#5. John B. Connally Unit | Texas | December 13, 2000
The Texas 7 — Joseph Garcia, Randy Halprin, Larry Harper, Patrick Murphy, Jr., Donald Newbury, George Rivas, and Michael Rodriguez — were a crew of inmates at a maximum-security state prison in Texas. During lunchtime, when surveillance tended to be less intense, the Texas 7 subdued nine supervisors, four officers, and three uninvolved inmates.
Then the group split up. Three, wearing civilian clothes and pretending to be workers, raided the guard tower to steal weapons and a truck. The others assumed the supervisors’ identities and made phone calls to keep other guards away until the three returned from the guard tower. When the gang was all together, they used the maintenance pick-up truck to make their escape.
After escaping, the Texas 7 went on a crime spree, robbing numerous stores which led to the death of a police officer. The killing landed them on America’s Most Wanted, and their 15 minutes of fame led to their capture. Harper wasn’t interested in going back to prison, and so he killed himself with a bullet to the chest. The rest were caught over the course of five days in January 2001. Rodriguez was executed in 2008, and the remaining five still sit on death row.
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