Steven Jay Russell
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Steven Jay Russell (b. September 14, 1957) is a US con artist and impostor who has escaped from prison a number of times. He has been nicknamed "Houdini" and "King Con". His IQ was measured at 169.
Russell, born Steven Jay Basham, was adopted at birth by a conservative family in Virginia Beach. In the 1970s Russell was a deputy police officer and family man in Virginia. He spent some of his time successfully looking for his birth mother using law enforcement databases the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications Service and the National Crime Information Center and learned to use them effectively. When he revealed he was a homosexual, he lost his job as a manager of a food distribution company, and his wife divorced him. He became a con artist to support his opulent lifestyle.
Over the years, Russell has had at least 14 known aliases. His every escape and escape attempt has happened on Friday 13 and during his escapes he has masqueraded as a judge, a physician and a handyman, to name only few. Russell might have impersonated a Boca Raton, Florida police officer in 1980 and 1981.
In May 21, 1993 Russell got out of Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas wearing civilian clothes he had obtained. Afterwards he fabricated bogus credentials and got a job as a CFO of North American Medical Management. He proceeded to embezzle thousands of dollars from the company. In 1995 he was eventually caught and imprisoned for insurance fraud and again placed into Harris County Jail where he met Phillip Morris, who became his lover.
In 1996 Russell escaped from Harris County Jail; he impersonated a judge and ordered his own bond decreased from $900,000 to the $45,000 that he easily met. He was arrested 10 days later in Florida and shipped back to Texas. Later the same year he colored a white prison uniform green, masqueraded as a prison doctor and walked out.
In 1998 he was again in the Harris County Jail serving a 45-year sentence for theft of $800,000 from a Houston company that manages physician's finances plus 20 years for a previous escape. In February 24 he persuaded a prison doctor that he had AIDS and had someone outside to authorize a special needs parole to Houston hospital - in March Friday 13. Later he got Phillip Morris transferred to the Dallas County Jail and tried to have him released - he even visited him masquerading as a lawyer.
In March 1998 Russell posed as a Virginian millionaire and on March 20 tried to take a $75,000 loan from NationsBank in Dallas. When bank officials got suspicious and alerted the police, Russell feigned a heart attack and was transported to a hospital. The FBI placed him under guard, but Russell managed to impersonate a FBI agent on the phone and state that he was no longer wanted. He disappeared.
Russell was arrested again in April 7, 1998 in Fort Lauderdale when he was walking to his car. He was again shipped back to Texas.
[edit] Sources
- McVicker, Steve (June 25, 2003). I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks. Miramax Books. ISBN 0-7868-6903-8.
- McWilliams, James. "The Master Manipulator", The Texas Observer, July 4, 2003. Retrieved on 2006-09-19.
