Hopkins County Sheriff's Office via AP

Booking photo of John Marlin King

Hopkins County Sheriff's Office via Reuters

Booking photo of Brian Allen Tucker

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — An inmate suspected of strangling a man with shoelaces escaped with a fellow prisoner from a Texas jail on Tuesday, triggering a manhunt for what authorities described as two dangerous fugitives, possibly clad in nothing but their underwear.

"They squeezed their way through the fence somehow," said Sergeant Brad Cummings, a spokesman for the Hopkins County Sheriff's office in Sulphur Springs, Texas, about 80 miles northeast of Dallas.

The men escaped from the county jail recreation yard and their black-and-white prison uniforms were later found on the outskirts of the detention facility, which has a capacity to house about 200 inmates, he said.

"Officers were notified that the two subjects had left the jail, and we immediately set up a command post and notified all surrounding agencies, and all schools within our county are on lockdown," Cummings said.

He said one of the escapees, Brian Allen Tucker, 44, was awaiting trial for capital murder stemming from the 2011 killing of an acquaintance, 63-year-old Bobby Riley, who was strangled with shoelaces before being robbed.

John Marlin King, 39, a burglary suspect in another case unrelated to the shoelace killing, escaped along with Tucker.

"We do not know if they have weapons of any kind at this point, but they should be considered extremely dangerous," Cummings said.

Since the men discarded their jail uniforms, Cummings said they may have fled with nothing but their prison-issue white T-shirts and boxer shorts to protect them from the elements.

"It could be that they're possibly just in their underwear," he said.

Four prisoners, including a man convicted of double murder, escaped from a central Kansas jail before dawn on Wednesday, authorities said.

One was quickly apprehended, and another was caught at 5:30 p.m. The other two, including the convicted murderer, remain at large, the Kansas City Star reported.

The men, described as "armed and dangerous," escaped from the Ottawa County Jail, where they were being kept as prisoners of the Kansas Department of Corrections, said Jeremy Barclay, department spokesman.

The two men who remain at large are Santos M. Carrera-Morales, 22, who was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, and Eric Jerome James, 22, who was convicted of kidnapping in commission of a crime, three charges of aggravated burglary and criminal damage to property, the Kansas City Star reported.

Drew Edward Wade, 21, convicted of aggravated battery and attempted robbery, was caught early Wednesday evening.

The inmates had been transferred to the jail because of overcrowding at the state prison, The Associated Press reported.

Kansas Department Of Corrections / AP

Eric James, 22, Santos Carrera-Morales, 22, and Drew Wade, 21, three of four people who broke out of the Ottawa County Jail in Minneapolis, Kan. on Wednesday morning. Wade was caught; Carrera-Morales and James remain at large. A fourth inmate was captured soon after the escape.

Barclay said details of the escape were being investigated and that no staff were seriously hurt in the incident. The inmates overpowered guards with homemade knives after complaining about a broken water pipe in their cell.

North Ottawa County schools superintendent Larry Combs called off classes Wednesday out of an abundance of caution, according to The Associated Press. 

"We're a small town," Combs said. "The kids in the country would probably be fine, but if the escapees were on the streets and we have 300 kids who walk to school on a nice spring day, I felt it was in the best interest of the kids to keep them out of schools today so they're not a target.

"This was one of those decisions that's not on the books," he added. "We have crisis plans for almost all situations, but a jailbreak is not on that list."

The public should contact the Department of Corrections with any sightings or other information on the three men. They may be in a multiple-colored Nissan automobile, Barclay said.

Anyone with information on the escapees are asked to call authorities at 1-800-572-7463 or 785-472-5501.

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Bank robbers John and Clarence Anglin made multiple escape attempts from lesser prisons after their 1958 conviction. So they were sent to the ultimate lockup of the day: Alcatraz.

On June 11, 1962, the brothers escaped with another man. Did they drown or are they still on the run today?

This summer for the 50th anniversary of their escape, Marie Anglin Widner -- sister to Clarence and John -- along with her sons are planning a trip to San Francisco to visit the famed prison, where they will honor their escapee kin, NBC/ABC station WALB of Albany, Ga., reported on its website.

 John and Clarence Anglin robbed a bank in Columbia, Ala., with toy guns in 1958. A few days later, they were captured in Cincinnati and sentenced to long prison terms. Their escape attempts eventually landed them at Alcatraz.

"The only reason they put them in Alcatraz was because they could not keep them anywhere else they put them," Widner, of Lee County, Ga., told WALB. "They kept getting away."

At Alcatraz, the brothers met Frank Morris, the mastermind of the operation, which involved elaborate digging and handcrafted dummies and life rafts. Authorities believed the men probably drowned in the cold, turbulent waters around Alcatraz.

But not Widner, who told WALB that her brothers did not die during the escape. "We know they are OK," she said.

If the brothers survived the swim, they would be the only people to successfully escape The Rock. They would be in their 80s today.

Widner's sons David and Ken recall FBI visits to the house and bugged phone lines. They told WALB that the feds stopped by just months ago.

The family is hoping to persuade the government to return some of the brothers' items.

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AP

Kevin Lunsman, a kidnapped American teenager, talks to Filipino soldiers inside the Philippine military compound in the southern Philippines following his escape from suspected al-Qaida-linked militants over the weekend.

The father of an American teenager who escaped his kidnappers in the southern Philippine jungle over the weekend called his son a "hero" on Sunday.

"I'm so proud of my son, he's a hero, he wandered two days through the jungle," Heiko Lunsmann told ABC affiliate WSET in Lynchburg, Va., on Sunday.

Kevin Lunsmann, 14, escaped from suspected al-Qaida-linked militants and wandered without shoes for two days in the jungle before villagers found him, ending his five-month captivity, officials said Sunday.

"That was a tough time, it was tough five months," Heiko Lunsmann said in the first interview since his 14-year-old Kevin was taken. "I only know he is a hero and I'm so happy he escaped."

Initial reports indicated that Kevin Lunsmann had been released, but the teen told Philippine officials and his family that he evaded his four armed captors by telling them that he would take a bath in a stream and then dashing for freedom on Friday.

He followed a river down a mountain until villagers found him late the next day, local officials said according to The Associated Press.  Exhausted, hungry and still stunned, the boy initially fled from the villagers, local officials told The Associated Press.

"He was in fear so there was a bit of a chase before the villagers convinced him that they were friends," Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo said told The Associated Press. He said the boy was fine, but was exhausted and had bruises on his arms and feet.

City Mayor Celso Lobregat said he has been flown to Manila and turned over to U.S. officials there. U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas said the boy would be reunited with his family soon.

• 2 kidnapped Americans allowed to talk to family

Lobregat said the boy has talked by phone with his Filipino-American mother, Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, who was in the United States. He, his mother and a Filipino cousin were vacationing with relatives on an island near Zamboanga City when they were snatched July 12 and taken by boat to nearby Basilan.

The captors then called the family in Campbell County, Virginia, to demand a ransom, officials said.

The mother was freed two months ago after she was dropped off by boat at a wharf on Basilan. The boy's Filipino cousin escaped from their captors last month when Filipino army forces managed to get near an Abu Sayyaf camp in the mountains of Basilan, about 550 miles south of Manila.

Army Col. Ricardo Visaya said the kidnappers were believed led by Abu Sayyaf militant Puruji Indama, who is notorious for ransom kidnappings and beheadings. Troops were hunting down the militants and clashed with one group in Akbar town, near Lamitan, which may have distracted the kidnappers and gave Lunsmann a chance to flee, he said.

When Visaya asked the boy if he was freed, which would indicate that ransom was paid, or escaped, Lunsmann replied that he fled from his captors.

"No, I really did it myself," he quoted Lunsmann as telling him. Visaya said he later handed the boy to American troops based in Basilan.

Msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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