Police entered ahomein Southwest suburban Tinley Park about 11:30 Tuesday morning, searching for two escaped prisoners.
Joseph "Jose" Banks has been caught by authorities late Thursday evening, according to law enforcement sources. He and his cellmate, Kenneth Conley, both convicted bank robbers were awaiting sentencing and 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 the ropes dangling from a hole in an exterior wall near the 15th floor. The duo used sheets to crawl from a window.
The two had put clothing and sheets under blankets in both their beds to throw off guards making nighttime checks, authorities said.
Cameras mounted to the side of the 28-story Metropolitan Correctional Center in the South Loop captured Banks and Conley sliding down the building shortly after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday on a rope constructed from knotted bedsheets, an employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said. The men left view briefly, but it was believed they landed on the roof of a garage below. 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, who wore light-colored clothing, hailing a taxi at Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue. They also appeared to be wearing backpacks, according to the FBI.
The manhunt for the inmates included several high-profile raids Tuesday in the southwest suburbs of Tinley Park and New Lenox, where Conley's family and associates lived. A $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the two fugitives was announced by the FBI this week.
Conley is still unaccounted for as of Friday morning.
pnickeas@tribune.com
jmeisner@tribune.com
asweeney@tribune.com
Inmate caught 2 days after escape from South Loop lockup
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Inmate caught 2 days after escape from South Loop lockup
