Dead Run
By Joe Jackson and William F. Burke Jr. (Times Books; 303 pages; $25)
Subtitled “The Untold Story of Dennis Stockton and America’s Only Mass Escape From Death Row,” “Dead Run” is a fascinating picture of life on the inside of Virginia’s Mecklenburg Correctional Center. Journalists Jackson and Burke rely on the diaries of condemned prisoner Stockton to piece together a detailed account of the amazing escape of six inmates from the facility that prison officials had boasted was escape-proof. The fact that none of the escapees remained at large for too long a time provided no solace to embarrassed prison officials.
