Date: Fri 04-Sep-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Evans

Full Text:

Antiques Thief Dies In Desperate Plunge

w/1 cut

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gary Evans, a convicted antiques thief who New York State

Police sought last year in connection with a series of burglaries in New

England, jumped 65 feet to his death on August 21 after escaping from a police

van.

Evans, 43, was arrested in St Johnsbury, Vt., on May 27. He was charged with

stealing antique jewelry in Massachusetts and selling it in Albany, said

Captain John Byrne of the Troop G, New York State Police, Bureau of Criminal

Investigation.

Evans subsequently confessed to murdering five men. Three had been accomplices

in his burglaries, two were shopkeepers. His most recent victim was Timothy W.

Rysedorph, another Troy, N.Y., man. Evans also confessed to twice burglarizing

the Jennifer House group shop in Great Barrington, Mass., then setting it

ablaze.

Evans had been indicted for three of the murders and was awaiting indictment

on the other two. He escaped while being transported from the Albany

courthouse to the Troy jail, where he was being held. Though his hands and

feet were shackled, he was able to break a window and jump to his death in the

Hudson River below. A suicide note to his attorney was opened after his death.

An autopsy revealed he had a handcuff key and a piece of razor hidden in his

nostrils, a New York Times report said.

Evans' previous criminal record included 15 felony convictions and 22 arrests.

In 1994, he was charged with stealing a copy of Audubon's Birds of America

from a Woodstock, Vt., library and burglarizing the Timber Village group shop

in Quechee, Vt.