Convicted Coast killer ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ escapes prison for 2nd time in Mississippi

A Mississippi inmate convicted in the killings of two Coast men has escaped state prison for the second time in less than five years.

Michael “Pretty Boy Floyd” Wilson was able to break free from the Rankin County prison near Jackson on Sunday, the Mississippi Department of Corrections said in a Facebook post.

Road blocks have been set up at Monterey Road, the Outpost and railroad tracks near the prison off Mississippi 468 west near Pearl, MDOC said. The Rankin County Sheriff’s Office is also assisting in the manhunt for Wilson.

Wilson is serving life in prison on a total of eight sentences, MDOC said.

This is the second time Wilson has escaped prison in the state. The first time was when he was an inmate at Leakesville’s South Mississippi Correctional Facility in Greene County.

After his first escape in 2018, a Greene County newspaper publisher gave Wilson a ride and he would eventually be dropped off in Jackson County. Facebook was abuzz with rumors of sightings as authorities searched for the man convicted of murder in the 2014 beating deaths of Carmen Dale Edwards in Biloxi and Kenneth Gibson in Gulfport.

Wilson was captured in the St. Martin area two days later.

‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ would go on to say he broke out of prison in Leakesville because he feared he was going to be killed. Chris Dobbins, the attorney who represented Wilson at his sentencing in 2018, said that Wilson reported the threats to MDOC staff but nothing was done to protect him.

“He did what any reasonable person would do,” Dobbins said in 2020. “He removed himself from that situation. You heard from MDOC that he had reported those concerns and those threats.” Judge Kathy King Jackson sentenced Wilson, a habitual offender, to life in prison without parole. The judge ordered the sentence to run consecutively to two life sentences Wilson was already serving.

If you see Wilson or know of his whereabouts, contact the MDOC at 662-745-6611, or your nearest law enforcement agency.

Sun Herald reporter Margaret Baker contributed to this report.

This story was originally published February 13, 2022 at 9:00 PM.

Justin Mitchell

Sun Herald

228-604-0705

Justin Mitchell is the Sun Herald senior news editor and works on McClatchy’s audience engagement and development team. He also reports on LGBTQ issues in the Deep South, particularly focusing on Mississippi.