[5] On January 13, 1951, Corbett, then a university student, was arrested and charged with the December 22, 1950, shooting death and robbery of Air Force Sergeant Allen Lee Reed.

[8] Corbett was sentenced to five years to life imprisonment for the murder and was initially sent to San Quentin State Prison.

[9][10] Corbett was later transferred to a low security section of California Institution for Men in Chino, from which he escaped with another prisoner on August 1, 1955.

[10] Corbett was implicated, and the FBI began a manhunt that spanned from California to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and eventually to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The FBI had issued wanted poster-style photo copies, and a woman called in, stating a man of his description was in her area.