Frank Freshwaters, 79, will be released on parole following 56 years of being a fugitive on the run.

The U.S. media dubbed him "The Shawshank Fugitive" as he spent time in the 1950s at Ohio State Reformatory, the same prison used for the setting of Stephen King's story The Shawshank Redemption, before escaping.

In the past few decades Freshwaters had been living in different states under different aliases, before being discovered living off Social Security benefits under an assumed name in a trailer park in rural Brevard County, Florida last May.

He was arrested and jailed in 1958 for the manslaughter and was given a suspended sentence of one to 20 years in prison along with five years probation, before going on the run in 1959.