Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994 TAG: 9406030133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ROBERT LITTLE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
He worked odd jobs and ate in soup kitchens, while the people he wanted to kill four years ago bought guns, left their homes and feared for their lives.
And Thursday, sitting in a police cruiser with his hands shackled to a belt around his waist, admitted killer John Thomas Midgette wondered why everyone was making such a fuss.
``I just wanted a vacation,'' said Midgette, 52, who escaped from Central State Hospital in Petersburg on April 23 and eluded police until his capture Wednesday night in North Carolina.
``I had been locked up for four years,'' he said. ``I wanted to get out.''
State police returned Midgette to Virginia on Thursday, almost six weeks after he walked away from an unsecured area of the state mental hospital.
During his short liberation, Midgette said, he worked landscaping jobs or mowed lawns, and visited churches when he needed food. He hitchhiked to Washington, D.C., and visited the monuments.
``I just acted like a tourist,'' he said.
Midgette said he never tried to hide. And he never tried to hurt anyone.
Details of Midgette's escape, his "hit list" and the reactions of his potential victims made national news, including the television shows ``48 Hours,'' ``Inside Edition,'' ``American Journal'' and ``America's Most Wanted.''
State police used more than 50 agents in the search and spent $75,000 in overtime. Police Col. M. Wayne Huggins called it ``the single most important investigation'' his department was conducting.
But Midgette said he never knew his escape had caused such a stir.
``I'm really surprised and shocked to hear about it all,'' he told reporters Thursday.
A judge committed Midgette to the hospital in 1991 after finding him not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of his boss, Mike Jacobs of Isle of Wight County, in 1990.
Midgette was diagnosed with ``delusional disorder'' and had named Jacobs on a list of six people he wanted dead. He was allowed out of his maximum-security quarters because his doctors said his condition had improved.
Since Midgette's escape, the hospital has suspended grounds privileges for everyone in its 150-person maximum security ward. Gov. George Allen said he will order permanent guidelines tightening privileges for all criminally insane inmates in Virginia.
A state police spokesman would not discuss details of Midgette's escape, saying police are continuing their investigation.
Special Agent Robert Jasinowski said police have no indication that Midgette visited anyone who knew he was a fugitive or committed any crimes while he was on the run.
by CNB