Recaptured Arkansas prison escapee known as the 'Devil in the Ozarks' sent to SuperMax prison

Convicted killer and recaptured prison escapee Grant Hardin, known as the 'Devil in the Ozarks,' has been transferred to the Varner SuperMax prison southeast of Little Rock, Arkansas prison authorities announced Saturday.
After a nearly two-week-long search in the rugged mountains of northern Arkansas, authorities recaptured Hardin on Friday 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) northwest of the prison from which he escaped. Hardin briefly attempted to run from officers when he saw them approach Friday afternoon, but he was quickly tackled to the ground, said Rand Champion, a spokesperson for the Arkansas prison system.
Authorities tried to track Hardin using drones, bloodhounds and a helicopter, but high water from heavy rains during the search raised the water level in creeks and streams around the prison. That likely limited his abilities — and also those of the searchers -- to move through the rugged terrain, Champion said.
'The direction he went, specifically around Moccasin Creek, saw high water due to the abundance of rain the last few weeks, which more than likely limited his options to get around the area,' Champion said. 'Search teams had looked through this area before, but the high water previously limited their ability to fully investigate.'
Residents of the nearby town of Calico Rock, like Roger Simons, said they were surprised to learn that Hardin had stayed so close to the prison.
'Most of us in the area kind of figured he was either gone or dead, and none of us really thought he was still in the area,' said Simons, a local bartender. 'We thought he was long gone — that's what I would have bet my money on."
Hardin had been held at the Calico Rock prison since 2017 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in a fatal shooting. He escaped by impersonating a corrections officer 'in dress and manner,' according to a court document.
A prison officer in one of the guard towers opened a secure gate, allowing him to walk out of the facility. Authorities say they are investigating why Hardin's identity was not checked before he was allowed to leave.
Benton County Prosecutor Bryan Sexton, who oversaw Hardin's convictions for murder and rape, said he had been in close contact with law enforcement officials who were 'consistent' with their belief that Hardin remained in the northern Arkansas region.
Hardin is a former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas- Missouri border whose notoriety led to a TV documentary called 'Devil in the Ozarks.' Sexton said his escape had significantly disrupted the lives of trial witnesses and Hardin's victims, whom he kept updated on the pursuit for the fugitive.
'Every one of them to a person informed me that they had to make changes in their lives because they had had concerns for their safety,' Sexton said.
After Hardin's recapture, 'they could get closure in their lives and secondly go back to their normal lives, which had been disrupted the whole time he was out,' Sexton said.
Cheryl Tillman, the sister of a man shot by Hardin in 2017, told The Associated Press that Hardin's capture was a 'big sigh of relief' for her whole family.
'We don't have to walk around, turning around all the time, thinking somebody's on our back,' Tillman said, emphasizing her appreciation for the officers who helped capture Hardin.
Sexton said he was more assured now that Hardin was being sent to a more secure facility.
The Varner Unit, established in 1987, has the capacity to house 1,714 inmates. It is the site where former President Bill Clinton's gubernatorial chief of staff, a death penalty opponent, faced charges for trying to smuggle a knife and tattoo needles into death row.
Within Varner, a special 'supermax' unit houses the most high-risk prisoners such as a man who fatally shot a soldier at a military recruiting station and death row inmates such as convicted child rapist and murderer Zachary Holly. Damien Wayne Echols of the West Memphis Three was also incarcerated there prior to his release.
'By reputation, Varner is the most secure prison in the Arkansas system,' Sexton said. "I think that all things considering, putting him (Hardin) in the most secure facility we can is probably a wise thing to do."

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The 'Devil in the Ozarks' made the makeshift prison guard uniform he wore while seamlessly escaping the facility using tea, coffee and markers, investigators believe. Grant Hardin, a convicted murderer and rapist whose notoriety led to a television documentary, escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock on May 25. After nearly two weeks on the run, authorities tracked down and captured the 56-year-old criminal roughly a mile in the woods, roughly a mile from the prison he casually walked out of dressed as a guard. Now, the Arkansas Department of Corrections (DOC) is piecing together how he pulled it off. 'This wasn't something he came up with that Sunday morning when he woke up,' Rand Champion, a spokesman for the Arkansas DOC told The New York Times. 'This was well thought out and was something he had been planning for a while.' Hardin spent months studying prison schedules and plotting for the right moment to act. 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Once sworn to protect and serve, Hardin is now best known for the brutal slaying that sent him to prison in 2017. He shot James Appleton, a water department employee, in the head on the side of a road in a small town called Gateway. Police found the victim's body inside a car. A witness identified Hardin and the gunman. The disgraced police chief pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 30 years. While serving his time, a DNA sample taken in prison linked him to the 1997 rape of an elementary schoolteacher in Rogers. Hardin pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and rape of Amy Harrison, who he assaulted at gunpoint in a school bathroom. As a result, another 50 years was tacked onto his sentence. His gut-wrenching crimes and his law enforcement background left the communities surrounding the North Central Unit horrified when he escaped the mixed-custody facility after nearly three decades behind bars. 'He's just an evil man,' Cheryl Tillman, Appleton's heartbroken sister, told NPR while Hardin was on the run. 'He is no good for society.' Tillman said that Hardin's capture was a 'big sigh of relief' for her whole family. 'We don't have to walk around, turning around all the time, thinking somebody´s on our back,' Tillman said, emphasizing her appreciation for the officers who helped capture Hardin. Before cultivating fear with his masterminded exit strategy, Hardin found himself under a spotlight in 2023, when an HBO documentary called the 'Devil in the Ozarks' aired. The tear-jerking film featured interviews with everyone from the victim of the 1997 rape and sisters of the murder victim, to Hardin's family. The documentary revealed a crucial run-in between Hardin and Appleton in the Spring of 2016 in which Appleton stood up to Hardin about fixing a police car. 'He was out chasing cars for no reason,' Tillman said. 'He was pulling guns on the citizens here in Gateway and then as time went on with him being the police chief things just started going down hill fast.' Then-Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, who was Appleton's brother-in-law, described being on the phone with him when he was shot, while local resident John Bray spoke about driving past Appleton's car when the shooting happened. He was the first to find his body and identified Hardin as the shooter. 'I heard what I thought was someone had fired a rifle,' he said. 'I went back and I seen it looked like he had been shot,' he added, wiping away tears. It revealed key details about the resentment Hardin felt toward Appleton, as well as depicting accounts of the moments right before and after the murder. A Benton County Sheriff's Office lieutenant described several times when they got into each other's faces and the dislike they both felt toward one another. The city council gave him an ultimatum: resign or be fired. He stepped down four months after taking the position and nine months later, he killed Appleton. The documentary also includes security video of Hardin at a restaurant with his family just after the shooting and the police interrogation in which he tells law enforcement he has 'the right to be silent' and opted not to give a statement. It also gave insight into his troubled and scattered career. He worked at the Fayetteville Police Department from August 1990 to May 1991, but was let go because he did not meet the standards of his training period. Hardin worked about six months at the Huntsville Police Department before resigning, but records do not give a reason for his resignation, according to Police Chief Todd Thomas, who joined the department after Hardin worked there. Hardin later worked at the Eureka Springs Police Department from 1993 to 1996. Former Chief Earl Hyatt said Hardin resigned because Hyatt was going to fire him over incidents that included the use of excessive force. 'He did not need to be a police officer at all,' Hyatt told television station KNWA.