By posing as guards and spreading fake bomb rumors, six murderers sentenced to death escaped from one of the country's most secure prisons.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Mecklenburg Correctional Center in 1977, Virginia Governor Mills E. Godwin described the prison as “inescape-proof.” Little did he know that seven years later, it would be the site of one of the largest prison breaks in U.S. history.
On May 31, 1984, six death row inmates escaped in a prison van. Earl Clanton Jr., Derick Peterson, Lem Tuggle Jr., Willie Leroy Jones, Linwood and James Briley orchestrated an elaborate escape plan.
A guard tower inside the Mecklenburg Correctional Center, Virginia, USA. Photo: Spmemory
The Briley brothers were notorious in Mecklenburg Prison. They were both sentenced to death for killing at least 11 people over a seven-month period in 1979. However, through their eloquence and deceit, the Briley brothers won the favor of some of the guards.
Little did they know that the two men were trying to find loopholes in the death row security procedures and were amassing a homemade arsenal in preparation for a prison break.
On the evening of May 31, 1984, the plan was put into action. Earl Clanton Jr. hid in a bathroom next to the prison's Control Room. At 9 p.m., James Briley asked the lone guard in the Control Room if he could get him a book. When the Control Room door opened, Clanton rushed out of his hiding place and knocked out the guard. He took control of the Control Room and pressed the button that opened the cell doors for his accomplices.
In the Control Room, the prisoners used radios to call some guards, ambush and control them. "When I got to the top of the stairs, I saw a prisoner who looked familiar and he was wearing an officer's uniform. I turned around and saw James Briley already there. He held a homemade knife to my neck, threatening to kill me if I resisted," one officer recalled.
The guards were stripped, bound, and thrown into cells. The Briley brothers held a knife to one officer’s throat and demanded that he relay false information to other prison officials that they had discovered an inmate had built a bomb and needed to remove it from the facility before it could detonate. He demanded that the guards send a truck to the back of the prison to transport the bomb to safety.
The inmates searched a closet and discovered the perfect disguise: six men dressed in riot gear to hide their faces. They then placed a TV and a fire extinguisher on a stretcher and covered it with a blanket, pretending it was a bomb.
When the prison van arrived, six death row inmates stepped out with the stretcher, placed it in the back, and climbed into the van together.
To leave the prison grounds, they had to pass through two gates. The gatekeeper saw the fake bomb loaded into the car. She decided to open the gate, thinking they were guards. The car carrying the six killers disappeared into the night.
The criminals seized $800 in cash, cigarettes, and some clothing from the guards they had tied up. Their plan was to head north to Canada. The Canadian government opposed the death penalty and, as a policy at the time, would not extradite criminals sentenced to death.
The search for the six escapees was immediately launched with thousands of police from many places participating.
The prisoners did not stay free for long. Earl Clanton Jr. and Derick Peterson were both captured a day later in the town of Warrenton, not far from where they abandoned the getaway car.
Lem Tuggle Jr. and Willie Leroy Jones almost made it to Canada. Tuggle might have succeeded had he not robbed a store at knifepoint in Woodford, Vermont, and led to a police chase. Jones was tipped off by a member of the public and arrested nearly 125 miles from the Canadian border.
Six death row inmates in the 1984 escape from Mecklenburg Prison. Photo: WRIC
The Briley brothers stayed together throughout their escape. The FBI learned from prison records that the Briley brothers had relatives in Philadelphia and began tracking them. When they found a prison guard's uniform in a tree, they knew they were on the right track. They got a breakthrough when they tapped the phone of a Briley brother's acquaintance in New York, who had received a call from a garage in Philadelphia.
A reconnaissance officer reported that two men matching the Briley brothers' description were there. Nearly 20 agents descended on the site within hours. The two death row inmates were captured 19 days after their escape.
Both Linwood and James Briley were executed by electric chair. Linwood appealed to the US Supreme Court but was denied. He was executed on October 12, 1984. James' sentence was carried out on April 18, 1985. On the day James was taken to the chair, fellow prisoners rioted in hopes of delaying his death. However, James was executed as scheduled.
Earl Clanton and Derick Peterson, Willie Leroy Jones were the next names to have to serve their sentences, respectively in April 1988, August 1991 and September 1992.
The last of the six escapees, Lem Tuggle, chose lethal injection and was executed on December 12, 1996. As he entered the execution chamber, he shouted "Merry Christmas!" to onlookers.
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