Hacksaw

By Edward R. Jones

Book Overview

After a minor brush with the law, Jones pulled off his first escape from a Virginia chain gang at the age of 18. Twenty years later he had escaped 14 times and had become the only man on the FBI's ten most-wanted list without a record of physical violence. A fascinating story of flight and pursuit. Fine.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671678779
• ISBN13: 9780671678777
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A fun book to read

Hacksaw is a book written by Edward Jones, escape artist extraordinare. He sucessfully escaped from prison fourteen different times, making him somewhat of a criminal legend. Unfortunately for him, escaping fourteen times means that he got caught that many times as well, which does not say much for his ability to evade the police and FBI. While excessively good at escaping from prison, he was absolutely stupid when he was out. He made all kinds of major mistakes which landed him right back in prison again. This book, besides being a fun read, illustrates the contemporary prison problem in the United States. Mr. Jones was nothing more than a misbehaving child when he was first given a stint in prison. It was in prison that he became a real criminal. It was in the place that he was supossed to reform that he learned to purposely break the law. This same thing happens to many in prisons today. A teenager is jailed for reckless driving or the such, and while he spends his few months in jail, he picks up a new lifestyle from the experienced criminals he is living with. Hacksaw is an excellent picture of why the criminal punishment system in the U.S. is suceeding only in producing more criminals. Mr. Jones realizes partway through his life that he is in a Catch 22: he is running from the police because he has been sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple escapes, and either he turns himself in and spends his life in prison, or he keeps running but can never live a normal life because he must always be moving from place to place to stay ahead of the law enforcement. In either case, he loses. In the end, he decides to give up trying to keep escaping, and decides to write books from prison instead. I believe he finally made it out of prison on a legal technicality, and was freed to live a normal life. Overall grade: A

Worth reading

I've read many books about escape but most are POW's or convict stories from early in the century. This is one of the few that takes place in more modern times & in North America. Even though I have read of lots of daring escapes this guys really impressed me with how good he was at escaping. Memorable book.

Re: Hacksaw

I recently read a book for my ninth grade English class, and I chose the book Hacksaw, By Edward Jones. It was an intense thriller with suspense and cunning wit. I was amazed at the writing level of this book and reccommend it to everyone.