Career
During World War I Robert Burns served as a medic.Upon his return from Europe, he was unable to recover the
wage he was earning in his job and became a drifter, which is how he eventually ended up in Atlanta, Georgia
in 1922. Burns was convicted of joining two other men in the armed robbery of a grocery store, which netted the trio $5.81 and got Burns sentenced to 6 to 10 years of hard labor.He was able to escape the eyes of the guards on the pretense of a two-minute bathroom break in the trees. After evading capture, Burns made his way to Chicago, where he eventually became the editor and publisher of Greater Chicago Magazine.Burns returned to Georgia in July 1929 to finish his prison term.After several failed attempts at parole, on September 4, 1930, Burns again escaped. Burns could not duplicate his Chicago success in New Jersey because of the Great Depression and took on odd jobs around New Jersey for a few years, all the while writing his autobiography. Burns was rearrested in Newark late in 1932, but the governor of New Jersey refused to extradite him since his book and a movie had been released and public opinion was firmly against the idea. The governor of Georgia pardoned him in 1945, and Burns lived as a
free man until his death from cancer in 1955. His book and the movie are largely credited with the abolition of the chain gang system in the South.