Robert Stackowtiz, 71, fled a Georgia prison camp, where he was serving 17 years for armed robbery.
A fugitive who spent nearly 50 years on the run after fleeing a Georgia prison camp has been found in Connecticut.
Robert Stackowitz, 71, was serving 17 years at Carroll County Prison Work Camp when he escaped from the infirmary in 1968.
Stackowitz hitched a ride to the Atlanta airport, bought a plane ticket and didn't look back until last week, when U.S. Marshals showed up in the tiny Connecticut town of Sherman.
For 48 years, Stackowitz lived the quiet life.
"I got a job. Social security card, went to work, never had a problem," he told CBS New York.
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Stackowitz even kept his girlfriend of 20 years, Cindy Derby, in the dark.
"I said, 'What? Are you sure? Do they have the wrong person?' I never heard nothing about Georgia," she said.
But all that living on the straight and narrow has yet to sway authorities in Georgia, who want Stackowitz brought back to the state to answer for his unfinished sentence.
"The crime that he committed was a fairly serious crime, but I think if he's truly wanting to travel the straight and narrow road, then it's best for him to come back and try to handle these charges appropriately," said Robert Jones, warden for the Carroll County Correction Institution.
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Stackowitz, who went by the name "Bob Gordon" in Sherman, was arraigned Tuesday at Danbury Superior Court. He's being held on $100,000 bond in Bridgeport, Connecticut, while he awaits extradition.
Authorities say they caught him after he applied for social security benefits.
As he awaits his fate, Stackowitz has already begun to make his case that a return to prison would be unfair, or even deadly.
Stackowitz said he is battling bladder cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and that extradition would be a death sentence.
"I'm hoping the judge will be compassionate, you know what I mean?" he said. "That's the best I can hope for at this point, I think."
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