Texas Seven King, Gary C.

¶ … Texas Seven

King, Gary C. The Texas 7: A True Story of Murder and a Daring Escape. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001.

"You haven't heard the last of us yet." These were the words found by guards left behind by seven recently escaped and heavily armed and dangerous inmates from the John Connally prison in South Texas. The inmates made it clear that their breakout was a statement against the Texas judicial system, a statement that involved both robbery and murder.

In his book, the Texas 7: A True Story of Murder and a Daring Escape, author Gary C. King goes behind the scenes to give the reader a detailed and in-depth account of both the events leading up to the escapes and to the events following the escape, including the nearly half-year chase and eventual surrender. The thesis of this book is that this mass-escape was a well-planned and purposeful maneuver aimed at bring attention to the alleged injustices of the Texas judicial system. King accomplishes this by providing an extremely detailed account, one that goes beyond the coverage the incident received in the news, of what really happened in those days following December 13, 2000.

On December 13, 2000, seven inmates in the John Connally Unit of the Texas prison system, located near Kenedy, Texas, escaped at the same time. These inmates included: Joseph Garcia, randy Halprin, Larry James Harper, Donald Keith Newbury, Patrick Henry Murphy Jr., Michael Anthony Rodriguez and George Rivas. Most of these men were incarcerated for murder and other violent crimes. Their escape was both complicated and elaborate, well-planned and somewhat based on luck. The escape itself was surprisingly simple, as the seven inmates ultimately freed themselves by driving out in a white prison pickup truck. This was possible because the prison warden had failed to implement several much needed modification procedures that would have prevented their escape from the maximum-security prison facility.

The prisoner's succeeded with their escape by using several well-planned ploys that allowed the seven inmates to overpower and restrain nine civilian maintenance supervisors, three uninvolved inmates and four correctional officers. The escape was carried out during the slowest period of the day, lunch and count time, since they knew that there would be less surveillance of specific prison areas, including the maintenance area.

At this time the various escapees would call someone over while another would hit the unsuspecting person from behind, often striking them with a forceful blow to the head that caused them to blackout. With the victim unconscious or otherwise subdued, the escapees removed their clothing, putting it on themselves, and then tied and gagged them in the locked electrical room. Disguised in stolen civilian clothing, the escapees made their way to the prison gate where they pretended to install video monitors before raiding the guard tower and seizing numerous weapons. They then stole the maintenance truck and drove away.

The prisoner's first robbed a Radio Shack in Pearland by breaking through the outside wall, tying the safe to the truck, and pulling it out. Later they robbed Oshman's Sporting Store in Irving by holding up the store at gunpoint. When Aubrey Hawkins, a local police officer, arrived at the scene, he was almost immediately shot dead. Due to the wide-publicity that the escape received, Wayne Holder was able to recognize and report to authorities that the group of seven escapees were staying at his RV Park in Woodland Park, Colorado.

Almost immediately, three of the escapees were caught by the Colorado Springs SWAT Team. Shortly thereafter two more were found in the RV where one surrendered peacefully while the other shot himself dead. On January 23, 2001, the authorities received information that the final two escapees were hiding out at a hotel in Colorado Springs. After some negotiation, an agreement was reached that would allow Newbury and Murphy to make a live television appearance prior to their arrest. During the interview, the two inmates adamantly and bitterly denounced the Texas criminal justice system, stating that "the system is as corrupt as we are."

After all the escapees were back in custody, it was discovered that Patsy Gomez and Rual Rodriguez had conspired together to help the Texas Seven. George Rivas, the alleged ringleader, was extradited to Texas and sentenced to death. The other surviving members have also been put on death row and still wait for their death by lethal injection.