The former rural Arkansas police chief Grant Hardin had earned the epithet “devil in the Ozarks” because of the 2017 murder and separate 1997 rape to which he ultimately admitted. Then came his recent escape from prison by disguising himself as a guard and taking cover in the surrounding wilderness.
Much of the US was gripped by Hardin’s brazen 25 May breakout, a riveting epilogue of sorts, unfolding in real time, to the 2023 documentary whose title gave him his evocative nickname.
