Six-time convicted burglar, prison escapee dies at Chicago hospital

A man convicted six times of burglary since 1977 and escaping prison died Wednesday night of a terminal illness at a Chicago hospital.

Dabney Tatum, 61, was on medical furlough from Stateville Correctional Center in southwest suburban Crest Hill, where he was serving 28 years for residential burglarly, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections website. He was also serving two years for aggravated battery to a government employee, records show.

Tatum, who had been suffering from a terminal illness, was pronounced dead at 7:50 p.m. at University of Illinois Hospitals, according to IDOC spokesman Tom Shaer and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. It was not immediately known how long Tatum had been receiving treatment.

Records show Tatum had been in and out of prison since 1977 for six different burglary convictions, four of those for residential thefts, in both Cook and DuPage counties. He was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for escaping a penal institution in 1979, according to the IDOC website.

Most recently, Tatum was sentenced to 28 years in Oct. 2006 for residential burglary, court records show.