William Scott Day Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Day died in prison from natural causes at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary on February 4, 2006, at the age of 54.

On December 4, 1986, a day before Day was scheduled to be returned to Jackson, Fortunato was assigned to the prison laundry. In the early morning, he let Day hide in a laundry cart and then escorted him out of the facility, before he left it as well under the guise of supposedly showing a new employee a tour of the facility. Once outside, the two men entered Fortunato’s truck and drove to Toledo, where they got into the rental car and drove to Louisville, Kentucky, where they rented a motel room and spent the night partying. On the following morning, while Fortunato was taking a shower, Day stole most of their money and the car and fled, leaving his accomplice behind. Fortunato, who was left with only $50 and the clothes on his back, got on a bus bound for Mobile, Alabama in an attempt to catch up with Day, but after he failed, he hitchhiked his way to Tampa, Florida and spent several days in homeless shelters before turning himself in to FBI agents on December 11. Up until that point, it was suspected that he had been kidnapped by Day, but Fortunato admitted to aiding his prison escape. He would later plead no contest to the charges of helping Day’s escape, and was sentenced to a 2-years-and-a-half sentence for his complicity.

On January 12, Day went to the trailer home of 53-year-old Stanley Robertson, whom he bludgeoned and stabbed to death before slashing his throat. He then stole his 1985 Ford Merkur and sped off, only for the vehicle’s tire to blow off on the highway near Van Horn. The incident was noticed by highway patrolman Jimmy Nail, who stopped to question the driver. Day, presenting himself as one “Tom Wilkins”, claimed that he was driving his uncle Stanley’s truck to El Paso to look for work, after having dropped the uncle at a local bar. Nail had heard on the police dispatch that a liquor store had been robbed recently and the 67-year-old clerk, Dorothy Alexander, had been pistol-whipped by the assailant. Unmoved by Day’s explanations, he arrested him, and upon a closer inspection, he noticed that the driver’s clothes were splattered with blood.

After abandoning the rental car in Louisville, Day bought a bus ticket for Nashville, Tennessee. On December 9, he came across 74-year-old Mary Catherine Strobel, a prominent local volunteer worker who was on her way to deliver a sack of potatoes to a rescue mission. After offering to drive her home in her car, a 1981 AMC Concord, which she gladly accepted. After driving her around for some time and narrowly avoiding arrest by a traffic police officer, Day stopped the car and informed Strobel that he intended to tie her up. Frightened she began to scream, causing a panicked Day to take out a knife and stab her, before strangling her to make sure she was dead. He then put the woman’s body in the trunk of the car, parked it in front of the rescue mission and then bought a ticket at the nearby Greyhound bus station.

Between 1976 and 1982, Day was repeatedly arrested and incarcerated for various offenses including heroin possession, theft, kidnapping and writing bad checks, successfully escaping on one occasion. In late 1982, Day escaped from yet another prison camp in Caro, and thereafter kidnapped an 80-year-old woman, whom he robbed and then tied to a tree. He was arrested and given an additional 7-year sentence, which he was to serve at the Michigan State Prison in Jackson. However, as he suffered from depression, Day was transferred for temporary treatment at the Center For Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti. During his stay, he was described as a model patient who frequently played chess with employees and even helped break up assaults by other patients. Through these activities, he became friendly with 36-year-old security worker Thomas Frederick Fortunato, a veteran employee of 14 years who was assigned to the center’s C-43 ward, which was notorious for housing violent inmates.

William Scott Day (October 21, 1951 – February 4, 2006) was an American prison escapee and later spree killer who killed at least six people in five states during his 39 days on the run between December 1986 and January 1987. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on one count in Tennessee, and the other charges were dropped altogether.

William Scott Day was born on an American military installation in Japan on October 21, 1951, while his family was residing there. From an early age, he showed signs of remarkable intelligence and an affinity for reading authors such as Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman and Barbara W. Tuchman. After the death of his father during his teens, Day moved to Michigan, where he enlisted in the Marine Corps and was stationed at a boot camp near Flat Rock. While there, he deserted his position and went to the city, where he was later arrested for attempting to rape and kidnap a woman. Day was convicted of this crime and given a 7-year term, served initially at the Richard_A._Handlon_Correctional_Facility and later transferred to the Ionia Correctional Facility, successfully escaping once before being paroled in 1974.