Ailing man surrenders, was fugitive for 4 decades

Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Ky.

Frail and tired of leading a secret life for four decades, 66-year-old Clarence David Moore called police this week to surrender. The deputy who answered thought it was a prank. It wasn’t.

Moore escaped from police custody three times during the 1970s and eventually settled into a quiet life, living in Kentucky since at least 2009. His health is poor from a stroke late last year, and he has difficulty speaking.

When Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton showed up at Moore’s house to make the “arrest,” Moore was in a hospital bed. He broke down in tears. He told the sheriff he needed medical help.

“He looks like he’s almost 90,” the sheriff said.

A woman who had been living with Moore had no idea of his past. “She was just blown away when all this happened,” the sheriff said.

Moore was convicted of larceny of more than $200 in North Carolina in 1967 and was sentenced to up to seven years in prison, according to records from the Department of Public Safety. While working with a road crew in the Asheville area, he escaped and was recaptured in 1971. He escaped again the following year and was on the lam until he was apprehended in Texas in 1975. His third escape from a Henderson County prison was Aug. 6, 1976.