Escapee From Kentucky Prison Captured

One of eight convicts who staged a well-organized escape from the maximum-security Kentucky State Penitentiary was captured near the prison Friday, authorities said.

“We may be closing in on some more,” prison spokesman Barry Bannister said after convicted robber Robert Sherman was taken into custody about two miles from the prison.

Sherman and the seven other inmates escaped early Thursday by cutting through the tracks on which their separate, neighboring cell doors slide open and cutting bars on a third-floor window in the cell-block wall. They used an electrical cord torn from a floor buffer to descend 40 feet to the ground, Bannister said.

Bobby Waller, another prison spokesman, said law enforcement officials in Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri also were on the alert for the escapees.