Texas Seven Blended In on the Lam

Jan. 25, 2001 -- Until the case of the Texas Seven was featured on national television, citizens around a trailer park in Colorado mistook the notorious prison escapees for a group of friendly religious missionaries attempting to be hip.

Neighbors got used to loud Christian music booming from their trailer, and for three weeks the seven fugitives apparently did not slip up in their ruse.

Their identities were not betrayed by the fact that they were seven men living together, nor by the arsenal of guns and weapons authorities say they had in their trailer. Even the crudely dyed hair some of the men were using as disguises did not give them away — and was taken as an attempt to be stylish.

"You know, we actually commented at how silly [George] Rivas looked because he had this yellow hair and brown eyebrows and everything," said Gina Holder, who with her husband Wade runs the Woodland Park, Colo., trailer park where the men stayed. "But really, we just blew it off as trying to be faddish."

Fugitives Captured

Four of the men — George Rivas, Michael Rodriguez, Randy Halprin and Joseph Garcia — were seized by authorities on Monday after a tip by the Holders, and a fifth, Larry Harper, committed suicide as police closed in. Two other men, Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury, surrendered at a Colorado Springs hotel on Wednesday.

"We attempted to be as friendly and neighborly as we could," Murphy said in a television interview before he gave up. "As far as the Christian meetings, that was only one man, and he was the man who committed suicide. That was part of the cover, I guess you could say. He was trying to pass us off as like a church work group traveling around."

As the Holders spoke on ABC's Good Morning America today, Wade Holder said not even a peek inside the men's trailer to flip a circuit breaker raised his suspicions. He saw no evidence of any arsenal there.

"I had no idea," he said. "The place was very neat and clean."

Bible Studies, Real Estate and Cars

In fact, until a friend of the Holders drew their attention to the men's mug shots and story featured on the television show, America's Most Wanted, the escaped convicts apparently blended in just fine.

"We did Bible studies on Thursday [with] Harper," Wade Holder said. "I talked with Rivas many times about cars, houses. We're real estate agents so we talked about housing. I talked with Newbury about mechanical work. He worked on cars at their place. They put brakes on a Cherokee."

Steve Bodie, a neighbor, noticed some possibly un-Christian tattoos on Donald Newbury's body, but he didn't do anything about it at the time.

"They sort of looked like jailhouse tattoos," he said. "But I didn't know. And everybody was telling me that it was Christians with a Christian group, and so I didn't know if he was a born-again Christian or what was going on with him."

Although he, too, was not suspicious at the time, Holder said the true identity of his tenants makes sense, in retrospect.

"I think they were getting ready to do something bad," he said. "I think they were getting ready to do one more last bad deal, maybe two or three spots or something, and maybe split from there. Because they were starting to get different vehicles, you know. They showed up in a Suburban, and then the motor home, then the Suburban went away, the Cherokee came in, the van came in."

‘Very Personable’

Holder was not the only one fooled. A convenience store clerk said she remembers amiable grocery runs by Rivas — who since has told a newspaper that he shot and killed Aubrey Hawkins, an Irving, Texas, police officer who allegedly interrupted a robbery of guns from a sporting goods store while the Texas Seven were on the run.

"He was very friendly, very personable, talked a lot, but it was just chitchat," said the clerk, Sammie McCombs.

Larry Harper seemed especially convincing as a born-again Christian, said a park resident.

"He said, 'I want you to know that this Bible study is the highlight of my whole life,'" Pansy Jiles said. "He said, 'I'm looking forward to this Bible study every Thursday.'"

The Holders said they formed the strongest bond with Harper, and were sad to have to turn him in.

"In fact, I went back, after reporting [to the police] … and brother Harper was in one of my people's trailer," Wade Holder said.

Holder said he gave Harper a hug, and said it was "devastating" soon afterwards to hear the self-inflicted gunshot that took Harper's life.

"Even after I knew, it was amazing to me," he said. "I don't think reality really sunk in for a couple of days."

ABCNEWS' Mike Von Fremd and Good Morning America contributed to this report.