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Governor Tom McCall, who had appointed Cupp and had great faith in him, docked his pay by $1,000 and suspended him for two weeks. Cupp offered his resignation, and McCall refused to accept it — but told him if anyone was hurt before Bowles was recaptured, that would probably change. That bluff would, unfortunately, be called. Twice. On the lamMeanwhile, Bowles and Coberly were down in the hills near Eugene, hiding out — first camping, later in a commune, and after that on the property of a well-intentioned acquaintance. But authorities had tracked them down, and soon moved in. When FBI agents arrived, Bowles managed to get the drop on them. He shot at an FBI agent at point-blank range and missed (whether accidentally or on purpose), causing the agent to drop his pistol and scramble for cover; Bowles then fled the scene with his stolen gun. Then he went to the nearby home of Earl and Vi Hunter, took the couple hostage, and left town with them in their car. 
The formal entry gates at the Oregon State Penitentiary. (Image: M.O. Stephens)The felon then picked up where he’d left off the last time he was on the lam, taking hostages and hijacking cars and just wandering around the west, apparently with no idea what to do. Eventually he wound up in the Spokane area, where officers soon found themselves responding to complaints of a man hijacking cars and motorcycles at gunpoint. They found him and chased him into the Spokane River, where, waist deep in the water, he tried to get a shot off at a cop who already had him in his sights. The cop shot him in the stomach. Back to the Big HouseSurgeons worked for hours to save Bowles’ life, and were successful. And authorities badly wanted to talk to him. All the hostages he’d taken were alive and accounted for except two — the Hunters, the couple he’d kidnapped in Eugene. What had happened to them? Bowles said he released them in Yakima. The cops knew, with that sense that people develop when they’re lied to a lot, that he was lying. And this, of course, they found very alarming. Finally their bodies were found, about 20 miles south of Spokane in a rural area. It was now official: The penitentiary’s carelessness had cost two innocent lives. The aftermathIn the months that followed, a number of voices called for Cupp’s head to roll. However, Governor McCall decided not to fire him; he served as superintendent there for another 10 years before being promoted to a central administrative position, and retired in 1986. But Bowles’ case had a significant impact on many Oregonians’ views on crime-and-punishment issues, especially regarding the death penalty. If anyone deserved the death penalty, it was Bowles, and they found it frustrating that the law wouldn’t allow it to be applied. They also found it scary that a man like Bowles had been just a few years away from being paroled. And they felt that the state prison should be more focused on protecting innocent people outside its walls than rehabilitating those within. Even among folks who didn’t agree with that assessment, there was a noticeable hardening of attitudes toward convicts just after this happened. Correlation does not necessarily imply causation, of course, but the correlation is most definitely there in this case. In a 1964 referendum, Oregonians overwhelmingly voted to abolish the death penalty; in 1978, they overwhelmingly changed their minds. This dramatic change was probably at least partly because of this case. One thing is for sure: Conjugal visits got a whole lot more difficult to arrange in the years that followed. As for Bowles, he died in prison in 2005.
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