Robert E. Burns

Robert Elliott Burns (May 10, 1892 – June 5, 1955) was a World War I veteran who gained notoriety after escaping from a Georgia chain gang and writing his memoirs, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!, exposing the cruelty and injustice of the chain gang system.

Robert Burns was born in Palisades, New Jersey. In 1912, he had left his family and drifted throughout the United States as a laborer. Two days after the United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917, he enlisted in the Army as a medic. As a medic, Burns was present for many of America's major engagements in World War I including the Battle of Chateau-Thierry and the Battle of St. Mihiel. Upon his return from Europe, suffering deeply from what his brother, Vincent Burns, deemed "a typical shell-shock case." His deteriorating psychological condition coupled with his inability to recover his pre-war job, or the wages he was earning, caused Burns to become a drifter once again.

Burns eventually ended up in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1921. It was in Atlanta that Burns was tricked into participating in a robbery of a grocery store which netted the participants a total of $5.81. For this crime, Burns was sentenced to six to 10 years of hard labor on a Georgia chain gang. In 1921, since Georgia did not have a state prison, Burns was sentenced to a different kind of prison system: convict leasing. As a member of Georgia's convict lease system, Burns was forced to complete back-breaking labor for the profit of the state. As a prisoner of the convict lease system, Burns was forced to endure the most inhumane of conditions: endless labor, inadequate shelter, constant beatings, and insufficient food.

Burns escaped from the chain gang with the help of another inmate who struck his restraints with a sledgehammer, bending and weakening them. He was able to escape the eyes of the guards while they thought he was taking his five-minute rest. After evading capture, Burns made his way to Chicago, where he eventually became the editor and publisher of Greater Chicago Magazine. In this magazine he published articles about his life as a member of a Georgia chain gang and the brutality he was forced to endure. During his stay in Chicago, he became involved with a divorcee named Emily Del Pino Pacheco, from whom he rented a room. She supported Burns in his real estate plans and helped him set up his magazine with her savings. They married in 1926.

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