McNair murdered a man in 1987 during a botched robbery. He had a certain talent for escape. He has escaped from one jail and two prisons, including a federal prison in April 2006. He made it to Canada twice. In his first escape, he used lip balm to get out of his handcuffs. In another escape, he mailed himself out of prison in a crate. Hours after his escape from the federal prison, he was stopped as shown here on a railroad track near Ball, Louisiana by police officer Carl Bordelon. He gave the alias of Robert Jones but then later said his name was Jimmy Jones. Bordelon misses the discrepancy and even bids McNair a fond farewell.
Frankly, Bordelon comes across as a nice guy and, in his favor, he does try to inquire on identifying marks for McNair. It does not appear that Bordelon was given a good description and he tries to push for details. The fact is that he was in a tough position of holding a citizen without more of a basis for suspicion. Nevertheless, the poor guy must have to deal with endless teasing about his encounter with the “jogger.”