Fugitive Freshwaters' 55-year run from law dries up

MELBOURNE, Fla. – An Ohio man who escaped a Green Springs prison farm in 1959 was caught Tuesday by authorities in Florida.

Frank Freshwaters, 79, was serving a 20-year sentence for violating terms of his manslaughter conviction.

Ohio authorities said Freshwaters, then 21 and married, killed 24-year-old Eugene Flynt on July 3, 1957, in Akron. Documents released by U.S. Marshall Pete Elliot, whose federal jurisdiction is northern Ohio, show that Freshwaters was traveling more than 50 mph in a 35 mph zone when he struck Flynt.

"Flynt was run over by Freshwaters," Elliot said.

Freshwaters, a painter by profession, was indicted on second-degree manslaughter charges. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was given five years of probation with a suspended sentence of one to 20 years, records show. In February 1959, Freshwaters was charged with violating his probation and sent to the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, the state prison featured in the movie "Shawshank Redemption."

Later, authorities said he charmed prison officials, gaining their trust as a model inmate.

He was sent to the Sandusky Honor Farm, where he escaped on Sept. 30, 1959.

Freshwaters' long run at freedom came to an end with a knock on his door.

It was then that the gray-bearded man living under the alias of William Cox in a run-down trailer home just west of Melbourne stared ahead at an officer from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office's GAMEOVER task force.

The deputy held up a black-and-white picture of a fresh-faced 23-year-old and asked Cox whether he had ever seen the young man.

"He looked at the picture then told them, 'I haven't seen him in a long while,' " said Maj. Tod Goodyear, spokesman for the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.

"He said to him, 'It's you isn't it?' And that was it. He's been living the retired life and was getting Social Security benefits, I believe under his alias. He's been living under that alias for years," Goodyear said.

The 79-year-old man was led from his home in handcuffs.

"He admitted who he was and owned up to everything," said Elliot, who three months ago formed a cold case unit and quickly turned up information on Freshwaters.

"He's been in Florida for several decades. He probably tried to go as far south as he could," Elliot said. He said Freshwaters was one of the longest-missing fugitives in Ohio.

Goodyear said the man told sheriff's agents that he didn't want to go to prison and had been on the lam since escaping In 1959, settling down in Melbourne and earning a living driving a truck before he retired.

Officials said Freshwaters will be extradited to Ohio to face an escape charge.

"That's a long time to be in hiding. Over half a century, when he went to prison, Elvis was in his heyday. There was black-and-white television. It's an interesting case," Goodyear said.

Shirl Cheetham, 34, of Palm Bay, said she had known Freshwaters — or William Cox, as she knew him to be — for nearly 15 years. She's heard his jokes, listened to him play guitar and even went hunting with him. She also says the man her children call "Grandpa Will" also was there for her as the best man at her 2012 wedding.

"He is just the sweetest man. ... I'm shell-shocked. After all this time, how he managed to keep from getting caught. He stayed out of trouble all this time," Cheetham said, adding that she heard about the arrest but does not plan to tell her children just yet. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it," she said.

Cheetham said Freshwaters attended West Melbourne Community Church from time to time and even volunteered in a thrift store.

"This is someone who loved to laugh. I honestly think they should let him go," she said.

At one point, Freshwaters was captured on the Ohio fugitive warrant in 1975, but the governor would not extradite him. He was released and went back into hiding, officials report.

Elliot said his investigators tracked Freshwaters down to Melbourne and determined he had been living in a dilapidated trailer in the marsh area off the Eau Gallie Extension. Authorities say Freshwaters was single.

"It's really just good police work. No one thing led them to his doorstep. But now, he's going to be brought to justice," Elliot said.

Elliot was asked about Freshwaters' time on the run and the feasibility of searching for a 79-year-old man who escaped prison over five decades before.

"That's not for us to decide. The bottom line is our job is to catch the person and bring him or her to court," Elliot said.

"We have an obligation to do that."

cshoup@gannett.com

419-334-1035

Twitter: CraigShoupNH