On July 30, 2010, two team truck drivers pulled over their rig on a road in Arizona to change seats. They didn’t know about a nearby prison break. Soon they’d be at the mercy of two armed fugitives. On this episode of Long-Haul Crime Log, we tell the harrowing story of the Arizona State Prison – Kingman break and the truckers who became hostages. Plus, the deadly business of fuel smuggling in Mexico.
FreightWaves’ true-crime podcast, Long-Haul Crime Log, delves into the harrowing story of why armed fugitives had the trucking industry on high alert in the summer of 2010 as well as the deadly business of fuel smuggling in Mexico in its latest episode released Wednesday. Join journalists Noi Mahoney, Nate Tabak and Clarissa Hawes for the latest episode, presented by FreightCasts.
Modern-day Bonnie and Clyde fugitives – and the truckers who became hostages
It’s a harrowing story that begins with Casslyn Mae Welch helping three inmates, John McCluskey, Tracy Province and Daniel Kelly Renwick, escape from Arizona State Prison – Kingman by tossing a pair of bolt cutters and lineman’s pliers over a chain-link fence of the medium-security prison.
Once the fugitives were free, their pact to stick together quickly fell apart after Renwick found the getaway car first, leaving the others to find another means of transportation.
Just a few miles away, a tractor-trailer had pulled over. Its two drivers, who were operating as a team, were switching seats, unaware of the prison break nearby. They would soon be hostages, their truck commandeered by armed fugitives. A married couple, Gary and Linda Haas, who were parked at a rest stop in New Mexico, would also die before the crime spree was over.
Hawes recounts the case she covered in the summer of 2010 that had the trucking industry on edge for three weeks during the nationwide manhunt as law enforcement searched for McCluskey and his fiancee and first cousin, Welch, dubbed by the media as the modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.
Read more:
Escaped prison inmate John McCluskey and his fiancee Casslyn Welch captured in northeastern Arizona
Escaped con planned suicide-by-bear
Deadly business of fuel smuggling in Mexico.
Mahoney is investigating the deadly business of fuel smuggling in Guanajuato, Mexico. He reports that 119 people have died in cartel violence in January — not over drugs and territory but over the country’s lucrative fuel trade business.
Since the beginning of January, Mexico’s National Guard has seized seven illegal tanker-trucks and more than 107,500 gallons of stolen fuel, Mahoney reports.
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