WARRENTON, N.C. -- Six death row inmates, convicted of 17 murders, escaped Virginia's maximum security prison in guards' uniforms and carrying a fake bomb, then fled to North Carolina, terrifying a rural community.
Some 200 officers from the FBI, Virginia and North Carolina police used bloodhounds and helicopters to search for the six, believed to be in the Warrenton area just south of the Virginia line and about 20 miles from the prison. The convicts fled in a prison van and two of them later stole a car but immediately abandoned.
The six, including two notorious brothers convicted of 11 murders in a rape-robbery spree, created a disturbance to draw guards to the death row cellblock at the Mecklenburg Correctional Center in Boydton, Va., about 9 p.m. EDT Thursday night.
Virginia Corrections spokesman Gilbert Miller said the inmates used homemade knives to overpower the guards, donned their uniforms and then used a fake bomb scare to steal a prison van and flee the grounds.
Jim Weaver, an investigator with the Virginia Department of Corrections, said all the inmates -- one-fourth of Virginia's death row - were believed still in the Warrenton area. The prison van was recovered near Mariam Boyd Elementary School in Warrenton.
Among the fugitives were Linwood and James Briley, two Richmond brothers described as 'young toughs' who aspired to be professional hit men and who kept a boa constrictor and piranha as pets.
Linwood Briley, 30, is scheduled to be executed in August for the capital murder and robbery of Richmond disc jockey Johnny Gallaher. James Briley, 28, was serving two death sentences for the robbery-murder of a 23-year-old pregnant woman and her 5-year-old son.
The escape and the prisoners' sordid pasts sent alarms throughout the county. Homes and cars were locked tight.
'Everybody I talked to this morning is kind of on pins and needles,' said Mary Jane Dillard of Warrenton.
'We just don't know what's going on here,' said Charles Lovelace, an employee of the Warren Nursing Center and father of five children. 'You're scared for your family. I won't be picking up no stranger.'
No injuries were reported in the escape that began about 9 p.m EDT Thursday.
After the convicts took the guards hostage, Miller said someone telephoned a prison transportation officer and said there was a bomb in the facility and a van was needed to remove it.
A van was sent to the cellblock and the inmates -- who disguised a fire extinguisher as a bomb -- placed it on a stretcher and raced with it to the van, waving the guards off with a warning.
'It was a well executed plan,' said Weaver.
Wayne Farrar, another corrections spokesman, said the fugitives were not believed armed with guns when they fled.
Warren County Deputy Lawrence Harrison said he received a call about 12:15 a.m. EDT about 'a cutting' on Baltimore Road outside of Warrenton.
Andrew Davis, 20, of Warrenton, said two men stopped him while he was driving, asked him for a ride and pulled a homemade knife.
'He (Davis) started fighting and got his way out of the car,' said Harrison. Davis only had scratches on his arms and some bruises.
The two men drove only about 25 yards before abandoning the car.
'I guess they were frightened at all the noise they were making,' said Harrison.
A homemade knife was found in the car.
The other fugitives, all convicted murderers, were identified as:
-Earl Clanton of Petersburg, Va., who turned 30 today. He was convicted of the November 1980 murder of Petersburg librarian Wilhelmina Smith, 38.
-Willie Jones, 34, of York County, Va., convicted of the May 1983 murders of Graham and Myra Adkins, retired Charles City County storekeepers. Adkins, 77, and his 79-year-old wife were shot and set on fire.
-Derick Peterson, 32, of Hampton, Va., convicted of the February 1982 robbery and murder of Howard Kauffman, a Pantry Pride supermarket manager in Hampton.
-Lem Tuggle, 32, of Smyth County, Va., convicted of the June 1983 murder of Jessie Geneva Havens of Smyth County -- 11 months after he was released on parole on a second-degree murder conviction.
