Gary Charles Evans 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.
Evans was born in Troy, New York to Roy Evans and Flora Mae Lee. As a child, he suffered beatings at the hands of both parents, and claimed that he was raped by his father when he was eight. Flora Mae Evans was a mentally ill woman who attempted suicide on numerous occasions, once misfiring a weapon and accidentally shooting her husband in the shoulder. His parents divorced in 1968, and his mother remarried and divorced four times before coming out as a lesbian when Gary was seventeen.
1990s
In October 1991, Evans spent two weeks on the roof of a building in Little Falls, New York casing a coin and jewelry shop on the first floor which was owned by Gregory Jouben, 36. On October 17, 1991, Evans walked into Jouben's shop, asked him to price a piece of merchandise, and then shot him to death. The small community in sparsely populated Herkimer County was outraged by one of the few murders of the year in the area. In 1993, Evans stole over 800 antiques from a group shop in Quechee, Vermont. Evans used an engine crane to steal a thousand-pound bench out of an Albany cemetery, but he was arrested when his fence became nervous and turned him in. In early 1994, Evans agreed to assist the authorities by obtaining information on Jeffrey Williams, who was implicated in the high-profile murder of Karolyn Lonczak. When Williams was found guilty, Evans was released on February 12, 1994, with police still unaware that Evans himself had killed at least four people at that point.
Final escape and death
In 1998, Evans was rearrested. In custody, he confessed to five murders and then led police to the scattered bodies of his dismembered victims. His final escape was from a prison transport van on August 14. Manacled and chained, Evans used a key secreted up his nose, kicked out a window and then jumped from the prison van. Evans was later cornered by police and leaped to his death.
