Five of six Alabama escaped convicts arrested

DICKSON, Tenn. (AP) -- Five escaped convicts from an Alabama maximum security prison were arrested early Thursday near an Interstate gas station where they stopped to buy sandwiches, officials said.

Captured were Billy Gamble, 24; Steve Murphy, 45; O.C. Borden, 33; Jack Allred, 43; and James McClain, 35, spokeswoman Dana Keeton said. Authorities searched for the sixth inmate, Gary Scott, 31. Scott, Murphy and Borden were serving life sentences for murder.

The inmates escaped Tuesday by slipping beneath an electric fence and two razor wire fences at Alabama's St. Clair Correctional Facility before guards noticed they were gone.

The five were caught about 165 miles from the prison near an Interstate 40 exit about 50 miles west of Nashville, Keeton said.

Three of the men went into a gas station at the Bucksnort exit and made sandwiches just after midnight, FBI agent Phil Thomas said. The inmates were recorded by a surveillance camera.

It was unclear who became suspicious of the inmates and when police were called.