Frederick Barrett: Florida’s Longest Fugitive

The night was clear and hot at Raiford Prison on August 17, 1979.  Suddenly, the lights on the Northwest side of the perimeter fence flickered and fell dark.  Three figures darted across the prison yard.  One of the men was caught in the focus of a search light.  Guards fired warning shots from the tower and the man dropped to the ground.  The other two continued on unnoticed, scaled three fences topped with barbed wire and disappeared into the Florida night.

One of the escapees, Willie Griffith, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of a cab driver, managed to elude capture for eleven years.  When he was finally arrested in Holladay, Utah, his wife and mother of his two young children was shocked as she was completely unaware of his past criminal life.

The other escaped prisoner, Frederick Barrett, also serving a life sentence for murder, spent an astounding thirty-two years on the run before he was taken into custody.

Frederick Mark Barrett was born on June 5, 1951 and grew up in Merced, California.  As a teenager in the late 1960’s, like many from that generation, he developed a drug problem.  Early in 1971 Barrett and two of his friends, Eugene Owensby and Charlotte Tabor, decided to travel to Hollywood, Florida, to check into a drug rehabilitation program.  It is not clear whether they had been pre-admitted to the program or if they hoped they could just enter upon arrival.  The car in which they were traveling broke down in Nebraska, so the three abandoned it and began hitchhiking.

Near the end of their trip, on February 8, 1971, the trio was picked up at a rest stop in Petersburg, Virginia, by Carl Ardolino in his brand new 1971 Pontiac Firebird.  Ardolino, 26, was traveling from his home in Long Branch, NJ, to Florida for a long anticipated vacation.  As Carl and his passengers were nearing their destination driving on the Florida Turnpike near Orlando, Barrett and Tabor were in the back seat and Owensby was riding shotgun.  Without warning, Barrett, from the back seat, wrapped a cloth around Carl’s neck.  He pulled it tight and during the struggle the car went out of control.  Owensby, in the passenger seat, grabbed the steering wheel and hit the brakes, but it was too late.  The car careened and came to rest in mud along the side of the road.

The car was stuck in the mud and the driver was unconscious.  Ownensby and Barrett dragged Carl’s limp body from the car and to a nearby drainage ditch.  Barrett held Carl’s head under the water, forcing it down by pressing a knee into his back, until he died.  They returned to the car and, finding that it was stuck in the mud, called a tow truck to pull it out, and drove off.

Meanwhile, when Carl Ardolino’s parents did not hear from him for several days they reported him missing.  Then they began to see credit card charges on their son’s account from stores and gas stations in Merced, California.  The signatures did not match Carl’s.  They reported this information to the police and a few days later Carl’s Firebird was found abandoned in Merced.

With evidence retrieved from the stolen car, authorities soon identified and arrested Barrett and Owensby.  After being booked on the stolen car charge, Owensby began to talk.  His interviews led police to the ditch along the Florida Turnpike and Carl Ardolino’s body.  The two suspects were charged with murder in Florida and extradited there to face trial.  Charlotte Tabor was arrested in Hollywood, Florida, where she was working as a waitress.

Both Owensby and Tabor cut deals for their testimony against Frederick Barrett.  Both stated during his trial that Barrett planned the killing as they traveled through Florida and that it was Barrett who held Ardolino’s head under water killing him.  In exchange for his testimony Michael Owensby, then 20 years old, was allowed to plead guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to twenty years in prison.  Despite initially claiming to simply be a witness to the crime, Charlotte Tabor pled to Accessory After the Fact.  Her sentence was not released publicly.

Frederick Barrett’s First Degree Murder trial lasted four days.  The jury, consisting of three women and nine men, deliberated just 2 ½ hours before finding him guilty.  Although the prosecutor asked for the death penalty the jury was compassionate and recommended a life sentence instead.  On September 2, 1971 Judge Parker Lee McDonald sentenced Frederick Barrett, then 19 years old, to life in prison at hard labor.  He was transferred to the Lake Butler prisoner reception center to begin his sentence.

Frederick Barrett clearly did not want to be held behind bars.  In 1975 he escaped, but was captured a few hours later.  He tried again in May 1977 but never made it off the prison grounds.  Then, just a few months later in December 1977 he managed to slip away undetected.  He was caught the next month, returned to custody, and charged with the two escapes and one attempted escape.  He was sentenced to thirty years (beyond the life term he was already serving) and transferred to Raiford Prison.

Apparently, Barrett’s transfer to the more secure prison did not stop his desire to be free.  While sitting alone he contemplated several escape scenarios.  Once he formulated his plan he recruited two fellow inmates to join him:  Willie Griffith, 28, of Leesburg, Florida, who like Barrett was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in Orange County and Kenneth Thiery, 38, who was serving a life sentence for murder in Palm Beach.

On the night of August 17, 1979 the three prisoners removed the covering from an air vent in their dormitory, crawled through the vents and gained access to the prison’s electrical room.  They shorted out a number of electrical panels, including the one controlling the lights on a portion of the prison perimeter.  They exited back through the vents and emerged in an unsecured part of the building.  From there, they made a run for the one unlit section of the fence.

Tower guards saw the three men running across the yard and fired warning shots.  Thiery immediately dropped to the ground and surrendered upon hearing the shotgun fire.  Barrett and Griffith kept going.  Before the guards could reach them, they scaled three chain link fences topped with barbed wire and escaped into the woods.  Despite a search of the area using bloodhounds, there was no sign of the escaped murderers.

Both men managed to elude capture for years.  Willie Griffith was the first to be found, following a tip, living a normal and peaceful life in Utah.  Since his escape he married and had two children.  His family and neighbors were all surprised at his secret past.  One neighbor told the local newspaper, “That kid who was picked up is a real fine person.”  He was extradited back to Florida to serve the remainder of his life sentence – plus twenty-five years for the escape.

Frederick Barrett remained free for an incredible thirty-two years living under the name Neil Metzer in Hawaii, California, Tennessee and Maryland.  He eventually moved to a cabin in the woods in Montrose County Utah.  His cabin was completely off the grid and accessible only by a long dirt road that was impassable in the winter.

In December 2009 the State of Florida began a campaign called “Twelve Days of Fugitives.”  The idea was to bring public attention to cold cases during the holidays when people are most likely to reach out to friends and family.  Barrett was one of the featured wanted and his case was on television, in the press, and on billboards.  It was even picked up by the show “Americas Most Wanted.”  From the official press release:

“The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Florida Police Chiefs Association (FPCA) are offering a reward for information leading to the capture of Frederick Barrett, 58, for his 1979 escape from the Union Correctional Institution.  He is one of a dozen cold case prison escapees being featured during the “12 Days of Fugitives” campaign – a joint public outreach initiative by FDLE and DOC.”

Because of the nationwide exposure, the Denver office of the United States Marshals Service received a tip that Barrett might be in the Montrose area.  Upon investigation, they were able to determine that Barrett, living as Neil Metzer, was likely holed up in a cabin deep in the woods on land bordered by the Uncompahgree National Forest.  Due to the winter weather, they had to wait until spring to begin surveillance of the property.  According to Ken Deal, chief deputy of the Denver U.S. Marshal Service, “I don’t think he came into town very much.  I mean the guy knew he was a wanted man.”

Barrett's Hideout

In the spring, authorities were able to begin watching the cabin.  Barrett hardly ever stepped outside, but over the next few months the agents determined that it was most likely him.  In the early morning hours of July 27, 2011, a team of U.S. Marshals, U.S. Forest Service law officers, and Montrose County Sheriff personnel surrounded the cabin.  Marshals, dressed in the yellow and green clothing of Colorado forest fighters knocked on the door.  When Barrett answered they told him that they were advising citizens about an approaching wild fire.  When they noticed a distinctive “cross and dot” tattoo on Barrett’s hand they were able to confirm his identification and immediately took him into custody.

Searching the cabin law enforcement officers found five guns in plain sight.  They also found a small marijuana patch in the yard.  In addition to the federal escape charges Barrett was charged with state crimes of illegal possession of firearms and drug possession.  According to one U.S. Marshall when Barrett was arrested “his whole face, every expression dropped out of his face.”

While Barrett was being held in Montrose County Jail on $150,000 bond, Florida filed an extradition request with Colorado for his return.  He fought the extradition claiming that he might be subject to retaliation in the Florida prison system because in 1973 he helped save the lives of three guards during a prison race riot.  Despite his appeals, Frederick Barrett was returned to Florida on October 12, 2011 to serve out the remainder of his time.  Colorado declined to prosecute given the life sentence he would be serving in Florida.

Frederick Barrett remains confined at the Zephyrhills Correctional Institution, Northeast of Tampa, Florida.  As of the date of this writing he is seventy-three years old and unlikely to attempt another escape.  His run as the longest escaped fugitive in Florida history is just a memory.

For More Florida History Read South of the St. Marys River

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