Nicholas George Montos was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 criminal and a fugitive

Fugitive

A fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...

. He was the oldest inmate being held in Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 until his death in 2008 at the age of 92.

Montos first became involved in crime at the age of 14. Four years later he was arrested but escaped from a Miami jail and escaped twice in Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 in 1942 and 1944. On September 8, 1952 he was placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the...

 list after a robbery in Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

. He was arrested in 1954 as he prepared to rob a freight train

Freight train

A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...

 in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

Two years later Montos escaped from the Mississippi State Penitentiary

Mississippi State Penitentiary

Mississippi State Penitentiary , also known as Parchman Farm, is the oldest prison and the only maximum security prison for men in the state of Mississippi, USA....

 using a hacksaw. He was again placed on the FBI fugitives list and caught 26 days later. After serving his sentence Montos attempted to rob a Brookline

Brookline, Massachusetts

Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...

 antiques store in 1995. He tied up owner Sonia Paine, referring to her with an anti-Semitic epithet. She managed to escape and attack Montos with a baseball bat. This was Montos's last act of crime before he was arrested.

Montos, who suffered from heart problems had a triple bypass in 2000. Later in to his sentence he became weaker and started to pick up more health problems. He applied for parole

Parole

Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...

 after the surgery but it was rejected. A few weeks before his death Montos suffered a heart attack and once again applied for parole. Montos died on November 30, 2008 while his parole plea was still be evaluated.

There were several requests to free Montos. Several prisoners started a petition along with Massachusetts residents so he could live his last days with his elderly sister in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. Prisoners rights group, End the Odds also campaigned for his release.