Pod Insights True Crime All The Time Frank Freshwaters About this episode After pleading guilty to manslaughter for killing a pedestrian while speeding, Frank Freshwaters escaped from an honor farm in Ohio and spent over fifty years on the run. In 2015, the U. S. Marshals located Freshwaters in Florida, where he had started a new life under a fake identity.
Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Frank Freshwaters. By all accounts, Frank had led a pretty decent life on the run and had stayed out of trouble. So the question became what should be done with a man who escaped justice but was now 80-years-old. The decision may shock you.
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Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 475 of the True Crime All the Time Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Give me, how are you?
0:11 Speaker 01 Hey, I'm doing good, man. About you?
0:12 Speaker 00 I'm doing great.
0:13 Speaker 01 You should be.
0:14 Speaker 00 Why is that?
0:15 Speaker 01 Cause you're sitting in this really nice studio.
0:19 Speaker 00 Yeah, but I've always had a studio. It's you that now have your own space as everybody's talking about.
0:24 Speaker 01 I finally got my own stuff.
0:27 Speaker 00 I know you keep rubbing it. I don't know. It seems weird.
0:30 Speaker 01 Yeah, it probably does.
0:31 Speaker 00 All right, man. Let's get right into it. You know, on these Thursday episodes, we kind of jump right in.
0:36 Speaker 01 We do.
0:36 Speaker 00 So we're talking about Frank Freshwater's, which I have a theory or a thing that is telling me in my mind, this is gonna be hard to say at certain points throughout this episode.
0:50 Speaker 01 There's a lot of repeated Fs.
0:52 Speaker 00 Yeah, two Fs in a row. So Frank Freshwater's was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. What is Akron known for?
1:00 Speaker 01 Well, I mean, good things or bad things?
1:03 Speaker 00 Uh, let's go with good things.
1:04 Speaker 01 Good things. Is that where the Hall of Fame is?
1:07 Speaker 00 No.
1:08 Speaker 01 No?
1:09 Speaker 00 It's Canton.
1:09 Speaker 01 That's Canton. Uh, well, there's a lot of tire places up there.
1:12 Speaker 00 They're known for tires.
1:14 Speaker 01 Yep.
1:14 Speaker 00 And LeBron James.
1:16 Speaker 01 Well, I forgot about LeBron.
1:17 Speaker 00 I'm sure they're known for other stuff, but those are the two that that kind of clicked off in my mind. By 1957, Frank was a 21-year-old newlywed. He and his 17-year-old wife Patricia were about to become parents. Their son Jeff was born months after this accident that would get Frank into trouble. So basically, what happened was Frank killed a pedestrian while he was speeding in his car, which, you know, it's a different type of story for us.
1:54 Speaker 01 Sure it is.
1:54 Speaker 00 And he's later gonna go on the run, right? So there's a lot to this story, but he gets into this accident. I'm sure he didn't mean to run this person over. Frank had no criminal record and he worked for
2:10 Speaker 00 Cascade Rubber Company.
2:12 Speaker 01 Oh, Rubber Company in Akron. Shocker.
2:14 Speaker 00 Shocker. On July 3rd, 1957, Frank was driving his vehicle in Akron and he killed the pedestrian who was crossing the street. It was almost midnight and 24-year-old Eugene Flynn was walking to his house. Eugene was an Army veteran and he worked at Goodyear. He was also married and a father of three children. So I, we just talked about tires, man. I'm, I think, you know, I don't know how much today, you Akron is the hub of tire making, but certainly in 1957, a lot of people in Akron worked making tires.
2:56 Speaker 01 Probably came home, smelled like rubber, had that silicone stuff all over them, you know? Have you, did I ever tell you, I think I mentioned it before, how I used to sling tires?
3:08 Speaker 00 Sling as in sell stolen tires?
3:11 Speaker 01 No, no, no, no, no. So I, and my older brother did it with me too. So for extra cash, we would go to this place, loading dock, and they would have all these tires coming from one of the tire manufacturers here in Dayton. But you go to this, this warehouse, this dock area and you would just like.
3:33 Speaker 00 Throw them?
3:33 Speaker 01 Throw them.
3:34 Speaker 00 Like a, like a discus almost?
3:36 Speaker 01 Yeah, into the semi and you, one would throw them, the other one would stack them a certain way. They had to be stacked so they wouldn't shift, you know, the load wouldn't shift.
3:45 Speaker 00 Well, and if we're picking, I would put you as the thrower and one of your brothers is the stacker.
3:51 Speaker 01 That's what it was.
3:52 Speaker 00 That just makes sense.
3:53 Speaker 01 But you'd come out of there and you'd be, you know, hands would just be coated in the black rubber and.
3:59 Speaker 00 Yeah.
4:00 Speaker 01 That silicone be all over you, slick as you can imagine.
4:04 Speaker 00 In my younger days, I did have a job for a brief period of time at a, like a car repair place.
4:10 Speaker 01 Yeah.
4:11 Speaker 00 So I would mount tires and do things like that.
4:15 Speaker 01 Yeah.
4:15 Speaker 00 I thought that job was kind of fun. I mean, it wasn't for me long-term, but at the time, it was pretty fun. But this is a, you know, it's a tragedy, right? We have this married father of three who's not doing anything wrong. He's just walking to his house and he gets hit and killed by, you know, this man driving his car, Frank Freshwaters. Eugene had just parked his truck after getting home from his shift. He was crossing the street to go into his home where his wife was waiting to greet him. So here's the other thing. He's literally right outside of his house.
4:52 Speaker 01 Yeah, like he almost made it home.
4:54 Speaker 00 Yeah, he is crossing the intersection to walk into his house where his wife's waiting, his children, I'm sure are asleep because it's like, you know, almost midnight. The Akron Beacon Journal reported at the time, his wife Garnett saw him park the truck. She turned to put some coffee on for him. She heard the crash and then turned to the window to see him flying through the air. I mean, unimaginable.
5:25 Speaker 01 Yeah, it'd be rough.
5:25 Speaker 00 It would be hard to even find out later, right? That your spouse, your significant other was killed in some kind of car crash, even if it was an accident, but to literally see it unfold.
5:41 Speaker 01 Traumatizing.
5:42 Speaker 00 Yeah, it would be just unbelievably brutal. Frank Freshwaters was driving over 50 miles per hour in a 35 mile per hour zone when he hit Eugene. Frank told the police, there was a man in front of me and then I don't know what happened. And I'm sure that was probably the truth.
6:03 Speaker 01 Yeah.
6:03 Speaker 00 Again, I don't think he meant to run this guy over, but there's a reason that there are speed limits.
6:11 Speaker 01 I mean, it's not uncommon for people to go over the speed limit. I mean, that's one of my big problems. I have a lead foot.
6:21 Speaker 00 Well, and I would say this, right? To me, there are differences. I know legally, there's no differences. But if you're going 75 on the highway and the speed limit 65, I get it. Technically, you're speeding. But to me, it's much different if you're going 35 in a 25 school zone.
6:45 Speaker 01 Well, sure. Yeah.
6:45 Speaker 00 You know, the, the danger is a different level.
6:48 Speaker 01 It's greater. Yeah.
6:49 Speaker 00 Yeah, to me, but I get it. It's still 10 miles over. You're going to get a ticket or whatever. Eugene died from shock from a fractured skull and compound fractures on both legs less than an hour after the accident. On April 25th, 1958, Frank pleaded guilty to second degree manslaughter and he was sentenced to one to 20 years in prison. But then the judge suspended his sentence and gave him five years of probation instead.
7:23 Speaker 01 Okay, sounds pretty reasonable.
7:26 Speaker 00 For him.
7:27 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:28 Speaker 00 Now, if you're this guy's wife, okay, or family, you're probably not happy about that. But again, I do think it was an accident, even though he was driving too fast. That's where the manslaughter piece of it.
7:43 Speaker 01 Right.
7:44 Speaker 00 Comes in. One to 20 years in prison is a, a strange sentence, but you and I have talked about it, you know, in a lot of our episodes that go back to like the 40s, 50s, 60s, even into the 70s. You know, over the years in the US, depending on what state you're in, there have been some really strange sentencing guidelines.
8:05 Speaker 01 They sure have.
8:07 Speaker 00 And, and they've changed, right? Throughout the years. The, the problem came later on when Frank violated his probation by driving a car. So when you kill somebody and you only get probation, I'm assuming one of those was you don't get to drive a car.
8:27 Speaker 01 Yeah, you're suspended from driving for now.
8:31 Speaker 00 He also obtained a driver's license and he failed to report to the probation department. He also failed to make weekly $5 payments to the clerk's office.
8:44 Speaker 01 Well, you know, when you're on probation, you know, as you know, you've been on amended Thomas before, I assume.
8:50 Speaker 00 Yeah.
8:51 Speaker 01 Or is it me? I don't know.
8:52 Speaker 00 I think it's you.
8:53 Speaker 01 You.
8:54 Speaker 00 Of the two of us, only one of us has worn a monitoring ankle monitor multiple times.
9:01 Speaker 01 That was for fun. But you know, you have certain things you have to follow. Like you need to check in, you need to pay whatever fees need to be paid.
9:13 Speaker 00 Yeah, restitution or whatever it is.
9:15 Speaker 01 I mean, it's just, it's requirements. And if you don't make those requirements, your probation will be lifted.
9:22 Speaker 00 But here's the thing, and this is what I always think about. When someone gets, and I'll call it a good deal, it's probably not the right term for it. But he did kill a man.
9:36 Speaker 01 Sure.
9:37 Speaker 00 And he was committing an infraction at the very least at the time he was doing it. You would think that if you got five years probation, man, you would be on the straight and narrow.
9:51 Speaker 01 Absolutely.
9:51 Speaker 00 I wouldn't throw a piece of gum on the street for fear that I would somehow then have to finish out my one to 20 year sentence.
10:03 Speaker 01 I mean, the deal he had was very favorable for him.
10:07 Speaker 00 Yeah, no, there's no doubt about it. But to do the, the stuff that we just mentioned, right? Don't drive a car. Okay. It's an inconvenience. I get it. Pay $5 a week? If, if you're telling me I pay $5 a week and I stay out of prison, I'll scrounge up $5 a week.
10:28 Speaker 01 Absolutely.
10:28 Speaker 00 That, that just doesn't make any sense to me.
10:32 Speaker 00 On February 19th, 1959, Frank was found guilty of violating his probation and his original sentence of one to 20 years was imposed.
10:41 Speaker 01 I mean, look, if you're gonna get maybe on the short end of that deal, the one year, you're probably like, ah, you know, it sucks, but I'll get through it.
10:51 Speaker 00 Yeah, but and I get I get your point, right? If you're getting the 20, then you're you're really upset, but it was all avoidable. That was my point, and I just don't get that. What was interesting that was that Frank was sent to the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, which is up north, quite a ways from where we are.
11:11 Speaker 01 Yeah.
11:12 Speaker 00 But that's also where the movie Shawshank Redemption was filmed.
11:16 Speaker 01 We should go visit it.
11:18 Speaker 00 We should.
11:19 Speaker 01 I think here it's haunted.
11:20 Speaker 00 You and I actually had an argument about that a few weeks ago.
11:23 Speaker 01 We did.
11:23 Speaker 00 And we had to look it up, and I'll admit on camera that you were right. I thought it was in Chicago and you said Mansfield and you turned out to be correct.
11:32 Speaker 01 Is that hard to say?
11:33 Speaker 00 No.
11:34 Speaker 01 I think it was.
11:35 Speaker 00 Not at all.
11:37 Speaker 00 For about six months, Frank was incarcerated in medium level custody and he worked at the prison hospital. His wife left him after he went to prison. I'm assuming she thought, well, this guy's so dumb, I can't stay married to him.
11:53 Speaker 01 Well, yeah, I'm thinking she's like, hey, you just had to like be good for five years and really not that good. You just had to do some simple things.
12:02 Speaker 00 Yeah, well, you know, you didn't have to lift a thousand pound boulder up a hill. You just had to do a few things and you couldn't even do that. Frank's son told Florida Today that he rarely spoke about this part of his life. On September 1st, 1959, Frank received a bond of faithful service and trust after a personal interview with the Ohio State Reformatory Superintendent. Never heard of it, but this document stated that Frank had been duly recommended as being worthy of trust and qualified for employment without the restraint of armed guard.
12:45 Speaker 00 Well, I mean, if you think about it, he was a pretty low risk prisoner. Yeah, I mean, he didn't go in for what you would consider a violent crime. I understand somebody lost their life, but he didn't shoot them or, you know, something along those lines. So, okay, he's being a modeling maid, as people say. He was transported to the Sandusky Honor Farm to finish out his sentence. But weeks later, on September 30th, 1959, Frank escaped the facility and fled the States. So maybe not that honorable. I'm kind of thinking the same thing.
13:28 Speaker 00 But here's, you know, we just did a case a while back where, you know, someone escaped. They were allowed to go to the mall. Yeah. Unsupervised. All places. Now, that that person had a life sin. Yeah, he did. This one, okay, I get it a little bit more. You think one to 20, it's probably not going to, it's probably going to be closer to one than 20. Right. If it didn't say, I don't think, I didn't read it, but you think, ah, this person's not going to risk escape, right? Yeah, he'll be out soon enough. Yeah. But he doesn't, he escapes.
14:09 Speaker 00 An officer was doing a routine check of inmates, assigned to work at the main mess hall at the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home, and discovered that Frank was missing. Frank walked away with an inmate convicted of burglary, per Florida Today. After escaping, Frank traveled to Florida and applied and received a new social security card under the alias William Harold Cox. And this is something that you and I have talked about many times. Right? The 50s and 60s versus today. How much easier was it to maybe assume someone's identity? Not that people don't steal people's identity today, because they do. They do.
14:54 Speaker 00 But much easier, I think, back then to maybe fill out a form, write in, apply for, you know, a social security card. And that's basically what he did. He became William Harold Cox. In the early 60s, Frank moved to Hurricane, a small town in West Virginia. And then for the next 13 years, he lived with a woman named Joyce Wade. They had two sons together. Frank drove trucks for chemical companies and at one point drove a mobile library to underserved schools in West Virginia. Kind of a good guy there.
15:36 Speaker 00 Well, I think he's, he's playing that because let's face it, he's assumed this new alias, right? Bill, and he developed a pretty positive reputation in the community. Now, it was advantageous for him to do so. Sure. You don't want to draw any attention to yourself by doing anything wrong. And maybe for him, this was his, uh, fresh start. Yeah, I mean illegally, but yeah, I get what you're saying. In October, 1975, after Frank's relationship deteriorated, Joyce Wade contacted the authorities and filed a peace warrant against Frank.
16:19 Speaker 00 She wrote that she feared violence and asked for a court hearing. Now, details of the warrant are no longer available, most likely due to a flood that affected the sheriff's office in the 1980s. Again, most of that stuff wouldn't have been computerized probably at that time. So we've heard in older cases where a flood or a roof collapse under a heavy rain has kind of ruined a lot of evidence.
16:51 Speaker 01 Hear that a lot in some of these order cases, but here's a, you know, we were just talking about how he's probably, I said, he's probably a good guy now and trying to get his life turned around and then you find out according to, you know, his partner for the last 13 years.
17:08 Speaker 00 Not such a good guy.
17:09 Speaker 01 Yeah, not such a good guy.
17:10 Speaker 00 But my thought was, you know, was he really a good guy or was he playing? The role of the good guy because he wanted to have a reputation that wouldn't have drawn attention to the fact that, you know, he was an escapee.
17:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
17:29 Speaker 00 Or, you know, anything like that. And I always think that, to be honest with you. I usually think the, the worst of, of people like this because they'll do and say anything that they have to, you know, to, to stay out of, um, stay out of prison.
17:47 Speaker 01 Yeah. I mean, you're going to want to do what you can to avoid that.
17:49 Speaker 00 Yeah. I mean, it's in your best interest for sure. The West Virginia State Police arrested Frank. He was found hiding in a cubicle, hidden under the sink.
18:00 Speaker 01 Okay.
18:01 Speaker 00 Which I know is your go-to hiding place.
18:03 Speaker 01 It's one of them.
18:04 Speaker 00 When the, you have a couple.
18:06 Speaker 01 Yeah.
18:06 Speaker 00 You have a hidden panic room too.
18:07 Speaker 01 I do have that.
18:10 Speaker 00 This made police suspicious because, you know, a person wouldn't typically hide from a peace warrant. And I'll be honest with you, Gibbs, I don't really know what a peace warrant is.
18:22 Speaker 01 I'm, I'm having a feeling like it's one of those warrants that it's just something that they have to hand to you. You accept it and then you deal with it later. It's not like you're being arrested at that.
18:33 Speaker 00 Right then and there. Frank was arrested and fingerprinted and his true identity was discovered. Now, I don't know if he was arrested because of the peace warrant or because he was hiding in, under the sink. I'm not sure. Joyce, though, failed to show up to the court hearings. But even so, law enforcement held Frank on a fugitive from justice warrant. Now, if they hadn't figured out he was a fugitive, the whole thing probably would have been dropped.
19:04 Speaker 01 Yeah, he probably would have been just, okay, you can go ahead and go.
19:07 Speaker 00 Normally, if your accuser doesn't show up, and if your accuser is the police, let's say, a policeman, if they don't show up for the thing, then a lot of times it's dropped.
19:20 Speaker 01 It's a playbook right out from the mafia.
19:23 Speaker 00 You mean, being made not to show up?
19:26 Speaker 01 Yes.
19:26 Speaker 00 But if you're a fugitive from justice, that's a whole different story. In his interviews, Frank shared details of what he'd been doing for the two decades that he'd been on the run. Then Governor Archmore received news of the arrest and proposed a plan to put Frank on a supervised parole program because of his flawless record in West Virginia.
19:53 Speaker 01 Since he was such a good guy.
19:54 Speaker 00 Yeah, after escaping from prison.
19:57 Speaker 01 Yeah.
19:57 Speaker 00 He was, he was a good guy. In a letter dated April 2nd, 1976, Moore wrote, "Testimony was given by Mr. Freshwater's employer, fellow employees, friends and neighbors, all of whom vouched for his good character, habits, abilities, and job potential."
20:16 Speaker 01 You know who has job potential? This guy right here. Potential.
20:20 Speaker 00 Unrealized potential.
20:22 Speaker 01 And how many times did I tell you that? In our one-on-ones, in our, in our, uh, you know, job performance stuff. Hey, I've got a lot of undiscovered potential.
20:34 Speaker 00 Uh huh.
20:35 Speaker 01 And you would say.
20:36 Speaker 00 You say undiscovered, I say unrealized.
20:38 Speaker 01 Well.
20:39 Speaker 00 Well, and for people watching us on YouTube who haven't listened to our 10 years worth of episodes.
20:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
20:47 Speaker 00 You and I did used to work at the same company.
20:49 Speaker 01 We did.
20:50 Speaker 00 In the beginning, you worked for me.
20:52 Speaker 01 I did.
20:53 Speaker 00 I hired you.
20:54 Speaker 01 You did.
20:54 Speaker 00 Uh, against my better judgment, but it turned out great.
20:58 Speaker 01 It did.
20:58 Speaker 00 You know, we became friends and then eventually we were on the same level and.
21:02 Speaker 01 Yeah.
21:03 Speaker 00 Then when they said, hey, we don't need you here anymore, you took my job. Essentially.
21:10 Speaker 00 I hate how you say it that way, but. I don't, I don't harbor any grudges or anything. He, he went on to say in conclusion, I want to point out that by denying this requisition, I am neither condoning nor excusing Mr. Freshwater's actions. However, the primary objectives in our correction system are the rehabilitation of the criminal offender and the protection of society. I am of the opinion that Mr. Freshwater's has proved himself in the last 16 years to be an effective and responsible citizen and would in no way endanger any member of society. So I want to break that down because there's some interesting things that he said there.
21:53 Speaker 00 You know, the primary objective to rehabilitate the criminal offender. Yeah. I, I think we don't always do a great job of that. I'm speaking, you know, here in, in the U.S. right? There are people that are listening to us from other countries and maybe in other countries, they do a better job of it. You know, uh, too often I think we house, but we don't try to rehabilitate. Now, I also believe there are some people who cannot be rehabilitated. You know, when you're talking about some of the individuals we talk about on true crime all the time.
22:32 Speaker 00 But to be fair, you know, Frank didn't, you know, commit, but like I said, a violent crime. He wasn't a rapist. He didn't shoot someone or stab someone. He did drive too fast and end up killing someone with his car. So, I mean, I think you have to keep all that in mind and maybe the governor was, was doing that too. Now, I don't know how much you give him for the last 16 years because like I said, I think he had a vested interest, right? In toeing the line in being a good citizen. Sure. Because he didn't want to draw attention to himself.
23:14 Speaker 00 The state's division of correction agreed to supervise Frank. The governor also noted that Ohio authorities failed to turn up at two different hearings. Frank was eventually released from custody and allowed to go back to his normal life.
23:31 Speaker 01 I'm guessing that high authorities thought, what are we going to take the time to drive down there for? They're not going to allow us to take them back. That didn't sound like it, right?
23:41 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Who knows what happened? But what I'm taking away from this is that, you know, he escaped from prison, essentially. I get it. It was a honor farm, but he was still in prison.
23:57 Speaker 01 Right.
23:57 Speaker 00 And once he was found out, what happened to him?
24:01 Speaker 01 Nothing.
24:02 Speaker 00 Supervised probation and eventually he was let go, allowed to be out from under that.
24:09 Speaker 01 So what type of message does that send to other individuals?
24:15 Speaker 00 Take your chances. You know, that's, that's what I always think.
24:18 Speaker 01 Yeah.
24:19 Speaker 00 But here's the thing, right? Even though he had been caught and identified, Frank continued living under the alias William Cox, which I found very strange. Did they not catch the fact that he was using someone else's identity?
24:36 Speaker 01 They had to. I'm just like surprised they didn't say, okay, you need to go back to using, you know, your original name and stuff, but maybe because he had a established social security number, which probably fed into his retirement somehow, social security, whatever, that they're like, we'll just allow you to keep that.
24:56 Speaker 00 It's still a crime though, right?
24:59 Speaker 01 I don't think if he stole the identity, which I had to, right? I mean,
25:03 Speaker 00 I don't think somebody gave it to him.
25:05 Speaker 01 So, yeah, they're probably another crime right there.
25:08 Speaker 00 I don't think anybody was like, hey, use my social security number. I'm, I'm not using it. That doesn't work. Obviously this person was probably deceased.
25:17 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:18 Speaker 00 And he stole his social security.
25:20 Speaker 01 So you think about it, right? He had the original crime that he was doing probation for, well, not probation, but he was actually served a time for, and then he escaped, which typically adds on a few extra years.
25:33 Speaker 00 Almost always.
25:35 Speaker 01 And then theft of a ID.
25:38 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's like they didn't even take that into account. I thought that was very strange. Frank's son Jim Cox recalled to Florida today. It was common knowledge what happened. I was about five years old at that time. I also remember that it was a big deal and everybody in my world knew about it and they turned him loose. After that, we lived in the same spot for years. They make it sound like he was on the run. He kept no secrets from me, but whatever happened in the past, we never spoke on that. It was just something that was brought up. It wasn't something that was brought up. I said it was.
26:16 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:16 Speaker 00 It wasn't. He thought he was cleared of everything. And really, you know, the way that we talked about it, it did make it seem like that.
26:25 Speaker 01 It did.
26:26 Speaker 00 Right? He's on supervised probation. They let him off of that. So, okay, he goes back to living his life. Around 1980, Frank fell in love with a woman named Brenda, who was 16 years younger than him. In 1987, they decided to move to Melbourne, Florida. Jim decided to move in with his dad as a teenager. Frank continued working as a truck driver. He was hauling palm trees and landscaping materials for the parents of Florida State Senator Thad Altman. The Altman's later gave Frank a mobile home on their property and asked him to be their watchman.
27:08 Speaker 01 Okay.
27:09 Speaker 00 I don't know if they knew about his past. I'm assuming they didn't. Frank kept to look out for trespassing hunters or mischievous teenagers.
27:18 Speaker 01 Sounds like he had a little, uh, good gig going on.
27:22 Speaker 00 Yeah, because you gotta work, you gotta watch out for mischievous teenagers.
27:25 Speaker 01 They're all everywhere. You, you are one.
27:27 Speaker 00 And you still are.
27:30 Speaker 00 Frank continued living under his alias, but he wasn't as careful as he once was because he thought his legal problems ended in West Virginia.
27:39 Speaker 01 Well, I get, you know, why he thought that. I mean, it was kind of made out that he could just move on.
27:45 Speaker 00 Yeah. I mean, when I read it about, you know, when I read about what happened, it did seem that way to me. It wasn't known how much Brenda knew about Frank's past. They eventually got married, but sadly Brenda was diagnosed with cancer. Frank retired early on social security to take care of her. Then Brenda died in April, 1999. Frank's friend, Cheryl Cheetum, who knew him as William Cox for about 15 years, said, "He went off the radar." After Brenda died, he continued living alone in his trailer on the Altman's property. It was situated at the end of a dead end and rarely traveled road near the marsh. Few
28:26 Speaker 00 people lived near him and it was also said that Frank was a homebody and he even refused to evacuate during severe weather.
28:36 Speaker 01 Oh, wow.
28:37 Speaker 00 Which are people like that. Unfortunately, you know, in Florida, they do have quite a bit of severe weather.
28:44 Speaker 00 Brevard County Sheriff Major Todd Goodyear told the Plain Dealer, "It was the perfect place to hide. There's nothing near him. He would have very little contact with neighbors and there's no roads by him." Frank's friends in Melbourne knew him as Grandpa Bill.
29:01 Speaker 01 Grandpa Bill.
29:02 Speaker 00 He enjoyed fishing on the marsh, working on old cars and ordering takeout from his favorite restaurant.
29:09 Speaker 01 Wow, there's something you got in common with him.
29:11 Speaker 00 I do. I do enjoy a good takeout. Frank always called and asked for a bag of day old fried chicken so he could get a discount and then he would have food for the entire week.
29:23 Speaker 01 You know, a day old chicken is not bad for you.
29:26 Speaker 00 No, I eat a lot of day old stuff. I mean, it's been refrigerated.
29:30 Speaker 01 Yeah, you eat more than a day old stuff. I've seen some of the stuff you eat.
29:34 Speaker 00 I do. But you know, Frank was, he was living on social security benefits at that time. So I'm sure he needed to be a little thrifty.
29:43 Speaker 01 Budget friendly.
29:44 Speaker 00 Yeah. When the US Marshals Cold Case Unit was established in early 2015, the Ohio Adult Parole Authority requested assistance in locating Frank. By that point, it was one of their oldest cases, right? Of this guy walking away from the honor farm.
30:05 Speaker 01 Just seems really strange that it was still on the radar.
30:09 Speaker 00 Yeah.
30:09 Speaker 01 Based on what we heard that happened in West Virginia.
30:13 Speaker 00 Yeah. And the only thing that I can think of is that, okay, they said that in West Virginia, but in Ohio, we're still looking for you. Although maybe we're not actively looking for you. And then all of a sudden, when the Cold Case Unit gets established, now you're back on our radar. After weeks of investigating, the Cold Case Unit found Frank living under the alias William Harold Cox in Melbourne. This information was passed along to the US Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force in Florida, and they began to investigate. So what the Marshals did was they created a ruse to get Frank to sign papers
30:56 Speaker 00 so they could check his prints, which matched the ones on file. Once they confirmed his identity, they created an arrest plan. And I'm always fascinated with the authorities creating ruses. I mean, you know, you hear about kind of sting operations where they call people up and tell them they've won money.
31:18 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah.
31:19 Speaker 00 And they're come down to this place and these people file in and just one after another, they're arrested.
31:25 Speaker 01 They just got a whole. Like facility full of people waiting to get their money.
31:30 Speaker 00 Yep.
31:31 Speaker 01 And then they lock the doors and say, you're all being arrested.
31:34 Speaker 00 Which is kind of smart and funny at the same time. On May 14th, 2015, 79 year old Frank Freshwaters was arrested at his home by the cold case unit of the US Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, which is kind of a mouthful.
31:53 Speaker 01 It is.
31:54 Speaker 00 For an agency. But by that point, Frank had been on the run, and I'm using that in air quotes, for 56 years.
32:04 Speaker 01 Long time.
32:05 Speaker 00 Now, I think to him, he thought he was on the run for what, about 16 years? They caught him and then they released him after his whatever parole period.
32:18 Speaker 01 Yeah.
32:19 Speaker 00 But Ohio's looking at him as though, no, you've been on the run for 56 years. He was shown a photo of himself from 1959, and he was asked if he had seen this person. Frank replied that he hadn't seen him in a long time.
32:37 Speaker 01 Not that person.
32:38 Speaker 00 And he admitted his identity. He was arrested without incident. Frank had driver's license and other identification materials in the name William Cox, which you would have if you had lived as this Bill Cox for, what, 40 plus years?
32:58 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, that was his.
33:00 Speaker 00 50 years? I don't know.
33:01 Speaker 01 That was who he was.
33:02 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, he took that on, I think, pretty early. In the summer of 2015, Eugene Flint's son, Richard, agreed to an interview with Northeast Ohio Media Group. By this time, Frank had been transferred to Lancaster, Ohio, to await a hearing on whether he would need to serve more time.
33:23 Speaker 01 Lancaster. Oh, that wasn't too far away from your old college.
33:26 Speaker 00 No, very close to where I went to school. Richard's mother, Garnett, declined an interview request, as did Frank. Richard was just three years old when his father died. He said he had mixed emotions about Frank, adding, everybody messes up. But if he had just took his punishment, that would have been it. I think we all agree on that. Yeah, and I think it's a good sentiment, you know, obviously this kid, he was a kid, right? He was three years old when this happened, but that's a pretty good perspective, right? Everybody does mess up. Now, this mess up took your father away, which is extremely tough, but he said it, right?
34:11 Speaker 00 If the guy had just taken his medicine, if he had just done his time, then everything would have worked itself out. Yeah. He'd still been without his father, nothing was going to, you know, bring his dad back. Richard believed Frank should at least serve the rest of his sentence. I don't think that's unreasonable at all. Richard recalled how the family struggled financially after his father's death. The loss of his dad's regular check caused, you know, all kinds of financial problems. And the family had to move into a home purchased by Eugene's father. Garnett began having health problems and later remarried.
34:53 Speaker 00 Richard clashed with his stepfather, but they eventually reconciled. He lost touch with most of his father's relatives over time. And I don't know how many times you and I have talked about, you know, stepdad, stepmoms and, you know, what a tough role that could be. Can be. I had one of each. You did, yeah. And got along with both of them, but it doesn't mean there, there's not friction. But I was never the kid who said, oh, you can't tell me what to do, you're not my real dad. You know, anything like that. That does happen. It does happen. Richard recalled that his mother had little reaction when he told her about the arrest, saying, the past is the past. And granted, it's been 56 years. Sure.
35:36 Speaker 00 So, you know, I, I don't think that's something you forget about. Witnessing your husband flying through the air. No. But, you know, time does soften things, I guess, for some people. In a June interview with Florida Today, Richard said he thought Frank should pay a little bit, but not very severe for his crimes. However, in a July phone interview with the Ohio parole division officials, Richard said he wanted Frank to remain imprisoned. So maybe he was oscillating a little bit. Yeah, maybe, maybe as he thought about it.
36:19 Speaker 01 Kind of changed his mind on what he thought.
36:22 Speaker 00 Yeah, because at points he thought, well, you know, he shouldn't have to do too much. And then he said, well, he should have to finish out his sentence. Over 2,000 people from six states wrote into the parole board showing their support for Frank. 2,000 people.
36:39 Speaker 01 That's a fair amount.
36:43 Speaker 00 I don't know 2,000 people. Now, because of the podcast, could you and I get 2,000 people to write in for us? Yeah, probably.
36:51 Speaker 01 Maybe.
36:52 Speaker 00 But without it, I might be able to get five, 10, 15.
36:56 Speaker 01 It's a little high.
36:57 Speaker 00 And that's pushing it, right? That's stretching it because not everybody likes me.
37:00 Speaker 01 I'd be, you know, compating. I'd be like, hey, don't be, don't be sending that letter in.
37:06 Speaker 00 Well, you would also be sending in letters for the opposite.
37:10 Speaker 01 Exactly.
37:11 Speaker 00 For the opposition. I just think that's a lot. 2,000 people.
37:15 Speaker 01 Yeah, well, that's a lot of people that felt that they shouldn't, they shouldn't leave him locked up.
37:23 Speaker 00 Yeah, and this did come after Florida Today published kind of an investigative series on the case. So maybe people looked at it and felt like it was unjust or wasn't quite fair. Frank's sons, Jeff and Jim, also advocated for his release. On February 25th, 2016, the Ohio Adult Parole Authority voted to place Frank on parole with five years supervision. So essentially it's very similar to what happened in West Virginia, right? He was put on parole, supervised parole. He made it through that and he was let go. So Ohio saying, okay, we're going to do something similar with you. Granted, you're, I, you know.
38:07 Speaker 01 It's almost like.
38:08 Speaker 00 80 years, some years old at this point.
38:10 Speaker 01 Exactly. But it's almost like what they did in the beginning with him, the very first time.
38:14 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah.
38:15 Speaker 01 You know, that he couldn't check in and.
38:17 Speaker 00 Then he violated that.
38:18 Speaker 01 Yeah, so it's like, okay, let's, we're start from here. Can you at least do what we wanted you to do from the very first time?
38:25 Speaker 00 Well, I think that's a great point because if you think about it, all of this could have never have happened.
38:34 Speaker 01 Right.
38:34 Speaker 00 Now, the death would still have happened, right? There was no getting around that. But all of this with Frank would have never happened if he would have just followed the original parole conditions. Check in, send the $5 a week. Wasn't that difficult. So they recommended his release for late April to give his attorney's time to turn in a plan, kind of detailing out where Frank would live. The Summit County Prosecutor's Office argued that Frank should serve at least four years because he failed to comply with probation, didn't pay a $1,500 fine, and was avoiding responsibility.
39:17 Speaker 00 And, you know, to be honest with you, it's hard to disagree with some of those things because I think they did happen. Now Frank's attorneys argued that he was using a wheelchair due to severe arthritis and that he had lived a quiet life since his escape. He didn't commit any crimes during his decades on the run and he worked steady jobs. And I think you can have both things be true. I think so. Right? He did fail to comply with probation. He did not pay the money he was supposed to. He did avoid responsibility. There's no doubt about that.
39:58 Speaker 00 But on the, the other hand, it seems that at least from what we know, he wasn't out there committing crimes. He was working, he retired, he had a, you know, a, a pretty fruitful life. I don't know if that's the right word. His sons offered to transport Frank to West Virginia where Frank's son Jim lives to help get him settled. Frank's son Jim wiped tears from his eyes after the decision was announced. His son Jeff said he was hoping to get to know Frank better. Frank was released from prison on June 15th, 2016. So, you know, he wasn't there that long, right? They kept him for a couple of months. Right.
40:43 Speaker 00 Just kind of wanting to get this plan in place. His attorney Gordon Beggs told Florida Today, he walked out today and has a smile on his face and he's very thankful to those who supported him with their prayers because he needed it. Right now, he's taking a nap.
41:05 Speaker 00 You know, probably because he's at that age where he needs a lot of naps.
41:09 Speaker 01 Well, you know, it starts earlier than that, by the way.
41:12 Speaker 00 It does. You and I both take naps and let's not kid ourselves.
41:16 Speaker 01 I was taking one earlier today.
41:17 Speaker 00 Not together, not together. That sounded bad, but.
41:20 Speaker 01 No, we don't. We don't do that anymore.
41:22 Speaker 00 Not anymore.
41:23 Speaker 01 Yeah.
41:25 Speaker 00 A spokeswoman for the State Corrections Agency said Frank would be supervised in West Virginia. So, you know, to me, it's like, as we wrap this one up, Gibbs, it's like it came full circle. Probation, supervised probation, couldn't handle that, couldn't live up to the very few expectations of him.
41:47 Speaker 01 Right.
41:47 Speaker 00 Right? So what happens? He goes back to prison, he flees. He really never does the time that he was supposed to do.
41:58 Speaker 01 No.
41:58 Speaker 00 Now, I do kind of have a problem with that because I feel like he should have completed whatever he was going to complete. Now, it was pretty vague, right? One to 20. I don't know what it was going to be. Also, does the, what's the parole board think after you've already escaped and lived 56 years on the run?
42:24 Speaker 01 Well, I just feel like it's a, it sets the wrong message, right?
42:28 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think it does.
42:30 Speaker 01 You had an easy set in the beginning, right? You just had to do the probation for five years. But you didn't, you chose not to follow that. So then they sent you to prison, one to 20 years, like you said. But because you were good when you were there, they put you on this really relaxed program. Basically, you had a lot of free will to do things.
42:53 Speaker 00 Freedom, yeah, and the opportunity to escape pretty easily.
42:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, but you chose to escape. So, once you did all that, I mean, you're still got to be held accountable for your original offense.
43:05 Speaker 00 And I think that's the part I'm having the most trouble with.
43:08 Speaker 01 But you also have to be accountable because you actually escaped.
43:12 Speaker 00 Which technically would be additional charges.
43:14 Speaker 01 Yeah.
43:15 Speaker 00 So you would have more time. So yeah, I guess I think what I'm struggling with is a person escaping, living what, let's say reportedly is a good life, right? Not committing crimes, working, contributing to society. That's all well and good.
43:37 Speaker 01 Sure.
43:38 Speaker 00 But it doesn't make up for what you did before. And it's almost like they just kind of said, well, we're just going to cancel that out because you did pretty good when you were out there. So I don't know, people will have different takes on it. And I'm, I'm always, as you are interested to hear people's opinions, but I don't know. I have a problem with it.
43:59 Speaker 01 I just, you know, I think he got lucky to be out as long as he was anyway.
44:03 Speaker 00 Yeah.
44:04 Speaker 01 I mean, today, would that happen? I don't really think so, but back then, you know, he had a pretty good start.
44:12 Speaker 00 Yeah, and he had a good run.
44:13 Speaker 01 Yeah.
44:14 Speaker 00 Right? 56 years. You know, quick search online for an obituary for Frank, couldn't find one. And also checked for William Harold Cox. So it does seem as though he's still alive and kind of living a quiet life with his family. I don't expect him to get in trouble now at his advanced age.
44:37 Speaker 01 No, no, not at all.
44:39 Speaker 00 No, but you know, I think people will be torn. A lot of people will probably think, you know, you gotta, you still gotta pay the consequences. And they should have made him serve the rest of it out.
44:51 Speaker 01 Yeah.
44:53 Speaker 00 But that's it for our episode on Frank Freshwaters. You got anything else you want to talk about, Gibbs?
45:00 Speaker 01 No, no, I hope you enjoy the episode.
45:02 Speaker 00 Yeah. Yeah. And for those of you tuning into us on YouTube, you know, make sure, go out, check our website, truecrimeallthetime.com. You'll find a ton of stuff out there, but you know, our mailing address, our merch site, all that good stuff.
45:19 Speaker 01 Don't forget to like and subscribe.
45:20 Speaker 00 Ah, yeah, I never say that because I'm still new to this YouTube stuff, but.
45:25 Speaker 01 Well, you know, you gotta say it.
45:27 Speaker 00 We will, we'll talk to you next week.
45:29 Speaker 01 See ya.
45:29 Speaker 00 Bye.
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