One of three men who sparked

an extensive manhunt in Fayette County over 27 years ago has been arrested

for the murder of two Pike County men at a hunting lodge there in January.

Daniel Warren, 64, of Oglethorpe

County, was arrested for the deaths of Tony Benefield and Mitchell Green,

who were found dead at the lodge Benefield owned, according to a spokesman

for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Warren had been paroled from

the prison system for the previous offenses, which involved holding a

Pike County bank manager and his family hostage back in 1973.

Former Fayette County Deputy

Ed Lynch, one of five deputies serving under Sheriff James Jones at the

time, recalled the incident for The Citizen earlier this week. He said

the manhunt was the largest ever to be conducted in this area at the time.

Many residents took to carrying

their personal firearms for protection "more than usual," Lynch

said.

"They weren't used to

locking their doors and their cars," Lynch said. "But those

men were considered armed and dangerous, really."

The county was just beginning

to have more daytime burglaries, but none ever occurred at night, Lynch

remembered.

"And of course, we enforced

the traffic laws," he said. "It was quiet then."

At that time, Warren was one

of three suspects in that case, which involved the theft of over $18,000

from a bank in Molina, according to news accounts. The three fled to the

Fayette area, starting the manhunt which involved more than 100 law enforcement

officers operating roadblocks throughout the county, according to news

accounts.

Warren's cohorts were arrested

in Tyrone the day after their escape from Pike County, but he managed

to elude authorities a little bit longer. Eventually, he was convicted

of charges including kidnapping and armed robbery, and he was sentenced

to life in prison.

The search for the trio put

many Fayette residents on edge, leaving some to carry their personal weapons

with them for protection, according to newspaper accounts.

A sledgehammer was used to

break into the bank manager's home also. During the incident, the three

suspects held the bank manager, his wife and his son against their will.

The trio took the manager to

the bank early the following morning, when the timed lock would allow

the safe to be opened. Two female bank employees also were taken hostage

at the time, before the trio secured $18,000 in cash and got away.

Trained bloodhounds and two

helicopters were used to aid in the search of Fayette County, which lasted

nearly a week before the operations were shut down. In addition to the

Sheriff's Department, the police forces of Fayetteville and Peachtree

City participated in the search along with the Georgia State Patrol and

other agencies.

Sheriff Jones himself pulled

over the three suspects in a stolen station wagon on Ga. Highway 74 near

Senoia, according to news accounts. But the trio fled on foot and eluded

immediate capture.

Two of the suspects, A.D. Allen

Jr. and Charles W. Patrick Allen, were caught later buying food at the

Tyrone Self Serve Grocery.

Allen was a notorious figure

in criminal circles back then, and his criminal history was documented

in a portion of the book "Murder in the Peach State" by Maj.

Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.

Lynch was chief deputy of the

Sheriff's Department for a while, and he lived at the jail where his wife

would cook for the few inmates that inhabited the jail from time to time.

Later, Lynch became chief of

police for Fayetteville before retiring in 1991.

As for now, Warren and two

other co-conspirators have been charged with murder for the recent deaths.

If convicted, it's unlikely Warren will ever be paroled again.