His penchant for stealing antiques and his multiple escapes from custody — including one that ended in his death — made him headline news in the area on numerous occasions.

[4] On January 13, 1977, Evans was arrested for trespassing and stealing property in Lake Placid, for which he was given a 4-year sentence in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

[5] Just five hours later, however, he was recaptured, and on September 21, he was returned to the Clinton Correctional Facility to serve out his full sentence, as he had broken the conditions of his parole.

A month later, Evans' mother died in an accident, forcing the two men to return to New York State and resume their criminal activities together with Rysedorph.

Evans accepted a plea deal with the prosecutors in exchange for a commutation of his sentence, admitting his guilt in the robbery and illegal possession of weaponry.

In the last days of July, Evans built an improvised silencer for his pistol, which he then used to kill his accomplice Michael Falco at their shared apartment in Troy, dismembering the body with a chainsaw.

[4][7] He then called Rysedorph to help him get rid of the body, to which the latter agreed, stuffing it in a sleeping bag and driving it to Evans' sister's home in Lake Worth Corridor, Florida, where they buried it in the backyard.

[citation needed] In December 1987, Evans got into a fight with another prisoner serving a sentence for child molestation, for which he was placed in solitary confinement for several months.

The pair were arrested in March 1989, with police finding ski masks, stun guns, radio scanners and ropes in the back of their car, but due to lack of sufficient evidence, both were released.

On September 8, 1989, while robbing a store in Watertown, Evans shot and killed 63-year-old secondhand shop owner Douglas Berry, before he and Cuomo stole items worth $15,000.

Since he faced the possibility of criminal liability, Evans accepted the proposal of leaving the state in exchange for no charges being pressed against him, after which he returned to New York.

In January 1994, he was arrested for looting and vandalism for stealing and selling the marble tombstone, for which he was ordered to serve a month at the Albany County Jail.

Two days later, while en route to Troy and passing through the Menands Bridge, Evans, despite being in manacles and chained, used a secret key hidden in his nose to free himself.

He was quickly cornered by police, but managed to run to the fence and leaped into the Hudson River, hitting the shallows below which caused him fatal head injuries.