You would think breaking out of prison would be difficult, but a man named Steven Jay Russell
made it look easy. He escaped from prison not just once, but four different times. How did
he do it? You’re probably thinking that Russell couldn’t have just walked out, but that is exactly
what he did on two different occasions. And you won’t believe how he escaped the other two times!
Steven Russell started his criminal career as a con artist. As the police would find out later,
he was really good at what he did. Russell’s first major con was something simple,
but would end up evolving into a lifetime of making the authrorties
look incompetent. It would also result in him getting 144 years in jail.
In the 1990’s Russell faked a slip and fall to collect on insurance money for a big pay day.
However, upon investigation, his con was uncovered and he was convicted for fraud.
Russell was sentenced to six months in prison, but he had no intention
of staying incarcerated for that long. This would be the first time he would use his con
artist abilities to get out of jail early. In a way, his first escape was a tragic love story.
Steven Russell was in love with a man named Jimmy Cambell who was dying from AIDS. They
had been together when he was caught for fraud, and Russell had no desire to let
the man he loved go through the terrible disease alone. So, Russell did the only
thing he could. He escaped from prison so that he could be by Cambell’s side until the end.
Russell had been in jail for only four weeks, but he was so in love with Jimmy Cambell
that he couldn’t wait any longer. The conman concocted a scheme that would allow him to walk
right out of the prison without a single person noticing he was missing, until he was long gone.
While in jail Russell had stolen street clothes that had been discarded. He then confiscated a
walkie talkie to complete his escape disguise. He hid the items away until the time was right.
When no one was looking, and the guards were preoccupied, Russell donned the
civilian clothing he had stashed away, clipped the walkie talkie to his side,
and made his way through the prison as if he was an undercover cop. Clearly no one was
worried that a man in regular clothes was walking around the prison without proper identification,
since Russell made his way to the exit and walked right out.
He then proceeded to locate Jimmy Cambell and stay by his side until his lover eventually
passed away from the virus. Russell mourned, but continued to do what he was good at: being a con
artist. However, something unexpected happened as Russell flew under the police’s radar: he
fell in love again. The name of Russell’s second love interest may sound familiar to you, Phillip
Morris. The reason you may have heard his name before is because of the movie “I Love You Phillip
Morris” starring Jim Carrey. The movie is based off of the next part of Steven Russell’s life.
After the death of his former lover, Steven Russell conned his way into a
CFO job at a medical management firm. He had no experience as a chief financial officer,
or in the medical field. He also had a fraud conviction, but to a conman like Russell that was
all easily hidden or covered up. Russell knew he was wildly unqualified for the job, but he wasn’t
there to move up the corporate ladder; instead he planned to steal money from the company.
He persuaded Phillip Morris to join in on his scheme. They managed to embezzle
$800,000 from the company before it all came to an end. The authorities discovered what
Steven Russell was doing and who he was. They immediately put him under arrest and
set his bond at $950,000. This was an excessively high bail for embezzlement,
but the police knew Russell was a flight risk and didn’t want him skipping town.
However, Russell has no desire to spend more time in jail. He had gotten out once,
and he wasn’t about to let the authorities cage him up again. The first hurdle he had to overcome
was lowering the incredibly high bail that the court set for his release. While in prison,
he called the county clerk claiming to be the judge of his own case. He told the clerk's
office that there had been a mistake, and Steven Russell’s bail should be lowered to
$45,000. Russel called the clerk, impersonated the judge who was in charge of his case,
lowered his own bail, and did it all from within the walls of the prison.
The clerk changed the bail to the much more manageable amount of $45,000,
which allowed Russsell to pay it—with the help of friends. He made bail, left the prison,
and before anyone could figure out that they’d been conned, Russell fled to Florida. His
reasoning for pulling off this escape was so that he could spend time with the new love of his life,
Phillip Morris. There were a couple patterns that defined Steven Russell during this time of
his life. The first was that he was really good at getting out of jail. The second was that he
was a hopeless romantic. His escapes seemed to all center around being with the man he loved.
Eventually the authorities tracked down Russell in Florida. When he was arrested,
his sentence was much longer than the previous one. This time he got 45 years
in prison. Phillip Morris also received jail time for aiding and abetting Russell,
but his sentence was for a much shorter period of time. If Morris was going to be out of jail,
Russell wanted to be by his side. You can probably guess what Steven Russell did next.
In order to rejoin the man he loved in the outside world, Russell needed to get out of jail,
and he certainly was not going to wait 45 years to do so. Once again Russell would
walk right out the front door of the prison without so much as a minor conflict. And this
wasn’t just any prison, Russell was being held at the Maximum Security Estelle Unit
to make sure he wouldn’t escape again. You won’t believe how he pulled this one off.
Russell discreetly started to collect green markers from around the prison. He would hide them
on his person and bring them back to his cell. He also managed to steal an extra generic prison
uniform. The guards of the prison wouldn’t just let someone in a prison uniform walk out, but they
would let someone wearing medical scrubs leave the prison unquestioned. It seems that the guards and
the medical staff at prisons don’t always know one another, so when Russell used the green markers to
dye the prison uniform, it looked just like a pair of scrubs that the medical staff were wearing.
Perhaps the most surprising part of this escape was that Russell was being held at a maximum
security prison, and yet, he was still able to walk right out the front gate. After his escape,
Russell had one thing on his mind: to find Phillip Morris and be with him again. Once Russell
tracked down his lover they ran away to Biloxi, Mississippi where they hoped to live peacefully
away from the Texan authorities that were now scouring the country for the escaped conman.
Unfortunately for Russell and Morris, they were eventually caught and returned to
prison. This time Steven Russell was tried for unlawful escape, which added another 45 years
to his sentence. Once again Russell found himself separated from the man he loved.
At this point Russell must have been tired of tricking the authorities and having them
chase him all around the country, so his final escape would need to be conducted
in a way that ensured the police wouldn’t come after him. Steven Russell knew just what to do.
Russell figured that the only way the police would ever leave him alone was
if he was dead. So, he planned his own death. This way he could live a long,
happy, life with Phillip Morris without worrying about the bothersome authorities.
Russell did not waste any time once he was recaptured. He must have known
Phillip Morris would be released long before he was, so he set his plan in
motion almost immediately. He needed to make his fake death as convincing as possible,
so every day he took laxatives to cause his body weight to drop and make himself
seem ill. He also managed to do something that has not been explained to this day.
Russell somehow got a hold of his medical records, and was able to change them to
indicate that he had HIV. Steven Russell did not have HIV, nor should he have had access
to his own official medical records, this may have been one of his greatest cons yet.
At this point Steven Russell looked almost like a corpse. His skeleton was showing under his skin,
and he was at an unhealthy weight. Not only did he physically not look well,
but his medical records now falsely backed up that Russell was very sick. In March of
1998 Steven Russell was sent to hospice where the authorities figured he would live out the rest of
his short life, and they would finally be rid of the conman who embarrassed them once and for all.
In a hospice facility, even one that contains prisoners, the security is relatively relaxed.
No one expects emaciated, dying, inmates to make an escape. But, Russell was not dying,
in fact, he wasn’t even sick. Russell waited for the ideal moment, and then
walked out of the hospital to freedom. To ensure that the Texas authorities wouldn’t
bother him again he even forged his own death certificate and sent it to the Texas courts.
Unfortunately for Steven Russell, he had embarrassed the Texas authorities
one to many times. Not everyone believed he was dead. The authorities had been tricked before,
and they were not about to let this con man trick them again. They dug deep to
make sure that Russell was in fact dead, and this was not just another
one of his cons. They soon discovered that Steven Russell had once again duped them.
Understandably upset, the Texas authorities launched a manhunt to track down Steven Russell.
They found Russell down in Florida where he was captured in Fort Lauderdale. This
time when they arrested him, the police made sure he would never escape and embarrass them
again. Steven Russell was sentenced to 144 years in prison. 45 years for
the original embezzlement charges, and 99 additional years for his escapes. That is
a long time to put someone in jail when the crimes committed were non-violent.
But the authorities were not satisfied yet. Steven Russell now spends 23 hours a day in
solitary confinement at the Polunsky Unit in Texas. He only gets an hour for recreation and
shower time, where he is carefully watched to make sure he doesn’t escape again. Does
this punishment fit the crime? Probably not, but it would seem the Texas authorities were
so embarrassed by Russell’s escapes that they needed to make an example out of him.
In interviews Steven Russell recounted his final intake process. He was stripped completely naked
where he was thoroughly examined for anything that was hidden on his body,
including in uncomfortably personal places. He then was told to put his boxers back on and sit
in a chair so his head could be shaved. After the physically invasive process,
he was sent to the prison psychiatrist for a mentally invasive interview. Some of the
questions asked of Russell were: “Where have you been since you left our custody? What were you
doing? Were you in contact with Phillip Morris? Did you do drugs? Are you still a homosexual?”
Then, before he was transported to solitary confinement where he would spend the rest of his
life, he was stripped naked and searched once more to make sure he did not steal anything while being
interviewed. Steven Russell is still in solitary confinement with limited visitor privileges,
and only one hour of recreation a day. “I Love You Phillip Morris” is based off of his escapes
and love for a man he will most likely never see again. Russell says that he only has himself to
blame for his sentence, and that he understands why Phillip Morris has not come to visit him since
his final arrest. Some activist groups question whether the sentence of 144 years in solitary
confinement fits the crimes that Steven Russell committed. It would seem that embarrassing the
Texas authorities over and over again is one way to get a lifetime sentence in prison.
Now check out “The Most Insane Ways Men Escaped from Prison.” Or watch
“Man Escapes Prison Four Times - The Japanese Houdini (Yoshie Shiratori).”