felon ?

yellowbellydtoon wrote:
Am not sure how far behind i am, and am having trouble as have been fighting escaped felons untill they have one heart left.

You should be finishing those felons off. You need the payouts. You should only hold off on finishing them off if you have all the prizes for the current issue and are about to start the next issue. Otherwise you're losing out on the payouts.

yellowbellydtoon wrote:
Do they leave town after a period of time?

No, but according to what I've read there's a limit of 5 in your town at one time.