Posted on 05/05/2015 12:01:38 PM PDT by nikos1121
An Ohio prison escapee on the run since the Eisenhower administration has finally been caught, Florida officials said.
Frank Freshwater, 79, escaped an Ohio prison in 1959 and was caught Monday at a home in Melbourne, Florida, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office said. Freshwater, who was doing time for a probation violation related to a manslaughter conviction, was living under an alias and had worked as a truck driver.
Freshwater was initially jailed at the Ohio State Reformatory, where "The Shawshank Redemption" was filmed. He was moved to a prison work farm shortly into his 20-year sentence. He took off after serving seven months.
Freshwater lived in several states, using the name William H. Cox, before settling in Brevard County about 20 years ago, officials said. He is awaiting extradition to Ohio.
now the question is did the people save money on housing an inmate for 20 years and also get taxes from his job or did he do God knows what to God knows who and get away with those things for all those years
This creep beat the system.
I’m suspecting the former.
I think about the times I almost got caught doing stupid things when I was a kid. If I’d gotten caught it would have changed my life. And not in the good way.
That’s the problem with our penal system and how we treat people. I’m not saying I have a better idea - yet - but sometimes people don’t fit the mold. They actually grow up. Looks like it’s possible this guy did. I’m also thinking there should be a statute of limitations on this sort of thing. Say, 30 years. Just thinking out loud.
Agreed. But if he didn’t commit a crime since he escaped, I would just let it go at this point. The guy is 79 years old and likely not a threat to Society any more. He was probably looking over his shoulder for years and years, which is itself punishment of a sort.
I wonder if the family of the person he ran over is still around?
i think about it too and i don’t know the answers. I just figured out how to get the flame to come on my stove without a match :)
not the man to be making life or death decisions!!
What we have here is a failure to communicate. Most in prison deserve to be there. The lesser ones stay in county jails and work farms for easier and shorter sentences.
GREAT JOB!!!!! Now John Q Taxpayer will be on the hook for the medical care for the last years of his life
He’s probably on Medicare, so,.......................
Technically, I agree with you, but to the extent that all of us probably, at one time or another, deserved to be in prison or jail.
But the key word is “technically”. And sometimes that is what they use to get someone in there.
Here's the whole story:
Authorities say Freshwaters was the driver of a vehicle involved in a car vs. pedestrian accident which resulted in a fatality in July 1957. Freshwaters pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to one to 20 years in prison.
Initially, Freshwaters’ sentence was suspended, and he was given probation for five years. Then on February 1959, he was found guilty of violating his probation, and his original sentence was imposed.
Freshwater served time at the infamous Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, but authorities say he was able to earn the trust of prison officials and was moved to the Sandusky Honor Farm to finish his sentence.
Back in 1959 laws were a hell of a lot different and too many people never had the monies to hire quality defense attorneys or pay off the presiding judge in his back chamber during a called recess.
The fact that he plead guilty to "voluntary manslaughter" as a result of a vehicle killing a pedestrian accident and then receiving a 1 - 20 year sentence which is then suspended and turned into a 5 year probation tells me this was a case of the local "Boss Hog" rural cop and the county prosecutor making a name for themselves.
Who knows what the probation violation was, it was likely something as simple as being pulled over for drunk driving or getting into a bar fight.
Whatever the reason, there are certainly bigger fish to fry and this guy has no criminal history since then and he should be allowed to spend his remaining days in retirement........
if that’s the whole story, i agree.
It’s THE Ohio State Reformatory.
too bad he isn’t an illegal, jeb bush and Obama would beg for amnesty for him..
Speak for yourself.
Speak for yourself.
And my comment is more along the lines of 1984. I used to say in high school (1972) that if you are walking down the street on a beautiful summer day you are probably breaking a law.
It's amusing to watch the spin around Hillary Clinton and her felonious activities.
She committed a stack of felonies a foot high with her little email scheme. Our FR morons don't understand that if she was someone like Scooter Libby, she'd already be under indictment.
http://www.threefeloniesaday.com/Youtoo/tabid/86/Default.aspx
The morons think that they're "law-abiding", and that people like this Frank Freshwaters are "criminals". LOL!
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