The Fox TV show " Prison Break " is the narrative of a structural railroad engineer key out Michael Scofield who gets himself interlock up so that he can help his blood brother get away death wrangle . Scofield has the prison blueprints tattoo on his dead body and concoct an elaborate plan to break out and establish his pal innocent . The show is fancied , of course , but history offers plenty of real - life dramatic play about high - stakes escapes .
Some have barrack movies , include " The Great Escape " and " Midnight Express . " Other stories have become fable , like the one about Henry " Box " Brown , a slave who shipped himself northward to freedom in a wooden box seat .
The biggest enquiry at the center of all of these level is unproblematic : How ’d they do it ? In this article , we ’ll see at a dozen of the most well - know escape of all fourth dimension and seek to cipher out just how these escape cock artists managed to do it .
John Gerard
In the recent 1500s , a Jesuit priest named John Gerard was lag at the Tower of London , which served as a jailhouse for political prisoners . At the time , Catholicism was illegal and practicing priests were guilty of treason . During his imprisonment , Gerard write letters to champion on the outside , hiding secret clues write in inconspicuous ink made from cut Orange River juice . He also indite to another prisoner , John Arden , who was held in a separate clink in the Tower . The two conspire to escape with the supporter of friends and a large-hearted safeguard .
On October 4 , 1597 , Gerard hacked aside at stones around the doorway to his cellphone . After become out , he snuck past guards and reached a gamy rampart overlooking a fosse , where he met up with Arden . A supporter in a boat waited below . The person in the boat hold a rope up to Gerard and Arden , who tied it to nearby shank . They inched down the R-2 into the boat and rowed to prophylactic .
Casanova
purportedly , Casanova found an iron gat in the yard , fashioned it into a digging putz and set about digging a tunnel from his cellular telephone to the outside . His employment was shortly wretched , however , because prison house guards moved him to a new cell . Afraid guards would be watching him , he asked the prisoner in the next cell , a monk , to employ the tool to dig a burrow between their two electric cell and another tunnel from the monk ’s cell to the outdoors . The Thelonious Sphere Monk agreed . Both prisoner crawled out through these tunnels and managed to escape the Leads , using the same smoothing iron tool to force opened doors and gates .
Henry “Box” Brown
Henry " Box " Brown was born a slave in 1816 in Virginia . After a striver owner in North Carolina purchased his wife and children in 1849 , Brown began plotting his relief valve . Brown asked a carpenter friend to construct him a boxful that was 3 metrical unit longsighted , 2 - and - a - one-half infantry deep and 2 feet wide . On the exterior , Brown write " right side up with guardianship " and squeezed himself inside . He had friends ship him to the Pennsylvania Anti - Slavery Society . Brown had water in the box and breathing hole , but the more than 24 - hr journeying was doubtless operose - at one decimal point , the box was turned so that he was on his head . After he arrived in Philadelphia , Brown was free . He became an alive member of the emancipationist drive , and the box itself became a symbolization of the inhumanity and injustice of slavery .
Libby Prison
During the Civil War , the Confederate Army set up Libby Prison in Richmond , Virginia . In January 1864 , some prisoners think up an escape plan . They decided to work up a burrow . A captive who had once been a James Neville Mason read aside a fireplace and create a passage to a wine cellar . Every nighttime , the soldiers climbed down in the cellar , the start point of a recollective burrow that they were ramp up . One or two captive work at a time , toil with pocket knives , keen pieces of woodwind and other crude tools . During the day , the put the fireplace back together to conceal their bodily process . The prisoners carry the crap back to the cellar using frying pans .
In February of 1864 , 109 Union officers escaped through the 53 - groundwork burrow . More than one-half of the prisoners made it all the way to Union communication channel without being recaptured .
The Great Escape
During World War II , prisoner of war in a German inner circle called Stalag Luft III staged an relief valve through a burrow . Their story barrack the Hollywood motion picture " The Great Escape . "
German soldiers build Stalag Luft III to be turn tail - proof . They even plantedseismographsin the ground to detect the sounds of tunneling . Still , a group of prisoners oversee to escape through three elaborate tunnels , which they named Tom , Dick and Harry .
The tunnel system was the brainchild of Roger Bushell , a Royal Air Force Squadron Leader . These 30 - foot - deep tunnels were technical marvels , considering what the humankind had at their electric pig . They featuredelectriclighting , a railway line and an zephyr ventilation system . The prisoner made tools out of tin can and used wood from their bed to put up the tunnel wall and keep them from collapsing . To hide the dirt from tunneling , the men sway it in their pant and scattered it , as inconspicuously as potential , around the prison grounds .
On March 24 , 1944 , 76 military man crawled through Harry to escape the prison house , but only three make freedom . Fifty escapee were shot on orders from Hitler and the persist prisoners were sent to a concentration summer camp .
Next , we ’ll see at six amazing escapes from the preceding 40 years .
Modern Escapes
It ’s fairish to think that modern applied science and prison improvements would cut down the number of escapes and escape attempts . However , the desire for freedom is stronger than any technology , and not all captive are literally kept " behind bars . " While the vast majority of escape endeavour are unsuccessful , here are the stories of a few people who managed to make it past natural barrier and guards through a combination of humour and will .
The Dalai Lama
In 1959 , Taiwanese US Army stormed the capital of Tibet . bunch of Tibetans pour around the summertime dwelling of Tenzin Gyatso , the 14th Dalai Lama and Tibet ’s spiritual and political leader . They hoped to protect him from the kick upstairs troops . Disguising himself in work clothes , the Dali Lama and walk through the crowds in the metropolis of Lhasa without being mark . When he reached the Kyichu River , a pre - arranged boat waited for him . Eventually , the Dalai Lama interbreed the Himalayas over the 16,000 - foot Che La Pass to India . He has lived in Dharamsala , India and maintained the Tibetan governance in exile ever since .
The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 . He bear on to have talks with the Chinese regime and says he strives for a well-chosen sensitive in which Tibet would maneuver independently as part of China .
Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island was home to the most violent and hardened criminals in the United States for several decennium . The prison house open up in 1934 with the rationale that it would be a very difficult place to escape . The island itself is more than a stat mi from the mainland and surrounded by treacherous waters . In improver to the innate barrier , federal agency tighten security by adding electric wires , fences , bars andguntowers .
Despite these obstacle , in 1962 three Alcatraz inmate shop one of the most ill-famed prison flight in history . Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin spent months chipping off at the concrete around the air shafts in their cubicle . They used instrument such as nail clipper , spoon and a drill fashioned out of a lover . The goal was to create an possible action big enough to wiggle through into the prison ’s ventilation system . To shroud their progress when they were n’t working on the hole , the inmates meet it in with a paste made from wet newspaper .
On June 11 , 1962 , Morris and the Anglin brothers left dummy in their bed , climbed out of the prison house through the ventilation system and leave the island in a pile fashioned from barrels and steal raincoats . The escapee never appeared on the mainland , and most people assume that they drowned . Parts of their improvised raft and some of the their letter of the alphabet were found on nearby Angel Island . Their storey was the base for the pic " Escape from Alcatraz , " star Clint Eastwood .
Peter Strelzyk and Guenter Wetzel
In September 1979 , Peter Strelzyk and Guenter Wetzel piloted a homemadehot air balloonfrom East Germany to West Germany to break loose communism . Their wife and children were aboard .
The noted flight take 28 minutes and spanned 15 miles . Strelzyk , an linesman , and Wetzel , a bricklayer , spent two years plan the escape . Their wives sewed a 60 - understructure - wide , 75 - animal foot - gamey balloon out of curtains , layer sheets , lavish liners and other fabric of every gloss . The gentleman’s gentleman , who got the idea after learn a goggle box show about hot air balloon , built platform , gas burners and a makeshiftflamethrowerin Strelzyk ’s cellar .
On the Nox of the dodging , they gave the youngest child , a toddler , a sedative to keep her quiet . The Strelzyks and the Wetzels then drove to the launch situation and start setting up around 1:30 a.m. The men pilot the balloon as well they could in the darkness .
When the families shore , they were n’t indisputable whether they had made it all the way across the mete . After spending some time hiding in a barn , they realize that they were liberal after spotting an Audi , which were only made in West Germany . The story inspired the pic " Night Crossing , " star Beau Bridges , which came out a few years later .
Billy Hayes
Turkish functionary arrested American Billy Hayes in 1970 for trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey . He service five years in an island prison house before escaping .
After a fight with prison guards , Hayes stole one of their uniforms and snuck out of the prison . He then stole a dinghy and rowed all night in a rough storm . After reaching land , Hayes traveled through Turkey for days , exit his light-haired haircloth black as a camouflage and finally swimming across a river to Greece . He used $ 2,000 his male parent smuggled into the slammer in a photo record album to fund his escape .
Hayes ' story was the foundation for the controversial movie " Midnight Express . " The 1978 movie gain a Golden Globe for best striking film and Oliver Stone won an Academy Award for the movie ’s screenplay . In a 1997 audience , Hayes , who went on to have a calling in the entertainment industry , told USA Today that his escape valve was more harrowing than the motion picture depicts . ( The movie focuses more on the frightful conditions of his prison experience . ) In recent old age Hayes has also condemn the way that the pic vary from his book , which he experience give the impression that " all Turks are monsters . " He says that his designate subject matter was " do n’t seek to smuggle drug , " but some American viewers saw it as a reason to avoid Turkey .
James Earl Ray
The convict slayer of Martin Luther King Jr. break away the Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee in June 1977 . He and six other con used a makeshift ravel to scale the 14 - foot - high wall while guard were distracted by a fighting other captive stag about 200 yards off . One man was shot on the wall , but Ray got away , parry authorities for 54 hour before his recapture . The Washington Post called it " one of the heavy manhunts in modern store . "
Ray was already screw for his prison house prison-breaking attempts . At the time of King ’s slaying , he was an loose con . Before the run incident , he had two unsuccessful escape attempts . Ray expire in April 1998 while serving a 99 - year prison sentence .
Texas 7
In December 2000 , seven criminals escaped from the John Connally unit in Kenedy , Texas using an elaborate and carefully organize series of scam . Several of the man , who worked on the maintenance bunch , asked for license to persist behind during lunch to mount and seal the floor of a maintenance quickness . They also got permit to eat lunch there with food they had purchased from the commissary , instead of joining the others in the independent dining area . The men then called the maintenance supervisor in to ask him for aid . After the supervisor arrived , he was beaten and tied up .
They also attack and tie up several others who got in their way , include civilian workers , guard and a few uninvolved inmates . The men impersonated guard on prison telephone to gain entering to an area near the prison house exit . They attacked a prison guard at the logic gate and threaten to kill him if he did n’t open it . The guard complied and the Texas 7 were gratis , driving in a van loaded down with artillery stolen from the safeguard shack . While on the streamlet , the human beings kill a Dallas - area constabulary officer who break their robbery of a sporting goods storage .
One of the largest manhunt in Texas history followed . hundred of city , land and federal officers tail dozens of leads . Two of the men had already been convicted of murder , two of armed robbery , one of youngster misuse , one of sequent rapine and one of burglary and rape . " These guys are exceedingly unpredictable and life-threatening , " San Antonio FBI spokesman Darren Homes recite USA Today during the search .
Brian Nichols
In March 2005 , Brian Nichols , a defendant in a rape case , elude from the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta , Georgia . He has been accused of kill four multitude during and after his leakage .
A timeline publish by the Fulton County Sheriff ’s Department in April 2005 , outlines the case : Just before 9:00 a.m. , Nichols round guard Cynthia Hall when she remove his cuff so that he could change wearing apparel before a court show . He get out Hall unconscious , took her gun and went to the chambers of Judge Rowland Barnes . There , he shot Barnes and court newsperson Julie Brandau , according to the accusations . As Nichols take flight , officials say , he hit and killed Hoyt Teasley , another constabulary enforcement officer . Nichols then carjack several mass , put on a cap that belonged to one of them as a disguise .
hour after , Nichols killed off - duty U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Wilhelm , steal his gun , badge and truck . More than 24 hour after Nichols escaped the courthouse , authorities catch him at an apartment complex Union of Atlanta . He had been hold its resident physician , Ashley Smith , hostage .
A grand jury issued a 54 - count bill of indictment against Nichols in May 2005 . Charges include four enumeration of felony slaying . Nichols pled not guilty and his trial is scheduled to start out in October 2006 .
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