From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Oct. 27, 1972:

An Oklahoma man was being returned to the Kansas State Prison at Lansing today after having escaped six times from various jails and prisons in the state. Tommy A. Royal, 33, and a companion had been arrested in 1970 during a routine traffic stop in North Lawrence; they had overpowered the arresting officer while being taken to the Lawrence police station and had escaped. They were later arrested in Kansas City and brought to the Douglas County Jail, where they had attempted to escape by sawing through a steel plate in a cell. That attempt had been foiled when a deputy had heard the sawing noise. After his eventual conviction on robbery and kidnapping charges, Royal had been sentenced to a stint in Lansing, but he had escaped from there in October 1971 and had been recaptured in Oklahoma the following month; he was then held in the penitentiary of that state before fleeing a few days ago, Royal and a different companion had then been arrested on charges of robbing a drug store in Emporia. They had been captured when their pickup had overturned during the police pursuit.