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From the criminally insane who put themselves in grave danger, to epic, Hollywood movie
inspiring criminal masterminds, we count down the top 10 Most Daring Prison Escapes In History.
#10 John Dillinger: Ever hear of the band, ‘The Dillinger Escape Plan’—that’s
in reference to John Dillinger, who was originally known as ‘Public Enemy Number One.’ When
he was arrested in 1934, Dillinger was sentenced to Lake County jail—which was swarming with
prison guards, National Guard troops and County Police Officers. Because of its incredible
level of security, Lake County was notorious for being ‘escape proof’. Well—if it’s
on this list, you can guess what happened next. The crazy Dillinger saw this as a challenge,
and in probably creating the arts and crafts cliché for criminals, carved a fake gun out
of a piece of wood—held a sheriff at gunpoint and stole his car. Sadly—or luckily—when
Dillinger ripped across the state line and into Illinois in a brand new Ford, the FBI
tracked him down.
#9 Alfred Wetzler’s Escape from Auschwitz: Very few people successful escaped the concentration
camps during the Holocaust. This story is one of true wit, ability, stamina and heroism.
Wetzler and a friend, on the eve of Passover, climbed into a hollowed pile of wood in the
middle of Auschwitz. Others littered the ground with Russian tobacco and gasoline so they
wouldn’t be discovered by Nazi canine brigades. Wetzler and his friend stayed buried in the
wood for four days, and then threw on stolen Dutch uniforms and ran for the Polish border—using
a map from a child’s atlas to guide them.
#8 World War II—The Escape Part II: The Nazi party at one point had a mission called
Operation Reinhard, which sought the introduction of mass killing facilities at the Nazi Sobibor
Death Camp. In a twist of fate, this operation ended up being one of the most successful
escapes of the war. Prisoners of war Leon Feldhendler and Alexander Pechersky taught
other prisoners to make knives and other weapons during work, and then used those weapons to
kill their captors when they would come to pick up items from the camp workshops that
needed repairing. In a swift move, Leon, Alexander and other prisoners killed off enough guards
that over 300 prisoners could escape. Talk about your real life, ‘Inglorious Bastards’.
We can hear Quentin penning that script now.
#7 The Great Escape: Now a common term of phrase and the prodigal Hollywood escape story,
the Great Escape is one of the most famous escapes of all time. In 1944, allied imprisoned
soldiers dug tunnels thirty feet under Stalag Luft III prison in Nazi Germany and out to
the surface, complete with support beams, lamps and oxygen pumps for the escape. Sadly,
the tunnel surfaced just short of the forest, and the outside guards saw the last soldier
as he crawled out—the 77th person to escape. This started an immense Nazi manhunt to find
the allied prisoners, and all but three of the escaped soldiers were caught. While a
touching tragedy, their legend and incredible plight to escape lives on today.
#6 Escape From Alcatraz: Another Hollywood favorite, this outstanding 1962 escape was
made famous by Clint Eastwood. Alcatraz is equally famous for its incredible security
and stature as a menacing prison, so any escape from Alcatraz at all would probably make this
list. Taking resourcefulness to a new level, prisoners Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin and
John Anglin figured out how to fashion a drill from a vacuum cleaner motor and carved a hole
in the concrete wall until they hit the ventilation system. The three then crawled their way to
the beach and sailed a homemade raft out into the San Francisco bay—never to be seen again.
#5 Welcome to the Jungle: While this escape story may not have been quite as affably adventurous
as the Guns & Roses song ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, it’s still an story of extreme
human perseverance. Dieter Dengler’s plane was shot down during Vietnam and he was pulled
into a POW camp—but that wasn’t going to stop him at all. Dieter and six others
killed three guards and ran off to the Jungle—with Dieter not being discovered for 23 days. When
he was finally found by a US helicopter, Dieter was dehydrated and pocked with mosquito bites
and leech marks. He’s famous for being the only soldier to make a successful escape during
the Vietnam War.
#4: Frank Abagnale—the Story Behind ‘Catch Me If You Can’: While the film version of
‘Catch Me If You Can’ couldn’t help Leonardo DiCaprio steal the Oscar for Best
Actor, the real life ‘Catch Me If You Can’ story helped Frank Abagnale escape with his
life. In 1971, Abagnale was being transported between prisons without his paperwork. For
a man that had made a living forging documents and taking advantage of the system, this was
a no-brainer for Abagnale, who worked with his friend to convince the guards that he
was an undercover inspector. Abagnale made identification to back this up, and when it
came time to be transported, he fooled the guards into thinking he was a member of the
authority. The guards promptly let him go.
#3 Friends in High Places: Pascal Payet was incarcerated for murder in 2001. But, that
seemingly didn’t deter his friends from liking him. In France, most prison exercise
yards are located on the roofs and left open to the air. Payet simply took advantage of
an easy situation and had his buddies pick him up from the exercise yard in a hijacked
helicopter. However, someone needs to duct tape anvils to Payet’s legs, because in
2007 when he was incarcerated again—he was picked up by another helicopter. He hasn’t
been seen or caught since. I guess they all figured it wouldn’t work a third time
#2 Compact and Efficient: Choi Gap-Bok was arrested in South Korea in 2012 for robbery.
Gap-bok then immediately starved himself for five days and then asked for his, ‘special
cream’ that he needed for his health. Once the guards fell asleep, Gap-bok coated himself
with the cream and squeezed his body through a 6 by 18 inch foot slot in 34 seconds. A
nationwide hunt ensued, and Gap-Bok was caught after six days—and placed in a cell with
a smaller food slot. He’ll need a lot more cream to get out of that one.
#1 El Chapo Can’t Be Tamed: Famous Mexican drug lord Joaquin Loera, otherwise known as
El Chapo, escaped from Federal Social Readaptation Center on July 11th, 2015 after constructing
a 1.5 km escape tunnel underground, fully lit and flush with air ducts. It was even
quite sizeable, at 1.7m tall and 75cm wide. What’s so bizarre is that this is the second
time El Chapo has escaped like this. In 2001, El Chapo escaped the exact same way from a
different prison with a virtually identical design. The escape from 2015 must have been
a layup. What do you do for your one phone call? Call your friend and say, ‘Hey, man—tunnel
time!’ Next time El Chapo is captured, let’s imprison him on a space station or something.
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Escapes In History. For those of you on my channel that use twitter feel free to follow
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