By DON BABWIN and MICHAEL TARM

CHICAGO (AP) - This week's daring escape from a downtown Chicago jail bore striking similarities to the last time anyone broke out of the high-rise facility, nearly three decades ago.

 

In that 1985 escape, two convicted murderers broke their cell window and shimmied down the side of the Metropolitan Correctional Center. They had a car waiting to take them to Milwaukee.

 

Authorities say convicted bank robbers Kenneth Conley and Joseph Banks also broke a window before using a rope made of bed sheets to rappel about 20 stories down the building. The FBI says surveillance footage shows they then caught a cab. They had changed out of their orange jail-issued jumpsuits.

 

The manhunt for Conley and Banks has expanded, and the FBI is offering a $50,000 reward. Their whereabouts remained unknown early Thursday.

 

Copyright © 2012 Associated Press