Lester Eubanks may be the topic of 1 of the nation’s many intense manhunts.

“Have You Seen This Guy?” | Six-Part True Crime Podcast

This is an ABC News podcast, “Have You Seen This Man?,” hosted by ‘The View’s’ Sunny Hostin. It follows the U.S. Marshals’ ongoing mission to find Lester Eubanks, a convict that is dangerous escaped police custody in 1973 and it has never been discovered.

His crime was brutal. His escape, unbelievable. And today, after nearly half of a century busy, a death that is one-time inmate named Lester Eubanks is the main topic of certainly one of the nation’s most intense manhunts.

U.S. Marshals are making the Eubanks instance one of their “Top 15 Most Wanted,” commissioning a new age-progression image for the fugitive, and supplying unprecedented use of ABC News for the podcast launching Oct. 23, called “Have You viewed This Man.”

The escape was a reckoning for the Ohio prison system, which had tried to institute reforms that will help rehabilitate inmates, but in the procedure had been seeing convicts that are dangerous free.

Finding Eubanks has dropped up to a special c l case squad from the U.S. Marshals Service. ABC Information has spent per year in the manhunt being led by Deputy Marshal David Siler, certainly one of their many decorated agents, as he attempts to make use of every available device to find Eubanks prior to the fugitive’s old age catches up to him.

Now, the Marshals want to audience for the ABC News podcast to simply help deliver the last clue that brings this half-century-old secret to a finish.

EPISODE 1 outside of the half-hour laundromat

Mary Ellen Deener had been a typical 14-year-old news that is described her being a person in her center sch l glee club, who enjoyed roller skating, and harbored dreams of being a nun.

“She simply constantly was giggling,” said her sister, Myrtle Carter. “You know, a young girl. Always giggling and — and having enjoyable.”

Her brutal assault and murder in 1965 sh k town of Mansfield, Ohio. Residents had been relieved whenever police delivered quick justice, arresting a difficult 22-year-old local man known as Lester Eubanks for the criminal activity. They secured his confession, and collected persuasive physical pr f, including his f tprints at the scene, and also the gun he had purchased, utilized in the crime. He had been not merely convicted, he was sentenced to death.

“It was like viewing a film — our movie,” remembered Myrtle https://datingmentor.org/middle-eastern-dating/ Carter, 72, Mary Ellen’s older sister, whom nevertheless lives in Mansfield. “It happened that night, by the– that next aftern n, he had been caught. 6 months later on, he was– the trial. The sentence. And he ended up being gone.”

At first, it seemed that this case would end as many other murder instances do — aided by the perpetrator in prison. But that’s not exactly what occurred. His escape that is bewildering and disappearing work are now actually the main focus regarding the U.S. Marshal provider in Cleveland. The actual situation now rests using its vaunted c l case device — a specific group developed by U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott.

“It did not feel these cases that are old getting paid attention to. And a complete lot of these cases, just like the Eubanks case, simply sat around for years and absolutely nothing had been taking place with them,” Elliott said. “What I needed to complete ended up being start a cold situation unit and place an individual in charge … who had been planning to spend 100 % of his time l king through these cold cases and making a huge difference.”

That person is Deputy Marshal David Siler.

“With these instances, they’re excessively hard,” Siler said. “But it is something that you can not pay attention to. But ideally, at the end of the day, a g d time for me personally is hearing those bracelets go around their wrists.”

EPISODE 2 a vacation to your mall

Lester Eubanks ended up being headed to jail for the murder of 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener.

Rather than to simply any penitentiary. At the time, Ohio had a track record of menacing prison complexes, c l places known for physical violence and cruelty. One prison within the continuing state, the Ohio State Reformatory, also became the set for the film “Shawshank Redemption” (the story it self is set in Maine).

As a death row inmate at the Ohio State Penitentiary, Eubanks was facing electrocution in a chair utilizing the nickname “Old Sparky.”

“Each and every you might be fearing that day,” said Michael Humphrey, an Ohio inmate through the very early 1970s, who now gives trips at the jail that was used as the “Shawshank” film set. “You’d have actually to be awful cold hearted not to ever.”

At one point, in 1972, Eubanks was just three days far from execution. Then, a number of activities broke in Eubanks’s favor. Dale Fortney, a previous officer in Mansfield, Ohio, where Mary Ellen’s murder happened, stated just what t k place next was “ridiculous.”

“Lester went from death row, to commuted up to a life sentence, to then, a year or two later, now he’s this kind of honor prisoner which he is taken unescorted and kept in a mall to get christmas shopping,” fortney stated. “I think normal individuals can’t comprehend that this might really take place.”

For Deputy U.S. Marshal David Siler, who’s now leading the manhunt for Eubanks, comprehending the escape was the first faltering step to trying to find him, even if it’s 50 years later on.

“He had an idea,” Siler said.

EPISODE 3 ‘Bl d is thicker than water’

Lester Eubanks ended up being on the run.

In December 1973, the convicted murderer had been offered the chance to go Christmas time shopping at the truly amazing Southern Buying Center along side three other prisoners. They returned, but Eubanks produced break for it. L king straight back he had a plan all along at it now, police believe.

“A individual or individuals t k him from that mall,” said retired Mansfield, Ohio police detective John Arcudi. “They met. It was planned out.”

However, if some body helped Eubanks break free, who was simply it? Police explored that question as they first tracked Eubanks’s course from Ohio to Michigan to Ca, with much of the early suspicion centering on the fugitive’s dad, a bricklayer and minister from Mansfield named Mose Eubanks.

People who knew Mose Eubanks stated he was constantly tormented by his son’s imprisonment.