LAST RAMPAGE: The Escape of Gary Tison

by James W. Clark ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 1988

Contemporary true crime that plays out like a moral drama of the old Wild West while exposing some recent political corruption and incompetence in Arizona. In July 1978, with the help of their devoutly religious mother, three soft-spoken, clean-living young men smuggled firearms into an Arizona State Prison and broke their father, Gary Tison, and his friend, Randy Greenawalt, out of jail. Tison, serving two life sentences for killing a guard during a previous escape attempt, was a product of the desperate migration of Okies from the Dust Bowl--and of a society in which the two extremes of angry lawlessness and strict fundamentalism could actually reinforce each other. His sons worshipped him and considered him martyred by unjust imprisonment. In fact, Tison was a violent, manipulative sociopath, and Greenawalt a vicious serial killer. In their 12 days on the run across Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, the fugitives eluded a manhunt and the three Tison brothers watched in surprised yet submissive shock as their father and Greenawalt murdered six people in cold blood. The gang was stopped in a shootout that left one Tison boy dead, the other two and Greenawalt in custody (and all three now on Death Row); Gary Tison died of exposure in the desert. Clarke, a professor of political science at the Univ. of Arizona (and author of American Assassins, 1982) tells the tale well and also presents evidence that Tison's escape was made possible by incompetence and corruption among high prison officials who had links (though the degree is not clear) to organized crime. (The specific allegations are serious, but publicity materials implying that this book shows ties to impeached Governor Evan Mecham are misleading.) Gripping and violent, then, a strong sense of place and culture; an intelligent look at the psychological, social, and institutional factors that allowed a manipulative killer to exercise his influence.

Pub Date: Sept. 6, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION