The Man Who Mailed Himself Out Of Jail

A one-time murderer and many-time thief, Richard Lee McNair is the only person ever to break out jail, state penitentiary and federal penitentiary. Three escapes. McNair, a former US Air Force Sergeant, was 47 when he shipped himself out a Louisiana prison on the 5th of April, 2006. His escape came to within a whisker of failing when he was confronted on railroad tracks by a policeman, an event recorded by the officer's dashcam. The encounter became a famous crime video clip on YouTube. Month after month, McNair was featured on America's Most Wanted and led newspaper and television newscasts in the United States and Canada.Through more than 350 letters and 3,500 hand-written pages from his solitary-confinement cell at the 'Supermax' in Colorado, Richard McNair provides the never-before-known details on how he pulled off his three escapes, his encounters with police, and what can be best described as a semi-paranoid life on the lam.His Houdini-like escape in 2006 was the first from a federal prison in 13 years, and there hasn't been one since.Is Richard Lee McNair the world's greatest escape artist? The reader can decide.

The Man Who Mailed Himself Out of Jail is the incredible, true story of the World's greatest prison escape artist, Richard Lee McNair. Many know the story of the killer's spectacular escape from a Louisiana penitentiary in April 2006 and his near-capture shortly after by police on railroad tracks. But for the first time, we get the full story behind McNair's escape and his time on the lam.Now held at the Supermax in Colorado, Richard McNair has given Canadian crime reporter Byron Christopher exclusive access to his story. After nearly five years of research and travel across the U.S. and Canada, the author takes readers on a wild ride. They're with McNair every step of the way, through his three escapes. They see how the Oklahoma native avoided bloodhounds, search helicopters and a massive police dragnet. They feel the joys and defeats of McNair's time on the lam, get a play-by-account of his capture by the R.C.M.P. in the fall of 2007 ... and with proprietary information about the 1987 North Dakota homicide, readers get a front row seat to the murder that put McNair behind bars.

Traces how the author, a Navy veteran, committed five bank robberies and spent years in prison before he rallied with the support of family and friends and learned savvy legal skills, allowing him to build a promising life as a free man.

On January 20, 1983, six-year-old Tania Murrell vanished on her way home from an elementary school in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Hundreds of searchers - police, volunteers and friends and relatives of Tania - looked high and wide, but there was no trace of her. No clothing, school books, phone calls ... nothing. Zip. And no witnesses. It's as though Tania had somehow vanished into thin air. One moment, she's standing on a sidewalk; next moment, she's gone. What ... happened The child's disappearance smells of foul play. Police believe the grade-one student was abducted and murdered. But by whom? And why on earth would anyone do something like that? A heavy-drinking acquaintance of the family would morph from a person of interest to prime suspect. The man never faced criminal charges because detectives felt they didn't have enough evidence for a conviction. This book walks the reader through every major development in this tragic file from the abduction on Day One ... to, years later, a police interrogation of the prime suspect ... to what eventually happened to him.

It is the most celebrated escape in the history of American slavery. Henry Brown had himself sealed in a three-foot-by-two-foot box and shipped from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, a twenty-seven-hour journey to freedom. In Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself, Brown not only tells the story of his famed escape, but also recounts his later life as a black man making his way through white American and British culture. Most important, he paints a revealing portrait of the reality of slavery, of the wife and children sold away from him, the home to which he could not return, and his rejection of the slaveholders' religion--painful episodes that fueled his desire for freedom. This edition comprises the most complete and faithful representation of Brown's life, fully annotated for the first time. John Ernest also provides an insightful introduction that places Brown's life in its historical setting and illuminates the challenges Brown faced in an often threatening world, both before and after his legendary escape.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the governor-elect of Maryland, the “compassionate” (People), “startling” (Baltimore Sun), “moving” (Chicago Tribune) true story of two kids with the same name from the city: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Selected by Stephen Curry as his “Underrated” Book Club Pick with Literati The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his. In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen? That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies. Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

"In Curtis Dawkins's first short story collection, he offers a window into prison life through the eyes of his narrators and their cellmates. Dawkins reveals the idiosyncrasies, tedium, and desperation of long-term incarceration--he describes men who struggle to keep their souls alive despite the challenges they face. In 'A Human Number, ' a man spends his days collect-calling strangers just to hear the sounds of the outside world. In '573543,' an inmate recalls his descent into addiction as his prison softball team gears up for an annual tournament against another unit. In 'Leche Quemada, ' an inmate is released and finds freedom more complex and baffling then he expected. Dawkins's stories are funny and sad, filled with unforgettable detail--the barter system based on calligraphy-ink tattoos, handmade cards, and cigarettes; a single dandelion smuggled in from the rec yard; candy made from powdered milk, water, sugar, and hot sauce. His characters are nuanced and sympathetic, despite their obvious flaws. The Graybar Hotel tells moving, human stories about men enduring impossible circumstances."--

Prize-winning journalist Jack Olsen, armed with unprecedented access to one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a murderer in the killer's own words . . . In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of Taunja Bennet, a troubled 23-year-old barfly who had suffered mild retardation since birth. Pavlinac had come forth and confessed, implicating her boyfriend and producing physical evidence that linked them to the crime. Authorities closed the case. There was just one problem. They had the wrong people. And the real killer wasn't about to let anyone take credit for his kill. Keith Hunter Jesperson was a long haul truck driver and the murderer of eight women, including Taunja Bennet. As the case wound through police precincts and courts--ending in life sentences for both Sosnovke and Pavlinac--Jesperson began a twisted one man campaign to win their release. To the editors of newspapers and on the walls of highway rest stops, Jesperson scribbled out a series of taunting confessions: I killed Tanya Bennett . . . I beat her to death, raped her and loved it. Yes I'm sick, but I enjoy myself too. People took the blame and I'm free . . ..Look over your shoulder. I may be closer than you think. At the end of each confession, Jesperson drew a happy face, earning for himself the grisly sobriquet "The Happy Face Killer." Based on access to interviews, diaries, court records, and the criminal himself, I: The Creation of a Serial Killer is Jesperson's chilling story. It chronicles his evolution from angry child to sociopathic murderer, from tormentor of animals to torturer of women. It is also the story of the fate that befell him after two innocent citizens were imprisoned four years for one of his killings. Edgar Award winner Jack Olsen lets the killer to tell his story in his own words, offering unprecedented insight into the twisted thought process of a serial murderer. Olsen takes his readers along on Jesperson's vicious cross-country killing spree, letting him describe how he played his "death game" with eight innocent victims and how he finally came to grips with the fate he deserved. I: The Creation of a Serial Killer is one of the most revealing and insightful pieces of crime reporting ever published.