A prison is a place for those in society that break the rules: from the person who steals to the most hardened murders, rapists and drug mules. However, some of these criminals engineer ways to escape. Some of these escapes are rather idiot and end up with the criminal being shot, while other prisoners escape are elaborate, detailed and successful.
This article aims to show three of the greatest prison escapes and how exactly these criminals did it:
Number One – The Escape from Alcatraz
Alcatraz was the American prison that held the most dangerous criminals of the time, as it was deemed escape-proof. The prison was situated on an island around fifty kilometres off the San Francisco Bay. Frank Morris and the brothers John and Clarence Anglin, all serving life sentences for various crimes, escaped from the island never to be seen again. The men allegedly dug through the concrete walls using a metal spoon and makeshift drill that they fashioned from an old vacuum cleaner.
The sound of the drilling and digging was muffled by only working on their escape during the mandatory music hour. Furthermore, the men stole hair from the hairdresser and made paper mache dummies of their bodies to fool the guards. Although many believe the men drowned in the ocean, their remains have never been found.
Number Two – The Great Escape
This escape was given this name, because the prisoners attempted to escape the Nazi maximum-security work camp (Staglag Luft III), during the latter half of World War II. Around six hundred prisoners worked on the project, digging three tunnels. The tunnels were positioned thirty feet (nine metres) underground and the escape went undetected by security guards.
The plan was concocted by Roger Bushell, a British Officer, who provided the other escapees with forged papers that would prevent recapture once freed. However, when the prisoners on exit of the tunnel, found it was too short and in plain view of the guard tower. Guards opened fire and only seventy-six of the men managed to escape the camp, however all but three of the escapees where captured and shot.
Number Three – The Taliban
During the early hours of the morning on April the 25th 2011, around five hundred imprisoned Taliban rebels and other inmates made their way through an underground tunnel to freedom. The passage was around three hundred and twenty metres long, bypassing government checkpoints, security watchtowers and other barriers. The guards at the prison discovered the jailbreak around half an hour after the Taliban have moved all inmates to the safe house.
Questions were raised as to how the guards did not notice five months of digging and the common belief was that the guards were in on the escape.
In conclusion, these are tree of the greatest escapes that have occurred. The escapes were high risk, but had well thought out plans and masterminds leading the prisoners.
I am Greg Jones, a property and loans expert. I took a legal billings system class during my studies and came across articles on great escapes. It truly fascinated me and while I was supposed to be studying my costs law exam, I ended up reading thousands on journals, before I decided I needed to write this piece.