In the fall of 1984 America was becoming awed by Michael Jordan. The former University of North Carolina star was taking the National Basketball Association (NBA) by storm. The third overall pick in that year’s draft, the Chicago Bulls’ guard was on his way to becoming the Rookie of the Year. In a few years, he would be winning Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, the championships would come in bundles, and then another title would be added: GOAT, the greatest (basketball player) of all time. (LeBron fans, we can debate another day.)
As Michael Jordan was rising to superstardom, another Jordan from North Carolina was also making news, but for much different reasons. William Jordan had nothing in common with the basketball superstar other than his surname and his North Carolina connection. The high school dropout and lifelong petty crook was a minor league criminal until 1974, when he was convicted of murder. Ten years later he escaped from prison.
William Jordan was not great at many things, but he has proven adept at one thing: hiding. Forty years after his escape, he is still at large.
William Jordan
In 1974, twenty-four-year-old Anthony “Ted” Prevatte and thirty-one-year-old William Jordan were wanted for multiple burglaries in North Carolina. On March 7, police received a tip that the small-time thieves were hiding at a friend’s house in Wadesboro, approximately fifty miles southeast of Charlotte.
Ted Prevatte (Left) And Jordan
Upon arriving at the home, officers knew something was askew. A new, nice-looking car with Georgia license plates was parked in the driveway. It was hard to fathom that Jordan and Prevatte, described as “lifelong losers,” could legitimately be in possession of such a vehicle.
As police approached the home, the not-so-nice duo, hiding in that nice car, a blue Toyota Station Wagon, sped away. The officers chased after them on Highway 117.
As Prevatte drove, Jordan opened fire on the officers with a sawed-off shotgun. After emptying it, he tossed it out the window and continued firing with a handgun.
The Duo Flee And Open Fire
Soon, the car spun out of control and became stuck in a ditch.
The Car Crashes
Jordan and Prevatte bolted but were quickly captured. Each was charged with larceny, breaking and entering, and assaulting police officers with a firearm.
Wadesboro police were puzzled as to why the small time crooks would go to such extreme measures to avoid being arrested for relatively minor burglaries. They soon learned the reason.
Jordan And Prevatte Are Captured
The car was registered to forty-nine-year-old James Rouse, Jr. the assistant principal of a Suwanee, Georgia, high school, thirty miles northeast of Atlanta and two-hundred-forty miles from Wadesboro, North Carolina.
On March 6, the day before, James had given a lecture at a college near Atlanta. He stopped at a Holiday Inn Hotel bar afterwards where he called his wife, Madelyn, saying he would be home shorty. However, the respected educator never arrived.
James Rouse
Three days later, on March 9, James Rouse’s body was discovered in a Georgia forest near Old Titshaw Lake in Gwinnett County, encompassing much of metropolitan Atlanta. He had been killed by a single shot to the head from a sawed-off shotgun.
The discovery came two days after Jordan and Prevatte’s shootout with police in North Carolina.
Body Found
Holiday Inn bar manager Linda Hammock, as well as several patrons, recalled seeing James talking to two men; he appeared uncomfortable being in their company. The men were identified as Prevatte and Jordan.
No one saw what happened, but investigators believe Jordan and Prevatte, high on drugs, took James Rouse hostage at gunpoint and forced him to drive his car into a remote forest where they murdered him.
Abducted At Gunpoint
Ballistics tests revealed a shell casing found at the murder scene in Georgia came from the gun that William Jordan tossed from the car during the chase in North Carolina. A shotgun shell was also matched to the gun he had thrown out of the window after firing on the officers.
The distasteful icing on the cake came when pictures were found in the car of Jordan and Prevatte proudly leaning against the vehicle and holding the shotgun used in the murder of James Rouse.
The Killers Pose
William Jordan and Ted Prevatte were tried separately for first degree murder. Both were convicted and each was sentenced to death. On appeal, however, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled prejudicial statements made by District Attorney Bryant Huff in his closing arguments had lifted the burden of the decision from the jury. The convictions were commuted to life imprisonment.
Both men were also convicted of multiple crimes in North Carolina stemming from the burglaries and shootout with police.
Killers Convicted, Sentences Commuted
Ted Prevatte was paroled in 1991, but it was soon clear that prison had not rehabilitated him. In 1993, he was convicted of killing his former girlfriend, Cindy McIntyre, and kidnapping her two children in North Carolina. He was again sentenced to death.
Prevatte Is Back On Death Row
The North Carolina Supreme Court was not as lenient as its Georgia counterpart as it upheld Prevatte’s death sentence. He remains on death row, with his appeals nearly exhausted.
Prevatte had escaped from the Georgia State Prison in 1980, but he was quickly captured. His former cohort in crime has proven more adept at hiding.
Near-Dead Ted
For ten years, William Jordan was the so-called model prisoner. His good behavior earned his transfer to a minimum security work farm in Odum, Georgia, ninety-five-miles north of Jacksonville, Florida.
On August 6, 1984, while on work assignment at a blueberry farm, Jordan and another inmate were allowed to drive a truck, unsupervised, to a gas station for refueling. The men filled the truck and used the fuel to drive as far as it would take them. They never returned to their work assignment.
Jordan’s accomplice was caught a month later, but Jordan eluded the dragnet.
Jordan Jolts . . .
One week after his escape, Jordan visited his mother in North Carolina. She said her son, after apologizing for being a failure and for the agony he had put her through, hugged her and tearfully told her she would probably never see him again. He is believed to have visited his cousin in Virginia the following month.
Mrs. Jordan died eight years later, claiming never to have seen her son again nor to have knowledge of his whereabouts.
. . . And Stays Hidden
Investigators believe Jordan may have worked in construction and/or as a heavy equipment operator in Virginia and West Virginia from the latter half of the 1980s and throughout the 1990s. In 1992, several sightings of him were reported in those states, in which he has relatives. Since then, William Jordan seems to have vanished into thin air.
The FBI believes Jordan may have married and fathered at least one child during his years on the lam and that he may now be a grandfather. His family may not know of his criminal past.
Fugitive Turned Family Man?
Some have accused law enforcement of not devoting their full resources to track Jordan. Ted Prevatte is believed to have pulled the trigger that killed James Rouse, leading to speculation the Georgia police and the FBI have never made the search for Jordan a priority because the actual killer, Prevatte, is on death row.
Both the Georgia State Patrol and the FBI say they are angered by the rumors that they are not seriously looking for Jordan. They insist they are doing everything they can to try to locate him, dead or alive.
1996 Computer-Aged Image Of Jordan To Age Fifty-One
At the time of his prison escape in 1984, William Jordan had a very thin build, standing six-feet-two-inches tall and weighing one-hundred-fifty pounds. He likely is heavier today. Jordan had a ruddy complexion, brown hair, and scars on his chin, right hand, right leg, and left arm. He also had the following tattoos:
• a skeleton on his right forearm,
• a spider on his right upper arm
• a cross with the name “Sybil” on his left forearm
• the word “Louise” on his left leg.
Jordan, Circa 1984
William Junior Jordan would today be eighty-one-years-old. Authorities hope someone will recognize the mole on his forehead or perhaps a doctor will recall having removed it.
If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of William Jordan, please contact the Georgia State Patrol at (404)-624-7700 or the Atlanta FBI Office at (770)-216-3000.
A Recent Computer-Aged Image Of William Jordan
I wrote about another prisoner, John Mooney, who like Jordan, escaped from the Wayne Correctional Facility in Odum, Georgia. Unlike Jordan, Mooney has been recaptured.
The Odum facility may be a little too minimum security.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/192356417/james-addison-rouse
SOURCES:
- America’s Most Wanted
- The Anson Record
- Atlanta-Journal Constitution
- Burlington, North Carolina Times-News
- Charlotte Observer
- CNN
- Danville, Virginia Register
- FBI
- The Hunt with John Walsh
- Macon News
- The Point Enterprise (High Point, North Carolina)
- Unsolved Mysteries
- Waycross (Georgia) Journal-Herald
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