Twice-caught fugitive’s clean life led to decades of freedom

This pair of photo shows shows Harold Frank Freshwaters, left, in a Feb. 26, 1959 Ohio State Reformatory photo released by the U.S. Marshals Service, and right, in a May 4, 2015, booking photo released by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. Freshwaters, 79, of Akron, Ohio, was arrested by U.S. Marshals on May 4, 2015 by in Melbourne, Fla. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing a pedestrian with his car in 1957. Freshwaters initially received a suspended sentence but was imprisoned in 1959 for a parole violation. He fled a prison farm in northwest Ohio later that year. (AP Photo/Ohio State Reformatory and Brevard County Sheriff's Office) This pair of photo shows shows Harold Frank Freshwaters, left, in a Feb. 26, 1959 Ohio State Reformatory photo released by the U.S. Marshals Service, and right, in a May 4, 2015, booking photo released by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. Freshwaters, 79, of Akron, Ohio, was arrested by U.S. Marshals on May 4, 2015 by in Melbourne, Fla. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing a pedestrian with his car in 1957. Freshwaters initially received a suspended sentence but was imprisoned in 1959 for a parole violation. He fled a prison farm in northwest Ohio later that year. (AP Photo/Ohio State Reformatory and Brevard County Sheriff's Office)

By Associated Press May 29, 2015 4 min read

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – In 55 years as a fugitive, Frank Freshwaters got caught twice.

The first time, in 1975, the escaped inmate’s good behavior helped him avoid a trip back to prison when West Virginia’s governor refused to extradite him bac to Ohio, citing Freshwaters’ “flawless 16-year residency,” according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Despite multiple aliases and a warrant for his arrest, he had built such a good life with his stolen freedom that the governor concluded Freshwaters had been rehabilitated as a fugitive.

It would be almost 40 years before authorities tracked him down again.

When they did, using a fingerprint-matching ruse to coax a confession in early May, they said they found a 79-year-old widower apparently retired and living off Social Security benefits at a weathered trailer in rural Brevard County, near Florida’s east coast. The public phone listing was for William Harold Cox, an alias in Freshwaters’ case documents from the ’70s.