Security tightened at Ely prison

Tuesday, July 25, 2000 | 10:13 a.m.

The claim was made by David "Bang Bang" Wayne, who has a reputation as a good jailhouse lawyer, a dangerous escape artist and a manipulator.

Acting as his own lawyer, Wayne, now 57, beat the state attorney general's office in criminal trials three times. He staged three hostage-taking incidents, escaped at least once and was involved in another attempt.

Whatever his past, prison officials are taking his story seriously.

Prison Inspector General Rod Countryman says his office has talked to Wayne several times, and Ely Warden E.K. McDaniel has taken "special precautions" at a prison that already has tight security.

Wayne, now in isolation, isn't providing details until he's assured of getting some benefit. Officials confirmed Wayne would like to be transferred to another prison.

The recent incident started when Wayne told an old prison buddy, Frank A. Sweeney of Demarest, N.J., in a telephone conversation about the contraband-smugggling.

Sweeney, who says Wayne helped him prepare papers that reduced his prison term for computer fraud, told the inspector general he was asked to be an intermediary because Wayne didn't want to use the prison mails.

Sweeney said he got a letter back from Prison Director Jackie Crawford that suggested Wayne is a manipulator.

Wayne was originally sentenced to the Nevada prison for the January 1970 shooting of a bartender in a Reno robbery. He got a 20-year term for attempted murder. That term has since expired and he's now doing a life term after being judged a habitual criminal.