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When I started working at Auburn Prison (NY State) as a C.O. in 1980, we were told a story of how an inmate would have his girlfriend buy a big industrial sized jar of olives, unscrew the cap, empty the brine, and fill it back up with vodka, gin or other clear booze, and either send it to him in a package, or bring it with her and leave it with the Package Room for clearance. That happened when they were still allowing glass jars into the prison, and the checking of packages wasn't as sophisticated as it is today.

Robert Garrow was a serial killer in NY State. He murdered four people in July 1973, including a young woman whom he kidnapped, and repeatedly raped before killing, and a high school-aged camper in the Adirondacks a few days later. He was on the run for 12 days, but was tracked down, shot in the foot, arm, and back by a Conservation Officer in the Adirondacks, then claimed he was paralyzed because of it. He was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years to life, and sent to Clinton Correctional Facility (Dannemora).

Garrow repeatedly asked for transfer to the Elderly and Handicapped Unit (minimum security) within the medium-security Fishkill Correctional Facility downstate. Doctors confirmed his paralysis, and he was eventually transferred there. Of course Garrow wasn't really paralyzed, and Garrow's son Danny would come to visit his father, and bring him tubs of fried chicken. We were told that the .32 caliber pistol he escaped with, had been broken down, and the parts brought in on various visits, but it's also been reported that his son brought the whole weapon in on one visit. Garrow escaped on September 8th, 1978, by scaling a fifteen foot fence to escape the prison grounds. But again, he was tracked down, shot and killed on September 11, 1978. When I worked at Auburn Prison, his son Danny Garrow was doing time for aiding in his father's escape. I can't remember what his sentence was, but he was a scruffy-looking, long-haired blonde with a beard and mustache. I was at Auburn from 1980-83 before transferring to a prison closer to home. Retired in 2003.

He murdered four people in July 1973, including a young woman whom he kidnapped, and repeatedly raped before killing, and a high school-aged camper in the Adirondacks a few days later.

Two of the campers Garrow killed were Dan Porter and his girlfriend Susan Petz. Together with Pat Caddell and John Gorman, Porter was a co-founder of Cambridge Survey Research, a political polling outfit which had become famous for its involvement in the McGovern campaign. All three of them were Harvard students. Caddell is still famous.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/7/24/danny-d-porter-pbdbanny-porter-once/

I worked briefly at Oneida General Hospital back when the Garrow thing was going on....we used to get a lot of State Troopers into the ICU...every body was on edge...

one scary thing I remember about that time that somewhere north of Rome NY they saw somebody dragging a body behind a car....they eventually found the body but close by they found "extra' body parts....

scary times...