Hunt for new 'Bonnie and Clyde' goes global
They see themselves as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. But while for the moment they are America's most famous fugitives, even Hollywood would surely have trouble glamorising the likes of John McCluskey, who broke out from a medium-security Arizona prison on the night of 30 July, and his alleged accomplice Casslyn Welch.
True, there is romance of a sort in their tale. Welch, 44, is not just the woman who threw the wire cutters over the fence to McCluskey, giving him and two jailbird buddies the means to set themselves free. She is also, we are told, his fiancée. But wait, McCluskey's brave betrothed is in addition his cousin.
Smoothly would not describe how the escape unfolded. Now a band of four – McCluskey, 45, his girl and two other inmates named Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick – instantly hit trouble when they became disoriented in the dark. Only Renwick found the getaway car, a Chevy Blazer, which Welch had parked near by, packed with goodies for what was meant to be a trip for four including food, cash and drugs. He drove off alone.
The remaining trio resorted to hijacking another car to get as far away from the prison as fast as they could. The violence was to continue. Soon afterwards police found the bodies of an elderly Oklahoma couple in the charred remains of a camper in eastern New Mexico. The victims, they believe, died after encountering the escapees.
Luck was initially on the side of the police. Renwick was picked up in the getaway Chevy just two days after the breakout in Colorado. The cash they found amounted to almost $3,000. They also discovered a HiPoint .40 calibre model 4095 rifle, plus 141 rounds of ammunition, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and a driver's licence belonging to a Californian man. Then, last Sunday, Province was taken into custody in Wyoming.
And so they were two – and gone. This weekend, police here acknowledge that the whereabouts of McCluskey and his fiancée are simply not known. McCluskey was serving 15 years for attempted murder, and had already spent 14 years behind bars in Pennsylvania for a string of grocery shop robberies. It cheers no one that both have experience as long-distance lorry drivers. They may even have crossed the borders to Canada by now.
drive from www.independent.co.uk
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