Escaping the prison may be rare, but escaping the prison three times and eluding capture
using different methods, it is only done by the cleverest criminals.
In 1988 when the police in Minot, North Dakota slapped the cuffs on Richard Lee McNair after
he murdered one man and shooted another four times during a botched robbery, they believed
that they had been relieved.
But the problems with this criminal were just the beginning of escaping the prison.
Richard Lee McNair is a convicted murderer who was born on December 19, 1958, he is known
for his ability to escape prison and elude capture using different methods.
This man has been called one of the most brilliant escape artists in history, because he successfully
escaped the authorities three times from different institutions.
On his first attempt he used lip balm to squeeze out of handcuffs, the second time was by crawling
through a ventilation duct.
In his last escape which made him famous and one of the most 15 wanted list by the United
State Marshals Service, he mailed himself out of the prison in a box and convinced a
police man that he was just a jogger and not a prison escapee.
This man we are talking about has been called one of the most prison escape artists in history,
and you will understand why.
In 1987 Richard Lee made a bad choice when he was carrying out a burglary, he was surprised
by two men who came across him, he murdered one
and shooted the other four times, But McNair s first attempt came shortly after his quick
arrest.
When he was left in an interrogation room for questioning with three detectives, he
was looking at a life sentence, and the cops seemed relieved, but as you know, things didn
t exactly go as planned.
McNair used lip balm which he had in his pocket to slide his way out of his handcuffs and
managed to get out of the room, and out of the police station chased up by the cops into
a three story building in an effort to evade capture.
By that time there were a lot of cops surrounding the building.Then McNair made another bad
choice when he decided not to come out with his hands up, he jumped from a third floor
window onto a tree branch to escape but the branch broke and McNair landed on the ground
and hurt his back, then the cops could make an easy arrest.
After McNair was released from the hospital, he was moved to the Ward County Jail in Minot
where he seemed that he wasn t pleased with his new home, he tried to escape again, but
he failed when the guards discovered his attempt w hen they found out that he chiseled a couple
of cinder blocks in his cell while moving him to another cell.
Well, So far until now we have one escape and one failed attempted escape, but still
there are other escapes including the one which made him famous.
After a few years in the prison of North Dakota State, McNair and other two guys decided to
escape the prison again in October 1992.
McNair escaped with two other prisoners by crawling through a ventilation duct, but the
two other guys didn t make it, because one of them recaptured within a few hours and
the other within days.
McNair as it was described the cleverest prison escape artist, he could make it because he
changed his look, he grew up his hair and dyed it blonde in an attempt to disguise himself
while he was roaming the United States in stolen cars for ten months before he was eventually
captured in Grand Island Nebraska, in 1993.
After his second recapture he was transformed to the Minnesota Correctional Facility which
is known as the place of level 5 maximum security prison which houses the worst criminals with
a history of violence, murderers and people like McNair and no one has ever escaped from
this prison because the prisoners are locked down in rooms.
He stayed there for several years until they believed that he would not be able to escape,
but he was only playing the system and moving from a prison to another until he was arranged
to be transferred to the United States Penitentiary, Pollock Louisiana which is a high security
Federal prison, and it is closer to his parents in Oklahoma.
McNair got a job in the prison as a torn mail bag fixer which they sent back to the post
office to be used again.
During his job, he was planning for another escape which is the final escape that made
him famous and the cleverest escapee artist.
McNair was 50 years old and felt that he spent his debts in prison and lost his adult life
behind bars because of a stupid choice of robbing a grain facility.
On April 5, 2006, McNair Richard Lee escaped the prison and that was the third escape from
custody since he was convicted in 1988, he managed to hide inside of a constructed escape
pod that includes a tube to breathe through, which was covered with mail bags and placed
on a pallet that was moved to a storage facility out of the prison.
After the prison staff delivered McNair s pallet and went for lunch, McNair felt he
was alone then he cut himself out of the escape pod and knew that he had around five hours
before prison staff would be aware of his disappearance, so he had to run for his life
toward the nearest town to get supplies and steal a car.
Hours after McNair s escape from Pollock, he was running then he was stopped on a railroad
track in Ball Louisiana by a police officer named Carl Bordelon who suspected McNair as
the one who escaped the prison because he matched the escaped prisoner profile.
The police officer asked McNair for identification but McNair replies that he has no identification
and he was just jogging and doing exercise, he was also asked about his address and he
said that he was staying at a nearby hotel with his brother.
McNair Successfully convinced Bordelon that he was jogging and he is in town to help on
a roofing project then he continue giving the officer Bordelon fake information including
his name, which he said Robert Jones and after five minutes when he was asked again about
his name he said jimmy jones, but the police officer Bordelon didn t pick up on this.
McNair was so calm and appeared collected, the cop sounded apologetic for harassing the
jogger, and in the end he laughed and joked with Mcnair then he allowed him to go back
to jog.
McNair was really annoying the authorities and made them unhappy, he actually sent the
warden of his former prison a greetings card and embarrassed him, so that the United State
Marshals put him on their 15 most wanted list on April 13, 2006 and they noted that McNair
was the first prisoner to escape from a Federal prison since 1991.
His story appeared on TV Series ( America s Most Wanted).
On April 28, 2006 according to RCMP a police officer said that he confronted a man in a
stolen car, and the man matched McNair's descriptions, he spoke to him for a moment before McNair
ran away and eluded capture.
McNair was really pretty good at running.
After two days the cops realized that the car thief was the guy that appeared on America
s Most Wanted.
When the authorities examined the car, they found McNair fingerprints and a digital camera
with photos he had taken and other portrait photos for making fake IDs.
A Few days had passed and McNair was a fugitive who still stole cars and motorbikes to cross
back to the United States and drove across a few states before he went back to Canada
to cross all the way from southern Ontario to west Vancouver, then McNair decided to
buy a property to settle down in British Columbia in a place called Williston Lake, but he thought
that the place was insecure because there was only one road in and out of property.
I know you are wondering about how McNair managed to get the money to buy a property
and survive on.
As you know McNair used to steal a lot of cars so that he became professional, also
he once worked as a car salesman, he used his experience to steal brand new cars, especially
the ones with no Gps and use them for a short period of time then he sold them, besides
he stole vehicles from car dealerships because he knew how to find cash, keys and avoid security.
McNair became so famous and he d later say that he was surprised that he had become so
famous, and this was a problem for him since everyone who owned a TV knew him in North
America so that he changed his appearance and he acquired the ability to falsified driver
licences, passports and Identity cards using computer technologies.
On October 24, 2007 a police man named Dan Melanson noticed an expensive looking white
cube van car that seemed to have homemade tinted rear windows, the cop suspected that
the car was stolen, so that he took the plate number and called it in.
The next day, a young beginner cop named t spotted McNair s van by chance in the downtown
and pursued it until the van was cornered and McNair took off on foot and chased but
the young cop captured him.
The cop was later given an award, and he mentioned that when he captured McNair he laughed with
him, also when an officer asked McNair about the reward which was on his capture, McNair
replied 25.000$ , the office r said that s not much and McNair replied that because all
the government money tied up in Osama Bin Laden s reward.
McNair later mentioned that RCMP were good men doing their job.
McNair was the most prison escapee artist who made a bad choice and burgled a grain
storage facility in a town and shooted two men, but the irony is that McNair wasn t unemployed,
he had a job as a sergeant at the Minot Air Force Base.
McNair s brother mentioned that McNair just made some bad decisions, but he is the smartest
he ever met.
Richard Lee McNair was extradited to the United States and Jailed in ADX Florence, a supermax
prison in Colorado which houses some of the most dangerous prisoners in the United States.
McNair mentioned in a tweet that he is looking forward to meeting El Chapo to share breakout
stories.
El Chapo is the most notorious drug lord and prison escapee.
We already made a video on our channel about the drug barron El Chapo that you can find
in the description.
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