Leo Keelan once trusted Richard Lee McNair as an informant who helped the Minot (N.D.) police catch drug dealers and users. That trust shattered when McNair was charged with murder and began a series of escapes from law enforcement. Back then, in 1988, Keelan was a sergeant with the Minot Police Department's narcotics unit. He retired two years ago after serving 36 years. He knew McNair, who escaped from the U.S. Penitentiary in Pollock on Wednesday, in the mid-1980s when McNair was an airman stationed at Minot Air Force Base.
McNair, an Oklahoma native, played informant for both Minot police and the U.S. Air Force, helping the military branch catch people pilfering government property, said Keelan.
Keelan, in a telephone interview with The Town Talk on Thursday, described McNair as a police buff with a big ego, a man who is "very, very dangerous in what he can do as a con artist." He also said McNair is intelligent with no fear, vain about his looks and health conscious.
He said it was "scary" how easily McNair could befriend people and get them to help him. Keelan said McNair would take advantage of people.
On Nov. 17, 1987, McNair burglarized the Minot Farmers Union grain elevator. A grain elevator employee, Richard Kitzman, caught McNair in the act and was shot four times. He survived.
As McNair fled, he fired shots into the cab of a truck. One shot hit the driver, Jerome Theis, of Circle Pines, Minn. Theis died instantly, said Keelan.
McNair wasn't connected to the grain elevator burglary and murder until months later, said Keelan. Investigators received a tip that McNair kept a storage shed and that it was filled with stolen items, he said.
The shed and the stolen property inside were found, he said.
After his arrest, authorities discovered poems and short stories by McNair in which he described shooting people in their eyes to watch them die, he said.
"It's kind of an embarrassment to everybody," said Keelan about the informant turned criminal.
Keelan said McNair was brought into the police station in handcuffs, but he used lip balm to lubricate his hands. He slipped out of the handcuffs and out of the police station, running to his girlfriend's apartment complex. Police tracked him there and surrounded the building.
Keelan said McNair slipped out a window in his girlfriend's apartment, which was on the third floor. He went from the complex roof to a tree, but the tree limb broke and McNair crashed to the ground. He injured his back and was hospitalized.
Keelan visited McNair in the hospital, where he found McNair engrossed in a book about slain President John F. Kennedy. Keelan said McNair was fascinated with the book and particularly was interested in details of Kennedy's autopsy.
Keelan's superiors had told him to quiz McNair about his travels with the Air Force and to discover whether he had committed other crimes. McNair didn't answer, he said.
He also said that McNair apologized to him for his deception, but then commented about finding a wheelchair outfitted with studs to help him escape through the North Dakota snow.
It's the last time Keelan spoke to McNair.
"He is so full of b.s., but some of it is true," said Keelan. "He's a con artist.
"He can talk the talk," he said. "He's got that down. He's very, very dangerous in what he can do as a con artist. He's knowledgeable and intelligent."
Although Keelan hasn't spoken to McNair since 1988, he believes McNair contacted him during his second escape in 1992.
McNair had attempted an escape from the North Dakota State Penitentiary with another inmate in April 1991. That attempt was discovered and McNair was sentenced to another three years in prison to be served consecutively with his life sentence.
But McNair befriended two new inmates. Though McNair was physically fit, his two new friends were not, said Keelan. The three escaped through a ventilation duct on Oct. 9, 1992.
Keelan said McNair left the other two behind and they soon were recaptured. And not long after, Keelan received a message on his home answering machine. The caller only giggled and then hung up.
McNair was caught in Grand Island, Neb., on July 5, 1993, according to The Associated Press.
"They're gonna have to put his feet in concrete," Keelan told The Town Talk. "As long as he's breathing the air, he's gonna get loose again. He's that type of person."
Keelan said he hasn't carried a firearm since his retirement, but he is doing so now. "I don't think he has any ill will for me, but the guy is goofy," he said.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the phone doesn't ring and he doesn't giggle and hang up."
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