IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Before learning his friend was really Ronald Carnes, an armed robber who escaped from a North Carolina prison in 1973, Seattle businessman Carl Bryant knew him as Louie Vance, a trusted worker and confidant whom he had over for holidays and birthdays.
Although they “talked about life for hours on end,” his friend kept his true identity a secret from Bryant and others around him. He managed to remain free for 41 years.
Now jailed in Iowa following an April arrest, Carnes is accused of eluding the authorities by stealing the identities of two boys who died in the 1940s. Despite Carnes’ criminal past and the efforts he took to conceal it, Bryant still considers him a friend whose good works should also be remembered.
Bryant said they lost touch when Bill, the nickname Louie Vance went by, abruptly disappeared from Seattle in 2012. He was stunned to see a news report detailing how his friend was actually Carnes and had been arrested in Waterloo, Iowa, where he had been living. Bryant said he wants people to know that Carnes is an “extremely trustworthy, reliable” person who was clean for decades.
“There’s a really good side to this man that wasn’t being portrayed,” said Bryant, who’s traveling to Cedar Rapids this month to visit Carnes in jail.