A Fugitive Evaded Capture For 56 YEARS & His Positive Reputation Helped Him REMAIN FREE!!

It was July 3rd, 1957 in Akron, Ohio at around 11:10 PM when a young man who recently turned 21 years old, Frank Freshwaters, was driving along the southbound lane of Arlington Drive. His car was not in great condition and did not have a functioning horn or emergency brake. He also did not have car insurance. As he neared 1000 Linton Drive, he suddenly saw a man crossing the road near his home right in front the car. Traveling at about 40 miles per hour, he tried to stop but was unable to do so in time and collided with 24-year old Eugene Flynt. Flynt was seriously injured and died at 12:01 AM, less than an hour after the collision.

Eugene Flynt

Freshwaters was arrested and booked on 2nd degree manslaughter charges, because according to prosecutor Robert Blakemore, he was speeding and driving an unsafe vehicle when the accident occurred. He was given a $1,000 bond by Judge William Victor after a hearing and was able to make bail. He eventually agreed to plead guilty and appeared in court nearly a year after the accident with tears streaming down in face.

He told the court he had not driven a car since the accident and has suffered from guilt every day since. “It’s not something like a nightmare which is gone in a day. It stays with you,” Freshwaters said to Judge Frank H. Harvey. To make matters worse, the victim Eugene Flynt, who worked at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, was a former United States Army Paratrooper with a wife named Garnet and 3 children, aged 2, 4 and 6. Freshwaters himself had recently married to Patricia Freshwaters and they had one child named Jeff. He assured the Judge any man who kills another accidentally is already punished for life due to the nonstop agonizing guilt.

Freshwaters seemed genuinely remorseful, and the Judge granted him leniency by suspending the 1 to 20 year prison sentence if he could successfully complete a 5 year probation sentence, during which time his driving privileges would be suspended.

He had the opportunity to continue his life with his wife & children until Freshwaters violated the terms of his probation and was sent to prison in February of 1959 to serve out his sentence of up to 20 years in prison. In July of that year, Patricia was granted a divorce. Frank Freshwaters was now serving his time at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio.

He was model prisoner and after gaining the trust of prison guards, he was recommended for a transfer to Sandusky Honor Farm in Perkins Township, where he would serve the rest of his sentence. He was assigned to work in the mess hall and met another prisoner named Frank Kara of Cleveland. Kara was serving a sentence for burglary. After some discussions, they decided to make a run for it. When no prison guards where around, they simply walked away, as the farm was the lowest level security facility and had no massive fences with barbed wire as most prisons are known for. They took off heading south on US-250.

Richard Flynt holding a photo of his father, Eugene Flynt

Kara was eventually re-captured and served his sentence before living out his life without further incident. But Frank Freshwaters completely disappeared. It was not known if he was alive or dead until 1975 when Freshwaters, who was living under a new name of William Harold Cox with a new Social Security Number, was being investigated on a peace warrant in Charleston, West Virginia after a complaint from his second ex-wife, whom he had a common law relationship with. The woman, who did not know him as Frank Freshwaters, said he had been threatening her. In Charleston, Freshwaters became a respected figure in the community who played country music on his guitar and had been living there peacefully for many years. When authorities, who still did not know who he was, tried to serve the peace warrant, he tried to hide in a cubicle under the sink of his home. This made them suspicious, and after they apprehended him, they were able to confirm who he really was. Freshwaters admitted he first moved to Florida after escaping prison, where he got his new name and social before moving to West Virginia. He was willing to return to Ohio to face the music, but at the hearing, the arresting officers and the woman did not show up, leading West Virginia Governor Arch A. Moore Jr. to refuse extradition, saying he had been a model citizen for 16 years and was no threat to anybody.

Arch A. Moore

He was released and Freshwaters decided to take off while he could, moving back to Florida, where he moved in with one of his sons. Nearly 40 years would pass before authorities tracked him down again. He had been living in Florida, care-taking a marshland property, mostly keeping to himself and occasionally fishing. He would’ve lived out his life there if the Marshals Service in Ohio didn’t decide to set up a cold case unit. That unit re-opened the Freshwaters case and after an investigation, quickly determined he was living in the Melbourne area in Florida. They approached him on May 4th, 2015, about 56 years since his escape. He was shown a photograph of a young Frank Freshwaters and asked if he recognized the young man. He responded yes, but that hadn’t seen the boy in a long time.

Freshwaters confessed and was immediately arrested, officially breaking the record as the longest escaped fugitive who was finally captured in the history of the U.S. Marshals. He made very few mistakes during his freedom, and probably would have never been captured if one of his ex-wives hadn’t complained to police in 1975, but he was evidently making threats towards her, a huge mistake that nearly led to him going back to prison right then and there. He was fortunate that the Governor refused to send him back, and for that, he gained nearly 40 more years of freedom.

Frank Freshwaters Playing Guitar

Freshwaters was sent to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction after his 2015 capture, but letters poured in from more than 2,000 people asking for his parole. He was granted just that in February of 2016 after strong arguments from his attorney that he had more than proven to be no threat to society. Prosecutors argued that he had originally violated parole, escaped prison, changed his name, avoided accountability and did not even pay restitution owed to Flynt’s family. Flynt’s son was at the hearing and said Freshwaters needed to be held accountable for what he had done. Nevertheless, Freshwaters was released on June 15th, 2016, and was given one more chance to complete a 5 year probation sentence. This time, he succeeded, completing his supervision in 2021.