‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser claimed that, while on the run avoiding an arson charge, a north London solicitor would allow him to sleep in his office. What better security guard could you ask for? But how cross the regulator would have been had they found out.
But not as cross as they would have been with US lawyer Mary Evans. She fell in love with Tim Kirk, while he was serving a sentence for robbery. Now he was awaiting trial on a charge of murder of two rivals during gang warfare at Brushy Mountains prison, Tennessee, in February 1982.
A psychiatric report with a view to a diminished responsibility plea had been arranged but the charismatic Kirk persuaded Evans that flight was the better option. In her red Toyota, she brought tape and scissors to psychologist Gary Salk’s office, along with an all important .25 calibre hand gun.
When she arrived, the restraints had been removed and Kirk came in and out of Salk’s room to discuss his examination with her. When Salk was marking the test, Evans and Kirk and the guards stood outside the room chatting. Until, that is, Kirk pulled out the gun Evans had passed to him. Salk and the guards were taped up. Their guns were confiscated and $25 expense money was taken from poor Salk’s wallet.
It was five months before the pair were traced to Florida. Meanwhile Kirk had been tried in absentia and acquitted of the murders but convicted of manslaughter.
It was back to Tennessee for Kirk who had another 40 years added to his sentence. Evans was lucky in that the attorney general agreed to a plea bargain of a maximum of three years but he argued, since she suffered from schizophrenia, if she returned the guns and paid Salk his $25 she should have probation. The judge would have none of it and thought she had read up the conditions of her illness in a text book. Eventually she received the three years and served 11 months.
She sent tapes to Kirk but prison bars often impede love and later she married the cousin of her ex-husband.
James Morton is a writer and former criminal defence solicitor
No comments yet