44-Year Fugitive Can Remain Free

Forty-four years after he fled a Florida chain gang, Eddie Brown can stop looking over his shoulder. Authorities have dropped their attempts to have the ailing, 64-year-old grandfather of 27 returned to prison. Brown, who is black, was 19 in 1952 when he robbed a convenience store of $120. He fled a work crew in Zephyrhills, Fla., after serving six months of a five-year sentence and made his way to New York in 1957. He said he feared a white guard planned to kill him. He lived a law-abiding life, but when he got into a minor traffic accident last year, police checked his license.