commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Amanda Knox’s thoughts on becoming a fugitive from justice, should it prove necessary, are of course fraught with uncertainty. More than one of her supporters has voiced concern that she is beginning to show signs of – not cracking – but rather wilting under the tremendous pressure. How much can one sensitive young woman take and still keep coming back for more? No one can answer this, but I, for one, am worried.
There is an interesting story out today that bears a parallel, however distant, to the case of Ms. Knox. A veteran – and I do mean veteran – fugitive from justice operating under the name of Jamie Lewis has just been picked up in San Diego, California after successfully hiding out in broad daylight for a walloping 37 YEARS.
Although little is known about what Ms. Lewis (whose real name is Judy Lynn Hayman) has been doing for the past 37 years, we do know how her great concealment began and how it has alas ended.
Hayman, who is reportedly 60, is currently being held in a San Diego County jail awaiting extradition to Michigan. She escaped from the Huron Valley Correctional Center in Ypsilanti, which is east of Detroit, in 1977 while serving time for attempted larceny, said San Diego police Lt. Kevin Mayer said.
At this point no one is saying how she escaped but what is known is that she was about halfway through a minimum sentence of 1 1/2 years for attempting to steal clothes from a Detroit-area store when she heard a voice saying “Outside Is America” and not only stole away but avoided detection for all these years.
It’s funny that Ms. Hayman would choose San Diego as the place to take her stand. It’s always been my impression that San Diego is crawling with law enforcement but you could say that about all of Southern California.
In any event, acting on a tip from the Michigan Department of Corrections, San Diego’s finest went to an apartment on Monday in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego. To their delight, a woman matching the description of fugitive Judy Lynn Hayman came to the door.
Of course she didn’t identify herself as Judy Lynn Hayman. According to Lt. Mayer, she produced “government documents” stating that she was Jamie Lewis. The officers, however, weren’t fooled by that. They detected alleged inconsistencies in her story, but more importantly, her clear resemblance to an old Michigan mug shot was her undoing.
“Her eyes gave her away,” said the Lt.. “The eyes in the picture matched the eyes of this woman.”
The officers took her down to the station where, according to Mayer, she eventually acknowledged being Hayman.
It is not known how hard the police leaned on her or if they even had to lean on her. Nor was it immediately clear how long the woman had been living in San Diego.
One key bit of information, however, speaks volumes about what Ms. Hayman’s life has been like for the past three decades. When the police arrived at her apartment, her 32-year-old son was visiting. According to Mayer, the son appeared stunned by their questions.
“This seemed very much a surprise to him,” Mayer said. The Lt. claims to have no way to get in touch with the son and apparently doesn’t even know his name.
Several neighbors were apparently eager enough to put their two cents in. The word is that Ms. Hayman had lived in the complex for several years and kept mostly to herself.
A Maria Lopez, age 60, told the U-T San Diego newspaper that Hayman did not appear to work. A laundry crew came to her apartment to attend to those needs and her son visited her regularly.
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So what have we learned? Our subject is apparently a good mother — as is suggested by her son’s frequent visits? Or is it that she has bound her son too closely to her? We don’t know who the father is and if he is in the picture, but I have the sense the son’s primary allegiance is to his mother. It’s not hard to picture Ms. Hayman and her son adopting a sort of “us against the world” mentality, brought on perhaps by the mother’s need for reclusiveness. The fact Ms. Hayman apparently hid her real identity from her son would seem to be a both a practical decision (what a millstone for the kid to carry if he knew?) and a testament to the escapee’s ironclad determination to stay free.
For ironclad determination it must have been. Imagine living with that submerged past and the accompanying daily fear of being compromised. For that has been Ms. Hayman’s daily burden for approximately 13,500 days. A cross to bear that must no doubt be lived to be truly comprehended. But imagine the consolation her son must have been to her.
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The authorities, however, don’t really cae about Ms. Hayman and her son. For his part, Lt. Mayer is deeply impressed by the investigators’ ability to “put some dots together” and provide San Diego officers with the right address after nearly four decades.
“I commend them for their tenacity,” he said. “This is a very old case.”
And of course there is the tired old saw about how she must be returned to prison to finish the sentence, which has a maximum term of two years.
“We can’t just write it off,” said Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan. “We don’t have the ability to say it’s been a long time, you’re free to go,” he said.
And then of course there are the possibility of new charges, a decision which would be made by authorities in Washtenaw County, Mich., where the prison is located.
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On an optimistic note, Ms. Hayman’s case is similar to that of Marie Walsh, who also escaped from a Michigan prison where she was known as Susan LeFevre. Walsh had only served 14 months of a 10 year sentence for heroin sales when she made it over the wall in 1976. Like Ms. Hayman, Walsh was found living under an alias in San Diego, in 2008.
The affirmation we all need is the fact that after spending an additional 13 months in prison (most of the 10 years appeared to have been somehow commuted), Walsh then returned to San Diego where she went right back to living her life with her husband of more than 20 years. Writing so as not to die, Walsh also wrote a book about her ordeal called A Tale of Two Lives.
Although we cannot assume that Ms. Hayman has a husband waiting for her in San Diego, it’s a pretty safe bet that her stalwart son will be eagerly anticipating her release.
Look well, Oh Amanda Knox. These are some brave role models. Your task would be harder, though, because with your high profile, it would be much more of a challenge to escape detection, especially for the first ten years or so.