This wasn’t how the film was supposed to end.
Frank Freshwaters (79) is a convicted killer who escaped from a prison farm in Ohio in 1959.
Having spent 56 years on the run, Freshwaters admitted his true identity earlier this week when US police tracked him down to a Zihuatanejo address Florida address where he had been living under the assumed name William H. Cox.
A newly-created, excellently-named Ohio police team called the GAMEOVER Task Force, uncovered evidence he had been living in Brevard County for about 20 years, having worked as a truck driver (and not as a Nick Nolte impersonator as we first suspected).
In July 1957, Freshwaters was convicted on a manslaughter charge after he fatally struck a pedestrian, and had his initial sentence of one to 20 years in prison suspended.
He then violated the terms of his probation and, in February 1959, was imprisoned at the Ohio State Reformatory, more famously known to you and I as the Shawshank State Prison.
Following a stint in Shawshank – where he presumably befriended Red the resident prison narrator, fell out with ‘The Sisters’ gang, and “looked after” the Warden’s financial affairs – the prisoner was then moved to Sandusky Ohio Honor Farm where, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, he was reported missing on September 30, 1959.
Freshwaters has since been transported to the Brevard County Jail on a No Bond status, where he will await extradition back to the State of Ohio.
As Red says, “get busy livin’, or get busy being extradited back to Ohio to serve out the rest of your sentence.”
We’re pretty sure that’s the exact quote.
Hat-tip to The Irish Times and pic via Brevard Sheriff.
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