It didn't work out for Virgil Starkwell.
Posted on 05/26/2025 4:14:43 PM PDT by Libloather
A disgraced ex-Arkansas police chief who was serving 80 years in prison for rape and a shotgun-to-the-head execution escaped from a high-security prison disguised as a cop.
Grant Hardin, 56, the former police chief of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was seen on security cameras walking out of the North Central Unit prison, in Calico Rock, dressed in what appears to be a homemade law enforcement uniform on Sunday afternoon.
Hardin, who is considered extremely dangerous, used the outfit to sneak through the controlled gate while inconspicuously pushing a cart full of utility materials, according to the Stone County Sheriff’s Office.
“It has been determined that Hardin was wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement when he escaped the North Central Unit. He was not wearing a Department of Corrections uniform, and all DOC-issued equipment has been accounted for,” Rand Champion, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, said in a statement.
Hardin served as police chief in Gateway, population 436, for only four months in early 2016, but had a checkered history at small police departments dating back to the early 1990s..
He was fired multiple times, and accused of excessive force, poor performance and even falsifying police records, according to local reports.
In 2017, Hardin pleaded guilty to the murder of James Appleton, 59, a Gateway water department employee who was shot in the head at point-blank range with a shotgun while on the phone with his brother-in-law, who was at the time the mayor.
Hardin never offered a motive for the murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
“Hardin never offered a motive for the murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.”
A. Love Triangle
B. Drugs
C. Money
D. All of the above
I watch a lot of Murder Mysteries and True Crime shows. ;)
He faked it till he made it.
“but had a checkered history at small police departments dating back to the early 1990s..
He was fired multiple times, and accused of excessive force, poor performance and even falsifying police records, according to local reports.”
Police departments might consider not hiring these sorts of people.
The police have almost no hiring standards these days, and probably half of them are dirty. The only saving grace is that they have to wear body cams.
Like the guy coming out of the construction site with a wheelbarrow full of sand every day. Everyone thought, “what’s a little sand”. His real crime, stealing wheelbarrows.
I am surprised a town of less than 500 even has a water department.
Did he take sewing lessons in prison like the 9/11 terrorists took takeoff lessons in flying jets?
And lucky for him the blackened bar of soap wasn’t out in the rain as in Woody Allen’s movie.
Good old joke. Vintage ones improve with age.
Dillinger escaped jail by using a bar of soap carved into a pistol and dyed black with shoe polish. At least that’s the story I read.
"He'll never get out and harm anyone again."
PICTURES?
WOULD BE HELPFUL
He’s in my neighborhood supposedly. He has ties to towns all around me. So, I’m on Red Alert.
He looks like Uncle Fester. I’ll see if I can find a picture.
Or, just for the heck of it.
One of my favorite Woody Allen movies.
Under Wokeism, people like him were the only ones who wanted the job.
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