Alcatraz_ A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years - Michael Esslinger [237]
Scott’s driver’s license, issued during a short stint of freedom in 1974.
The following is a case report filed by the U.S. Attorney following another bank robbery in which Scott participated:
Details of the Offense reveal that at approximately 3:18 p.m. on September 5, 1975, Ronald Coleman Anderson, J. Paul Scott and Leon Johnson entered the Hearon Circle Branch of the Spartanburg Bank & Trust Company located on the Asheville Highway, Spartanburg, S.C. All three were dressed in coveralls, dark ski masks and brown jersey gloves. All were carrying pillowcases. Anderson was armed with an AR-l6 rifle, Scott was armed with a Model 10 shotgun, and Johnson was armed with a .22 handgun. During the course of the robbery, two deputies of the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office appeared at the drive-in window in a marked car, and were observed by the bank robbers. The robbers fled the bank, and shooting ensued outside the bank between the robbers and one of the deputies, with no injuries being sustained to either of the deputies, the robbers, or either of their vehicles. A chase ensued which culminated in the parking lot of a construction company located approximately one mile from the bank. As the car containing the deputies rounded the corner into the parking lot, the bank robbers fired on them, rendering the sheriff's car inoperable and slightly wounding one of the deputies in the rear of the neck. The getaway vehicle utilized by the robbers was determined stolen the previous night from a motel parking lot in Greenville, S.C. Witnesses at the switch site believe the bank robbers drove from the construction company parking lot in a two-tone blue Ford Granada, Mercury Monarch, or late model Monte Carlo.
Scott was again arrested in June of 1976 with Morris Lynn Johnson, one of the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives, in eastern New Orleans. In the following report, Scott described his plight in his own words, and recounted the story of yet another attempted escape:
In February of 1977, I received a 25-year sentence for Bank Robbery in Columbia, South Carolina. I was first confined at the USP Atlanta, Georgia, however, on March 15, 1977, I was notified that I was being transferred to the USP, Leavenworth, Kansas. I was to be transported on a Federal Bureau of Prison bus.
I was confined in a Jackson, Miss. County Jail during the night of Friday, March 18, 1977. Another inmate gave me a full-length hacksaw blade. On Saturday, March 19, 1977, I smuggled the hacksaw blade on the prison bus. There were about 25 other inmates on the prison bus. I was handcuffed and had leg irons on. I sat by myself in the right hand side near the middle of the bus. I had made up my mind that I would try and escape, since on Friday I had also obtained a paperclip and a ballpoint pen cartridge.
During the morning ride thru Louisiana I was able to pick the lock on first my handcuffs and then my leg irons. It took me about one hour to cut through the bar on the bus window. I had ripped a piece of my shirt and used it to get a good grip on the hacksaw blade. No one knew what I was doing until I had finished cutting the bar and had kicked out the window. No other inmates helped me in any way.
I was able to kick out the window and escape thru the hole I had cut in the window bar. The bus came to a stop but I still fell when I escaped thru the window. I ran approximately 100 feet from the bus, but stopped when the bus guards started shooting at me. They must have fired about five or six times, however, I was not hit. I was placed back in the bus, and they radioed ahead to FCI about my escape and capture.
Scott remained a violent and incorrigible inmate until his death at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida on February 22, 1987. His bold escape from Alcatraz with Daryl Parker remains as one of the most notable incidents