King’s life story has been largely absent from the screen. It’s time for that to change.
On April 23, 1967, a small-time convict pulled off a big-time escape.
The convict, known to his jailers as Prisoner #416-J, had been held in the Missouri State Penitentiary for the past seven years and still had years to serve for armed robbery. He previously had been incarcerated for stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of postal money orders, and at age 39, he had spent a good part of his adult life behind bars. But on this spring day, he was preparing to break free.
Rising early, he took the elevator to the prison bakery, where he had worked long enough to know its ins and outs, arriving hours before his shift was due to begin. After wolfing down a dozen eggs, he found his way to a loading dock, where a large metal box had been packed with loaves for the prison’s honor farm. Climbing inside, he buried himself under the thick layers of bread.....
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