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.