[1] Morris Johnson was raised on a small farm outside Tompkinsville, Kentucky until his family moved to 4802 Beecher St. in the Drexel Gardens neighborhood of Indianapolis.

[2] According to Indianapolis media accounts, by the age of 24 (1962) Johnson was the leader of one of the most notorious band of bank bandits since the days of John Dillinger.

Also, it was alleged that by 1963 Johnson's gang, dubbed "Robbery Inc." by Indianapolis police, had grown to around 100 members and was believed to be responsible for nearly 3,400 crimes between the years 1958 and 1963.

On April 10, 1963, a jury in Federal court at New Albany, Indiana convicted Johnson of robbing the Merchants National Bank and Trust Co. branch at 3119 English Ave. in Indianapolis of $8,890 in November 1962.

On November 9, 1966, Johnson escaped from the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, GA with another inmate by piecing together a rickety ladder made of scraps and thereby scaling a 40-foot wall.

Morris and five other prisoners sawed through the bars and fashioned a makeshift rope out of bed sheets to climb down to another part of the jail.

[4] In 1976 Morris Johnson was nominated for the 1976 Indianapolis Star Man of the Year honor and was cited for "his initiative, intelligence and perseverance in dealing with the problems of prison security in our nation."