California Fugitive Arrested 36 Years After Escape

William Walter Asher III, 66, was arrested Friday at his home in Salida, about 70 miles south of Sacramento

Asher was sentenced to seven years to life in prison for robbing a San Francisco bar during which a bartender was shot and beaten to death in 1966. Asher was 20 at the time.

He was denied parole twice before escaping in January 1975 from Growlersburg Conservation Camp, an inmate fire camp in El Dorado County


home that belonged to a man named Garry Donald Webb, who appeared to resemble an older, thinner Asher and worked at a trucking business. A fingerprint on Webb's driver's license matched one on Asher's fingerprint card.

Asher admitted his identity after questioning from authorities, they said. He was living with a woman who had been with him for more than 10 years but didn't know about his fugitive status.

Asher was being held at the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown. He could face new charges related to his escape and could spend the rest of his life in prison, authorities said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/08/23/california-fugitive-arrested-36-years-after-escape/#ixzz1VqDFUdi4