Former real-life 'Shawshank' inmate arrested 56 years after escape

"Get busy escaping, or get busy dying."

A man who served time at the real-life prison featured in The Shawshank Redemption has been arrested after 56 years on the run.

In 1959, Frank Freshwaters was sentenced to five years at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, notable for its use in the 1994 Oscar-nominated drama starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Later that year, Freshwaters was transferred to the Sandusky Honor Farm in Ohio to finish his sentence, according to WFTS-TV. But on September 30, 1959, Freshwaters escaped.

Freshwaters was taken into custody in 1975 by the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office in Charleston, W.V., but the governor refused to extradite the escapee back to Ohio, and Freshwaters was released.

Freshwaters, now 79, continued to live on the run, until U.S. Marshalls found him living in Melbourne, Fla. under the name William Harold Cox.

"This was one of our oldest cases that many believed to be impossible to solve," said Ohio Adult Parole Authority Regional Director Todd Ishee. "With this new cold case unit at work, we are reopening many old fugitive files with the hope that we will continue to have the success that we have seen in these last few months. Great work by the investigators on bringing this cold case to a close!"

Freshwaters admitted his identity to authorities and is awaiting extradition back to Ohio.