Jubilant Friends Gather to Honor Freed Electrician

It was a last-minute party for Tinsel Town’s newest celebrity. The hosts anxiously wondered Sunday if their longtime friend and co-worker could find time to celebrate between television appearances and radio talk shows.

But Vincent Pelliccia put their worries to rest as he stepped through the doorway of the Burbank Veterans of Foreign Wars hall, right on cue, greeting the nearly 50 well-wishers who gathered to commemorate his new-found freedom.

Television lights shone and video cameras focused on the Newhall resident who was pardoned last week for escaping from a Virginia chain gang 41 years ago.

“This could happen in no other place but America,” a grateful Pelliccia told reporters.

Since receiving the news of his pardon last week, Pelliccia, 62, has spent much of his time on television and radio talk shows and has fielded offers from a number of television production companies.

‘Nothing Definite’

“There’s nothing definite yet,” he said.

Pelliccia was convicted at the age of 19 for “store-breaking” in Norfolk, Va., records showed. He served only four months of a 10-year prison sentence before walking away from a chain gang. He later moved to California, where he raised five children and worked as a movie-studio electrician. He told no one of his past.

But Aug. 4, his life as a fugitive came to an end. A computer check on his license, prompted by a chance encounter with a man under surveillance by the Los Angeles police, revealed a 41-year-old warrant for his arrest, authorities said.

“When they came in, they said they were reluctant to arrest me, but that they had to do their job,” Pelliccia said of the officials. “And all I could think about was that everything I had worked for and planned for my children was coming to an end. I looked at it, and it was all gone.”

For more than two weeks, Pelliccia sat in Los Angeles County Jail, feeling only numbness, he said, as he awaited word from Virginia authorities who would decide his fate.

But, on Wednesday, the good news came: Virginia Gov. Gerald L. Baliles issued the pardon.

‘It’s Over’

“I went through life knowing that someday it would happen,” Pelliccia said. “I’m extremely pleased that it finally did materialize and that it’s over.”

“It’s like he’s been reborn,” said Robert Kibala, one of the weekend partygoers who worked with Pelliccia for more than 20 years. “He looks like he lost 10 years from his age.”

Pelliccia’s relief was obvious Sunday as he bantered with reporters.

When one reporter asked him what the future held, he quipped: “Maybe a movie with me and Fawn Hall.”