Prisoner Convicted in 1977 East Side Murder Flees Jail on Rikers Island

A 20-year-old Manhattan man who was sentenced last month to 15 years to life imprisonment for a burglary-murder in 1977 escaped yesterday from the Rikers Island Adolescent Reception and Detention Shelter.

The man, Sean Ryan, was awaiting transfer to the crowded state prison system.
He burned a hole in one of three plexiglass louver window panels in his cell and then, with a five-inch hacksaw blade, sawed through the panel frame. He then let down a 15-foot rope that he had braided from blanket, pushed out the glass, squirmed his 145-pound, 5-foot-6 inch body through the opening and climbed out and dropped down to the ground 20 feet below. A correction officer heard a crash at 3:30am and found the cell empty.

Ryan was found guilty of the 11/12/77 death of Harry Kassoff, 68, at the Sovereign, 425 East 58th Street. Willis Jackson, 22, had admitted stabbing Mr. K and had testified that Mr. Ryan participated in the burglary.


Excerpt from The New York Times 6/12/79

Rikers Island No Less Grim 2 Years After Its Rebellion

So far this year, 36 inmates have attempted to escape from Rikers: three were drowned, four are still at large and the rest were recaptured. Last year 16 attempted to escape.

Excerpt from The New York Times Kifner 11/25/77

2 Officers Suspended After Rikers Escape

Two corrections officers were suspended yesterday for alleged dereliction of duty as a result of the escape Sunday night of 10 prisoners from the Men’s House of Detention on Riker’s Island. Five, including 3 awaiting trial on murder charges are still at large.
One died trying to swim across the East River. Four others were captured on the island.
“It is a folly for the state to spend over $1 billion a year on the criminal-justice system in order to apprehend and try those who are breaking our laws only to have dozens of those facing the most serious charges break out of jails after they are caught.”
Last July, during and immediately after the power blackout, about a dozen prisoners escaped from Rikers Island. In September 1976 seven prisoners sawed their way out of the institution. (30 in 12 months?) In that breakout a prison guard was charged with providing hacksaws used in the escape. Two of these escapees had been charged with slaying two armored-car guards in a Times Square movie house. In the escape, two of the seven drowned and four were recaptured. One (?) escaped prisoner from that group is still at large.

The suspended officers will be given a departmental trial for reporting a normal occupancy of 218 prisoners in cell block 38 when 10 were missing.

The priosoners placed pillows and rolled up sheets in their beds but the officer’s station was only a few feet away. The prisoners got through a steel door in sight of the officer’s station, went down to the basement, then the subbasement, pried open another door with a tire iron, entered the yard and climged a drain pipe to the roof, crossed the roof, got back down on the ground and made their way to the river.

E. Perlmutter NYT 10/4/77

9 Flee From Rikers and 4 Are Captured

The dead inmate was identified as Tony Wright. He had been admitted last June on a weapons charge according to officials. Mr. Wright, who was described as a Rastafarian – a member of a Jamican sect – was also in custody on warrants issued by the Immigration Service, New York State for parole violation and Hartford, after escaping from prison there.

excerpt from Rudy Johnson 10/3/77

5 Who Escaped Rikers Recaptured After A Tip

Five prisoners who escaped from the Men’s House of Detention on Riker’s Island Thursday were recaptured Thursday after a tip from a sixth escapee who never left the island. However, one of two prison hospital inmates in another escape Thursday was still missing. There was the possibility that the fugitive, 19-year-old Edwin Velasquez, who had an injured leg tried to swim through the East River. The other hospital inmate, David Romaine returned to the island when his water wings deflated.

The six inmates escaped Thursday night thinking the city was still blacked out. They made their way to the roof of their cellblock and lowered themselves to the ground sixty feet below with bedsheets and clothing. Then they plunged into the East River. Ralph Angel Navaez was apprehended at the scene. He told the police he thought the men would stop at North and South Brother islands in their swim to the Bronx. The police later found the five there.

excerpt from NYT 7/16/77