Steven Jay Russell (born December 31, 1957) is an American

con artist A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have ...

, known for escaping from prison multiple times. ''

I Love You Phillip Morris ''I Love You Phillip Morris'' is a 2009 English-language French black comedy film based on a 1980s and 1990s real-life story of con artist, impostor and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell, as played by Jim Carrey. While incarcerated, Russ ...

'', a film about his life and crimes, was produced in 2009. In 2011, his crimes were featured on the television series '' I Almost Got Away with It'', in the episode "Got A Boyfriend to Support". He was also the subject of "On The Run", a 2005 episode of

The Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

series ''King of Cons''.

Biography

Russell was adopted in 1957 after his birth parents divorced. He was adopted by Georgia and David Russell, whose family owned a produce business. At the age of 18 he began working for the family business, and also volunteered as a reserve sheriff's deputy and played organ for his church. In 1976 he married Debbie Davis, daughter of the police chief's secretary, and their daughter, Stephanie, was born two years later. Russell and his wife divorced after he revealed to her that he was homosexual. On 20th of March, 1998, Russell posed as a millionaire from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

in an attempt to legitimise a $75,000 loan from

NationsBank NationsBank was one of the largest banking corporations in the United States, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company named NationsBank was formed through the merger of several other banks in 1991, and prior to that had been through mul ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

; when bank officials became suspicious and alerted the police, Russell feigned a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

and was transported to the hospital. Russell was placed on security watch, but he impersonated an FBI agent and called the hospital on his mobile telephone to tell them he could be released.

U.S. Marshals The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforce ...

later tracked Russell to Florida, where they arrested him on April 5, 1998, when he went to retrieve a

fax Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...

. Russell was sentenced to a total of 144 years in prison (99 years for the escapes and 45 years for subsequent scams). As of 2010, Russell is in the Allan B. Polunsky UnitRUSSELL, STEVEN L
.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails ...

. Retrieved on November 30, 2019. TDCJ ID: 00760259, SID: 05138971 on a 23-hour lockup, only having one free hour a day to shower and exercise. He was previously held in the Mark W. Michael Unit and the W.J. Estelle Unit. His maximum sentence date is March 13, 2113, and he became eligible for parole on December 15, 2020. On February 7, 2023, Russell was granted parole. His release date is still pending.

In media

Film

A film about his life and crimes was produced in 2009, named ''

'', starring Jim Carrey as Russell and

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...

as his boyfriend Phillip Morris.

Internet and print media

Since the movie went into production and Russell's story became more popular, several articles appeared in print and online uncovering lesser known details of his exploits. '' Esquire'' magazine interviewed both Russell and Morris for its feature, "The Great Escapee", while ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' published "I Love You, Phillip Morris: A Conman's Story".

Sources

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Steven Jay 1957 births 20th-century American criminals American adoptees American confidence tricksters American deputy sheriffs American escapees Impostors American gay men Place of birth missing (living people) LGBT people from North Carolina Living people People from Elizabeth City, North Carolina People from Virginia Beach, Virginia Prisoners and detainees of Texas