Military Fugitive Who Escaped in 1977 Caught

A convicted murderer who escaped prison and made a new life for himself in Florida is back in custody after 37 years, reports AP. James Robert Jones murdered a fellow Army private and got sentenced to 23 years at the military's maximum security prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas back in 1974. Three years later, he busted out and landed in Florida, where he assumed a new identity as Bruce Keith, authorities say. He had been on the Army's "15 Most Wanted" list.

Jones' life on the lam began unraveling when US marshals, acting on a tip from Army investigators, used a photo database to find a match between his prison photo and one on a bogus Florida driver's license issued in 1981, reports KSHB. That led to surveillance of "Keith" and his uneventful arrest yesterday in Pompano Beach. "I knew it would catch up to me one day," he reportedly told the arresting officers. It's the second recent story about a fugitive from 1977 being recaptured. (More fugitive stories.)