Escaped Pa. prisoner is captured

The killer escaped from a western Pennsylvania prison in a trash can.

GIRARD, Pa. (AP) — A killer who escaped from prison in a trash can was captured in California after boasting of an appearance on Fox’s “America’s Most Wanted,” state police said Sunday.

Malcolm Kysor, 54, was arrested Saturday in a Bakersfield, Calif., park after someone notified police about the claim, police said.

Kysor had been carried out of a state prison in western Pennsylvania in a trash can in November.

“Basically, it’s a citizen’s tip. He was in a park and he started bragging,” Trooper Donald Claypoole of the Girard barracks said.

Kysor escaped from the medium-security State Correctional Institution at Albion, about 20 miles southwest of Erie, on Nov. 25. The trash can left the prison on a truck and was picked up by a farmer who collects food scraps, authorities said.

Staff were later deemed negligent, and the prison superintendent subsequently retired.

Kysor had been serving a life sentence since 1988 for an early 1980s slaying in Erie County.

Fellow inmate John Gromer was charged with conspiracy for allegedly helping Kysor. According to a criminal complaint, Kysor told Gromer he had people waiting outside the prison to help him.

Gromer told police he put a box and plastic bag over Kysor to help conceal him in the garbage can, then pushed it to the back of the truck, authorities said.

Kysor was being held without bond in California to await extradition proceedings, Claypoole said.

The former prison superintendent, Marilyn Brooks, is earning a $62,800 yearly pension after retiring from the job, which paid about $112,000 a year.