Two more Alabama inmates captured: 5 in custody

Two of the Alabama escapees after being recaptured Thursday

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Tennessee authorities captured five of the six inmates on the run from an Alabama prison Thursday morning, but one other remained at large in the woods west of Nashville.

The inmates broke out of the St. Clair Correctional Facility, about 25 miles northeast of Birmingham, Alabama, late Tuesday. Three of the six were serving life terms for murder.

Arrested early Thursday outside Bucksnort, Tennessee, about 50 miles west of Nashville, were inmates Steve Murphy , serving a life term for murder; Billy Gamble , who was serving 25 years for robbery; and O.C. Borden , convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Two more -- Jack Allred , serving life without parole for robbery, and James McClain , serving 20 years for burglary -- were taken into custody about an hour later. A sixth inmate remained at large.

"That person is Gary Scott , and he has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole," FBI Special Agent Phil Thomas said. "So from a public perspective, he is a very dangerous individual."

"We believe he is probably close by, and we're confident we will take him into custody before the morning is over," Tennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Mark Fagan told CNN.

VIDEO The owner of the deli in Bucksnort, Tennessee talks about how the escapees were spotted on her surveillance tape Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Correspondent Sherri Jackson reports on how the inmates escaped Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MESSAGE BOARD Violence in America

The search concentrated on a heavily wooded area near the town of Bucksnort, along Interstate 40 west of Nashville. The convicts were spotted early Thursday morning outside a convenience store there.

"A Hickman County deputy pulled up to the store ran a check on a tag of a vehicle there, just as a routine, and discovered it was a vehicle allegedly stolen by these escapees," Tennessee state police spokeswoman Dana Keeton said.

The convicts got past three fences in their bid for freedom: a 12-foot interior chain-link fence topped with razor wire, a fence that was supposed to be electrified and another razor-topped fence, prison spokesman John Hamm said.

Meanwhile, the former warden of the maximum-security prison where the convicts were being held told CNN he repeatedly warned corrections officials the fencing system wasn't working and predicted an escape could happen.

"You saw it coming," former St. Clair warden Stephen Dees said. "If it (the fence) had been working, this never would have happened."

Phil Thomas, a FBI special agent, tells how the inmates were captured on Thursday in Tennessee

In the mid 1980's, prisoners took over the facility in a riot that ended without injuries. But in 1984, two inmates escaped from St. Clair through the drainage system and stole a motorcycle in nearby Springville before they were later caught: One of those two inmates was Murphy, one of the inmates in Tuesday's breakout.

CNN has also learned that a female acquaintance of one of the escapees received a Christmas card from the prisoner saying "see you soon." The local district attorney told CNN the woman was frightened and under the protection of a local sheriff.

Recently retired from Alabama's Corrections Department, Dees said that he first suspected a problem in December 1999, after two escape attempts at the same prison. In a phone interview from his residence in Florida, Dees described a system that he'd complained about for the last year of his employment, and that repeated attempts to fix it had failed.

Escape tip exposed faults

The system consists of a light beam alarm, which is supposed to set off an alarm in a guard tower and control room if tripped, a 12-foot mesh fence, a 7-foot, 5,000-volt electric fence, and a third fence topped with razor wire.

Dees said he inherited the prison's faulty system in the 15 months he was warden, and found out its weak points when he was tipped off about an escape plan by some prisoners.

This surveillance camera shows three of the escapees in a Bucksnort convenience store

"That time we caught them before they got out and I started checking," he said.

Alabama Corrections Commissioner Mike Haley said the fence, which prison officials have complained about since it was installed in 1996, was not electrified Tuesday night.

Haley also said an alarm intended to go off automatically if anyone tampered with the fence was not activated. A guard tower nearby was not manned.

"We were trying to depend more on technology. Our technology failed," Haley said.

Dees said the warranty on the system had expired. He said prison engineers told him "they did not have the expertise to fix it," and that money was never appropriated to repair it.

Last year when he retired, Dees said he wrote officials that "the fence was not working properly and we could have an escape and if one of these lifers without parole got out, the governor and everyone else would have to stand the heat."

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January 24, 2001
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January 22, 2001

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center

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