CHICAGO — Two bank robbers who rappelled 15 stories down a federal high-rise jail to freedom, then hailed a cab, remained fugitives for a third day as FBI agents combed video surveillance footage that documented their daring escape, a high-ranking employee at the facility said Thursday.
Cameras mounted on the side of the 28-story Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago captured Joseph "Jose" Banks and Kenneth Conley sliding down the building shortly after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday on a rope made of knotted bed sheets, the employee said.
The men went out of view of the cameras briefly, but investigators think they landed on the roof of a garage. Moments later, footage from a different camera showed them hopping a black fence marking the perimeter of the property, according to the employee.
The FBI said a surveillance camera a few blocks from the jail showed the men dressed in light-colored clothing and hailing a cab. At first, officials said the pair must have changed out of their jail attire.
But the employee told the Chicago Tribune that the men appeared to be wearing recreational clothing given to inmates as they work out at the jail's rooftop gym — typically, gray sweat pants, a white T-shirt and light-colored gym shoes.
The cellmates, both convicted bank robbers awaiting sentencing, were last accounted for at 10 p.m. Monday during a routine bed check, authorities said. About 7 a.m. Tuesday, jail employees arriving for work saw makeshift ropes dangling from a hole in the exterior wall near the 15th floor.
The pair had stuffed their beds with clothing and sheets to throw off guards making nighttime checks, authorities said. In a mattress, investigators found the bars that had been removed from a window, and in the cell, they found fake, replacement bars.
Exactly how Banks and Conley slipped through a window just 5 inches wide was not clear.
"You've got to be a contortionist to pull that one off," said Scott Fawell, a top aide of convicted former Gov. George Ryan — who himself spent about eight months at the jail for corruption.
One law enforcement source said Banks and Conley may have removed a cinder block from beneath the window to make a bigger opening to slip out.
The hulking jail with its narrow slits for windows has defied escape attempts. This marked only the second successful one and the first in almost three decades.
Conley and Banks, last seen in suburban Tinley Park, are believed to be together. Banks, 37, was described as black, 5 feet 8 and weighing 160 pounds, while Conley, 38, is white, 6 feet and 185 pounds.
Dubbed "the Second Hand Bandit" because of the clothing he wore, Banks was one of the most prolific bank robbers in Chicago history, the FBI said. Convicted last week, he could face 80 years in prison.
Conley faces a maximum 20 years.
Banks could have as much as $500,000 stashed away, according to testimony at his trial. He stole a combined $589,000 in two robberies, but only about $80,000 had been recovered or accounted for, prosecutors said.
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Cameras mounted on the side of the 28-story Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago captured Joseph "Jose" Banks and Kenneth Conley sliding down the building shortly after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday on a rope made of knotted bed sheets, the employee said.
The men went out of view of the cameras briefly, but investigators think they landed on the roof of a garage. Moments later, footage from a different camera showed them hopping a black fence marking the perimeter of the property, according to the employee.
The FBI said a surveillance camera a few blocks from the jail showed the men dressed in light-colored clothing and hailing a cab. At first, officials said the pair must have changed out of their jail attire.
But the employee told the Chicago Tribune that the men appeared to be wearing recreational clothing given to inmates as they work out at the jail's rooftop gym — typically, gray sweat pants, a white T-shirt and light-colored gym shoes.
The cellmates, both convicted bank robbers awaiting sentencing, were last accounted for at 10 p.m. Monday during a routine bed check, authorities said. About 7 a.m. Tuesday, jail employees arriving for work saw makeshift ropes dangling from a hole in the exterior wall near the 15th floor.
The pair had stuffed their beds with clothing and sheets to throw off guards making nighttime checks, authorities said. In a mattress, investigators found the bars that had been removed from a window, and in the cell, they found fake, replacement bars.
Exactly how Banks and Conley slipped through a window just 5 inches wide was not clear.
"You've got to be a contortionist to pull that one off," said Scott Fawell, a top aide of convicted former Gov. George Ryan — who himself spent about eight months at the jail for corruption.
One law enforcement source said Banks and Conley may have removed a cinder block from beneath the window to make a bigger opening to slip out.
The hulking jail with its narrow slits for windows has defied escape attempts. This marked only the second successful one and the first in almost three decades.
Conley and Banks, last seen in suburban Tinley Park, are believed to be together. Banks, 37, was described as black, 5 feet 8 and weighing 160 pounds, while Conley, 38, is white, 6 feet and 185 pounds.
Dubbed "the Second Hand Bandit" because of the clothing he wore, Banks was one of the most prolific bank robbers in Chicago history, the FBI said. Convicted last week, he could face 80 years in prison.
Conley faces a maximum 20 years.
Banks could have as much as $500,000 stashed away, according to testimony at his trial. He stole a combined $589,000 in two robberies, but only about $80,000 had been recovered or accounted for, prosecutors said.
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