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Last updated on Monday, August 27, 2012
(BEDFORD) - Former Lawrence County inmate 38-year-old Kerry Silvers, has wrote a book detailing his escapes from two jail.
Silvers escaped from the Orange County Jail on April 18, 2002. It was not his first. He had escaped from the Lawrence County Security Center on May 26, 2000.
Authorities finally caught up with Silvers in the small village of Martinez de La Torre, Veracruz, Mexico. U.S. marshals returned him to Indianapolis.
Silver's book "American Refugee" published by the Christian publisher Sapphire is on sale for $14.99 and available online at www.kerrysilvers.com, Dairyland Mini-Mart, near Fifth and Lincoln Avenue, or Fayetteville Country Store.
Silvers will see little proceeds from the book. According to Indiana statute, 90 percent of the proceeds go to victims' families. After that, 20 percent of any advance payment goes into the state's Violent Crime Victims' Compensation Fund. After meeting those requirements, any profit will go to Silvers.
Silvers, in addition to writing about his jailbreaks, Silvers tells the story of his life from a "wonderful" childhood in Springville to his criminal exploits, and from finding love in Mexico while on the lam to his current status in prison at Pendleton Correctional Facility where he will remain until March 2041.
During the Orange County jail break, Silvers and two other inmates, 22-year-old Jeffrey Hayden, and 24-year-old Larry Holden, overpowered a jailer. The trio then went to a dispatch room where Silvers got a gun. The dispatcher, Doug Shepherd, along with another jailer were locked in a cell.
During the Lawrence County jail break, Silvers and inmate Travis Stine were reported missing around mealtime when jailers went to deliver Stine's meal tray. Stine was in a lockdown cell.
Stine was the only inmate in the cell, and getting free without help would have been virtually impossible.
Moments later, employees were passing out meal trays to the cell block Silvers shared with many other inmates. That is when they discovered Silvers was missing.
Officials immediately locked down the jail and began head counts to discover which inmates were missing.
Silvers writes in the book that he was given a little more freedom than other inmates in the Lawrence County jail, and that helped him get Stine out of the lockdown cell and the two of them to freedom.
Police and jailers reported that Silvers was a cunning and clever man and a master at manipulation.
With the Lawrence County jail under renovation, Silvers knew a steel grate in the ceiling of the outdoor recreation room had been removed.
"This left only a 12-foot wall standing between me and freedom," Silvers writes. "It wasn't enough."
Silvers snuck into the upper level control room that contained the switches that controlled most of the jail's doors.
Silvers opened Stine's cell door and opened the door to the outdoor recreation room, he writes. Stine grabbed a ladder that Silvers had left for him.
The two made their way to the recreation room and, it was up the ladder and out of the jail.
The two were recaptured a couple of weeks later in Orange County.
Once back in police custody, they were questioned about the disappearance of Indiana University student Jill Behrman.
And eventually, is was the Behrman case that led Silvers to escape from the Orange County jail.
According to Silvers, law enforcement had told a suspect in the case, Uriah Clouse, that he had been fingered in Behrman's murder by Silvers.
Silvers denies ever snitching on anyone.
"My 61-year sentence had been given a final, nonrefundable upgrade. It had now become a death sentence," Silvers writes. "It didn't take long for the threats to start pouring in."
Silvers wrote he had to get free or he was a dead man.
Silvers fashioned a "gun" from wet toilet paper.
With accomplices, Silvers put the "gun" in the face of a jailer and handcuffed him to the cell bars.
The only hitch in the plan, according to Silvers, was a dispatcher had a gun that he shouldn't have had.
Silvers' claims that he had no intention of using weapons or anyone getting hurt during the jailbreak.
Silver says the men took the dispatcher's 9mm and they made their way to a getaway vehicle, a few minutes after the jailbreak, police caught up with them. Silvers left the weapon in the getaway car and eluded police.
Silvers eventually made his way to Mexico, where he was teaching school and working on computers, when the U.S. Marshal's office caught up with him.
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