PUBLISHER GIVES RIDE TO ESCAPED MURDERER

JACKSON, MISS. The publisher of a weekly newspaper in Mississippi says he unwittingly gave a car ride to a convicted murderer who had escaped from a state prison near his home. Officials described the prisoner as “dangerous.” He was recaptured days later.

Russell Turner of Greene County Herald said Tuesday that he went home July 5 and a stranger was sitting on the steps of his house, about 2.4 kms from South Mississippi Correctional Institution.

The man, who wasn’t in prison garb, told him he had wrecked a motorcycle and needed a ride to the hospital where his wife was in labour. After dropping him off, Turner spoke to local authorities and learned that 47-year-old Michael F. Wilson had escaped South Mississippi Correctional Institution.