Robert Elliott Burns Robert Elliott Burns ( May 10 , 1892 – June 5 , 1955 ) was a World War I veteran who gained notoriety after escaping from a Georgia chain gang and writing his memoirs exposing the cruelty and injustice of the chain gang system . Biography . He was born in Palisades , New Jersey , and served in World War I as a medic . Upon his return from Europe , he was unable to recover the wage he was earning in his job and became a drifter , which is how he eventually ended up in Atlanta , Georgia in 1922 . Burns was convicted of joining two other men in the armed robbery of a grocery store , which netted the trio $ 5 . 81 and got Burns sentenced to 6 to 10 years of hard labor . Burns escaped from the chain gang with the help of another inmate who struck his restraints with a sledgehammer , bending and weakening them . He was able to escape the eyes of the guards on the pretense of a two - minute bathroom break in the trees . After evading capture , Burns made his way to Chicago , where he eventually became the editor and publisher of " Greater Chicago Magazine " . During his stay in Chicago , he became involved with a Spanish woman named Emily del Phino Pacheo , from whom he rented a room . Eventually he married her when she threatened to betray him to the local police . Seven years later , he sought a divorce in order to marry Lillian Salo , whom he professed to love . Del Phino Pacheo had made an agreement with him , but the same day she betrayed him to the authorities . Owing to his status in the community , many people helped him fight extradition to Georgia , but he surprised everyone by agreeing to return to Georgia , basing his decision on a verbal promise from state prison officials that he would serve no more than 90 days of " easy " time . Burns returned to Georgia in July 1929 to finish his prison term . He soon realized that his 45 to 90 days had turned into at least 12 months of hard labor . They tortured him even more than before . He served a brief stint in Campbell County , where he was , according to his book , treated " intelligently and fairly " . Burns later implied he was denied the promised parole after 45 days and had his term lengthened because he did not have $ 500 with which to pay off the parole board . After several failed attempts at parole , on September 4 , 1930 , Burns again escaped . He had waited until he had earned enough of the guards ' trust that he could obtain the privilege of not being chained . He then paid off a local farmer with money he had received from his brother in Newark and headed to New Jersey . Burns could not duplicate his Chicago success in New Jersey because of the Great Depression and took on odd jobs around New Jersey for a few years , all the while writing his autobiography . Burns was arrested in Newark late in 1932 , but the governor of New Jersey refused to extradite him since his book and a movie had been released and public opinion was firmly against the idea . The governor of Georgia pardoned him in 1945 , and Burns lived as a free man until his death from cancer in 1955 . His book and the movie are largely credited with the abolition of the chain gang system in the South . Media portrayals . His book has been made into two movies :