A MAN WHO evaded US authorities for four decades turned himself in – because he needs medical treatment.
Frail and tired of leading a secret life for four decades, 66-year-old Clarence David Moore called police this week to surrender. The deputy who answered thought it was a prank. It wasn’t.
Moore escaped from police custody three times during the 1970s and eventually settled into a quiet life, living in Kentucky since at least 2009.
His health is poor from a stroke and he has difficulty speaking. Without a legitimate ID or Social Security number, he had apparently struggled to get medical care.
When Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton showed up at Moore’s house to make the “arrest,” Moore was in a hospital bed. He broke down in tears.
“He looks like he’s almost 90,” the sheriff said.
A woman who had been living with Moore had no idea of his past. “She was just blown away when all this happened,” said Melton.
Moore had been convicted of larceny in 1967 and was sentenced to seven years in prison. He escaped three times – once in 1971, once in 1972 and again in 1976.
As soon as he saw police, he began crying, Melton said.
He said ‘I just want to get this behind me. I want to be done.’
Little is known about Moore’s life before he moved to Kentucky, other than he went by the alias Ronnie T Dickinson. The sheriff said that Moore’s desire to see a doctor may have motivated him to turn himself in.
“I think he was tired of running,” the sheriff said. “He’s at a point in his life and medically that he’s got to have help.
He made some bad choices, but at the end of the day he wanted to make them right and he stepped up.
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