Penalty of Death, Part 3: Bucklew escapes from the county jail, massive police manhunt follows

It is the afternoon of June 19, 1996, and Deputy Richie Walker is on patrol.

His eyes are darting as he cruises along State Highway 177 south of Egypt Mills, a small community in northern Cape Girardeau County.

Walker is a cop on serious business.

Walker is hunting a killer.

One who had murdered a man a few months back right in front of the man's small children.

One who had kidnapped a woman. Raped her. Held her hostage until it ended in a shootout with highway patrol troopers somewhere up in St. Louis.

Except it hadn't ended.

Two days ago, Russell Bucklew escaped from the Cape Girardeau County Jail.

Bucklew had gone out with the trash. At least one other inmate had helped him.

Not only had Bucklew somehow managed to escape, he had hurt more people.

He had attacked two people less than an hour before. Stephanie Pruitt's mother and her mother's boyfriend. Bucklew had jumped out of a utility closet with a hammer in one hand and a knife in the other before attacking them both and fleeing.

Stephen King-type stuff, one person had said.

They were pretty sure Bucklew had been looking for Stephanie.

Now, as Walker's vehicle approaches County Road 263, Walker sees a blue Chevy pickup with a camper. Heading his way. As the vehicles pass each other, Walker cranes his neck and the two men exchange wide-eyed stares.

Walker knows immediately: It's him!

Bucklew is driving the other car. The one that would turn out to be stolen.

Walker wastes no time as the pickup accelerates, moving away quickly in Walker's rearview.

Walker hits his lights, does a U-turn and sees the pickup is cresting a slight hill.

For a moment, it disappears from view.

As Walker tops the hill, he spots the truck.

Walker notices the pickup's brake lights are on. The truck is stopped.

The pickup had swerved onto a county road and pulled down a few feet and onto the road's right-hand side. Now it's sitting there, idling.

Walker speeds his cruiser up to the truck, stops just short of it.

He leaves a slight gap in between the two vehicles. He wants to use his car as cover. If it comes to that.

As Walker pushes his door open, he sees Bucklew lunge out of the pickup.

That's the word Walker will use twice in court: Lunge.

Bucklew's momentum propels his slight frame toward Walker.

Walker doesn't know if Bucklew's planning for fight or flight.

Either way's fine with Walker.

Walker does what cops are trained to do. He thinks fast.

Walker grabs his shotgun. He works the chamber on the pump shotgun with trained fingers, sending a round scurrying into the chamber.

Walker won't hesitate. He'll shoot him if he has to.

"Get your hands up! Now!"

---

A jail escape is every sheriff's worst nightmare.

Just ask Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan. He'll tell you. He's lived it.

On June 17, 1996, four days before the first official day of summer, Jordan had just filed for re-election. He had only been sheriff for two years, finishing out the unexpired term of Norm Copeland.

Of course Jordan knew who the man in his jail was. In addition to being sheriff, Jordan was commander of the Cape Girardeau/Bollinger County Major Case Squad. Jordan had helped work the murder scene. He knew exactly what Russell Bucklew had done, how brutal Bucklew had shown himself to be.

"You know, you deal with whatever this job gives you," Jordan said in a recent interview. "Some days are diamond. Some are stone."

This one -- the day of Bucklew's escape -- was stone.

Bucklew had been in the county jail in Jackson since he had been transported there two days after the St. Louis shootout in March.

Bucklew had taken a bullet to the head, but he had survived. In the moment after being shot, Bucklew began to slump over in the car and had fired a bullet into Stephanie Pruitt's leg. Both injuries were relatively minor and only resulted in brief hospital stays.

Bucklew was beginning to navigate his way through the judicial system toward trial. He was going to face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, burglary, rape and armed criminal action.

A week after the murder, Bucklew made his first court appearance in Jackson, pushed in a wheelchair. He did not enter pleas to the charges, but circuit judge John Grimm declared Bucklew indigent and he was appointed a public defender. Another court appearance was scheduled for April 8 before Associate Circuit Judge Gary Kamp.

On April 8, Bucklew had appeared in court with his attorney, Gary Robbins. Bucklew pleaded not guilty.

A May 9 preliminary hearing date was set in Jackson. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle told the media that he would wait to decide whether he would seek the death penalty until after that hearing. The judge ordered Bucklew to be held without bond.

At the preliminary hearing, Bucklew was bound over for trial. After the hearing, Swingle still hadn't decided whether he would seek the death penalty.

The next month, Jordan would get the call that every sheriff dreads.

Lt. Michael Morgan, the jail administrator, had done a prisoner count at the end of the shift. He had done one earlier at the beginning of the shift, just as they always did. At the earlier count, every prisoner was accounted for.

The second count had a different result. A horrifying one.

They immediately called the sheriff.

"Sheriff, we're short a man," he was told.

A quick second check and the fears were confirmed.

Russell Bucklew had escaped.

---

Barb Pruitt has her daughter back. She's home.

Her little girl is finally safe. Barbara and her ex-husband, Stephanie's father George Pruitt, had driven to St. Louis the day after Mike Sander's murder to pick her up. She was at a hospital, being treated for her injuries -- the rape, getting pistol whipped and ultimately the shot in her leg.

After she entered the hospital room, Pruitt inspected her daughter's injuries. She saw the large gunshot wound that was in her daughter's leg. Stephanie had pulled back the dressing and shown them.

Barbara Pruitt saw the bruises on her daughter's arms, her eye, her cheek. Not to mention the injuries that couldn't be seen.

She'd also heard that Bucklew had been shot. He had been in the same hospital. His wounds did not concern her.

Barb took her daughter to her home on East Cape Rock Drive in Cape Girardeau. She would stay there for a period. To heal.

The phone rings.

Barb picks it up and the last person she ever expected -- the last person she would ever want to talk to -- is on the other end of the line.

The call is from Russell Bucklew.

"Will you accept the charges?" the voice asks.

Pruitt is in disbelief. She almost says no. She knows that Bucklew is supposedly still in the St. Louis hospital.

For some reason, she says yes.

Bucklew starts in right away.

"Is Stephanie there? Is she all right?"

She can't believe he would call her. Here. Collect.

His voice is so cold, she thinks. I have never heard a voice like that in my entire life. There's absolutely no feeling in it.

In court later, she would describe the conversation to a jury as brief, but intense.

"Why did you do it?" she barks at him.

"She shouldn't have cheated on me," Bucklew says.

Ed Frenzel, left, talks to law enforcement officials after being attacked by Russell Bucklew. Bucklew was hiding in the home Frenzel shared with Barbara Pruitt, Stephanie Pruitt's mother.

"You don't kill people for any reason," Pruitt says back.

Bucklew: "I do. I did. And I will."

Pruitt says something she would can never imagine telling another human being. "I want to watch you fry."

"I want to watch you fry, too," Bucklew says.

Breathing hard, Pruitt slams down the phone.

His words will haunt her for days.

They will scream their way back into her mind again three months later as Bucklew, amazingly, is back in her home, armed with a hammer and a knife, attacking her.

I do. I did. And I will.

---

Data log sheets from March 21 to June 17 tells at least part of the story of how Bucklew spent his days at the Cape Girardeau County Jail that spring of 1996.

Most of the entries, based on hourly prisoner checks, seem routine.

0900: The subject appears asleep.

1100: Subject is reading a book. He appears calm and secure.

1500: Subject is given his meds.

There are a few entries that show Bucklew refusing a meal. Not unusual, considering the tumors in his mouth.

On June 17, the day of the escape, the log at first shows more of the same.

0900: Subject is in court until 0844.

1100: Bucklew is talking to Lawson in his cell.

1200: Eating lunch at a table.

At 3 p.m., there's an interesting deviation. The log notes that Bucklew talked to Kenneth Stone.

Stone was an inmate who had made headlines the month prior for holding a pillow over an Oriole, Mo., man's head and pulling the trigger while the man slept.

The log doesn't note what the two murderers talked about.

In the few hours leading up the escape, the log seems to switch back to the norm before taking a turn for the worse.

1600: In bed, appears calm.

1700: Given meds.

1800: Subject is at cafeteria table, eating.

The next log entry is scribbled, harder to read than the others. Perhaps put to paper more quickly than the others.

"Subject missing. Not found for medication."

An hour later, the writing more harried: "Subject still missing."

An hour later: "Subject still missing."

An hour later: "Subject still missing."

---

Some surmise that Russell Bucklew planned the escape for weeks. While he was incarcerated, Bucklew lost weight. He dropped 15 pounds from an already thin 105 to a gaunt 90 pounds.

Several of the log entries show that he refused to eat, causing some to suggest he was intentionally losing weight so he wouldn't burst the trash bag and get caught before he ever got out of the building.

Bucklew's weight loss would have made at least some sense to jail administrators. He constantly complained of pain in his mouth from the tumors.

Regardless of when he first hatched his plan, on June 17, he put it into action.

With the help of a prison trustee named William Douglas Roth, Bucklew slid into a trash bag and had it tied over his head. Then, with the murderer tucked away inside, Roth carried the bag outside and tossed it into a 50-gallon trash can.

A jail worker said later he noticed the trustee -- a prisoner given special duties because he is considered trustworthy -- struggling with the trash bag a bit. But he didn't think anything of it apparently. In fact, an unsuspecting officer watched as the trustee tossed the bag with Bucklew inside in with the other refuse.

Bucklew waited in the Dumpster for a time. It is not known how long.

But at some point, when he figured it was safe, he opened the lid, crawled out and fled.

Bucklew was free.

---

Barbara Pruitt and her boyfriend Ed Frenzel are waiting outside their home on Cape Rock Drive as a police officer performs a quick search.

Making sure Bucklew isn't here.

Her life has changed a lot in the past few days. She hasn't been able to sleep in her own bed.

It's June 19, 1996, and the man who had made her daughter's life a living hell has escaped from jail. For almost two days, Barb and Ed have been staying at a hotel. Stephanie has been taken into protective custody, to make sure that Bucklew doesn't find her.

On Monday, Barbara had been at her job at Procter & Gamble when a security worker had pulled her aside.

"You're supposed to go home," she was told. "Ed's coming to get you. The police department just called. Russell Bucklew has escaped."

Ed had picked her up and they had driven directly to the police station to see what was going on. They were told that Bucklew had escaped and Stephanie and the girls were safe in protective custody.

It probably wouldn't be a good idea for them to go home, she was told, unless an officer did a search of the place first.

They had rented a motel room and hadn't gone home.

But today they decide to risk it, to pick up a few things. They only intend to stay a short while.

The officer comes out, gives them the all clear.

For an hour, their life has all the outward appearances of a normal one.

The put food out for their dogs. They water a few of the trees in the backyard.

Barb and Ed take a break. They sit in their living room. Barb has to be at work in a few hours, so she decides to take a nap.

Why not? Everything seems to be all right.

Still, she walks back to the back door to lock it. Just to be safe.

She turns the lock. A large walk-in pantry, the door closed, is situated on her right.

She turns to head back into the living room when it happens.

The pantry door swings quickly open and hits her in the side, jolting her sideways.

Seemingly in the same instant, she feels something hard, metallic, strikes her head.

What?

Something has hit her from inside the closet.

Somehow, she knows.

Bucklew.

Barb slams her body against the utility closet door, trying to force it closed, to trap the intruder inside. She can feel him pushing hard on the other side, trying to free himself.

"Ed!" she screams.

She can't stop him. The pantry door flies open.

Ed, who had been in the living room, flies to her rescue.

Ed is here. She sees Bucklew's arm; he's holding something, going up and down. He's hitting Ed with something.

Again and again.

In his other hand, Bucklew is holding a knife.

She sees blood on Ed's head, by his ear.

Ed and Bucklew are pushing each other around, each trying to gain an advantage.

Ed backs up, winded.

"Get down, get down!" Bucklew screams. "You're going to die! Get down, get down. You're going to die!"

The back door is right there. But Barb had locked it.

Ed manages his way to the door, twists the lock and manages to back his way outside.

"Get out of there, Barb!" Ed yells.

Barb tries, but she's on the wrong side of the open door. It's pinning her against the wall.

Bucklew angles his way in front of her. He's still got the knife and the hammer.

Barb is too afraid to move.

I do. I did. And I will.

Bucklew curses Ed and says other things. She won't remember them later, when she's recounting the event to a jury.

Something distracts Bucklew. He looks away. It's just for a second, but it gives Barb just enough time to maneuver her way around the open door and outside.

Barb slams the door, trapping Bucklew inside the house.

She takes a look back in through the door window. Bucklew is laying the knife and the hammer down and he disappears from view.

She runs to a neighbor's. Ed is already there, banging on the door. But it's a weekday afternoon and nobody is home.

Barb doesn't know what to do. Bucklew is in her home. The man who killed Mike. The man who had raped her daughter.

Barb staggers to the front yard.

She does the only thing she can think of.

She screams.

---

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan employed an all-hands-on-deck approach in trying to find Bucklew.

Bucklew broke out Monday night. On Tuesday morning, Jordan launched a massive manhunt, calling in the Missouri State Highway Patrol and law-enforcement personnel from Bollinger County, Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Madison County, the Missouri Department of Corrections and the Emergency Operations Center.

An area hospital lent its helicopter to search from the sky and four bloodhounds tried to track his scent along Hubble Creek after a 19-year-old female veterinary assistant found his jail jumpsuit along the creek.

The officers combed the area but came up empty. The helicopter pilot saw nothing and the dogs lost Bucklew's trail about three miles up Hubble Creek.

"We were doing everything we knew to do," Jordan said during a recent interview. "But we were coming up with nothing."

No extensive manhunt took place Wednesday. Officers were still looking and calls were coming in, but Jordan remained optimistic.

"It's not over til it's over," he said at the time. "A murder charge is good forever. We will look for him until he is found."

It turns out they didn't have to wait that long. A call came in to the department that some residents along East Cape Rock Drive had called in and reported some screaming at the home of Barb Pruitt.

Jordan learned later that Bucklew had attacked Barb Pruitt and Ed Frenzel. Before that, he had apparently stolen a blue Chevy pickup from a home on County Road 616 while the owners were out of town.

Bucklew had gone straight for Stephanie.

Jordan learned later that, after the attack, Bucklew had gone out the back door of the Pruitt home, made his way back to the hidden pickup and fled.

Bucklew got in the pickup and drove his car to Highway 177, where he was about to have a run-in with a deputy named Richie Walker.

---

In law enforcement circles, they call it suicide by cop.

In the months since Russell Bucklew killed Mike Sanders, he told anyone who listened he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. That he wanted police to shoot him. That to die that way would be a blaze of glory.

He told Stephanie that on their harrowing drive after the murder. He told other inmates that he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. He told jail administrator Lt. Michael Morgan the same thing.

"In my opinion, he has nothing to lose," Morgan said the day after Bucklew's escape. "Mr. Bucklew does not want to come back to jail. I've talked with Russell. He claims he wants to die. I really believe he is going to force us to shoot him."

If that is truly what Bucklew wants, now is his chance.

He has just lurched out of the pickup. Deputy Richie Walker is there, armed. He has just racked his shotgun.

Bucklew did not fight. He froze.

In the end, Bucklew simply threw up his hands.

Walker put him on the ground, handcuffed him and brought him in.

Without incident.

Next: The aftermath