‘Shawshank Redemption’ Fugitive Frank Freshwaters Granted Parole In Ohio

By Space Coast Daily // February 26, 2016

lived in brevard county 20 years

ABOVE VIDEO: “The Shawshank Redemption” Fugitive, Frank Freshwaters, should be released from custody, a Ohio parole board decided Thursday. Freshwaters, 79, had been a fugitive from justice for more than 56 years, and lived in Brevard for about 20 years. (nbc4i.com video)

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – “The Shawshank Redemption” Fugitive, Frank Freshwaters, should be released from custody, a Ohio parole board decided Thursday.

Freshwaters, 79, had been a fugitive from justice for more than 56 years, and lived in Brevard for about 20 years.

He was arrested last May by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office’s GAMEOVER Task Force after receiving a tip from authorities in Ohio.

Freshwater, who was using the alias William H. Cox, was taken into custody in the 1200 block of Jones Road in Melbourne on a Fugitive From Justice warrant.

He served time at the Ohio State Reformatory, made famous by the film “The Shawshank Redemption,” and then escaped from the Sandusky Ohio Honor Farm in 1959 after serving seven months of a 20-year sentence for violating the terms of his probation in connection to a manslaughter conviction.

Freshwater hit the law enforcement radar screen after 56 years when the newly created Marshal’s Task Force in Ohio reopened the investigation into his whereabouts and found evidence that he was possibly in Melbourne.

Freshwater was arrested on a Fugitive From Justice warrant charging him with escape.

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