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10 Killers Who Escaped From Prison

10 Killers Who Escaped From Prison
VOICE OVER: Rebecca Brayton WRITTEN BY: Don Ekama
These infamous criminals flew the coop! For this list, we'll be looking at convicted murderers who managed to break out of custody before their sentences were up. Our countdown includes Donald Leroy Evans, James Earl Ray, Ted Bundy, and more!

10 Killers Who Escaped From Prison


Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the 10 Killers Who Escaped From Prison.

For this list, we’ll be looking at convicted murderers who managed to break out of custody before their sentences were up. We’ll be considering escapees who were eventually recaptured and those who have somehow managed to remain on the run ever since.

Did we miss anyone? Let us know in the comments.

Allan Legere

The crimes of Allan Legere were so despicable that he was named the “Monster of the Miramichi.” Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Legere’s first criminal stint happened in 1986 when he participated in a robbery that resulted in the death of one man. Legere was in prison for the crime when he managed to stage an escape during a visit to the hospital. He remained on the run for seven months, during which he reigned terror on the town of Miramichi and its environs. Legere was responsible for the deaths of three women and one Reverend Father. After evading police for three years, Legere was recaptured in 1989 and sentenced to life imprisonment for the crimes he committed while at large.

Donald Leroy Evans

Donald Leroy Evans was convicted of two murders, although he claimed to have been responsible for about seventy others. He was first arrested for the assault and murder of a young homeless girl in Gulfport, Mississippi. Evans owned up to the crime while in police custody, and of the seventy other murders he confessed to, he was only reliably linked to one. While awaiting trial in June 1993, Evans escaped from the Harris County Jail with three other inmates. It only took a little over a day for authorities to fish Evans out of a shed in a nearby yard. He was on death row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary when he died at the hands of another inmate in 1999.

Lyda Southard

Nicknamed the Black Widow, Lyda Southard was one of America’s first ever documented female serial killers. Between 1912 and 1920, Southard got married four times, and all four men died under mysterious circumstances. She was arrested and convicted of second-degree murder after traces of arsenic were found in the bodies of some of her former husbands. While serving her sentence, Southard broke out of prison with the help of a guard who had taken a liking to her. She sawed off the bars in her cell window and climbed down the prison wall using a rope made out of blankets. Southard managed to evade recapture for fifteen months, during which she got married for the sixth time.

Sarah Jo Pender

In 2002, Sarah Jo Pender was convicted, alongside her then-boyfriend Richard Hull, of the murders of their two roommates. Although she wasn’t present when the murders took place, Pender was accused of orchestrating the crime and manipulating Hull into committing it. Because of this, she was referred to as a “Female Charles Manson” during her trial. After serving just six years from her 110-year sentence, Pender connived with a prison guard and a former cellmate of hers to escape. She began a new life as Ashley Thompson in Chicago, but that only lasted about four months. Pender was found and arrested after being identified by a neighbor from an episode of the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”

Sharon Kinne

Three people are thought to have lost their lives as a result of Sharon Kinne’s murderous actions. This includes her husband James and the wife of a boyfriend, both killed in 1960. Kinne was unsuccessfully tried three times for James’ murder and fled to Mexico before her fourth trial was set to begin. While there, she shot and killed another man, maintaining that it was an act of self-defense. Nevertheless, she was convicted and sent to a Mexican prison for thirteen years. Taking advantage of the prison’s lax security and an unusual blackout, Kinne escaped on December 7th 1969, just four years into her sentence. She is currently still at large and holds one of the longest outstanding warrants in American history.

Gonzalo Lopez

Of the six people who died at the hands of Gonzalo Lopez, five lost their lives after he escaped from prison. Lopez had initially been handed a life sentence in 2006 for the kidnapping and death of Jose Ramirez. Almost two years in, he was given another life sentence for an earlier crime in which two police officers were shot at. In May 2022, Lopez was being transported to the hospital with fifteen other inmates when he staged a daring escape. Lopez remained on the run until June 2nd when he attacked and killed five people at their family ranch in Centerville, Texas. He was involved in a shootout later that day with police and lost his life in the process.

James Earl Ray

James Earl Ray was still on the run after escaping from prison one year earlier, when he committed the crime he has now become most infamous for. Ray first escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 while serving a twenty-year sentence for armed robbery. Fueled by his racist ideologies, Ray traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in 1968, where he assassinated prominent civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was arrested two months later and handed a 99-year prison sentence. On June 10th 1977, Ray pulled off an escape from prison alongside six of his fellow inmates. His attempt at freedom only lasted three days - the convicted killer was hunted down and recaptured about eight miles away from the prison.

Joseph Christopher Garcia

On December 13th 2000, a group of seven inmates at the John B. Connally Unit prison in Texas managed to escape from the facility at lunchtime. One of them was Joseph Christopher Garcia, a Bexar County native who was imprisoned for the 1996 murder of one Miguel Luna. Once out of prison, the group embarked on a crime spree, robbing retail stores to fund their lifestyles. After robbing one such store, they shot and killed Aubrey Hawkins, a police officer who was responding to the scene. They were arrested a few weeks later, after being profiled on “America’s Most Wanted,” and sentenced to death for killing Hawkins. Garcia was executed by lethal injection on December 4th 2018.

Nikolai Dzhumagaliev

Nicknamed Metal Fang, Nikolai Dzhumagaliev is responsible for the deaths of at least ten people, some of whom he also cannibalized. He was tried for his crimes but found not guilty by reason of insanity. This led to him being remanded to a mental hospital, from which he managed to escape in 1989. Dzhumagaliev spent the next two years moving across different countries in the former USSR. During this time, he is alleged to have killed more people in Moscow and Kazakhstan, with one charge leading to a conviction.. Tired of wandering around the mountains, Dzhumagaliev intentionally brought attention to himself, leading to him being recognized as the infamous cannibal. He was rearrested and is currently confined to a psychiatric hospital.

Ted Bundy

One of the most infamous serial killers of all time, Ted Bundy managed to escape from prison not just once, but twice, in a seven-month span. After he was first arrested and convicted of a kidnapping in Utah, Bundy was extradited to Colorado, where he was scheduled for a murder trial. Under the guise of acting as his own lawyer, Bundy was able to escape through a window in the courthouse’s library. He was arrested six days later after being stopped by two patrol officers. Bundy’s second escape came seven months later when he slipped out of jail through a tiny hole he carved out in the ceiling of his cell. He was recaptured after two months and eventually sentenced to death.
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