'Shawshank' Fugitive Leaving Florida for Ohio

A 79-year-old man’s lengthy life on the run is officially coming to an end as authorities have been given a green light to extradite Harold “Frank” Freshwaters back to Ohio to face charges he fled from more than five decades ago.

A Brevard County Judge denied a motion Monday filed by Freshwaters’ attorneys that would have prevented extradition, court records indicate. One of the longest-standing fugitives in Ohio’s history may leave Florida bound for that state as early as Tuesday, officials have told multiple media outlets.

Freshwaters’ story began back in the 1950s when he was convicted on voluntary manslaughter charges. He’d been an elusive figure for U.S. Marshals since then, but earlier this month, the long arm of the law caught up with him in Melbourne.

Freshwaters was living an unassuming life at 1200 Jones Road in a mobile home. Using the alias William Harold Cox, the white-haired, ponytail-sporting elderly man drew little attention until the “Gameover Task Force” figured out who he was.

The renewed search for Freshwaters was prompted when the newly formed U.S. Marshals Cold Case Unit received a request from the Ohio Adult Parole Authority to help find one of the state’s longest-standing fugitives. Marshals set out to locate Frank Freshwaters. Following a lengthy investigation, Freshwaters was tracked to Florida where authorities quickly realized the wanted man and “William Cox” were one and the same.

The crime that led to Freshwaters’ life on the lam occurred back on July 3, 1957, when the Akron man was behind the wheel of a vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian. Freshwaters ultimately pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and received a prison sentence of 1-20 years, a media release from the U.S. Marshal’s service stated. The original sentence was suspended and Freshwater was ordered to serve probation for five years.

That reprieve, however, didn’t last.

On Feb. 19, 1959, he was found guilty of violating probation and was sentenced to serve time in Mansfield’s infamous Ohio State Reformatory – also known as “Shawshank Prison.” A model prisoner, Freshwaters quickly earned trust from officials and was transferred to Sandusky Honor Farm to finish out the remainder of his sentence.

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Freshwaters, the release said, was having none of it. On Sept. 30, 1959, he escaped the farm and left Ohio behind for good – or so he thought. He did manage quite a long streak of living on the lam until authorities caught up with him in October 1975. Freshwaters was arrested in West Virginia on the outstanding Ohio warrant. West Virginia’s governor at the time, however, refused to extradite the man back to Ohio – setting Freshwaters free once more.

Freshwaters, the release said, wasted no time in going back into hiding. He didn’t surface again until marshals in Florida made the connection between the white-haired old man people knew as Mr. Cox and the fugitive that fled Ohio 56 years ago.

When approached by authorities at his mobile home in early May, “Cox” admitted that he was indeed Freshwaters, marshals noted.

“This was one of our oldest cases that many believed to be impossible to solve,” Ohio Adult Parole regional director Todd Ishee was quoted in the release as saying.

Freshwaters was released for transport from the Brevard County Jail at 7:36 a.m. Tuesday, according to jail records.

Photo courtesy of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office

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