William Wayne Gilbert got the gun by smuggling it into the prison before the escape, but the available reporting I found does not clearly explain exactly how it was brought in. The contemporary accounts focus on the escape itself: Gilbert pulled a gun on a guard, used him to reach the control center, and then freed the other inmates.

What’s known

  • Gilbert was the inmate who initiated the breakout on July 4, 1987.
  • He used the gun to threaten a guard and gain access to the control center.
  • The source material I found says he “somehow got a gun inside prison,” but it does not give a verified, step-by-step explanation of the smuggling method.

Bottom line

The public record here supports that Gilbert already had the gun inside the prison, but it does not clearly document how he obtained or concealed it. If you want, I can also help reconstruct the full escape timeline from the historical reports.