Eight inmates, all charged with violent crimes, broke out of the Clovis, New Mexico jail by climbing up plumbing pipes in a narrow space inside a wall and using handmade instruments to cut a hole in the roof near a skylight. The process took about seven hours, and the escape was the culmination of several days of planning. The inmates gained access to the pipes by stealing a key left in a door lock while jail guards were making plumbing repairs. Three inmates were recaptured within one day after the escape, and a fourth was caught on August 28. Larry McClendon, Jr., who was charged with shooting a store clerk to death and was considered one of the most dangerous escapees, was captured in Texas on October 4; his childhood friend, Michael England, was captured nine days later. One inmate, Ed