A former police chief and convicted murderer dubbed the “Devil in the Ozarks” was captured Friday just 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from the Arkansas prison he escaped nearly two weeks ago, authorities said.
Grant Hardin, once the top cop in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving lengthy sentences for murder and rape – crimes that later drew national attention in a TV documentary bearing his infamous nickname.
Hardin tried to flee when officers closed in Friday afternoon but was quickly tackled and apprehended, said Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson Rand Champion.
“He’d been on the run for a week and a half and probably didn’t have any energy left in him,” he added.
Hardin’s identity was confirmed through fingerprinting, the Izard County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
