WARRENTON, N.C. -- A woman who persuaded her fugitive son to give himself up went into hiding for fear of vengeance by two 'inhumanly mean' killers still on the loose.
Barbara Sanderson went into hiding after talking her son, Willie Jones, into surrendering, authorities said Sunday. Officials said she feared the wrath of James and Linwood Briley, who escaped 12 days ago with four other death-row inmates.
'She's extremely fearful of the Brileys,' said Larry Mitchell of the Virginia State Police. 'A lot of people are afraid of the Brileys.'
Jones, who surrendered Friday in Jay, Vt., about 10 miles from the Canadian border, was expected to be arraigned on escape charges today in Newport, Vt., District Court.
The brothers are considered the most dangerous of the six prisoners who escaped from Mecklenburg Correctional Center May 31.
'I would say law enforcement officers consider them the most dangerous and the most difficult to find,' said Robert Pence, special agent in charge of the FBI in North Carolina.
The Brileys, along with a third brother and an accomplice, were convicted in 1980 of 11 murders.
Warren Von Schuch, a Richmond, Va., assistant commonwealth's attorney who prosecuted the Brileys, described the brothers as men who victimize the weak and the elderly.
'These people are in a class by themselves,' Von Schuch said. 'They are incredibly, inhumanly mean. They are killing machines.'
Richmond police investigated at least six tips on the brothers over the weekend, but no trace of the Brileys was found.
Pence said authorities 'have gotten some information' from two fugitives arrested Friday in Vermont, but he declined to elaborate.
Authorities arrested fugitive Lem Tuggle Friday after he allegedly robbed a gift shop near Stamford, Vt.
Jones surrendered four hours later, after telephoning his mother from an empty house. Jones and Tuggle are being held without bond in two separate maximum security facilities in Vermont, where they were segregated from other prisoners.
Tuggle was arraigned Friday but refused to waive extradition, and Virginia Gov. Charles Robb was expected to send a warrant to Vermont to have him returned to Virginia.
Two other fugitives, Derick Peterson and Earl Clanton, were captured less than 24 hours after the escape.
