Most Famous historical escapes

There have been many famous escapes throughout history.

  • In 1756 Italian writer Giacomo Casanova famously managed to escape from one of the most secure prisons of his time: the Doge's Palace.
  • The Great Escape, 76 Allied POWs (primarily Commonwealth airmen) escaped from Stalag Luft III during World War Two. 50 of the escaped POWs were rounded up and shot by the Gestapo, while only 3 succeeded in reaching neutral territories.
  • The Libby Prison Escape occurred on 10 February 1864, when 109 Union officers escaped from Libby Prison, a Confederate POW camp in Richmond, Virginia during the U.S. Civil War. Of the 109, 59 succeeded in making it back through Federal lines.
  • Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin escaped from 'inescapable' Alcatraz Island; although the fate of the escapees is unclear.
  • John Dillinger served time at the Indiana state penitentiary at Michigan City, until 1933, when he was paroled. Within four months, he was back in jail in Lima, Ohio, but the gang sprang him, killing the jailer Sheriff Jessie Sarber. Most of the gang was captured again by the end of the year in Tucson, Arizona due to a fire at the Historic Hotel Congress. Dillinger alone was sent to the Lake County jail in Crown Point, Indiana. He was to face trial for the suspected killing of Officer William O'Malley during a bank shootout in East Chicago, Indiana, some time after his escape from jail. During this time on trial, the famous photograph was taken of Dillinger putting his arm on prosecutor Robert Estill's shoulder when suggested to him by reporters.
  • On March 3, 1934, Dillinger escaped from the "escape-proof" (as it was dubbed by local authorities at the time) Crown Point, Indiana county jail which was guarded by many police and national guardsmen. Newspapers reported that Dillinger had escaped using a fake gun made from wood blackened with shoe polish.
  • In December 1979 political prisoners Tim Jenkin, Stephen Lee and Alex Moumbaris escaped from South Africa's maximum-security Pretoria Prison. After 18 months of plotting, testing, preparing, and learning how to pick locks and forge keys, the trio escaped the prison the same way they came in: through 10 locked doors.
  • Soviet spy George Blake escaped from Wormwood Scrubs on 22 October 1966, assisted by Pat Pottle, Michael Randle and Sean Bourke. Both Blake and Bourke reached the safety of the Soviet Union.
  • German Naval Air Service Kapitänleutnant Gunter Plüschow escaped from the Donington Hall prisoner of war camp in 1915.
  • Colditz Castle was used as an 'escape-proof' prisoner of war camp during World War II; over the course of 300 escape attempts 130 prisoners escaped, of which 30 eventually managed to reach friendly territory. Escapees tunneled, disguised themselves as guards, workmen or women, snuck away through sewer drains, and even planned to use a glider to get over the wall. (Further research has proven that the glider attempt would almost certainly have been successful, but the War ended before it was to be put into action. By this time the glider had been fully assembled.)
  • André Devigny, a French Resistance Fighter during World War 2, escaped Montluc Military Prison in Lyon with his cellmate in April 1943.
  • Accused safe cracker Alfie Hinds tried to proclaim his innocence by repeatedly walking out of prison. He became famous for escaping from Nottingham Prison after sneaking through the locked doors and over a 20-foot prison wall for which he became known as "Houdini" Hinds. He later escaped from the Law Courts at the Old Bailey. Escorted by two guards, he went to the lavatory where they removed his handcuffs outside. Once inside, Hinds bundled the handcuffs and snapped the padlock onto screw eyes inserted on the door by his unknown accomplices and escaped into the crowd on Fleet Street. Hinds sealed his notoriety by making a third escape from Chelmsford Prison.
  • Jack Sheppard escaped from prison several times, using elaborate planning, and careful noting of the time that guards patrolled certain areas.
  • The escape of Lucien Rivard in Canada in 1965. Rivard was consequently named the Canadian Newsmaker of the Year by the Canadian Press.
  • Before being sentenced to 12 years in the Federal Corrections Institution at Petersburg, Virginia in April 1971, Frank W. Abagnale is said to have escaped from both a British VC-10 airliner, and the Federal Detention Center in Atlanta, Georgia. His autobiography was later adapted to the screen for the 2002 release of Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
  • In 1984, six death row inmates escaped Mecklenburg Correctional Center, making it the largest mass death row escape in American history. All were recaptured within 18 days, and all six men would eventually be executed. The final executon took place in 1996.
  • Claude Dallas escaped from a penitentiary in Idaho in 1986 and spent a year on the run.
  • Danny Ray Horning escaped from the Arizona State Prison in Florence, Arizona on May 12, 1992, and a 55-day manhunt ensued as Horning fled the authorities. The pursuit ended on July 5, 1992, near Sedona, Arizona. Horning led authorities hundreds of miles through the Arizona wilderness, and committed numerous kidnappings during the manhunt.
  • 1996, August. Englishman David McMillan escapes from Thailand’s Klong Prem prison – sometimes called the Bangkok Hilton – while awaiting trial on drug charges. McMillan cut the bars of his shared cell, scaled four walls before dropping over the electrified outer wall using a bamboo ladder, and then skirted the moat while hiding his face under an umbrella from the prison factory. The break-out described in ESCAPE (published 2007).
  • Prisoners used guns to escape Whitemoor (HM Prison)
  • In 1998, the Belgian child molester Marc Dutroux notoriously managed to escape for a few hours due to an embarrassing series of events. He was caught the same afternoon, but the incident forced two politicians to resign and deepened the loss of faith in the Belgian judicial system.
  • Martin Gurule escapes from Texas Death Row in 1998. Found dead a few days later.
  • The Texas 7 escape on December 13, 2000.
  • In New York, two convicted murders escape from Elmira State Penitentiary in July 2003, both recaptured in 2 days.
  • Brian Nichols escaped from the Fulton County courthouse in Atlanta, by overpowering a guard. He then murdered a judge, a court reporter, a police officer and US Customs Agent. He then held a woman named Ashley Smith hostage for a night in her own home, before he allowed her to leave to visit her daughter. Once she was released, she called the police, and he surrendered peacefully to SWAT officers who arrived on the scene.
  • On November 4, 2005, Texas Death Row Inmate Charles Victor Thompson escaped from the Harris County Jail by acquiring a set of street clothes and pretending to be a representative from the State Attorney General's office to fool the corrections officers. He was recaptured two days later in Shreveport, Louisiana, 200 miles from where he escaped.
  • Richard Lee McNair has escaped from custody three times, including from a federal maximum-security prison in April 2006. He is still at large.
  • Kelly Allen Frank (who had plotted to kidnap the infant son of talk-show host David Letterman) and William John Willcutt escape from a Montana prison on June 8, 2007. Both were recaptured on June 13, 2007.
Based on wiki

Escape from a maximum-security Texas prison

The brazen escape of seven inmates from a maximum-security Texas prison in 2001 has quickly become the stuff of a crime thriller whose ending is not yet known. The escapees remain at large, elusive despite a huge manhunt that has intensified since the fugitives were charged with the slaying of a police officer.

But as investigators follow up more than 2,000 tips, all but a few leading nowhere, the prison break has prompted broader concerns about security inside the Texas prison system -- now the largest in the country -- and a political debate about how to respond.

The inmates escaped from the Connally Unit in South Texas. They managed to subdue several prison employees, take their clothes and escape by convincing a guard that they were maintenance workers. Mr. Stringfellow attributed the escape to ''several breakdowns'' in procedure by individual guards, which he said will be outlined in the report.

But others say that to blame the incident solely on a handful of guards ignores the larger problems facing the system, namely that too few guards are responsible for a growing number of hardened offenders serving longer sentences with less incentive to behave. Union officials representing prison guards say the Connally unit was understaffed by 22 officers at the time of the escape, including a guard who should have been positioned at the gate where the inmates left.

Prison statistics show that the number of escapes throughout the system has actually dropped since the mid-1990's. Mr. Stringfellow said that all but 1 of the 245 inmates who had escaped in the history of the state's prison system had been caught. That lone exception is currently in Mexico.

But the statistics also show that violence inside the prisons has risen sharply in recent years, with the number of attacks on guards more than doubling from 1996 to 2000, from 918 to 2,267. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported this week that the Connally Unit from which the inmates escaped had reported 752 assaults against employees since it opened in July 1995, the most of any Texas prison unit.

As the tips on the prison escapees continue to mount, none appear to have brought investigators anything solid on where the criminals might be. Unconfirmed sightings of the men, who are believed to still be together, have been reported throughout Texas and in Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisiana and New Mexico. The escapees have been charged in the killing of a police officer in the robbery of a sporting goods store on Dec. 24. A reward of $200,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest.

based on the NYTimes article

6 Convicts, Including 3 Murderers, Escape From a Prison in Illinois

LEAD: Six convicts, including three murderers, escaped from the Joliet Correctional Center on February 12, 1990, apparently by cutting through metal bars, the state police said. One was captured later in that day.

Six convicts, including three murderers, escaped from the Joliet Correctional Center early today, apparently by cutting through metal bars, the state police said. One was captured later in the day.

The escapees, who had been separated from other inmates as disciplinary problems, were considered extremely dangerous and may have been armed with cutting tools when they fled, the authorities said.

A search for the men with dogs and an airplane was called off because they apparently separated, said Trooper Thomas Miller of the State Police.

The recaptured man, Tommy Munoz, was seized about 5:30 P.M. at his cousin's Chicago home by law-enforcement officers who had staked it out, said a State Department of Corrections spokesman, Nic Howell. The 22-year-old convict was serving a sentence for narcotics violations and intimidation.

The state police originally reported that the men were discovered missing at 4:55 A.M., but a spokesman for the Department of Corrections later said the discovery was made after an inmate count at 7 A.M.

About 100 corrections officers trained to deal with escapes helped the state police and local law-enforcement officers in the search.

The inmates cut through bars on their cells, broke a window, cut through bars outside the window and climbed a fence to get away, said Mr. Howell.

The prison, which has been overcrowded in recent years, is one of the state's four maximum-security prisons and one of two in Joliet. It houses 1,300 inmates, 500 more than it was built to hold.

The escapees still at large were Daniel Johnson, 24. of Buru, Tenn., imprisoned for murder; James F. Allen, 40, of Chicago, three murders; Dave Rodriguez, 21, of Chicago, murder; Terry W. Colburn, 21, of Bloomington, Ill., burglary, and Ronald Roach, in his 20's, of Wyoming, Ill., burglary.

Based on the NYTimes article

4 Delaware Inmates Escape Using Prison Sewer System

Four inmates, including two convicted of murderer and one convicted of rape, cut their way through a steel-reinforced window and escaped through a prison sewer system on December 2, 1986 at the Delaware Correctional Center, the authorities said.

The hunt for the escaped prisoners immediately spread through Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland, officials said.

They were believed to be armed with a shotgun in a car they stole outside the prison.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations was called in to assist, said Cpl. William Eubank, state police spokesman.

The prisoners were discovered missing at a 2 A.M. bedcheck in their medium-security building within the central compound at the prison near this central Delaware community, Corporal Eubank said.

The four men apparently cut through a steel window-frame in the building, climbed outside, then descended through a manhole inside the compound, he said.

Based on the NYTimes article

5 Women Escape From State Prison

Five female inmates apparently squeezed between steel bars on a window to escape in December, 1984 from a maximum-security section of the Niantic Correctional Institution, the state's only prison for women, officials said.

It was found between 10 P.M. and 10:30 P.M. Saturday that the women were missing, during a bed check at the prison, said Connie Wilks, a spokesman for the State Correction Department.

They were last seen in the prison about 9:30 P.M., she said.

The authorities were investigating how the women got between the bars, which are 15 inches high and spaced 7 3/4 inches apart, covering the entire window, the spokesman said. Niantic Correctional Institution is ''open- campus style, with no fences around the perimeter,'' she said.

Based on the NYTimes article

Escape by 3 Foiled At L.I. Prison

Guards at the Long Island State Correctional Facility foiled an escape on February 14, 1984 by three inmates, one of whom plunged 45 feet to the ground when a rope made of bed sheets and blankets broke, officials said.

The injured inmate, 25-year-old James A. Duffin, was reported in critical condition at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore.

The two other prisoners made it to the ground but were captured about 200 feet away from the building, said Lou Ganim, a spokesman for the State Department of Correctional Services.

He said guards had noticed the makeshift rope hanging from a seventh-floor window shortly after 5 A.M. The three inmates were awaiting court appearances in New York City, Mr. Ganim said.

They were among about 200 prisoners lodged by court order at the 1,000-bed facility since last fall to relieve overcrowding in New York City jails. Two prisoners were killed there in separate brawls early Saturday.

Based on the NYTimes article

8 Use Sheets to Escape a Prison


Eight inmates dropped a rope made of sheets from a second-floor cell window and then scaled a razor-wire fence to escape a state prison in November, 1994.

The inmates, four of whom were serving life terms for crimes like murder and rape, may have escaped two hours before correctional officers at the Gander Hill prison noticed. Two were recaptured this morning about 15 miles from the prison.

The inmates, who were housed in a high security area, cut a bar out of a cell window with a hacksaw blade, then dropped about 25 feet on a rope made of six bed sheets. They fled across a recreational yard and scaled a 12-foot fence topped with razor wire, which they covered with a blanket.

The escape was discovered around 9:30 P.M. The inmates, however, could have fled as early as 7:15 P.M., said Stanley Taylor, chief of the Bureau of Adult Prisons.

The authorities said it appeared that the correctional officer supervising the inmates did not take the required head count at 8 P.M. and that he did not make sure the bars on the windows were secure. The officer was not identified by the authorities.

Patricia Bailey, a representative of the correctional officers, who have long complained about understaffing, said today that the escape would not have occurred had there been more than one officer assigned to the unit. But Mr. Taylor said the housing unit was designed to be staffed by one person.

Two of the fugitives who fled Monday, Santise Robinson and Robert D. Nave, were captured shortly after 9 A.M. by the New Castle County Police. Mr. Robinson, 24, a New York City drug dealer, was serving five life terms plus 137 years, for a murder in Wilmington. Mr. Nave, 34, of New Castle, was serving a life term for burglary.

Based on the NYTimes article