Bill Payne Followup...

In the aftermath of the Bill Payne drama, local and state police officers and FBI agents alike stated and restated that although Payne had been convicted of or confessed to a dozen or so major crimes, he probably had committed at least a couple of dozen more, and many, many lesser ones, which would forever remain unresolved.

What is remarkable to me is that in 16 years he was only convicted for five specific crimes and served almost none of the time that he was sentenced to, not because of those bleeding heart judges that we hear so much about, but because he simply refused to remain in jail. This little table shows just how ridiculous his criminal career was:

Event	Sentence	Result	Time Owed
Surry, 1921	2 1/2-3 years	Served	0
Orange, 1926	7-10 years	Escaped & returned	10
		Escaped & returned	10
		Escaped	9
Rockingham, 1928	7-10	Escaped	18
Forsyth, 1931	10-15	Escaped	32
		Recaptured	32
		Escaped	30
Buncombe, 1938	Death	Executed	30

After serving the full term for his first conviction, he was sentenced to a total of 35 years for the next three convictions, yet served only 5 of those years. He died owing the state 30 years.

The state's ability to keep their prisoners in jail has since improved. But just a few months ago, James Ladd, serving three life terms for robbery and killing two men in Yadkin County in 1980, escaped from the minimum security Tillery Correctional Facility, another prison farm, in Halifax County, about an hour east of Raleigh. He was recaptured four days later, found hiding in a garage about 10 miles from the prison.

He was the first convicted murderer to escape in North Carolina since 1996, when Martin Pedron escaped from Tillery. Pedron, 47, is still at large after 17 years on the run.

After Ladd's recapture, there were 155 Tar Heel escapees at large, eleven of them convicted murderers. One of the runners is Melvin Jones, 69 if still alive. He was convicted of first degree murder in Hertford County in1963 and escaped over 36 years ago, on October 2, 1976. And you guessed it, he escaped from Caledonia Prison Farm.

But the king of the convicted killer runners is J.W. Burgess, aka John W. Burgess, who was convicted of first degree murder at age 18 in Gaston County on November 11, 1944. After several escapes and attempted escapes, during which he committed an armed robbery with a dangerous weapon and a second degree murder, he escaped for good from Mecklenburg CC on December 21, 1968, just in time for Christmas, so has been at large for over 44 years. If still alive, he would be 87 years old.

But the longest running runner of all is Richard Scott, convicted of bigamy in Gaston County on May 12, 1947. Seven weeks later, on July 1, 1947 he escaped from Central Prison and has been gone again ever since, 65 years. If alive, he would be 89. And probably not a bigamist any more.