In 1971 Rex Gyger, 26, and Wallace McDonald, 43, met while
incarcerated at Raiford State Prison.
Gyger was serving a two year sentence for breaking out of jail in Tampa. McDonald was there for ten years for an armed
robbery in Jacksonville. He had previously escaped from jail in Ohio and Louisiana
three times.
Both men were employed by the prison furniture shop. Both men were trained in wood and metal
working. Both men desperately wanted to
escape from prison.
On the afternoon of Saturday, November 13, 1971 the prison
shop was closed for the day. Gyger and
McDonald broke into the shop. Using the
tools and materials at hand and the skills they had learned while in prison,
the two constructed a “tank” out of a forklift.
They attached two layers of ten gauge sheet metal to each side of the
machine, and four layers on top. They
cut a small slit in the front of the armor so that they could see out. Then they waited.
At 6:15 p.m., as night was falling they got in the tank and
rolled it out into the prison yard. They
made a beeline towards the prison gate.
The commotion immediately got the attention of prison guards who fired
at them. Guards in the watchtower
sprayed bullets down on the contraption from powerful 30-30 rifles. Other Guards fired with small arms. Despite the barrage, not a single bullet
penetrated the metal.
Although the makeshift tank was not fast, it was heavy and
unstoppable as it lumbered through the prison yard. With bullets ricocheting
off of the machine’s makeshift armor, Gyger and McDonald plowed their tank
through two sets of gates, abandoned the vehicle and disappeared into the
nearby woods. The pair stole a pickup truck in Lawtey and drove it to Lake City
where they stole another car.
It took about twenty minutes for a search party to be
organized. They pursued the escapees,
but the prison bloodhounds soon lost their scent. According to Florida Corrections Director
Louie Wainwright, “I never heard of a similar escape.” He then quipped, “That’s one of the new
classes in vocational training – our second tank brigade.”
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| Corrections Director Louie Wainwright |
At 3:00 a.m. the next morning the McDonald and Gyger entered
a truck stop on U.S. 441, north of High Springs. One held a shotgun. The other brandished a rifle. They robbed the store of $3,000 and also took
the proprietor’s rifle. At 7:00 a.m.
they held up the Orange Lake Post Office and escaped with an unknown amount of money.
This Article is an Excerpt from the Book
Felons & Fugitives: Stories from the History of Florida State Prison
Gyger and McDonald made their way to Memphis, Tennessee,
where they hotwired another car and robbed the Laurelwood branch of First
National Bank of $20,770. The employees
and customers of the bank described the two men as having being approximately
30 and 45 years old. Additionally, they
said that the two spoke with distinct southern accents.
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| First National Bank of Memphis |
Unknown to the bank robbers, bank employees placed three
canisters of tear gas and brilliant red dye in the bag along with the
cash. The devices were triggered by an
electronic device and exploded after they left the bank. Police received reports that two men were
seen hanging their heads out of a car window from which a plume of smoke was
billowing. The car was found a short
time later abandoned back in the parking lot from which it was stolen.
The Memphis
field office of the FBI investigated the bank robbery. Based on fingerprints left at the scene and
in the getaway car they identified Gyger and McDonald as the perpetrators. Pictures of the two were shown to bank
employees who confirmed the identification.
The FBI issued a federal warrant for the fugitives and the story was
picked up by the national news because of the bizarre circumstances of their
escape.
Back in Florida
citizens learned of the escape through a tip given to a local newspaper and
were alarmed that it was never publicly reported by the authorities at
Raiford. Perhaps the authorities did not
want more negative publicity as 18 inmates had previously escaped Raiford in
1970 and another 25 had already broken out in 1971. The citizens of Raiford and the surrounding
communities were rightly concerned for their safety.
When he was questioned about the delay Warden L.E. Dugger
offered, “When we have an escape we put
out a bulletin to sheriffs of surrounding counties and to the Florida Highway
Patrol. The press usually picks it up
that way. We don’t intentionally
suppress it but we are busy at a time like that and don’t notify wire services
or newspapers.” An editorial in The
Tampa Times echoed the outrage of local residents: “The
Pentagon covers many of its mistakes by merely stamping information concerning
them classified or top secret. At the Florida state prison at
Raiford officials simply look the other way and hope nobody notices.”
On December 6, 1971 FBI agents arrested Wallace McDonald in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When he was arrested the agents found him in
possession of $200 of bills with red ink on them. McDonald was well known to
law enforcement in Louisiana as he had escaped
three times form the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. On December 13, although Rex Gyger was still
at large, a Federal Grand Jury indicted both men for the Memphis bank
holdup. Federal Judge Robert M. McRae
set McDonald’s bond at $50,000. McDonald
was unable to raise the bond money and remained in jail to await trial.
Meanwhile Rex Gyger made his way to Atlanta,
Georgia, stole a car and
headed for his home town of Indianapolis,
Indiana. He along with a bail-jumper
from Virginia, Steven Lassiter, burglarized a home in the suburb of
Exchange. A resident of the home that they
burglarized got a description and the license plate number of the car, a
Pontiac Grand Am with Georgia
license plates, as the pair made their getaway.
The FBI made the connection and located the car outside of an apartment on
Tuxedo Street
in Indianapolis. When the two men emerged from the apartment
they were both arrested. Like Wallace McDonald,
Gyger was held on $50,000 bond.
On March 23, 1972 Rex Gyger was convicted by a federal jury
in Indianapolis
of transporting a stolen car across state lines. Gyger’s attorney, James Voyles, expressed
sympathy for him saying, “He’s really one
of the nicest guys I’ve met. But in the
last 15 years of his life he’s only been out of jail 24 months. It’s a real shame.” Rex Gyger was sentenced to a four-year term
and, two weeks later, was turned over to federal authorities in Memphis to stand trial
for the bank robbery there. A mistrial
was declared in the case of his co-defendant in the car theft, Steven Lassiter,
who was promptly returned to Virginia
to face trial for bail jumping.
Wallace McDonald pled guilty to federal bank robbing charges
in Memphis on
July 5, 1972. District Court Judge
Bailey Brown sentenced him to twelve years in the federal penitentiary. He also gave him a ten year concurrent
sentence on a charge of using a firearm in commission of a federal felony. In November of that year Rex Gyger pleaded
guilty before the same judge. As Judge
Brown had done with McDonald he sentenced Gyger to twenty-four months. He also ruled that the sentence would be
served consecutively with his Indiana and Florida sentences, for a
total term of twenty-two years.
Except for the $200 that was found on Wallace McDonald when
he was arrested none of the proceeds from the bank robbery was ever
recovered. Following the escape Raiford
Superintendent Lawrence Dugger ordered that, going forward, all forklifts would
be parked outside the prison fence at night and on weekends, a practice that
continues to this day.
This Article is an Excerpt from the Book
Felons & Fugitives: Stories from the History of Florida State Prison
