Donny, Ricky and Raymond have always seen their father in jail. This time he was in jail for breaking parole and doing a string of robberies. Their mother always brought them to the prison for weekly visits with their father, which would lead to his having a significant influence over them, even though he only saw them once a week. Once again he was paroled and broke his parole. He was on his way back to prison when he produced a gun and shot the only guard assigned to take his to prison. He was quickly captured after that and went back to jail with a life imprisonment sentence. (Kennedy, pp. 287-288)

Even from jail, Gary had a considerable amount of influence on the boys. He would do all of the things fathers would do, just from behind bars. This level of influence would eventually lead to Raymond and Ricky planning and helping execute their father's prison break. Gary always had thoughts of escape and even had one failed attempt seven months earlier. Somehow, he got himself transferred to a medium security compound from the maximum-security prison. Gary also informed his sons one day that the break was two weeks away and told them they were taking another prisoner with them, Randy Greenawalt, who proves to be an asset to the break. Greenawalt is the captain's clerk, so he has access to the control room. (Kennedy, p288-289)

On July 30, 1978 Raymond walked into the foyer of the prison and was later followed by Donny and Ricky, who were carrying a picnic basket filled with guns. They knew all the guards by name and were welcome. Greenawalt was in the control room about to take a two-way radio as a distraction when one of the officers saw him and tried to stop him. It was then that the officer noticed that Ricky pointing a shotgun to one of the sergeant's head. Greenawalt was passed a shotgun and a pistol and opened the gate for the boys, who tied up all the prison guards and put them in a storage closet. The three boys, their father, and Randy Greenawalt walked out to the family Ford. They took off and later switched cars to a Lincoln and drove all day sticking to back roads. As they were getting away, one of their tires blew, so they planned to get another car. (Kennedy, p290)

They pulled to the side of the road, armed themselves, hid, and Raymond flagged down a car with the Lyons family in it. After coming out to help, the four armed men appeared, put the Lyons family into their Lincoln, drove a mile into the desert, and started to transfer the belongings. When the boys were finished, Gary began shooting his shotgun into the radiator of the Lincoln to disable it. (Kennedy, p. 292) John Lyons was pleading with his captors to just leave the family there with water, but not to kill them. After an internal conflict, Gary agreed and sent the boys to the car for the water jug. They took too long and heard gunshots. When they looked they saw Gary on one side of the car and Greenawalt on the other side firing shotgun rounds into the car, killing the entire family. (Tison, 137) John Lyons suffered many shots, but still tried to get out alive. He was found about twenty-five f

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