Quadruple Killer's Jailbreak Tools: His Hands

Quadruple murderer Michael Elliot is back behind bars, but prison guards won't be able to confiscate the tools he used for his brazen jailbreak: His bare hands. The 40-year-old inmate, who had a record of good behavior during his 20 years in a Michigan prison, wasn't a kitchen worker but he managed to obtain a white kitchen uniform that helped him slip away and blend in with the snow, the AP finds. He then spent an hour using his hands to make holes in the inside and outside perimeter fences—even though they were electrically charged and equipped with motion sensors. A security vehicle was patrolling the perimeter at the time of the escape.

Elliott, who carjacked a woman when he made it out, somehow "was not zapped with electricity, and he was not picked up by the motion sensor," says a spokesman for the Michigan prison, where an apparently somewhat overdue review of security measures has been launched, the Bay City Times reports. There was nothing in his file to indicate that he was an escape risk, but "he obviously exploited a vulnerable part of our security system," the spokesman says. Gov. Rick Snyder, who credits collaboration between officers in Michigan and Indiana with Elliot's recapture, says he will demand an "exhaustive assessment" of the incident. (More Michigan stories.)