A chilling figure known throughout the Ozarks as the “Devil” will spend another thirteen years in prison, a consequence of his audacious escape last year. Grant Hardin, 57, pleaded guilty to second-degree escape, adding to the already substantial eighty-year sentence he received for rape and murder.
Hardin’s desperate bid for freedom unfolded on May 25th, when he slipped away from the North Central Unit prison facility around 3 p.m. He exploited a vulnerability in the detention center – a sally port – and vanished into the rugged Arkansas landscape.
His disguise was a chillingly simple deception: a fabricated uniform mimicking those worn by Arkansas Department of Correction personnel. Officials noted the clothing wasn’t official issue, and he’d even used a black marker to alter its color, attempting to blend into the background.
The escape triggered a massive manhunt, drawing resources from federal, state, and local agencies. For weeks, law enforcement scoured the Ozark wilderness, determined to recapture the dangerous fugitive.
The breakthrough came on June 6th, just over a mile from the prison. Tracking dogs picked up Hardin’s scent near Moccasin Creek, leading authorities to his capture and ending the tense search.
Hardin’s crimes are particularly heinous. He is currently serving eighty years for the 2017 murder of James Appleton, and also convicted in a 1997 rape case, cementing his reputation as a predator and a threat to public safety.
He is now back in the secure confines of Varner Supermax in Gould, Arkansas, where he will serve his additional thirteen-year sentence consecutively with his existing eighty-year term. The “Devil in the Ozarks” remains firmly behind bars.
