By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
A career criminal who escaped custody at Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday by dressing like an attorney in a three-piece suit reportedly fled to his mother's Upper East Side home to change his clothes.
Ronald Tackman, who celebrates his 56th birthday today, then bid his unsuspecting 81-year-old mother goodbye, the New York Post reports. He is now the focus of the a police manhunt.
“I wish he would come out and turn himself in," Tackman's mom, Genevieve Devine, told the Daily News. She said she did not know that when he turned up he'd fled custody, and had no idea about his current whereabouts.
Tackman faces charges in a spate of armed robberies that could put him in jail for the rest of his life, should he be caught.
Tackman has a history as an escape artist, according to the New York Times. The paper said he twice tried to hijack jail buses in 1985. During the second attempt, he fired a handmade weapon.
He was unsuccessful in both bids at freedom, unlike Wednesday's attempt.
Tackman escaped the court by posing as an attorney, a feat made easier by the suit he was sporting. A court officer even addressed Tackman as “counselor” on his way out, according to the Daily News.
Tackman had been transported downtown by bus from Rikers Island, where he has been held since last May on charges he carried out two armed robberies in Manhattan and Queens.
He was appearing before Judge Richard Carruthers on charges of a 2007 armed robbery. He was supposed to appear in a Queens court on similar robbery charges today.
The court was in lockdown for over an hour as SWAT teams hunted him and flyers were distributed to court personnel. He is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall, approximately 150 lbs, with black hair and blue eyes.
A line over a block long stretched outside the court as people waited for entry. Among those shut out of the building were Anthony Marshall, the defendant in the Astor fraud trial, and his wife, Charlene.
Correction Commissioner Dora Schriro ordered a full review of security procedures in the wake of yesterday's breach.
