Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Tearful Fugitive Asks For Leniency

From Staff And Wire Reports

James Ostrander, a convicted murderer who lived a mostly quiet life on the lam for nearly 40 years, on Wednesday pleaded with Washington state to let him go free with close supervision.

“I don’t want to die in prison,” the 67-year-old man told a state panel.

The forgotten fugitive, who fled to Portland, after escaping from custody at a state mental hospital in 1956, wept as he expressed remorse for being part of a 1953 armed robbery in Seattle that ended in the shooting death of grocer Nunzio Salle.

Ostrander wasn’t the gunman who shot Salle, but was armed and was present at the crime scene with two partners. After serving less than four years of his 30-year term, he escaped while on medical leave to the hospital from the Walla Walla Penitentiary.

Oregon refused to extradite him after his identity was discovered. He was arrested in Arizona, where he had a small winter home, again fled to Oregon and eventually turned himself a month ago.

The state panel took the case under advisement, saying it will rule later this spring.