Page 13 - James Slagle News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

So i sat and watched it happen. >> james slagle, brushy mountain's longest-serving inmate, told us how ray led inmates over a wall using a makeshift ladder crafted from chains. they made their escape while a tower officer took an afternoon nap. that's your corner where james and doug and spider monkey and the others went over. of course the fence was not here at that time, it was just a mountain serving as the fourth wall of the penitentiary. >> after ray climbed over, six more inmates followed before an officer and another tower finally saw them, and shot, striking the last escapee in the sho...

Back in the hollow, you know? you got the bluff on one side and it's surrounded by mountains the last stop because the road ends at brushy mountain. and there's -- there's nowhere else to go. >> but that didn't stop the ç prison's most notorious inmate from attempting to escape. in 1977, nine years after he killed civil rights leader martin luther king jr., james earl ray went over the wall. during our shoot at brushy mountain, we met an inmate who was not only there, but tried to talk ray out of it. >> i told him, i said, james, you've got no pickup, no car, i said as soon as your foot touc...

I decided, jim, you've got to become something else. and so i looked into me and saw the ugliness. i saw the hatred, the violence, the misery. and i said i'm going to be something else. i am going to become a thinking man. by the way, that's hard to do. but i spent years reading, studying, looking within myself. i'm one of the most fortunate men that ever lived. >> slagle runs the library and provides legal help to other inmates. >> where they made the error on your time, your two sentences are running concurrently, which means they run together. however, when they give you your jail credit, t...

By james earl ray nine years after he killed civil rights leader martin luther king jr. ray had been an escapee from missouri state penitentiary when he assassinated king. >> the main thing he was interested in was escaping. now, when i first met him, i was interested in escaping too. we got into a couple of plots together that never worked out. one we were going to go through the roof of the old auditorium where they showed movies. we did get the hole cut but it was discovered before we had a chance to use it. we didn't get caught, we didn't get locked up over it. they found it and tightened ...

But the main thing to do is face the situation, accept what it is, and try to find a reasonable, honest, positive way to get through that situation and come out improved on the other side. >> one inmate who confided in slagle over the years is stephen hughley. hughley was sentenced to life for killing his mother and given a death sentence for murdering a prison counselor. slagle knows him as something other than a cold-blooded killer. >> i discovered a side to steve, maybe no one else ever saw it. you wouldn't believe who his favorite musician is. barry manilow. i mean, the music, the soft, se...