Gary Charles Evans (October 7, 1954 – August 14, 1998) was an American thief and confessed serial killer in and around the Capital District, New York. His penchant for stealing antiques and his multiple escapes from custody — including one that ended in his death — made him headline news in the area on numerous occasions.
Early years
Gary Charles Evans was born on October 7, 1954, in Troy, New York to Roy and Flora Mae Evans (née Lee). Evans and his sister, Robbie, grew up in an unstable home with physical abuse from their father that was targeted at both the children and their mother. Amid this, the children also experienced their mother's suicide attempts. Evans himself would later claim that he was raped by his father when he was eight. From an early age, Gary began to show interest in works of art and pricy items, and at the age of 8, he was caught stealing jewellery worth $1,000; later on, during his school years, he began repeatedly stealing small items such as books and comics, in addition to occasionally shoplifting, which earned him a reputation as a thief.
After his parents divorced in 1968, Evans and his mother moved to Cohoes, where he attended the local high school. In the summer of 1970, he was arrested for breaking and entering, for which he was sent to a juvenile detention center for three months. While he was imprisoned, his mother married and subsequently divorced four husbands due to her alcohol abuse, and in 1971, she unexpectedly came out as lesbian. After his release, Evans left his mother's home due to frequent quarreling, dropped out of school and began living as a vagrant. In the mid-1970s, he returned to Troy, where, together with his childhood friends Michael Falco and Timothy "Tim" Rysedorph, rented an apartment and got a job.
Criminal career
On January 13, 1977, Evans was arrested for trespassing and stealing property in Lake Placid, for which he was given a 4-year sentence in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. While he was detained, his father, Roy, died of throat cancer.
In 1979, he was transferred to the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, from where he was paroled on March 21, 1980. He then returned to his shared apartment in Troy, and soon after, together with Falco and Rysedorph, he began committing robberies and thefts, using the apartment as a storage space to sell the stolen goods. In June 1980, Evans was arrested for theft and imprisoned at the Old Rensselaer County Jail, but with the help of several Hells Angels members, he managed to escape. Just five hours later, however, he was recaptured, and on September 21, he was returned to the Clinton Correctional Facility to serve out his full sentence, as he had broken the conditions of his parole.
In 1982, following a brawl between inmates, Evans was transferred to the Attica Correctional Facility, where he remained until his release on December 29. The following January, Evans and Falco committed several petty thefts, after which they both moved to Florida. A month later, Evans' mother died in an accident, forcing the two men to return to New York State and resume their criminal activities together with Rysedorph. On May 10, 1983, Evans was arrested for burglary and trespassing in Saratoga County, and briefly housed in the county jail. Throughout the rest of the year, he was repeatedly transferred to various prisons, but was never brought to trial and was eventually released in March 1984. In January 1985, Rysedorph ceased all contact with Evans, who continued his criminal career only with the help of Falco.
On February 16, 1985, Evans and Falco robbed an antique collector's apartment in East Greenbush, with their profit being around $15,000. In April, Evans stole the car of two drug traffickers and sold it for $12,000, but the victims were able to identify him, which resulted in his arrest in Cohoes. Evans accepted a plea deal with the prosecutors in exchange for a commutation of his sentence, admitting his guilt in the robbery and illegal possession of weaponry. He was released on probation, pledging that he would stop stealing and find himself a real job, but by July of that year, he would commit his first murder.