You gotta be proud Dep't.

From the wires of the Associated Press:

Nicholas Montos Oldest Mass. inmate, 92

Nicholas Montos, the oldest prison inmate in Massachusetts and a career criminal who was the first person to make the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list twice, died Sunday of natural causes at a hospital. Montos was serving 33 to 40 years for robbery.

He made the FBI's Most Wanted list in 1952 after he and two other men pistol-whipped a 74-year-old man during a robbery in Georgia.

He was caught in 1954 but made the Most Wanted list again two years later when he used a hacksaw to escape from a Mississippi prison. Montos was captured 26 days later.

Montos was the only Massachusetts inmate in his 90s. The state Parole Board had turned down a request for parole earlier this year.

Even before his two stints on the wanted list, Montos was a veteran escape artist. He was 18 when he made his first escape from a Miami jail in the 1930s. He ran from a chain gang in Alabama in 1942 and escaped again in 1944.

Even as we mourn Mr. Montos's sad departure, you have to wonder if members of his family proudly point to his signal accomplishment - being the first guy ever to be on the Most Wanted list twice - as an honor of some sort. I think that being the oldest man in stir in the state is even more noteworthy, giving him seniority when it comes to jail vacation picks and a certain cachet. Surely, just before Lights Out In The Big House, he would weave tales both wonderful and wise for his young cellmates, talking of stool pigeons and yard bulls and so much more.

Certain words in combination give one pause. Considered separately, "chain", "gang", "Alabama" and "1942" connote four visions. Put 'em all together, and that had to be a helluva story. Swing low, sweet chariot.