... I wonder, as several of the Highway Patrol episodes are about escaped convicts and of course there are all of those old movies about prison breaks, but I digress.
Red Baker escapes from prison to a waiting car driven by the widow of his recently deceased cell mate, Carol Hayes. She is helping Red because her husband was sentenced by the same judge as Red and she blames the judge for her husband's death. Red's plan is to murder the judge in revenge for his long sentence. Carol has determined the judge's schedule and habits and that he is most vulnerable when he goes for his weekly Thursday haircut at a nearby barber shop. She's also bought the gun that he wants.
Highway Patrol is notified of the escape and quickly determine that Carol must be the person helping Red on the outside as she was his only visitor and the only person corresponding with him by mail. Will Highway Patrol be in time to stop the assassination? Watch and find out.
Today, prisons read the correspondence sent to and from prisoners as well as recording conversations between prisoners and visitors. What happened here would be very hard to duplicate. Almost always, if a convict escapes today, they have the help of somebody working at the prison, usually a female guard that the inmate has sweet talked into believing that he is in love with them. That's because interactions between guards and inmates is not recorded.
Someone complained that Paul Cavanaugh, as the judge, was mechanical and dull. That's because Highway Patrol is not one for Hollywood-like histrionics, so Cavanaugh was likely told to play the part emotionally flat.
