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Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Killer and 'Shawshank Redemption' prisoner who went on the run in 1959 is finally caught by police

  • By Alex Wellman

  • Police handed Frank Freshwaters a picture of him taken more than 50 years ago and asked if he recognised the man
Freshwaters in 1959. (L): Freshwaters in a May 2015 mugshot
Caught: Freshwaters was finally caught after more than 50 years evading cops

A killer who escaped from prison in 1959 has finally been caught - almost 60 years after he went on the run.

Frank Freshwaters was found by US Marshals living under a false name in Florida.

The 79-year-old was living in a trailer in the sunshine state on Monday after officers working on a newly-formed cold-case unit tracked him down.

In 1957 Freshwaters pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for killing a pedestrian with his car.

He was originally handed a suspended sentence but less than two years later he was jailed after he violated the terms of his parole.

Brevard County Sheriff's Office79-year-old Frank Freshwaters
Then: Frank Freshwaters was around 24 years old when he went on the run

Freshwaters was then sent to the Ohio State Reformatory - where the film the Shawshank Redemption was filmed - before being moved to a lower-security camp near Sandusky.

Once on the jail, which was also run as a farm, the inmate fled in September 1959.

He was caught in 1975 after deputies in West Virginia arrested him on the Ohio warrant but the state's governor at the time refused to extradite him.

Freshwaters then went back into hiding and was not heard from again, until his arrest on Monday.

He became the new cold-case team's number one target and officers tracked him to Melbourne, Florida, where they found him living under the name William Harold Cox.

When officers went to his home they showed him a jail photo of himself taken 56 years ago and asked him if he knew the person pictured.

Brevard County Sheriff's Office79-year-old Frank Freshwaters
Now: The 79-year-old was caught in a trailer in Florida

Freshwaters said: "I haven't seen him in a long time," before confessing to his real identity.

According to Bevard County Sheriff Major Tod Goodyear, Freshwaters had worked as a truck driver and was living off social security benefits.

He ended up moving into a trailer at the end of a dead-end and rarely traveled road on the outskirts of Melbourne about 20 years ago.

Major Goodyear said: "It was the perfect place to hide.

"There's nothing near him. He would have very little contact with neighbors and there are no roads by him."

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