259: The Murder of Ranger Robert McGhee. Gulf Islands National Seashore.

National Park After Dark

Audioboom Studios

True Crime, Places & Travel, Wilderness, Society & Culture, Sports

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When two dangerous convicts escaped from a Florida prison they kidnapped a woman and fled to Mississippi. During the ensuing manhunt for the prison escapees, Florida park ranger Robert McGhee was tragically murdered while on duty. In the years that followed, devastated and angered by the events leading to her husband's death, his wife petitioned and lobbied for change of the prison system.

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Resources:

Articles - NPS, Tampa Bay Times, JUSTIA US LAW, Lowell Public Library, FindLaw, GulfLive, Clarion Ledger, Newspapers.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	The year 1990 was a rough one for the prison system in the United States.
0:08.1	In just that year alone, 7,244 people escaped incarceration.
0:14.5	To give you an idea of how much has changed in the past 34 years, today it is estimated
0:19.7	around 2,000 inmates slip through the cracks and find
0:22.8	their way to freedom annually. That number seems like a lot, but that statistic is mostly accounting
0:28.8	for people in minimum security facilities, such as local jails. But in the year 1990,
0:35.6	particularly Mississippi and Florida, had some high security breaches that
0:40.1	allowed murderers to run loose. Some of them got out and with their freedom, they killed again.
0:46.3	Others have still not been found. Like Glenn Chambers, for example, he was incarcerated in
0:52.0	Polk City, Florida for murdering his girlfriend and escaping by hiding in a prison delivery truck.
0:57.9	He's been featured on America's Most Wanted, but still to this day, he has never been found again.
1:04.3	Another example would be when Robert Minnick and James Dice broke out of Mississippi's Clark County Jail only to then kill two people in their
1:13.1	homes before fleeing to Mexico. It seemed there was a huge fault in the facilities meant to lock up
1:19.2	dangerous people and keep the public safe. But it never garnered that much attention. In fact,
1:25.9	it wasn't until when two men in Florida escaped and killed a
1:29.4	park ranger inside of a National Park that people began to fight for change.
1:38.1	Welcome to National Park After Dark.
2:08.2	Music after dark. Okay, I'm so intrigued by this because one of my favorite shows when it was out and about was prison break.
2:14.6	I still have to watch that. I haven't seen it. It's a good one. I think it kind of dragged on a little too long.
2:18.7	Slightly too long. Like too many seasons. It's like, okay, this was really good.
2:22.4	And I will finish it because I've committed so much of my life to this show.
2:23.8	But I could have ended up. I'm a loyal fan, but like, come on.
	...

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