Pawning Saw Costs Escaped Killer Freedom

The decision by killer Michael P. Tully to pawn an electric saw cost him the freedom he gained by escaping from a Maryland prison work detail in 1982.

Police in Washington state nabbed Tully on Thursday by tracking him down through the pawned saw. Tully, 44, was in the King County Jail in Seattle on Friday awaiting extradition to Maryland.

He had been serving a life sentence for fatally bludgeoning a 68-year-old man with a monkey wrench during a 1970 robbery attempt.

Redmond, Wash., Police Officer Ed Billington said the department routinely enters the names of people who pawn items into the National Crime Information Computer.

“This guy brought in this power saw because he needed the 75 bucks or so he got, and when we ran it through the computer system, we got a hit in Maryland,” Billington said.

Police in Redmond were not sure they had the right man because Tully was using the alias Michael Beeman. But the alias triggered the computer match to Tully.

Mike McKelvin, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police, said the state had added the alias to Tully’s computer file on Aug. 9. Police did not say how they knew Tully was using the alias.

Police traced Tully to Kent, Wash., about 20 miles south of Redmond and arrested him Thursday morning.

“He cried. He was upset about the fact that he was engaged to be married. But he was very, very cooperative,” Billington said.

Tully, a merchant seaman, was serving time at the Maryland Correctional Institution when he escaped in Baltimore while working as a plumber in a building across the street from the Maryland Penitentiary.