‘Shawshank fugitive’ released from prison on parole
The 80-year-old man who escaped from an Ohio prison camp 57 years ago and was recaptured in Florida earlier this year was released from prison on parole yesterday.
Frank Freshwater was serving time for manslaughter in 1959 when he escaped from prison, and it wasn’t until earlier this year that he was discovered living in Florida on social security benefits.
Freshwater has been released to a relative in West Virginia under a five-year period of supervision.
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2/26/16: On the lam for 57 years, ‘Shawshank fugitive’ granted parole
An Ohio man on the run from the law for 57 years was granted parole and released from custody after being found in Florida at age 79.
Frank Freshwaters said that he never forgot the accident that got him arrested, which killed 24-year-old Eugene Flynt while Freshwater was speeding in 1957.
Freshwaters was serving time in a northern Ohio prison camp in 1959 for manslaughter when he escaped. He wasn’t seen again until 1975 in West Virginia, where the governor refused to extradite him due to his “flawless 16-year residency.”
Since then, Freshwaters went to Florida, where he lived off social security under another alias in a trailer park–the life of a retired widower, according to the investigators who tracked him down.
In an emotional testimony, Freshwater’s son, Jim Cox, offered sympathy to the son of Eugene Flynt, the victim in Freshwater’s original case.
Cox said he could relate to growing up without a father, since Freshwater was arrested shortly after he was born.
It is likely that Freshwater will move back to Florida on parole.
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