W.VA. OUSTS PRISON OFFICIALS AFTER ESCAPE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 22, 1992                   TAG: 9202220061
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHARLESTON                                LENGTH: Short
W.VA. OUSTS PRISON OFFICIALS AFTER ESCAPE
The state corrections commissioner and chairman of the Board of Probation and Parole resigned Friday following the escape of three murderers from the West Virginia Penitentiary, Gov. Gaston Caperton said.
"I will not allow a prison system which permits convicted murderers a pick and a shovel and assigns them to a job in a greenhouse," Caperton said.
Caperton said he met Friday with Corrections Commissioner Ron Gregory and parole Chairman Bob Bailey.
"Both agree with me that it is best for the state of West Virginia that they resign their positions immediately," Caperton said.
Tomie Mollohan, 49; David Williams, 33; and Fred Hamilton, 34, were discovered missing from the prison during a head count Wednesday.
A 32-foot tunnel led the murderers from the prison's greenhouse to freedom.
"Everybody inside here is still laughing," said Thomas Drescher, a killer serving a life sentence without parole.
"It was a well-known secret. It was as plain as day what they were doing," Drescher said in a telephone interview from the Moundsville prison.
Drescher said the trio's escape from the 126-year-old prison was possible because officials put too much emphasis on "petty stuff."
"They spend all their time seeing if guys have too many whiskers on their face, stuff like that, while these guys are tunneling out. They were able to take their time on the tunnel and do it right," he said.
It was the second time that Mollohan and Williams have escaped from the prison.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB