A prison escapee is suspected of stealing two airplanes and flying into airports in at least four states. Some think he's bold enough to return to Arkansas and settle old scores.
"I guess he thinks he's Al Capone or something," said Ed Ward, a former business associate of Charles Lloyd Patterson.Patterson, 47, accused of stealing a plane, has been missing since he chartered the plane during a five-day prison furlough in Arkansas in April. He was serving a 40-year sentence for solicitation to commit murder, theft and other offenses.
After the escape, Gov. Bill Clinton, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, halted all meritorious furloughs in Arkansas.
Last week, a plane Patterson is believed to have stolen at gunpoint in Colorado was abandoned at a small airport in Texas. The first plane also was left in Texas.
Now police are watching the homes of two lawyers Patterson threatened in the past. Patterson had been in prison since 1988 for paying $25,000 to arrange the murder of one, John Norman Harkey of Batesville.
"There's a good possibility he might be brave enough to show up to show everyone what a he-man he is," Harkey said. "He's a real study."
Harkey said he was responsible for Patterson losing his job as an Arkansas Alcohol Beverage Control agent in the 1970s. Harkey said Patterson was taking payoffs from bootleggers and others during his brief stint as an agent.