Walls Do Not a. . .

An obscenely easy jailbreak in Indiana

When Michael G. Thevis was imprisoned in 1974 for interstate transportation of obscene material, lawmen figured they had put the flamboyant peep-show operator out of sight for some time. Not only was he sent to jail for 8 1/2 years, but further investigations into his alleged Mob connections raised the possibility of new indictments. It now seems clear that Thevis, 46, was not turned on by his legal prospects. And so last week, while a federal grand jury dutifully continued its probe into his racketeering, two more juries were investigating how on April 28 the paunchy, balding Thevis managed to walk blithely away from the Floyd County jail in New Albany, Ind.

Thevis, with an empire of pornographic bookstores (perhaps 90% of those in the nation in the early '70s) and movie theaters, was one of Atlanta's best-known would-be big spenders. But his attempts at cleansing, if not raising his profile through philanthropy--he offered his mansion to the city for use as a school, his money to the symphony--were thwarted. Still refusing to be satisfied as the prince of pornography, Thevis bought one of the finest recording studios in the South and tried his touch out on Hollywood's biggest pinball machine--the movie business. Tilt, game over; score no points for bravado. Mike Thevis got no respect.

His escape was easier to bring off than most porn fantasies. The defendant in a civil damage trial in Louisville, just across the Ohio River from New Albany, Thevis had been transferred to the jail earlier last month from the federal prisoners medical facility in Springfield, Mo. Even before his arrival, say police investigators, Thevis had greased the jailers' keys. Two deputies received $100 each from Sheriff Alex Watkins, who told them the money came from someone connected with Thevis. Watkins, who says Thevis came "highly recommended" by his attorneys as an "honor roll prisoner," claimed that the money for the two deputies was given because they had been "nice" to Thevis during a brief stay in the jail last January.

For Thevis' second visit, the jailers were just as nice. Thevis was accorded free telephone privileges and had steak dinners with wine. The visits of his girlfriend, Patricia McLean, 28, were largely unsupervised. Apparently the only time the jail staff kept an eye on Thevis and McLean was when the two were allowed to have sex in a deputy's office. According to investigators, three deputies and three New Albany policemen gave the porno king appropriate treatment by watching through a one-way mirror. The night before Thevis was to be returned to Springfield--he had lost the case and was ordered to pay $675,000 to insurance companies and a former peep-show competitor--he was let out of his cell to make a phone call. He never returned. Three hours after he was last seen, someone thought to notify the police.

His head start gave Thevis plenty of time to leave the country, but McLean stayed behind in Atlanta, where she was arrested by the FBI as a material witness to the escape. Argues her attorney, Edward T.M. Garland: "She's a forlorn ex-girlfriend, abandoned and left to her own devices." Said willowy, henna-haired McLean a day after her arrest: "I just don't know where he is." On that point, at least, she seemed to be in good company.

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