News Net 5 Clevland ABC
Local escapee Frank Freshwaters caught in Florida after 56 years on the run
Courtney Danser
May 5, 2015
CLEVELAND - He was on the run for 56 years, but now he’s back in custody.
According to the U.S. Marshals office, Frank Freshwaters of Akron, a.k.a. William Harold Cox, was involved in a car crash that killed a pedestrian on July 3, 1957.
Freshwaters pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 1 to 20 years in prison, however, his sentence was suspended and he was given probation for five years.
On Feb. 19, 1959, Freshwaters was found guilty of violating his probation and his original sentence was imposed.
Freshwaters served time at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield but was then transferred to the Sandusky Honor Farm to finish his sentence. On Sept. 30, 1959 Freshwaters escaped.
In October of 1975 Freshwaters was taken into custody by the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office in Charleston, W.V. for the Ohio warrant. But the governor of West Virginia refused to extradite him to Ohio and he was again released.
There is more to this story than the drive-by Florida media has bothered with. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter due to a car crash that killed someone. He was given probation which he violated which is why he was on the prison farm.
He was previously captured in 1975 but West Virginia apparently felt it was not worth the effort to send him back.
I would say the cold case group was looking for an easy score to build their record for future funding. Cold case units are a waste of money.
If he was a convicted murderer, what bozo decided to transfer him to an “honor farm”?