Six escape from Ala. prison
Escapees use broom handle to slip under electric fence

By Jay Reeves
Associated Press

ST. CLAIR SPRINGS, Ala. — Six convicts, including three murderers, escaped from a maximum-security prison by using a broom handle to slip under a 5,000-volt electric fence.

Tracking dogs and scores of law officers searched the woods Wednesday for the men. Three of them were serving life sentences without parole, and a fourth had broken out of the prison before.

The men escaped from the St. Clair Correctional Facility after dark Tuesday. They got past a series of three fences: a 12-foot interior chain-link fence topped with razor wire, an electrified fence and another razor-topped fence, prison spokesman John Hamm said.

They used a piece of wood — apparently a broom handle — to lift the electric fence so they could slide under it and then slipped under the exterior fence, Prison Commissioner Mike Haley said. He said it was not clear how they got past the first fence.

An alarm that is supposed to go off automatically if anyone tampers with the electric fence did not sound, Haley said. Officials were not sure why.

“They escaped very near a guard tower, but there was no one in it because we were trying to depend more on technology,” he said. “Our technology failed.”

Corrections officials have described the prison as severely understaffed. The electric fence was installed about five years ago as a backup.

“Obviously, it didn’t function as it was supposed to,” Haley said.

The men also got past a guard driving around the outside of the fence. Haley said it takes that guard several minutes to circle the prison, time enough for someone to flee after watching him pass.

Besides Murphy, 45, the inmates were identified as O.C. Borden, 33, and Gary Scott, 31, both serving life without parole for murder; Jack Allred, 43, serving life without parole for robbery; Billy Gamble, 24, serving 25 years for robbery; and James McClain, 35, serving 20 years for burglary.