Still At Large: Lester Eubanks
U.S. Marshals ServiceLester Eubanks escaped from prison in 1973 and remains at large.
In terms of prison escapes, Lester Eubanks followed in the footsteps of Leonard Ray Moses and used an authorized furlough to vanish. But their crimes are very different. In 1965, Eubanks raped and murdered a 14-year old girl named Mary Ellen Deener.
With a litany of sexual assaults under his belt, Eubanks encountered Deener in an alley. The Mansfield, Ohio, girl had merely run out of change while doing laundry when she departed the laundromat and ran into her killer. Deener tried to fight him off, but Eubanks ultimately shot her twice as well as bludgeoned her with a brick.
The crime saw Eubanks convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death on May 25, 1966. A model citizen during his first seven years in prison, Eubanks was granted a holiday season furlough to shop at Ohio’s Great Southern Shopping Center on Dec. 7, 1973 — then he disappeared into the night.
U.S. Marshals ServiceA digital composite estimating what Lester Eubanks might look like today.
Although the Ohio Department of Corrections immediately listed him as a fugitive, federal authorities only began their search for Eubanks in earnest in the 1990s. It gained steam when Deputy U.S. Marshal David Siler picked up the case in 2016. He suspected Eubanks lived under the alias of Victor Young.
“Fugitives on the run as long as Eubanks tend to use that time to change their appearance, use aliases, and even start new lives,” said Siler.
“He literally could be hiding in plain sight. This is why we are asking citizens to be vigilant and contact us with any information they believe will help us apprehend him.”
Promising leads about Eubanks have appeared over the years. “Victor Young” seemed to have lived in Los Angeles between 1975 and 1996 and worked many jobs, including hospital janitor and waterbed factory employee.
Ultimately, Lester Eubanks has never been caught. If alive, he is now in his 70s.
Richard Lee McNair’s Prison Escape By Mail
U.S. Marshals ServiceRichard Lee McNair mailed himself out of prison in 2006.
Richard Lee McNair wasn’t your traditional prison escapist. On the contrary, he used a brilliantly unorthodox method to regain his freedom and managed to mail himself out of jail. While the convicted murderer would ultimately be recaptured and secured in a maximum-security facility, his ingenuity is one for the books.
McNair was raised by a police officer and displayed a strong intellect as a child. However, he would use that savvy to rob a grain storage facility in Minot, North Dakota, on Nov. 17, 1987. He shot two men who startled him in the process, one of whom died of their wounds. McNair was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
The shootings earned McNair two life sentences, while a burglary charge added another 30 years to his sentence. McNair was desperate to escape his new concrete confines. Languishing in North Dakota State Penitentiary, he managed to escape through a ventilation pipe in 1992, but would be recaptured in 1993.
YouTubeA still from the police video of Richard Lee McNair speaking with a police officer shortly after his escape.
However, his prison escape attempt on April 5, 2006, at a federal prison in Pollock, Louisiana, would cement McNair as a truly notable prison escapist. After building a makeshift compartment complete with a breathing tube and fitting himself inside it, he placed himself beside a mailbag pile that was taken to a nearby warehouse with a forklift — outside the prison.
“The heat was unbelievable,” he said. “The inside of the pod felt like a furnace. Sweat rolled off me; my head was swimming in the fog. I was afraid I would pass out. It was a tight fit. I couldn’t wipe the sweat from my brow; it was running into my eyes, down my neck, dripping from the tip of my nose and everywhere else.”
Once the warehouse staff left for lunch, McNair bolted. Even when he was caught running down nearby railroad tracks by a police officer, he convinced the cop he wasn’t the prison escapee authorities had been notified about. He remained at large until late 2007 when he was arrested for driving a stolen vehicle.
Promptly re-incarcerated, McNair languishes in a Colorado supermax prison today. With high-profile inmates like Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as his peers, it’s unlikely McNair will be able to fool his captors again.
