Fugitive Escapes, Trims Hedges
FairCityNews.com | Jun 16, 2010 | Comments 0
"Genie" escapes from prison bottle; trims shrubs on way out
Branson, MO—Oscar Eugene Richardson, known in the Ozarks as Eugene Ward, was sentenced Monday to 366 days in jail stemming from his 1979 Florida prison escape. On Tuesday, he promptly escaped by walking away from the Taney County jail.
Norman Hankey, a jailer, said, “I don’t know how he does it. First in Florida; now here in Branson, MO. The man can’t be contained by conventional prison systems.” Richardson/Ward, who works as a handyman and groundskeeper, had reportedly fixed a broken toilet and trimmed up some exterior hedges as he left the incarceration facility.
“I sure didn’t fix that commode or trim the shrubbery,” said Hankey. Over the past 30 years Richardson lead a new “absolutely pristine, spotless life in that time,” said his attorney. “A pristine lifetime that was too good to waste spending time behind bars I suspect,” said Tom Beck, Richardson’s brief cellmate.
A close friend, Roy Umber said, “Eugene was always looking to the next lawn to mow, the next door jam to fix. I’m not surprised he walked away from prison again. You can’t keep a good man down and you can’t keep Genie in the bottle or from exterior lawn care, even if you try to lock him up.”
Hankey confessed, “alls I know is he did a really nice job on the evergreens we had planted out front. He really is too talented to be locked up.”
Filed Under: Crime
