Robert Elliott Burns (May 10, 1892 – June 5, 1955) was an American World War I veteran known for escaping from a Georgia chain gang and publishing the memoir, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!, exposing the cruelty and injustice of the chain gang system. [3]

Feb 1, 2003 · I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! was a sensational best-selling book by Robert Elliott Burns. Published in 1932, it recounts the dramatic story of the author’s imprisonment in Georgia and his two successful escapes, eight years apart, with seven years of freedom, business success, and emotional intrigue in between.

Jun 5, 2005 · Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Robert Elliot Burns, known as "The Man Who Broke a Thousand Chains", for his role in ending the brutal chain gang system in the South.

ROBERT E. BURNS was one of Georgia's most famous prisoners as well as one of Troup County's most famous authors. Much of the book and movie centered on how bad things were in west Georgia county prisons. Burns' life reads like a novel, complete with unexpected plot twists.

Oct 1, 1997 · In 1921, Robert E. Burns was shackled to a chain gang for his part in petty robbery. He soon made a daring escape, dodging shotgun blasts, racing through swamps, and eluding bloodhounds on his way north, where for seven years he lived as a free man until his jealous wife turned him in to the police.

In 1921, Robert E. Burns was a shell-shocked and penniless veteran who found himself at the mercy of Georgia's barbaric penal system when he fell in with a gang of petty thieves. Sentenced to six to ten years' hard labor for his part in a robbery that netted less than $6.00, Burns was shackled to a county chain gang.

Robert E. Burns’s 1932 autobiography, I Am a Fugitive From a Georgia Chain Gang!, caught Hollywood’s attention and was adapted for film by Warner Bros. Burns, a World War I veteran, was sentenced in 1921 to six to ten years of hard labor on a Georgia chain gang for participating in a robbery of $5.81 from a grocery store. He escaped from ...

Oct 1, 1997 · In 1921, Robert E. Burns was shackled to a chain gang for his part in petty robbery. He soon made a daring escape, dodging shotgun blasts, racing through swamps, and eluding...

Feb 22, 2017 · This classic book tells the harrowing and inspirational story of Robert Elliott Burns' imprisonment on a chain gang in Georgia in the 1920s, his subsequent escape from the chain gang (twice, no less!), and the public furor that developed across the nation.

Robert E. Burns. Writer: I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. The movie I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) was based on Burns' escape from a Georgia chain gang after his conviction for a $5 robbery.