The Men Who Escaped From Death Row And Ran Into The Wilderness | Escape From Death Row | Wonder

a Virginia prison is in the hands of the inmates the terrifying escape freeze six killers from death row as the men run free police race against time to track and capture the fugitives before they kill a dog [Music] [Music] Mecklenburgh Correctional Center is the pride of Virginia's prison system completed in 1977 at a cost of 20 million dollars it is state-of-the-art [Music] the C pod of building 1 houses Virginia's most dangerous criminals the death row inmates the double gated entrance or the Sallyport is the only way in and there is no other way out [Music] officer ron sawyer is informed a bomb has been found in c pod he is ordered to bring a van to the front of the prison immediately so the bomb unit can move and dispose of the bomb prison policy strictly forbids opening both gates at once but this is a matter of life in the death [Music] [Music] [Laughter] the bomb disposal team dressed in protective gear rushes for the ability bomb is smoking one of the men sprays the device with a fire extinguisher apparently to keep it cool [Music] the greatest crisis in Mecklenburg short history has been resolved through the quick actions of a few brave men the bomb is safely outside the prison gates but the crisis is only beginning what seemed like a bomb evacuation had actually been an escape the guards are now captives and six of Virginia's most notorious killers are free a big manhunt underway for six convicted murderers who broke out of a state prison in Mecklenburg County Virginia during the night the inmates were all on death row the six overpowered guards with homemade knives had drove out with a prison van as news of the escape spreads it sends shockwaves through the state's law enforcement authorities it is the first time death row inmates have escaped in US history [Music] in this program some of the names have been changed the Virginia State Police of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation officials are awakened from their bed the governor of Virginia issues a state of alert to the Army and Air National Guard [Music] the director of the Investigative Division of the State Police James Letner is brought in to supervise the investigation the governor was extremely concerned for the safety of any citizens that these escapees might come in contact with he had been briefed on the the background of these individuals he was aware that each one was awaiting execution for murder or mass murders and he was extremely concerned that we apprehend these individuals as quickly as possible investigator lettner arrives after the killers have been on the road for over thirty minutes immediately establishes a search perimeter [Music] because the inmates are driving a prison van police will increase the search area every [Music] that's excellent out of the or we're in lockdown now lockdown [Music] let their meet with the warden to learn about the men who escaped the news isn't good the six fugitives have been convicted of killing a total of 17 people [Music] the two most dangerous escapees of the Briley brothers James and Linwood the Briley's ran a vicious Richmond area gang police suspected they had slaughtered anywhere from 11 to 20 people Earl Clanton killed a Virginia woman just months after being paroled for killing an elderly New Jersey woman [Music] LEM Tuggle raped and murdered two elderly women Derek Peterson killed a supermarket manager after robbing him of $6,000 Willie Leroy Jones murdered and robbed an elderly couple he asked the wife to pray for him before shooting her and setting the house on fire these are the men who escaped from mecklenburg death row most of them killed more than once and would likely kill again if given a chance it never occurred to me that we would not capture the escapees I felt confident we would it did occur to me that it would be an absolute miracle if we did so without any great harm coming to some innocent citizen a full-scale manhunt is in effect officers from all over the state are dispatched roadblocks and barricades are set up helicopters with infrared sensors try to pick up the heat of human bodies hiding in the woods police know the longer the killers run free the harder they will be to recapture letting her tours c-pod where the inmates were housed officers conduct a search of each cell they find no clues to where the escapees might be headed but they do find some makeshift weapons the inmates were very clever in both manufacturing and concealing weapons in their cells one search that we conducted revealed a table leg that had been used to conceal a hacksaw blade one shank and some other contraband the inmates have been out for over an hour and investigators know they are armed with knives since they had access to guards protected riot gear they fear they might have guns the state mobilizes every possible resource to capture the fugitives a death sentence already hangs over each of the escapees these men have nothing to lose officers comb the perimeter searching for any sign of the killer's trail they find nothing with no clues outside the prison letting their hopes the guards can tell him where the inmates have gone [Music] perhaps during the breakout they heard something that could help direct the search the inmates never spoke of where they were headed the guards know nothing the guards lack of information makes lettner suspect they may have helped the prisoners escape from his years of experience as an investigator for the State Police at other prison incidents lettner knows that prison guards can be susceptible to bribes in 1984 Virginia prison guards had a starting salary of under $13,000 even college campus police were paid more guards complained they were often assaulted by the inmates the intimidation and low pay affected their morale first of all let me say this as letna begins interviewing the security staff he learns tensions at Mecklenburg have been rising for the past two years since the execution of Frank Coppola convicted of beating a woman to death in a robbery Frank Coppola steadfastly maintained his innocence but after being on death row for five years he stopped his appealed and asked the court to execute him Coppola's execution signaled a controversial change in attitude he was the first man in Virginia to face the electric chair since the death penalty had been reinstated six years earlier when Coppola was executed something went terribly wrong his head in one of his legs caught fire human rights advocates accused prison officials of torturing and so among the inmates Coppola became a martyr Frank J Coppola was executed at 11:27 p.m. in the manner prescribed by law fears had been growing among the death row inmates fused the state would embark on a rash of executions author Jill Jackson when Coppola was executed I think that the other death row prisoners started to see that that they too could be executed beforehand appeals the dragged on all of a sudden here's this guy that that all of the other death row prisoners look up to and he's the first to go and at that point the other death row prisoner said this could happen to me fairly quickly two months before the breakout an inmate on death row sent an anonymous tip to the state assistant attorney general [Music] according to the informant a bomb was being constructed as part of an escape plan the scheme also involved in exchange of uniforms with the guards [Music] this information was relayed to the warden who ordered to shake down ISM officers methodically searched every cell on death row but found no bomb-making materials or anything to indicate a bomb was being constructed Jim Letten er finds it difficult to believe that guards were ignorant of the plan he suspects one of them may have actively aided in the escape an escape freeing six of Virginia's most dangerous men over an hour after the escape police in western virginia mobilized and searched the area around mecklenburg prison in a hunt for six escaped killers as the minutes tick away they struggle to maintain their search perimeter police begin to fear that if the escaped killers slipped beyond the perimeter innocent people might die but it is so important that you remember every single detail no matter how unimportant it may seem to you inside the prison James lettner questions the guards fearing one of them help the inmates escape everyone else remain yes exactly as to how the breakout occurred and where these dangerous men might be he calls each officer to account for his actions as Letner questions the guards he begins to understand how the escape unfolded five guards stand watch is the condemned man of c-pod take their daily exercise Willie Turner and another inmate approached an officer telling him they want to go back in early one of the men claims he has a knee injury the other says he wants to use the restroom this is against prison policy state police investigator James lettner it was a mistake to allow those two individuals to go back separately from the others if one inmate went back then they all were supposed to go back the reason for that is that by taking those two inmates back early it took two of the correctional officers off the recreation yard and back to the cell area lessening the number of eyes that were available to watch the remaining inmates as they returned from recreation to their cells now the ratio of guards to prisoners is disrupted in the yard there are only three officers left to watch over the remaining inmates the other inmates are escorted to their cells the guard seemed unconcerned they are outnumbered three to one the correctional officers assumed that nothing was going to happen that everything was fine that they had a secure operation and that they simply didn't have to follow up these rules [Music] had they been more vigilant they would have noticed a plan is already in motion a plan whose success or failure depends on one man Earl Clanton the plan also relies on the guards complacency they do not bother to count heads the inmates bunch up and start to push distracting the officers unnoticed Clanton slips into the guards restroom his job to wait for a signal a ruthless killer Clanton was chosen as the man to make the first strike in 1980 he stabbed an elementary school librarian eight times in the head he then took the belt from her coat and strangled her to death because they didn't count heads the guards have no idea Clanton has disappeared letters report would later indicate this was a breach of security protocol it's difficult to believe that when you're dealing with individuals who have everyone murdered at least one person and in some instances multiple murders that the correctional officers would become complacent and feel that they didn't have to count these individuals or know where they were at every moment it's difficult to believe that that would occur but he did in two sensitives the guards escort the inmates back to the day room they never noticed one of them is missing [Music] [Applause] [Music] a guard tries the restroom door but it's locked the lock bar should have sent up red warning flags in such a situation prison policy dictates they should call maintenance and all inmates be placed in their cells but the guards don't do that police are beginning to panic it has been nearly two hours and the fugitives have not been spotted the officers are now working a wide perimeter they know the larger the perimeter the easier it is for the inmates to slip past them police are on the lookout for the van used in the escape but have no idea which direction to search wouldn't could I uh James Letta continues his investigation by questioning nurse Rose Clark it is customary for nurse Clark to draw the water from the guards restroom before she distributes the inmates medication unbeknownst to her this is where Earl Clanton is now hiding [Music] restroom door appears stuck [Music] nurse Clark notifies the guard he acknowledges the problem but does nothing [Music] get these boys lined up in our medication [Music] nurse Clark decides to distribute the medication without water as she has done in the past as she is making her rounds one of them complains his toilet is clogged he creates a diversion of distracting the guards from what is really going on officer hunter joins nurse Clark as she continues making her medication rounds to the other pods in the building the escapees were con artists they they were shrewd and in the ways of the street and and how they could get around these correctional officers they had observed from from the moment that they entered the institution that certain rules were not being followed and it played right into their hands at mecklenburg building one is broken up into three pods a b and c c pod is divided into two sections with a control booth separating the sections [Music] the man who controlled c-pod was Rick Hughes electrically activated locks give officer Hughes control over who enters and leaves death row [Music] News tells Letner that one of the inmates got his attention it was Joe Jarrett on ou who was housed on the pods left-side Jarrett on ou asks used to pass a book - inmate James Briley who was on the quads right side Linwood Briley and his brother James received death sentences for seven murders in one case they repeatedly raped a woman within earshot of her common-law husband and their five-year-old son then killed the three of them officer Hughes leaves the door to the control booth ajar as the prisoners had seen him do dozens of times before he has no idea the inmates are already arming themselves with knives there was a fellow by the name of Willie Turner he was kind of a genius as far as figuring out how to make weapons from the things around him in the prison cell and how to hide him and he would basically strip metal from around the toilets or the sides of the door or something like that and and sharpen it and make a knife out of it convicted of killing a jeweler in 1978 and sentenced to death Willie Turner never finished 5th grade but he learned to read and write in prison and claim to have made a key for every cell he ever occupied the guards suspect he is behind the plan to escape [Music] at James Briley signal Clanton bursts from the restaurant he hits a button control releasing the other inmates [Music] the prisoners take control of c-pod in barely three minutes each of the guards relate how he had been taken hostage and stripped of his uniform the inmates take the only defense the guards have their nightsticks along with their watches rings and money the guards are hogtied and shackled with their own handcuffs [Music] blindfold they over here the inmates discuss how they need to capture someone in authority time everyone else just relaxed the senior officers watch commander lieutenant Mark Johnson let his report indicates he was in building three when he responded to a page [Music] building three located on the opposite side of Mecklenburg houses the shipping department lieutenant Johnson is asked to call the extension of the c-pod a room the phone is answered by one of the guards held hostage lieutenant Johnson has no idea the guard is being held at knifepoint the guard tells Johnson he needs help with inmate Jarrah tano who he says has been wounded in an altercation [Music] Johnson calls the shift commander and orders him to report to c-pod nurse Clarke finishes passing out her medication to the rest of the inmates in building 1 the exit is through this locked door unfortunately officer hunters misplaced his key he decides to return to see pod unaware it is now in control of the inmates Hunter walks right into their arms Hunter has taken down to the pods lower tier where he joins the other hostages the conspirators need his uniform they force hunter to strip to his underwear then blindfold and hog-tie you the inmates know the security procedures and they make the system work against itself [Music] they got the other guards to come too pod see simply by faking emergencies they needed assistance with inmate so-and-so who was not taking his medication or resisting one thing or another by creating the illusion of a fellow correctional officer in trouble the inmates lure other guards in to see pod one by one they then capture them and take their uniforms nurse Clark is beginning to wonder what is keeping officer hunter when a guard finally arrives she is relieved she has no idea her terrifying ordeal is just beginning in western virginia six convicted killers have escaped from death row and have been on the loose for over two hours investigators have no leads to their whereabouts police are frantically searching a wide perimeter using every resource available they struggle to maintain it desperate to contain the inmates [Music] Virginia state police investigator Jim Letner continues gathering information for his report by interrogating the prison security staff hoping they will provide some leads to where the escaped inmates are headed each officer recounts his terrifying ordeal [Music] one by one layer taken hostage the inmates use their uniforms as a disguise to lure more officers into the traffic the guards tell leopard James Briley wanted to kill some hostages I they brought to kill a few over there were too many Briley said he was afraid they would become unmanageable Willie Turner one of the inmates talks Briley out of it they had agreed there would be no murders Derek Peterson returns with nurse Clark [Applause] they take her to a cell nurse Clark is alone when Earl Clanton appears Clanton had been convicted of killing two women and now he has his eyes on nurse Clark surrounded by convicted killers bent on freedom or revenge the security staff doubts they will live to see morning the screams of nurse Clark stir them to anger but they can do nothing Linwood Briley joins Earl Clanton as they begin to molest a nurse Wilbert Lee Evans stops the men Willie Turner reminds Linwood to remember the plan it has been 20 minutes since lieutenant Johnson received a report about an emergency on death row [Music] he begins to wonder what is happening in C pine he sent the shift commander to help out but he never reported back Johnson investigates the situation himself the stairwell doors lock automatically behind him the inmates threatened to kill Johnson if he does not do as they water once the inmates no longer have any use for them the hostages fear they will all be killed [Music] it has been three hours since the escape and still there have been no sightings of the fugitive authorities begin to fear they've slipped the search perimeter if that is true a lot of innocent people are in danger as the prison guards continue their account Jim Letten er still hopes to find one detail that will lead him to the killers in the main control room officer Cindy Smith had word that an inmate was injured but no one had called the paramedics during the past hour several officers and supervisors had gone up to death row none had reported back officer Smith begins to worry [Music] the inmates on death row have taken all the guards and seatbelt and hostage having all the uniforms and money they need it is time to make good their escape and get out of building one they move the hostages to a janitor's closet at the end of SEPA [Music] James Briley grabs a television set somehow he would have to pass it off as a bomb now that the inmates have control of c-pod they have to get out of the building at the center of building one is a main control room which controls the door to the outside the inmates have to gain control of this room in the main control room officer Smith is still waiting word from the officers dispatched to see pod then she receives a call it sounds like lieutenant Johnson he tells her a man is being sent to relieve her by having her supervisor who was a hostage called her and tell her that she would be relieved of duty by another guard she didn't question who the guard was Peterson and Clanton now dressed in guards uniforms head for the main control room officer Smith has no way of knowing the officer sent to reliever is Derek Peterson the prisoners now have control of all the doors to building one but there is only one way out of the prison compound the Sallyport James Briley forces lieutenant Johnson to call for a ban both vehicle Sally ports open he claims they have an emergency the van must be brought around to the main sally port Willy Turner has an appeal pending and volunteers to stay behind and guard the hostages in the c-pod control booth Joe Jarrett Ono who also stays behind pushes a button opening the stairwell door the rest of the conspirators disguised as guards troop downstairs to the loading dock lieutenant Johnson is no longer needed and so the watch commander is imprisoned in the building one stairwell they leave behind one of their own in the control booth to open the door and let them out of building one they lock officer Smith in a closet on their way out the six escapees raid the room full of riot gear wearing helmets to further hide their identities they placed the television on a stretcher throw a blanket over it and exit building one four months prior to the breakup the inmates leaked a story about a bomb being built in C pod so when James Briley warns the officer in charge of the van if they have a live explosive device and it might go off the terrified officer completely believes him Linwood Briley sprays their bogus bomb with a fire extinguisher and it appears to be smoking [Music] [Music] the escape is taken less than two hours to execute and now six vicious killers are roaming free it has been over three hours since Virginia prison officials were awakened by terrifying news six death row inmates have broken out of Mecklenburg Correctional Center the state-of-the-art escape-proof facility all police have is a widening search and no leads [Music] James Letner reports that none of the guards conspired in the escape they are guilty only of errors in judgment [Music] each era by itself would not have been enough but taken together they enabled six condemned men to escape the most pressing question on letters mind is where the killers are headed between them the six escapees have been convicted of killing 17 persons they've been in and out of prison most of their lives and now they are free men officer Lawrence Harrison of the Warren County North Carolina Sheriff's Department on patrol far outside the Virginia authorities search perimeter notices a white prison van at the time I thought of just correctional people could transfer because they do that at night they came by the way to me and I waited them and they kept going the prisoners have slipped the perimeter and officer Harrison has not yet been informed of the breakout the escapees realize a white prison man would be easily spotted as their euphoria from the escape wears off they begin arguing about where they should go what they should do with the van someone suggests they hide the van in the woods and cover it with branches but that would take time and the six are getting nervous while driving through Warrenton North Carolina the town of about 1,000 people they find a grove of trees it looks like a good place to leave the van the escapees split up [Music] the Briley's Tuggle and jones go one direction plantain and Peterson go another the men get lucky finding some sweat clothes hanging outside on a clothesline they ditch their prison garb while police continue to search the perimeter around the prison the inmates are running free to the south of their search area the fugitives have been on the run for three and a half hours when a North Carolina Highway Patrol officer discovers the prison van 211 Central I'm stopping to check out a suspicious van back at the schoolyard it's 30 miles from Mecklenburg it had been driven into some trees behind the Marion boyd elementary school park near the playground the van is hardly inconspicuous [Music] officers from the warrant and police in Sheriff's Department approached the prison van [Music] [Music] investigators find the riot here the prisoners used to disguise themselves along with the television set they passed off as a bomb [Music] unfortunately they find nothing to indicate which direction the escapees are heading the riot gear can furnish is sent for the bloodhounds [Music] think we might have a break back at the prison letter gets word a hospital orderly had been carjacked at knifepoint by two men in uniform Lattner suspects these were two of the escapees the orderly is lucky to have escaped with his life [Music] when investigators examine his car they find a prison shank similar to those used in the escape in the backseat [Music] police know the men have now split up and two of them are on foot the Virginia State Police prison emergency teams in the North Carolina Highway Patrol take over a motel and set up a command post because the fugitives have crossed state lines the FBI is called in Special Agent James Trotter is awakened in the middle of the night the phone rang and my wife answered it handed the phone to me it was Wayne Waddell an agent down in Danville Virginia which covered the prison at Mecklenburg Wayne said something like Jimmy I got a problem we got a problem six guys have broken out a death row here the fact the escapees split up would make them harder to find but if they were on foot they couldn't go far investigators adjust their search perimeter vectoring in the location and time the van had been abandoned with the location and time of the attempted carjacking it's just a matter of connecting the dots one from point A to point B and seeing how far ahead of you they are and trying to outsmart them and beat them to the next place they're likely to go and be there waiting for him representatives of various law enforcement agencies meet to set up a task force coordinating the search is Robert pence special agent in charge of the Charlotte FBI office because of the magnitude of this incident the response from law enforcement I would say was massive we had every FBI agent in the eastern part of the state along with support that we sent from the headquarters in Charlotte we had we used aircraft we used dogs we used corrections officers in other words it was a door-to-door search it was a field type search and while all this was going on communications were being sent to enlarge the search to prepare the rest of the sector in the rest of the country to be aware of these people and be alert for them special agent pens needs more information the names and addresses of their next-of-kin records of telephone calls they have made the identities of persons with whom they were authorized to communicate what we did simultaneously was search records to try to identify associates relatives neighbors anyone who these individuals might have tried to contact if they got out of the Warrington area police set up a tip line fence dispatches agents to interview the fugitives friends and family not just to gather information but to warn them that the killers are on the loose we believed that they were still in the area I mean we had no indication that they had left so the perimeter was kept tight and we kept looking for them but thoughts or feelings creep into you that perhaps they did escape then what the police fear most happens a man reports his truck stolen the truck a five-year-old Ford Ranger was serviced the day before and is full of gas within moments officials from the Department of Corrections the Highway Patrol sheriff's deputies and the local police swarm over the property searching for any clue that might have been left behind [Music] the man tells investigators his truck would be easy to identify it has personalized license tags with the letters P ei1 police order an all-points bulletin put out for the pickup investigators can't be sure whether the killers had all fled in the truck or whether some stayed behind lurking in the backyards of Warrington special agent pens so initially it was to try to contain them and then it became a national search so while all this was going on while the physical search was going on communications would be sent advising the rest of the country about what happened here that we had the largest breakout of death row inmates in US history and we needed to apprehend them very quickly the new perimeter has just been shattered now that the escapees have a vehicle the search area extends for hundreds of miles of the East Coast [Music] as dawn breaks the day after the escape police set up a fortified perimeter around Warrington North Carolina roadblocks are established and every driver is questioned [Music] search teams are organized every available law enforcement officer is recruited police bring in tracking dogs to follow the escapees scent starting in the area immediately around the van a pattern search fans out like ripples in a pond covering an ever wider area requiring more and more manpower police comb the woods and search outbuildings anywhere the escapees might hide after several hours of searching the investigators know only that the fugitives had split up some of them may have stolen a truck but police were no closer to finding them than when they started this morning the residents of Warrenton North Carolina wake up to see helicopter shots of their town on the national news at the prison officials attempt to answer the questions of a frightened public at this point in time our primary concern is the recapture of the inmates who were at large at this point and we are cooperating with the FBI with North Carolina with a number of other authorities in an effort to do that [Music] Fred Patton district First Sergeant in the North Carolina Highway Patrol you could all but chart it like a fog bank as the fair rolled across the four counties from warrant and outward and as the sightings increased people became more frightened the fact that they were in their mist six people that had killed 17 folks had murdered them including a five-year-old child and among their rapes was a 76 year old woman they began to arm themselves Warrenton residents scrambled to buy weapons and ammunition citizens are terrified to learn six desperate killers are loose in their community virginian-pilot reporter Tony Jaron motto there was a lot of tension a lot of fear I remember people talking saying they had their guns and you know if anybody came on their step they would shoot and talk to some of the merchants in this little town apparently got cleaned out of guns and there was no ammunition to be to be bought residents barricade themselves in their homes the where the fugitives have disguised themselves as guards they are wary of police officers and answer their doors with weapons in hand special agent Robert pence and we had a lot of fear in the neighborhood of Warrenton where they were supposedly or possibly still contained people were were extremely afraid and scared and people were going around door-to-door making announcements that lock your doors lock your cars a lot of people didn't sleep there for a few nights three hundred sheriff's deputies state troopers and Highway Patrol officers join in the search hoping to ease the public's fears Warren County sheriff's deputy Lawrence Harrison at that time with deputies what few we hate we made deliveries for the old ladies that were called up to the grocery store so we would pick it up and carry too long code they were scared to come out the median for any information about the investigation well there have been some confirming some of those when somebody confirmed at this time we have two confirmed the anxious public wants to know where the fugitives might be don't be it's easier to move and not be detected after dark [Music] Earl Clanton and Derek Peterson traded the guards uniforms for some sweat clothes Plantin kept his guards jacket but ripped off the patches [Music] the two fugitives walk into a coin-operated laundry having spent a sleepless night in the run they are hungry and thirsty they had just been to a convenience store where they bought a bottle of wine and some cheese [Music] the commander of the prison emergency response team or pert happens to be driving by the laundry he spots a man wearing a coat the coat is the same color uncut as a Mecklenburg guards uniform certain this is one of the escaped inmates the officer decides to arrest him before he can leave the laundry he hopes to catch him by surprise Clanton and Peterson were out of prison for no more than 19 hours they didn't go far and now their freedom is over the two men concede they expected to be caught because they were lost turns out it was a convenient place to be arrested the coin-operated laundry is only a half block from the County Jail they found two of them there they thought maybe the rest of them would be there so if we had fear before when the van was discovered we had a tremendous amount of fear whenever two of them were apprehended right in town so during the that early two or three days the mood was was very serious and the people were very concerned very scared we knew at that point was going to be a complicated search because they weren't all looking out for each other and they weren't together and maybe two of them were a little more half-hearted in this escape and now we had to find the ones that really intended to go the route and where they were going investigators debate the possible whereabouts of the other four escapees to Special Agent Trotter the Briley brothers are at the top of their list the Briley brothers killed repeatedly for no apparent reason they killed women they killed pregnant women they killed little children they killed grown men and they killed in very brutal and grisly ways and apparently had absolutely no remorse for any of the crimes for which they were convicted Trotter fears that unlike Peterson and Clanton the Briley brothers won't give up without a fight police are in a desperate race against time today to find four killers who they fear may kill again the capture of two escapees in the town of Warrenton north carolina only intensifies the sense of fear in the region on the second day of the search police scour a North Carolina campground after a woman reports she saw two of the convicts jogging across a field officers fan out through the woods emerging hours later with nothing but a cold trail sightings of the escaped death row inmates are coming in from throughout North Carolina and Virginia each call has to be checked out Fred district First Sergeant in the North Carolina Highway Patrol it was like the dam breaking first of all there was a drip and and then there was a minor fluctuation of calls that we would receive as far as sightings were concerned and then the dam broke and sightings were coming in by the hundreds and of course by that time we had mobilized enough people and had him spread out to the point that we could respond to the sightings within a short period of time and that this is what we wanted to do investigators suspect the escapees may have left the area but they cannot be sure the manhunt continues in and around Warrington but these fellows are very smart they know what they're doing obviously and they could be dug in anywhere and they got to turn every limb and their retreat helicopters searched the dense forests and red dirt fields on the North Carolina Virginia border police patrol the waterways in abandoned houses and stop traffic along all roads and highways looking for for dangerous men police continue to get tips special agent Robert pence a lot of those tips were worse care tips they were fear tips they weren't helping a lot and I don't believe that any of the calls really materialized as far as giving us direction about where these fugitives might be but I did I do think it gave the citizens a conduit to to really vent some of their fears and concerns a manhunt sweeps the forests and swamps all day long they search growing more miserable by the hour [Music] they run out of insect repellent in Warrenton and have to send out four more the officers endured difficult conditions all to no avail officer Lawrence Harrison responds to several sightings of the fugitives yeah bad in the ocaña high seen on once we get there and I don't know how many bloodhounds we didn't have here they would say I saw him run across the road in him we take the blue hands down there turn out nothing and and they said I saw him run down then we take the bloodhounds down there and sometimes we proper running them guys we did see some guys run across the road but it wasn't a private brother coming from the Lucas T in the marijuana reports pour in as residents throughout Virginia in North Carolina called police hotlines claiming to have seen the fugitives the governor of Virginia posts a forty thousand dollar reward for information leading to the fugitives capture [Music] sightings come in from North Carolina and Virginia every call has to be checked out but leads nowhere [Music] thinking that Briley's might return to their old neighborhood Richmond Virginia police interview their acquaintances and former gang members Special Agent James Trotter these guys just killed to see people die just to be killing and I think that's why the Richmond community upon learning that they had escaped particularly the areas of Richmond which they frequented in the past the people were terrified their own parents were terrified not for them but of them in Portsmouth Virginia just a few hours drive from Warrington the police officer spots two men breaking into a car when he tries to stop them the two men opened fire whatever our officers saw Linwood Briley in the 1800 block of Elm Avenue but then he lost sight up and surely before nine o'clock another officer spotted Linwood Briley and James Briley here at Elm and Lincoln apparently they were tampering or appeared to be tampering with an automobile in this area as soon as they saw the officers they ran as fears spread the sightings keep coming in from far and wide if the escapees did steal a pickup truck they could be anywhere the missing vehicle had enough fuel to get past Richmond on a hunch the fugitives might head north agents begin interviewing gas station attendants just north of Virginia's capital one attendant remember seeing a pickup truck with one white memory and three black men investigator Jim Letten I was absolutely convinced that at least two of them and perhaps four of them were capable of murder or any other crime and and would eventually commit other murders if they remained on the street having lost their perimeter investigators scramble for clues to where the fugitives might be headed they focus their attention on the leaders of the gang they begin by examining a log of phone calls made from death row [Music] the log indicates the Briley brothers made a number of calls to the philadelphia area [Music] the log entries lead agents to one wrong address after another they begin to suspect the Briley's entered false phone numbers michael Carbonell is a supervisory special agent with the FBI in philadelphia based upon all the negative investigation we had conducted I felt that those numbers were not right in other words they were not telling the guard which number they were actually calling investigators subpoena the toll records corresponding to the phone on death row when they compared it to the handwritten log their suspicions are confirmed the phone company's records show the actual numbers the Briley's call [Music] agents now have over 50 good numbers to investigate two of the calls had been placed to a house in North Philadelphia investigators know from prison visitation records that the Briley's have an uncle who lives in North Philly carbonelle set up to trace their uncle's outgoing calls I didn't think that the Briley brothers would be staying with him and I didn't want to hit his house until we're absolutely sure that they were here the time was on our side at that point so we decided to put a surveillance on his residence and and we conducted that surveillance for probably four or five days the FBI watches the Briley's uncles every move [Music] although they never see him with the Briley's the agents have no choice but to wait it out as the FBI chases every lead on the fugitives from Mecklenburg death row they get another break hundreds of miles from Virginia LEM Tuggle and Willie Jones took 8 days to make their way to Woodford Vermont a little resort town just south of the Canadian border the men had spent the night in the woods they decide to try and make it to Canada the two fugitives have a problem their stolen truck is low on gas and they need money Tuggle leaves Jones and drives back to a souvenir shop he had visited three days before [Music] Nyko waiting for the right time to make his move Tuggle asks the owner for a soda and there will be anything else for you sir yes drawing a hunting knife he demands all the money in the cash register [Music] [Applause] [Music] once Tuggle gets the money he turns and walks out the woman notes the trucks license tag pe I won it is easy to remember the take is about $80 and change it isn't much but it's enough for gas and a new start in Canada unfortunately for Tuggle he is heading in the wrong direction Ronald Wonderlic has just woken up and is about to head off for an all-night job guarding a nuclear power station when he hears the report of a robbery at the Woodford gift shop Wonderlic is a constable in a town of only 300 people his Ford Escort doubles as his patrol car in Stanford Vermont it seems unlikely you'll have to engage in any high-speed chases trooper Daniel beginning also here's the report the dispatcher says that the suspect was last seen driving east on route 9 and the dispatch advised that upon running a registration check on the motor vehicle they had discovered that it was a stolen vehicle suspected involved with escapees from the Mecklenburg Area beguin accelerates to intercept the vehicle Wonderlic is driving out of stanford when he spots the suspect vehicle coming right at on the wrong side of the road the constable whips his Ford Escort into a u-turn and begins a pursuit author Joe Jackson most town constable that ever really done before was to like hustle drunks off the street and check out reports of stolen bicycles and all of a sudden he was he was chasing this crazy man who had robbed robbed a store at knifepoint Wonderlic radios beginning that the truck is now heading south toward the state of Massachusetts trooper big even goes from a code two to a code 3 response using his lights inside I was accelerating around probably 80 or 90 miles an hour to try to try to meet them to make up some time at distance before he got north to the intersection of 108 if they act quickly they can set up a roadblock before the convict has a chance to slip away on the radio but giving here's that other officers are joining the chase Wonderlic advises him that the vehicle is turned around and is proceeding north on route 100 the trooper and the fugitive are now heading straight for each other at that time I was trying to find a good location to execute a stop where there weren't any residences around where we could have something a relative safety yet still being enough of a field-of-view world I could see the truck coming the officers now realize they are pursuing a convicted killer when Begay being swings his vehicle across the road he knows he is putting his life on the line in a high-stakes game of dare there's a little element of danger involved but yet it's something that being a rural patrol officer you rarely see and you're kind of like saying oh no to yourself you know that what have I gotten myself into here beginning is gambling that the suspect isn't desperate enough to ram his cruiser or that he is a good enough shot to stop him before he does a Vermont State Trooper into town constable have boxed in one of the death row escapees it's now a question of whether LEM Tuttle who had been convicted of killing two persons would be squeamish about killing a third weighing his options Tuggle pulls over and stops I then ordered him to place his hands out the window so I could see his hands and we then ordered toggled from the truck to lay down on the pavement and then approached him and took him into custody he identified himself to me as you know my name is Lam and I'm from Virginia and something to the effect I've expect you'll find that I'm wanted Lim Tuggle has been a fugitive for just 10 days he seems almost relieved to be captured Tuggle admits that robbing the gift shop was a big mistake but the truck was out of gas and he wanted to get to Canada the next day an unusual call comes in to the Vermont State Police and gives the dispatcher his name he says police are looking for him where he'd escaped from the prison I can't mecklenburg mecklenburg we're in virginia problem he had broken out of death row how long and you won't turn yourself in I will be sending the cruiser up the police up to talk with you when Tuggle didn't return Jones became lost and confused tired of being on the run he wanted to turn himself in the dispatcher asks Jones to describe where he is she determines that he's on route 242 outside the town of Jay Jones tells the dispatcher he is unarmed in his 26 years as a trooper this is the only time Richard Armitage has ever had a fugitive call and asked to be picked up he just looked like he was ready to turn himself Annie it he looked dejected he looked tired dirty hungry and there was obvious I had been bit by a number of the black flies that we do have in this area and it was really it was like the weight of the world had been taken off his shoulders he was so glad that he was gone where he could get something to eat and something to drink it wouldn't have been difficult for Jones to enter Canada in Vermont the border is only guarded at the highways [Music] if he knew where he was going he could have easily just walked across but Jones gave himself up just five miles from the Canadian border author Joe Jackson believes Jones may have been overwhelmed by his newfound freedom they live most of their adult lives in prison I mean prison is their world and so they're able to figure out how the prison world acts but they don't they're not able to figure out how the free world acts they fit in the prison world they don't fit in the free world with four of the six fugitives captured only the Briley's the most dangerous killers remain at large with their well known history of vicious murders the two remaining fugitives seem to be everywhere sightings come in from as far north as Montreal in Richmond Virginia where the brothers went on their bloody rampage everyone locks their doors the manhunt is organized in Oxford North Carolina after a man thought to be Linwood Briley steals some cans of food from a convenience store in Richmond Virginia the family of a former gang member who turned state's evidence against the Briley's is given police protection like investigators question LEM Tuggle for clues to the Briley's whereabouts Tuggle tells police how the escapees wandered through warrant and looking for a vehicle they could steal they hot-wired a pickup truck and took off Tuggle tells them the Briley's had never been in Portsmouth or Richmond he says they didn't kill anyone while he was with them after stealing the pickup truck in North Carolina they drove north to Philadelphia they burned the guards uniforms in a trash can according to toggle the Briley's claimed they arranged for someone to meet them with clothes and a gun [Music] Tuggle further recalls that James Briley stuck one of the guards badges into a tree in Philadelphia's Huntington Park he and Jones then headed north towards the Canadian border Tuggle claims they even stopped and asked two state troopers for directions to the New Jersey Turnpike there they were driving along two escaped convicts from a maximum security prison wanted by the FBI and law enforcement agencies in several states but apparently no one noticed [Music] Tuggle says he and Jones eventually parted company to campground when he left to rob the gift shop Special Agent mike Carbonell comes to Philadelphia with a map of the park drawn by Tuggle I frankly didn't believe it I'm familiar with honey Park when I looked at the map there were no tennis courts drawn on the map I was skeptical I felt why would a guy who's on death row who's gonna be executed cooperate with us searching the trees investigators find the guards badge this confirms Tuggle story I was I was stunned I didn't I didn't believe it but the proof is in the pudding the badge was there and then we knew that they were here the FBI knows the Briley's have an uncle in Philadelphia they believe the two fugitives will probably contact him if they haven't done so already Special Agent James Trotter they set up a surveillance and sat there for days nothing he would call me a report he would say guys not doing anything nobody's coming or going agents get a break when they shadow the uncle to a body shop specializing in upholstery and vinyl car tops [Music] days earlier a woman in New York notified police she received a call from James Briley the call originated from this garage its owner Dan Latham had been introduced to the Briley's by their uncle using false names he called them lucky and slim the FBI sets up a fixed surveillance and Lathan's garage agent sees several men hanging around but aren't sure if they're the brightest they send in an informant from the neighborhood to try and confirm an ID he was a street type guy he was very sharp that could really maneuver in that environment we sent him in there he actually talked to James Briley he came back out and met with us he said I think it's him a tattoo on the suspects left arm further confirms the ID agents believe they have found James but they see no sign of his brother Linnea they wonder whether to go in and arrest one or wait with the hope of getting both but if they wait Virginia's most notorious serial killers might slip away after 19 days of searching the FBI believes they have located the last two escapees from Mecklenburg death row they have taken refuge at a body shop in North Philadelphia the two fugitives appear to be having a party having confirmed their identities through an informant agents decided stab removal [Music] [Applause] garage owner Dan lazin is surprised by all the commotion I myself was in the office on the phone just taking it easy and I heard some wheels squeaking and coming to a halt and I heard a lot of screaming I looked outside all I seen was guns a lot of guns both brothers admit their identities and are led away in handcuffs the nationwide manhunt is over the last of the Mecklenberg six are recaptured they had been free for 19 days for sergeant Fred Patton it is the end of a nightmare when the the Briley brothers were finally apprehended in Philadelphia it was like the weight of the world had been lifted off of you because I reiterate that these were bad folks these were killers the Briley brothers who are facing death sentences in Virginia were picked up at a car shop on Philadelphia's Northside FBI agent John Hogan says they were surprised when 20 agents surrounded them they were apprehended without incident they caused a no problem to us they have both admitted their identity they have the appropriate scars and marks so we know who they are the Briley brothers were the last of six convicts to be rounded up after their escape and the largest death row prison breakout in US history that was three weeks ago at Mecklenburg Correctional Center in Virginia the Briley's will be arraigned in Philadelphia today on charges of unlawful flight to avoid confinement the FBI wants to make certain that Briley's can't slip away again special agent Trotter arranges to have them kept in federal custody and these unlawful flight cases usually as soon as you catch them you dismiss the federal warrants and leave it between the two states to work out getting them back to where they belong the FBI's out of it but we were able to keep these guys in federal custody long enough to have them return to Virginia through the federal system rather than having to go through state extradition proceedings in the wake of the escape Mecklenburgh goes into lockdown the governor of Virginia announces the firing of five guards the warden and his security assistant are suspended without pay an investigation by three independent consultants finds that conditions at Mecklenburg are highly dangerous and at times unmanageable two months after the escape riots break out at the prison using homemade knives inmates stabbed two guards and take six others hostage author Joe Jackson a lot of violence in the prison before the escape but once the escape occurred that was like a symbol to a lot of the other prisoners and so at that point the lid blew off of Mecklenburg and there were right there was a big riot it appears to be a repeat of earlier events only this time there was no escape the standoff ends shortly after sunrise corrections director Robert Landon resigns three months later before he leaves Landon puts many changes into effect [Music] doors to the guards restrooms are now locked all the time open stairwells where inmates could hide or board it up stricter procedures are put in place an interlock is installed on the main Sallyport preventing both gates from opening at once with these changes in place Jim Letten er believes that such an escape could never happen again corrections were made to our institutions both in in the way job were performed as well as as new regulations that were were instituted that makes our prisons more at to be escaped free in future in October of 1984 as Linwood Briley as execution grows near he is quoted as saying at least I had my 19 days Briley is the second man in 22 years to be executed in Virginia but in the aftermath of the escape officials step up the rate of executions six months after Linwood was put to death James Briley follows his brother to the electric chair in that same month Earl Clanton jr. pays the price for the two murders he committed Derek Peterson one of the first escapees to be recaptured makes his final walk in 1991 Willie Jones is executed in 1993 Willie Turner masterminded the escape but he remained behind because he had an appeal pending convinced of his innocence he puts his faith in the system Willie Turner is executed in 1995 by that time the state of Virginia stopped using the electric chair Turner's life is ended by lethal injection an hour after the poison stops Turner's heart his lawyer finds a loaded 32 caliber homemade gun inside a typewriter in his cell along with the weapon is a handwritten note that reads simply smile the last escapee to die is LEM Tuggle on December 12 1996 the convicted double murderer is led to the death chamber Joe Jarrett on whose book passing started the escape had his sentence commuted to life in prison of all the conspirators he is the only survivor the escape of the Mecklenberg six shocked and terrified the nation for nineteen days the coordinated efforts of police and law enforcement officials returned the men to face the ultimate penalty for their crimes since the escape the Commonwealth of Virginia has executed over 80 people state sanctioned execution continues to be hotly debated in Virginia America and around the world [Music]

Channel: Wonder

Views: 2,205,429

Rating: 4.5663066 out of 5

Keywords: prison escape, escape from death row documentary, full length documentaries, death row escape, prison documentary

Id: 0da4FzGcukM

Length: 95min 31sec (5731 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 26 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/gerryn]

Pretty interesting. Such elaborate escapes - and in almost all cases they have no clue what to do once outside.