Man Who Escaped Ga. Prison For 48 Years Dies

Robert Stackowitz, the Georgia inmate who drove away from a prison work camp in 1968 and wasn't captured for 48 years, has died.

He was 71.

Stackowitz's attorneys told the Hartford Courant that Stackowitz died Monday, after being taken to the hospital over the weekend with multiple health issues.

His death came roughly six weeks after prison officials decided to waive plans to extradite him back to Georgia and allowed him to stay in Connecticut on parole. His lawyers had argued that Stackowitz's health was so bad that moving him to Georgia could kill him.

Stackowitz was serving a 17-year sentence for robbery by force — he was the getaway driver in a home burglary — when he escaped from the Carroll County Correctional Institution on August 22, 1968.

He had been convicted in Henry County in 1966.

Stackowitz had been allowed to travel around the state to repair school buses and, one day, he simply decided to drive away.

Living as "Bob Gordon," Stackowitz had been running a boat repair shop out of his home in Sherman, Connecticut, a town of about 3,500 people.

But, according to news reports, Stackowitz used his real name when applying for social security benefits.

The Georgia Department of Corrections' Fugitive Apprehension unit reopened his case early this year and began an investigation which ultimately led Marshals to his location in Connecticut in May.

Stackowitz had been suffering from bladder cancer, congestive heart failure, diabetes and other health problems, according to his attorneys.

Image courtesy Georgia Department of Corrections