Hall murderer allegedly behind escape plot; inside help suspected

JACKSON - It appears that a convicted Hall County killer was the mastermind behind the foiled escape plot by three death row inmates at the state prison in Jackson.

Authorities allege that Franks spend more than a year planning his escape.

Franks is awaiting execution for the 1994 murder of a Gainesville woman, Deborah Wilson. Wilson's two children, then ages 9 and 13, were wounded in the attack.

Authorities say Franks and two other death row inmates accumulated a large cache of materials they intended to use in their flight including 25 feet of twisted bedsheets fashioned into a rope, green ski masks, dyed long johns, a flashlight and a map of Georgia.

Prison system officials say they suspect the trio had inside help in collecting tools for the aborted escape attempt, and they have suspended a guard they think may have been involved.

The state Department of Corrections did not release the identity of the guard. Assistant Commissioner Joe Ferrero said he is under investigation by the department's internal affairs division.

The three convicted killers also accumulated saw blades, cash, and welding material among the other items found hidden in their cells last week. They had cut through wall air vents in their cells and slipped into a passageway used by utility workers to gain access to pipes, and were working on cutting through a door that would have given them access to a lighted hallway.

If they had cut through that door, they would have had to break through another door before they exited death row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison.

At that point, they would have been on prison grounds, surrounded by tall fences topped by razor wire.

Warden Derrick Schofield and other officials said the public never was in danger from the escape attempt.

Schofield said lapses in security at the prison will be addressed. He pointed to large fans that whirred overhead, making enough noise to conceal the sounds of inmates sawing bars.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)