NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It may be the end of the line for "Little Houdini."
If that's an unfamiliar name, he's an escape artist who once stole Crystal Gayle's tour bus.
Johnny Depp considered playing him in a movie, and there's a song about his life.
But Christopher Daniel Gay's outlaw days are over.
Gay is a little guy with a way of sweet talking guards and escaping.
But those were from county jails, and now he's looking at hard times in federal prison.
Gay has escaped from jails so many times in Tennessee that he came to be known as the "Little Houdini."
During an exclusive jailhouse interview in 2009, he told me how he did it.
"It's been willpower, and people letting their guard down."
Gay is perhaps best known for stealing country star Crystal Gayle's tour bus after an escape back in 2007.
He said he needed it to go visit his dying mother.
"I wanted to see her because she wouldn't have long."
His exploits made national news, and he earned a measure of fame.
But no more.
This week Gay was sentenced to nearly a decade in federal prison after he was convicted as the ringleader of a multi-state crime spree stealing everything from trucks to RVs to a Corvette.
He was caught after very nearly injuring several officers during a high-speed chase in Virginia.
Now Gay, 46, claims to be dying from cancer and is asking to be transferred back to Tennessee for compassionate release to spend time with his grandchildren.
Based on his past history, the odds of that are slim.
You wonder if Gay ever considers what he said in that interview years ago?
"When I look back — the escapes — it was chicken. I should have done my time."
Unless he finds another way to escape again, he is likely facing the rest of his life behind bars.
He is still facing three pending cases of attempted first-degree murder for a high-speed chase involving law enforcement officers.
