Largest Death Row Escape in History | Bryan Glazer Reporting

America’s Largest Death Row Escape 40TH Anniversary
Rare Footage | Veteran Reporter Broke The Story
WARRENTON, N.C. -- May 31, 2024 - Tonight marks the 40th anniversary of America’s largest death row escape and the biggest manhunt in U.S. history.
The one-time WRAL-TV, Raleigh, NC reporter that “broke” the story is available for interviews.
Bryan Glazer is President of World Satellite Television News.
He is a former CNN and CBS News correspondent.
Overview
On May 31, 1984, after seizing control of Virginia’s death row, at the Mecklenburg Correctional Center, six convicted killers escaped from the penitentiary in a prison laundry van.
They drove about 25-miles south to Warrenton, NC, where they ditched the vehicle.
The inmates split-up.
Two remained in Warrenton, where they were apprehended on the afternoon of June 1, 1984.
Four headed north in a stolen vehicle.
A week later, two others were arrested near the Vermont-Canadian border.
On June 20, 1984 Linwood and James Briley, convicted of killing 10 people, including a Richmond, Va. radio disc jockey, were arrested in Philadelphia.
Reporter’s Note Book
On May 31, 1984, WRAL-TV reporter Bryan Glazer was alone in the television station’s newsroom wrapping-up “paperwork” following his 11 p.m. newscast shift.
He was sitting at the assignment desk, which is equipped with an array of radio monitors (“scanners”).
“A flurry of North Carolina Highway Patrol radio traffic, unusual for that time of night, caught my attention,” Glazer recalls.
The initial reports indicated a "jail break." Jail escapes are more common than prison escapes.
Over the course of an hour, Glazer continued monitoring the intensifying communications.
“By 12:30 a.m. on June 1, 1984, the communications erupted into a blizzard of police ‘chatter’,” recalls Glazer.
“I was listening to Virginia State Police on a North Carolina Highway Patrol frequency, which was odd.”
He continues, “Suddenly the communications became very clear when I heard, ‘Six convicted killers are on the loose in Warrenton, NC after breaking out of Virginia's death row’."
Glazer says he telephoned assistant news director Ron Price. “Boss this is big,” Glazer said.
Videographer R.J. Ellis was called-in to the station and the pair headed to Warrenton.
Before leaving Raleigh, Glazer alerted his best friend, Raleigh News & Observer photographer Jonathan Wiggs, of the breaking story.
Wiggs rendezvoused with the WRAL news crew outside Raleigh.
In two separate vehicles, the three headed north, on rural roads -- arriving in Warrenton sometime before 2:30 a.m.
WRAL's Glazer was the only reporter aware of the evolving global overnight news story.
The world and his competitors awakened to WRAL’s first exclusive report.
From a pay phone, outside the Warrenton Police Department, Glazer reported about the escape and the start of the manhunt, on “ABC's Good Morning America.”
Glazer covered the nearly three week-long man-hunt, which ended in Philadelphia.
Click video link above for the rest of the story.