McClainsville Escapees By Michael Martin, ECPD Retired

About the author...Michael Martin (pictured front row, far right in the 1981 photo) is a retired veteran of 25 years on the Eden City Police Department, and has penned a number of anecdotal writings recalling his experiences.

Again, I do remember the year, it was 1982. There was a prison break at McClainsville Prison in Guilford County and two desperate men had escaped from the prison.

Eden Police were notified that the two were in Eden and a "Department of corrections chase team "were on their way to Eden. We met with the chase team and were advised that the wanted men may have hidden out at the home of a Pulliam family on the Flynt Hill section of Eden. We arrived there and I had Detective Walter Johnson and Brad Wade cover the back and other patrol officers come in and cover the general area. I went in with the chase team. We entered the house and asked Mr. Pulliam if he had seen the fugitives...he said no, there was a young child there and I bent over and asked the kid if he had seen his uncles....he was five, little kids do not know to lie. The kid said yes, they ran upstairs when they saw you coming!!!

A big black officer from the chase team and I ran upstairs to capture the escapees...one was supposed to be armed with a handgun. One broke and ran into the attic, filled with insulation and the black officer rushed into the attic and captured him behind a chimney. I entered a room in the upstairs that had only a chimney in the room.

I observed his toes, sticking out from the chimney, he was barefoot and he had huge feet, I drew my pistol and wanted him to pop out from behind the chimney with his gun, I actually wanted to shoot this boy real bad and I guess he sensed it...his hands came first, on order and he kneeled and went face down, on order and I cuffed him and took him into custody...the black officer drug his boy out of the insulation, both itching like fire...we had captured bad bad boys who were supposed to be armed and who had bragged they would not be taken alive.

This is what your local police do on a daily basis....this was not unusual at all.