Troy Leon Gregg got away from de*ath row, but he couldn’t get away from de*ath. He was ki*lled the same night he and three other people on de*ath row escaped from a prison in Reidsville, Georgia.
Gregg deserved to be on de*ath row after he robbed a store with a gun and k*illed two people who picked him and his friend up while they were hitchhiking down the highway.
The Supreme Court upheld his d*eath sentence, which was the first one since Furman v. Georgia in 1976, which brought back the dea*th penalty in U.S. prisons.
The Crime
Troy Gregg, 25, and Floyd Allen, 16, were hitchhiking in Florida on November 21, 1973, when Fred Simmons and Bob Moore picked them up. It’s not clear what happened during the ride, but we do know that the vehicle broke down at some point.
Simmons used the money he took out of his pocket to buy another car, and the four men continued their trip. In the end, they picked up a third man named Dennis Weaver and dropped him off in Atlanta that same night.
Gregg says that Simmons got violent after dropping Weaver off in Atlanta from his job. His defence in court was, “Fred hit me on the left jaw and knocked me in the drainage ditch.” This led Gregg to say that he ki*lled the men to protect himself. Allen’s story was completely different from Gregg’s story, which was bad for him.
Allen told the judge that Gregg told him to leave because “we’re going to rob them.”
It took Gregg three shots to knock the men into a drainage ditch. When Gregg got close to the men, he shot them in the head once and then took their money and other valuables. The men took Simmon’s car and drove off quickly.
Gregg, Allen Arrested
The next day, the bodies of Simmons and Moore were found in the lake. Weaver saw the story in the newspaper and knew right away who the men were. He called the police and gave them a description of the car. The next day, Gregg and Allen were caught. The gun Gregg used to shoot the men was still in his possession.
These men were caught and charged with mur*der and armed robbery. Allen got a letter from Gregg telling him what to say at his trial.
Gregg and Allen were found guilty of both charges. Gregg was given the de*ath penalty, and the Supreme Court upheld that decision after the Furman v. Georgia decision. On July 30, 1980, he was set to die in the electric chair.
Escape From De*ath Row
Troy Leon Gregg and three other murderers on de*ath row got away from prison on July 28, 1980, by making their prison uniforms look like guard uniforms. Because they looked so real, the men got through several security checks inside the prison. The men cut through the bars of their cells and a window in the exercise room to get out. They then climbed up the ledge until they reached a fire escape. One of the inmates’ family members had a car waiting for them a short distance from the prison.
It’s not clear what exactly happened after the men got away because there are several different accounts. But the ending of every story was the same: Troy Leon Gregg was ki*lled soon after getting out of de*ath row.
Guards discovered the four de*ath row inmates missing from the prison hours later after Gregg called the Albany Herald to complain about the “inhumane conditions” in the prison. The reporter Gregg talked to told prison officials about the call.
Inmate Escapee Charged With M*urder
At first, police thought that one of the prisoners Gregg escaped with had k*illed him and then thrown his body into the lake, where it was found two days later. That night, Timothy McCorquiodale and Gregg got away. He was charged with k*illing Gregg along with a man named James Horne after they were caught three days after the escape. Later, the charges were dropped because there wasn’t enough proof.
Other accounts say a man at a biker bar beat Gregg to de*ath and tossed his body into the Catawba River. The fight began after a heavily intoxicated Gregg harassed a bartender and became violent toward her when she rejected him. The unnamed man came to the woman’s defence, beating Gregg to de*ath.
Gregg’s official cause of de*ath was determined to be suffocation caused by swelling. Gregg’s k*iller(s) remain unknown more than 40 years after his mu*rder.
The escape marked the first time in Georgia history that an inmate had escaped from de*ath row.
