Fugitive prisoner trying on false beards (9)
I believe the answer is:
absconder
'fugitive' is the definition.
(absconder is a kind of fugitive)
'trying on false beards' is the wordplay.
'trying' becomes 'con' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'on' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'false' is an anagram indicator.
'beards' is an anagram of 'absder'.
'con' going into 'absder' is 'ABSCONDER'.
'prisoner' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for absconder that I've seen before include "Runaway" , "runner" , "Arrest evader" .)