Updated January 24, 2001, 3:40 p.m. ET
Excerpts from transcript of television interviews between KKTV-TV anchor Eric Singer and two Texas prison escapees  
   

Partrick Murphy Jr.: "What forced me to do this was the penal institution and such. The way Texas has things set up ... I'd eventually become an outlaw again anyway because of parole stipulations and such.

"We, I felt by trying to make this statement maybe we could make more people aware that there is a definite wrong within the penal system of the state of Texas."

———

Singer: "When you were in Woodland Park, obviously the Texas Seven, America's Most Wanted, your pictures are up everywhere. How exactly did you blend in? You were up there several weeks, how did you blend in, how did you try to hide, be a sort of chameleon within the community?"

Murphy: (Laughs.) "We joked about it often. We really, just by downplaying ourselves and changing our hair color and such."

———

Singer: "Now tell me, you're talking about the fact that you were changing your hair color and such, you're trying to blend in. What exactly was your day-to-day (life) like? Obviously it's going to more difficult and different for you than it would be for me.

Murphy: "Day to day life was, we tried to remain as calm as possible at all times but vigilant and it would be difficult to get into that right now."

Singer: "Many times we had talked to several people in the Woodland Park area and they had said they had seen many of you out in the community, they had said hi to you obviously. They had also said the fact that you had attended Christian meetings, that you tried to blend into the community. Tell me a little bit about that."

Murphy: "Yes, we attempted to be as friendly and neighborly as we could. As far as the Christian meetings, that was only one man and he was the man who committed suicide. That was part of the cover, I guess you could say. He was trying to pass us off as like a church work group traveling around."

———

Donald Newbury: "The way I see it, I had to make a statement. The judicial system in the state of Texas has really gone to the pits. We're receiving 99 years for a robbery for $68 and nobody's injured. ...

"There's got to be something within reason in the state of Texas. They're giving kids so much time that they will never get to see light again. Their life is gone. Now all they are is a roach in a cage. Things have to be changed. There has to be more rehabilitation in the system down there."

———

Newbury: "The whole thing from the beginning, from our self-extraction from the unit — that was done very peacefully as possible. We hurt the officers very little, only the ones that resisted. It could have been a blood bath. We could have been out of there in 30 minutes instead of 2« hours."

———

Newbury: "The system is as corrupt as we are. You going do something about us, well, do something about that system, too. It's going to take the public and a lot of screaming and hollering."

 

 
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