to pro-safe cracking. Additionally, he had a general dislike for police officers. Once an officer pulled him overreaching into the car to turn off the ignition, he drove away, taking the cop along the ride.

His actions eventually caught up with Bergevin in 1962. the state put him on trial for breaking into a drugstore. The court sentenced Bergevin to a 15-year sentence where he began hatching an escape plan. He started writing letters asking the authorities to send him to a less secure facility to enroll in a dental technician training program. Despite his not-so-perfect behavior during incarceration, the jail approved his transfer in 1969. As expected, the new prison, Camp Waterloo in Jackson, had only a barbed wire fence around it.

Jerry Bergevin never participated in the program, and instead, one day, he just went missing. The escape set off a 43-year search that was unsuccessful. Eventually, the Michigan Department of Corrections gave up the search for Bergevin in 2013. He would have been 80 years at the time. Additionally, the authorities had not heard about him for several years and declared him a free man. Angela Michaels, who had been tracking him for decades, told the press that the news on his technical discharge was bittersweet.

3. Joanne Chesimard 1979

Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, served her time in the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey. She was a Black Liberation Army member and was wanted for crimes, including bank robbery. The New Jersey State Police stopped her in 1973. Chesimard, alongside her accomplices, fired on the troopers, killing Trooper Werner Foerster. The court then sentenced her to life in prison.

According to New York Times article published at the time, she escaped the correctional facility in 1979. Her escape resulted from immense help from the members of the Black Liberation Army, who took two correctional officers as hostages. After five years, Joanne Chesimard fled to Cuba, where the state granted her political asylum.

Notably, Chesimard became the first woman to be added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists. The Bureau added her to the list in 2013 during the 40th anniversary of Foerster’s death. The state of New Jersey and the FBI is offering $1 million as reward money for any information leading to her arrest.

4. Glen Stark Chambers, 1990

In 1975, Glen Stark Chambers received a life sentence for beating his girlfriend, Connie Weeks, to death. Initially, the court placed him on death row and later commuted him to life one year later. Immediately after conviction, Chambers managed to escape. However, the authorities recaptured him.

After the escape, the authorities placed Chambers in a maximum-security (Polk Correctional Institution) in Florida. He maintained high discipline and good behavior that resulted in garnering special privileges. The privileges included participating in a work program where inmates built furniture. He decided to go for the escape one day in 1990 while loading the furniture into a truck. Chambers hid in the truck’s cab, and the driver drove away with him with no idea that he had company. He hopped out of the truck in a traffic jam. Other than some sightings in the early days of his escape, that was the last time anyone ever saw Glen Stark Chambers.

When he escaped, the then prison supervisor was optimistic that Chambers would turn up eventually. It has been thirty years since he escaped despite the continued chase. In 2009, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement renewed Chamber’s search. As of 2013, the Department was still actively looking for him. While Brannon Sheely, a special agent responsible for Chamber’s case, was optimistic that the search would succeed.

However, Sheely admitted that Chamber’s genius-level intelligence makes the search difficult.

5. Glen Steward Godwin (1987 and 1991)

Escaping from prison once is as tricky as it sounds. Typically, once you are outside prison, the key is to avoid getting arrested again for another crime. However, Glen Steward Godwin disregarded the idea since he was exceptional at breaking out of prison. He was initially sentenced to a long sentence in 1987 for a brutal murder in California’s Folsom State Prison.

Godwin repeatedly stabbed his victim and later attempted to destroy the body by blowing it in a car.

However, Godwin did not stay in prison for long. He drafted an escape plan with a lot of assistance from his cellmate. The fellow inmate was about to be released on parole, and they agreed that he would return to help Godwin out. Utilizing a Shawshank-rescue plot, they decided that he would go down a storm drain and outside. The cellmate sawed the bars that blocked the drain and left a flashlight. He then spray-painted arrows and happy faces leading Godwin out.

Once he was out, Godwin used an inflatable boat that his friend also left and met up with his wife. Alongside his wife, they fled to Mexico. However, after only five months, he was arrested for drug trafficking charges and sent to a maximum-security correctional facility in Guadalajara. In 1991, Godwin again escaped from the Mexican prison five months after allegedly murdering a fellow prisoner. The escape resulted in his addition to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 1996. The FBI is offering a $100000 reward for any data leading to Godwin’s arrest.

Unfortunately, the escape did not work well with his accomplices. His wife, alongside his cellmate, was arrested for their part in Godwin’s escape. He meanwhile is enjoying his freedom in the south of the border.

6. Victor Figueroa

Victor Figueroa is the only escapee from the New York State Prison in the facility’s history who has never been found. He was serving one to four years for drug possession. On February 6, 1997, while he was supposed to be on his way to the mess hall, he wandered off from the Moriah Shock Incarceration Facility, a minimum-security prison in Mineville. The authorities searched the area immediately after noticing his absence to no avail. The facility’s authorities strongly believe that Figueroa died during the escape attempt.

There is a high likelihood that he fell through a mine shaft near the prison. All everyone knows is no one has ever seen or heard of him since his escape. He remains the only state prison inmate to escape and never found.

7. Leonard Rayne Moses

On June 1, 1971, Leonard Rayne Moses escaped after the prison granted him a furlough to attend his grandmother’s funeral in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Rayne Moses had been serving a life sentence for murder. His charges were in connection with the 1968 Pittsburg riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior. The fugitive remains at large, and the state considers him armed and fatal.

It is important to note that the FBI is offering $10000 for information regarding Moses that directly leads to his arrest.

8. George Edward Wright, 1971

Initially, George Edward Wright’s crime was supposed to be small. He, alongside a friend, attempted to rob a gas station. However, when the attendant refused to give up the money, the two beat him up, and his friend shot him. The attendant died two days later. After pleading no contest, the court sent him to a maximum-security prison. It is here where he began to consider escaping. However, he did not get the escape chance until years later after transferring to a more relaxed institution.

Two other inmates with the same interest approached Wright. One night after a routine inmate count, they walked off and hid in a cornfield. The facility raised the alarm an hour later that a warden’s car was missing. The three had hotwired the car and drove it away on August 22, 1970.

He lived with two other people outside the prison and later decided to flee to Algeria. He, alongside his accomplices, hijacked a Delta airplane on July 31, 1972. Upon collection of ransom and releasing the passengers, they flew the plane to Algeria. The police caught him in Portugal in 2011. However, because Portugal does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, he was released and is still at large.