Getting into prison is easy. Getting out of prison… also easy.
Let's talk about that.
♪ (theme music) ♪
- Good Mythical Morning! - A couple months ago, we made an
episode about the most luxurious prisons in the world, and after watching that,
and the new season of Orange is the New Black, you might think, "Prison's cool,
man! I wanna go. Lemme commit a crime, because it's so cool. I wanna be there."
But you know what? Real prison is a horrible place to be, and people are
constantly trying to get up outta that thing.
Yeah, even last month, the two guys in New York who got out with the help of the
- prison tailor -- which, they have a - Oh, yeah.
- prison tailor. Which is… okay. - They need one. For the suits.
- They had that. And she was in on it. - The jumpsuits.
- All right. - But that got us to thinking,
"Let's do a little boopity boop boop boop research and find the most amazing prison
escapes in history." And these are the ones that we found.
(Link) Choi Gap Bok, I call the amazing shrinking man. This dude was in Korea,
50-year-old dude. In and out of prisons for 23 years. Finds himself in a holding
- cell, 10 by 10 cell in Korea. - Okay.
- And he did yoga in his cell. - Oh. Good for him.
A lot of people do pull-ups. They bulk up. Bad idea. Yoga turns out to be a good
idea. 10 by 10 cell, not only enough room to do a downward-facing dog, but also
to do what I call, "the escaping man pose."
- Oh! - I learned this from him. Here are the
- steps to this one. No, I'm just - You gonna demonstrate?
- gonna tell you. - Oh, good. I'll picture it.
Step one: wait for the three guards to go to sleep. Step two: use body ointment
- and slather your whole body in it. - Where do you get body ointment?
- You ask the guards before they... - Is that a thing?
- "You guys got any body ointment? - …go to sleep.
I don't want my phone call. I want body ointment."
- Yes, and they gave it to him. - Oh.
"What's he gonna do with ointment? I don't wanna know.
- Well, give it to him." Yeah. - (laughing) He's got a rash, right?
Then they go to sleep. Step two: he slathers himself. Step three: he squeezes
- himself through the FOOD slot! - (Rhett laughing) Oh, no.
- You know where they slide the food in… - Yeah, I do.
- The slot. (stammering) - I've seen the movies.
It was 18 inches wide. But it was only 6 inches tall.
And doctors couldn't believe this because, first of all, the typical skull is bigger
- than 6 inches. He had to shrink his - He has an atypical skull.
- whole head. So he yoga-ed his - That's a yoga skull.
head through there, and then he gets one shoulder and the other shoulder.
And then his lower body, like his pelvis, got stuck, and he had to take his shorts
- off in order to get out. But he did it - Oh.
all in under a minute. They were quoted as saying, "He escaped from the prison
cell in less than a minute after moving flexibly, like an octopus."
- That ointment equals octopus. - They weren't watching, but...
- Right. Octopus ointment. - No.
- (laughing) - Don't wanna think about that.
But they're slippery, you know? Six days later, they caught him...
on an apartment building. I guess he was just up there slathering himself
- (laughing) - again, and doing yoga.
- "I'm getting ready." - That's how I picture it. And they
put him in a cell with a 4.3-inch high...
- Okay. He's not getting out of that. - …food slot. Not gonna happen.
- He's trapped. - Not gone happen. Thunk, thunk.
Okay, Escape from Alcatraz: great movie. 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.
- (Link) Oh! - (Rhett) This story's so good, there's
a movie about it, starring Clint Eastwood. Anyway, 1962. Three bank robbers,
Clarence Anglin, John Anglin -- they're brothers -- and Frank Morris, have been
planning their escape for months. These guys decide on June 11, 1962, "All right.
We've been planning for months. Let's do it. It's go time." They break out their
drill that they have made from a vacuum that they have commandeered,
- Wow! - and they get into the vents in their
cell, and they drill out into -- I don't know how they knew about this --
a utility corridor that was behind the cells that no one knew about.
And once they get into the utility corridor...
Smart, because could keep working on it, then put the vent back on and go back
- to sleep. - Right. And once they get into the
utility corridor, they're able to escape with their 6-by-14-foot RAFT
- that they made out of raincoats. - (laughing)
Because apparently, there's raincoats in jail.
- (crew offscreen laughing) - These dudes are...
"Hey, you guys got your rain boots and your raincoats?"
And body ointment, too. I betcha they had some of that.
And of course, you know, Alcatraz is an island. There's nobody at it anymore.
- There's nobody in prison. - Tourists are there now.
But the whole idea was you can't really escape from it because of the crazy,
- cold waters and the turbulent currents. - Mhm, mhm. Right.
So you kinda get out of the building, you can get down to the water. They get
down to the water with their raincoat raft,
- Amazing. - And they inflate it with an accordion.
You can also get an accordion in Alcatraz.
How do you get a -- "You think we should give these guys an accordion?
What are they gonna do? Blow up a raft? (laughing) Give it to 'em!
- They just wanna play some music!" - On the night out, they're thinking,
- "Do you hear folk music? - "Sounds like polka.
- No, maybe it's just in our heads. - Like a slow polka?"
- What's that raft?" Okay, anyway. - (impersonating an accordion)
They use the accordion. They pump up the raft. Now, it's disputed whether or
not these guys survived, because people say, "Oh, they drowned." But there's been
some recent studies done that show that if they left at the time that they
- supposedly left around midnight, - Okay.
the currents would probably have been right to get them to the shore.
And their family has claimed that they have stayed in contact with them,
which gives me the idea that these guys, the Anglin brothers and Frank Morris,
might be out there right now watching Good Mythical Morning, like a great
Mythical Beast would. Guys, if you're okay, send us a postcard.
- Yeah. - Or come be on the show.
We don't care. We won't tell anybody that it's you.
We're not gonna show your postcard to anybody.
You can come on. It's like ornithologists or something, and we'll do like an
- expert's segment. - Our mailing address is in the video
- description. German prisoner of war - (sighs) Yeah.
camp during World War Two. We're talking 1944. 76 inmates orchestrated this great
escape, which actually was adapted into the movie...
- (Rhett) Oh! You've got a movie, too? - …of the same name.
- 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. - Not as good.
Couldn't beat yours out. This prison that they were in was specifically designed
to deter tunneling out. Because they had loose soil, and they put microphones
- down to detect any digging. - Oh, this is hardcore.
Because they just had a sense that people were gonna try to tunnel out.
- That was the only way out, I guess. - (German accent) "Zey will dig."
But 600 prisoners band together to start digging a tunnel 30 feet deep,
guys, in order to get around the microphones'...
- Oh, yeah. Those microphone ears. - ears. Not just one tunnel.
- Not just one tunnel. - "We've got to avoid the microphone ears."
Not just two tunnels. Three different tunnels. They put a railway system down
- in there, electric lighting. - What?
This was an undertaking of… It was a GREAT undertaking.
- It was a great escape, right? - A great escape.
Great escape. They were ingenuitive in all the ways. They removed the dirt back out
including they put the dirt in their extra socks, put the socks up their pants, and
then as they walked around in the prison yard, the dirt would trickle out.
Is that a sock full of dirt, or are you just happy to see me?
- (crew offscreen laughing) - The...
Listen to the things that over time they took out of the prison and started to
use in the making and the support of the tunnels. 90 beds, 52 tables,
34 chairs, 10 single tables, 76 benches, 30 shovels, 1000-foot of electric wire,
600 feet of rope, 1700 blankets and 1400 milk cans went missing.
(German accent) "Where's all dee blankets?"
(both laughing)
(German accent) "Where zee meelk cahns? Could not find dee…" (sighs)
1700 blankets? These Nazis weren't very good at keeping up with stuff, man.
They also didn't notice, on the day of the escape, the first 75 men who
popped out at the other end of the tunnel, but they finally noticed the 76th man
coming up, and they recaptured 73 of them. Only three people ended up
- escaping: a Norwegian pilot and - Huh.
- a Dutch pilot. But it made a great - Well, good for those guys.
movie, too, and you've gotta feel for those people who got recaught.
Okay so, so far on this list, everyone has done a typical thing to get out of prison,
and they've ignored the largest way out of a prison: the sky. Over it.
(Rhett) But not Pascal Payet, French criminal. 2001. This guy's in a maximum
- security prison. His buddies… - Build a rocket.
…bring a helicopter -- so obvious! -- bring a helicopter, land it in the prison yard,
- he gets on it, and helicopters away. - (sputtering like a propeller)
This worked so well that he decides two years later,
"You know, let's go break out our other three friends that are in that prison
in another helicopter. So he goes back and get this three buddies...
- The same prison? - Same prison! The one with the opening.
- For the helicopter. It's the one - The sky opening?
- with the sky over it. - Right. (laughing)
- And so he ends up getting caught. - Dude, it's so simple.
Unfortunately -- he gets out -- but he ends up shortly after that getting caught.
And they put him back in prison, and then in 2007...
- Did that one have a sky? - Yes, it also had a sky, and four
of his buddies -- I don't know, his buddies are really good at hijacking
helicopters. I wouldn't even know how to go about that, but we'll talk later and
figure that out. They hijack a helicopter.
- They're gonna send us postcards, too? - Yeah. And they land,
pick him up, take him off into the sunset. Unfortunately, he's only out for two
months this time. I don't know why I want this guy to succeed.
- (crew laughing offscreen) - Because he's a helicopter escape
- artist, man. - Yeah, I wanna take a Hawaiian
helicopter tour with this guy. You know?
- Well, you gotta start in prison. - In a hijacked helicopter.
- I'm sure that can be arranged. - So he's currently in prison, and I'm
gonna give some advice to advice to you, if you're running this prison that Pascal
is in. Just paint one of those sky ceilings on his cell like you see in a
- fancy dentist office… - Like a fresco?
- Make him FEEL like he's outside. - A dentist office fresco?
But don't let him go outside. Or maybe put a ball around him or something.
- Ball and chain. - No, do this. Um...
Really taunt him, like paint a helicopter landing.
- Oh, a video. Put a video on the ceiling - A screen.
- of a helicopter constantly landing. - (crew laughing offscreen)
- (French accent) "Zis is torture!" - (Link and crew offscreen laughing)
It's like the ladder's dangling. It's getting so close.
Congratulations, Pascal, for doing that. Sorry that you're in the joint now.
You now what? I'm gonna open it up. If you've ever escaped from prison,
- in any form, send us a postcard. - Please!
We wanna be the repository for prison escapee postcard-ists.
Only is you're currently on the run, though. If you escaped later in life,
and now you're like a regular civilian, we're not interested.
Be sure to include current whereabouts. Thanks for liking and commenting
- on this video. - You know what time it is.
- Hi, I'm Samantha. - And I'm Sophia.
- And we're from - (both) South Bend, Indiana.
(both) And it's time to spin The Wheel of Mythicality.
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Rhett's got a story of his dad being attacked by a female prisoner.
"Only speak using words that start with letter 'p.'"
- Please… - pretend...
- pies… - p-puuuush...
- people… - past...
- pert… per… Did you already say pretend? - (crew offscreen laughing)
- pretend places? - I only know three words that start
- with "p." - Please pretend pies push people
- past pretend places. - Ah. Please do that.
Thank you.
[Captioned by Kevin: GMM Captioning Team]