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Man who busted out of S.C. jail in 1977 arrested in Michigan

Fugitive from 1977 South Carolina jailbreak is being held in Michigan to await extradition proceedings.

By Frances Burns

GRAND HAVEN, Mich., May 13 (UPI) -- A man who avoided a five-year prison term in South Carolina by breaking out of jail in 1977 has been arrested in western Michigan, police said.

Police said the man gave his name as Waylon Wilson and had identification to match. But his fingerprints matched those of Dallas Norman Smallwood, now 58, who escaped from the Anderson County Stockage almost four decades ago.

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Smallwood is being held in the Ottawa County Jail in Michigan pending extradition proceedings.

Investigators say Smallwood was a few months into a prison sentence for housebreaking, grand larceny and receiving stolen goods, when he escaped in October 1977. The U.S. Marshals' Operation Intercept Task Force began looking for him last year, and eventually got evidence that he was staying with someone in Zeeland, Mich., a small city near Grand Rapids.

Deputy marshals and Michigan state police arrested him Monday afternoon.

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