DALLAS, JAN 8: A doubling in reward money and publicity on television's America's Most Wanted programme should help in the hunt for The Texas Seven, a group of well-armed escaped prisoners who allegedly killed a policeman, Texas authorities said on Sunday.The seven men, who broke out of a maximum-security Texas prison on December 13 and are suspected in the Christmas Eve slaying of Irving, Texas, police officer Aubrey Hawkins, were featured on Fox television's America's Most Wanted program on Saturday evening.A Dallas-based organization called Bond Jumper! said it was putting up an extra $100,000 in reward in return for information leading to the arrest of the fugitives, roughly doubling the existing reward money offered."There are people in the free world helping them stay hidden and get food and shelter and also in traveling, so we think the reward money, with the television program last night, will entice them to call and turn those people in," said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Todd.The effort to recapture the escapees has led to the biggest manhunt in Texas since the Depression-era rampage of the Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow gang. Bonnie and Clyde were eventually gunned down in neighbouring Louisiana in 1934.Texas authorities believe the seven have been lying low in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since Hawkins was killed in a hail of bullets during the robbery of an Oshman's sporting goods store in Irving, a Dallas suburb.Detectives have been sifting through over 1,200 tips, including reported sightings in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Louisiana.The fugitives are believed to have over 60 guns -including semiautomatic weapons, shotguns and rifles - seized from the Oshman's store and from the Connally prison in South Texas, where they overpowered guards, stole their clothes and escaped in a prison vehicle.The robbery also netted them ammunition, winter clothes and $70,000 in cash and checks.Police said the gang left a note in a guard tower declaring, "You haven't heard the last of us yet."The seven escapees comprise two convicted killers, two armed robbers, a child abuser, a serial rapist and a burglar.Police believe their leader may be George Rivas, 30, who was serving a life sentence for kidnapping and robbery.Mug shots and recent composite sketches of the gang members have been posted on the Web site of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (tdcj.state.tx.us). Texas officials said on Sunday that reports by the Dallas Morning News and Houston TV station KHOU that the escapees had been allowed to eat an unsupervised picnic lunch in a prison maintenance shop just before their escape were inaccurate."We'll release a serious incident report this week here in Austin and it will clearly prove that they were under supervision in the maintenance shop," Todd said.
