Gary Charles Evans (October 7, 1954 – August 14, 1998) was an American thief and confessed serial killer in and around the Capital District, New York. His penchant for stealing antiques and his multiple escapes from custody — including one that ended in his death — made him headline news in the area on numerous occasions. Early years Gary Charles Evans was born on October 7, 1954, in Troy, New York to Roy and Flora Mae Evans (née Lee). Evans and his sister, Robbie, grew up in an unstable home with physical abuse from their father that was targeted at both the children and their mother. Amid this, the children also experienced their mother's suicide attempts. Evans himself would later claim that he was raped by his father when he was eight. From an early age, Gary began to show interest in works of art and pricy items, and at the age of 8, he was caught stealing jewellery worth $1,000; later on, during his school years, he began repeatedly stealing small items such as books and comics, in addition to occasionally shoplifting, which earned him a reputation as a thief. After his parents divorced in 1968, Evans and his mother moved to Cohoes, where he attended the local high school. In the summer of 1970, he was arrested for breaking and entering, for which he was sent to a juvenile detention center for three months. While he was imprisoned, his mother married and subsequently divorced four husbands due to her alcohol abuse, and in 1971, she unexpectedly came out as lesbian. After his release, Evans left his mother's home due to frequent quarreling, dropped out of school and began living as a vagrant. In the mid-1970s, he returned to Troy, where, together with his childhood friends Michael Falco and Timothy "Tim" Rysedorph, rented an apartment and got a job. Criminal career On January 13, 1977, Evans was arrested for trespassing and stealing property in Lake Placid, for which he was given a 4-year sentence in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. While he was detained, his father, Roy, died of throat cancer. In 1979, he was transferred to the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, from where he was paroled on March 21, 1980. He then returned to his shared apartment in Troy, and soon after, together with Falco and Rysedorph, he began committing robberies and thefts, using the