Thursday, February 7, 2013

Top 10 Best Prison Escapes of All Time


Prisons are not the friendliest places on earth first because of their inhabitants and second because of their looks. Usually people who have committed felonies end up here, but there are also exceptions like the political prisoners. The top thing about prisons is that they are made in such a way to make escape impossible. Or so do the people who design and build them believe. However, there are some famous cases in history when men of all types managed to escape even from the most secure prisons. The top 10 of the prison escapes teaches us about human intelligence and invention potential and also teaches the prison designers what to do better next time.



10. Texas Seven
Seven prisoners from the Texas high security prison escaped on the 13th of December 2000. They were the most wanted people shortly after the escape. Instead of lying low, they started to rob as much as they could and their total capture was about $70,000. They stole everything from cash to jewelry. They had a $500,000 bounty on their heads. Fortunately, after a couple of days, they were all caught.


9. Alfred Wetzler
Alfred Wetzler was one of the lucky survivors who managed to escape Auschwitz during the Second World War. He knew that this was the only way to freedom and together with another person designed a plan to get out of there. They started to make a map of the camp knowing exactly the location of all the buildings from the gas chambers to the holding cells. He wanted to give this map to the allies’ troops once he managed to get out of there. On the 10th of April, he succeeded in escaping and walked about 80 miles until he reached the allies.


8. Maze Prison Escape
With the help of explosives, 39 prisoners of the Maze prison in Ireland managed to escape. The 25th ofSeptember 1983 was a memorable day when the prisoners caused severe damage to the jail system. They killed an officer on their way out, while other twenty were injured. They had the help of an accomplice who smuggled the guns inside the prison. Because the prison was a complex system, there was a long and difficult way out of it. The 39 escapees needed to jump over many fences made of barbed wire and also a concrete wall which was 18 feet tall. After all this, they finally managed to get out.


7. Alfred Hinds Escapes
As soon as he was sentenced to 12 years in prison on the reason of armed robbery, Alfred Hinds thought about getting out of this. He was notorious for his escapes. Before this sentence he managed to escape prison three other separate times. During his 12 year sentence he sneaked out and climbed the high 20 foot wall of the prison. Because he was so skilled at disappearing in an almost invisible way, he was named the Houdini Hinds.


6. Libby Prison Escape
This prison break is one of the largest ever in history. More than100 inmates escaped Libby Prison and reached their homes. This all happened during the Civil War. Some of the escapes went back to the Union Lines while others settled back home. During the hunting search, 48 of them were captured. Two of the escapes died in the waters of James River. The entire strategy was a group one and the prisoners began to disappear one at a time with not much fuss or anything like that. It was not violent, but rather well thought.


5. Pascal Payet
This guy could certainly win an Oscar for his performance on his own prison break. He succeeded in escaping prison three times in a row. The interesting thing is that every time he used a helicopter which he hijacked. Also he was quite ready to offer a helping hand for other three prisoners who he helped to escape and even managed the whole thing. Today he is still doing time, but his location is not disclosed for security reasons.


4. Stawomir Rawicz
Stawomir Rawicz was a Polish soldier arrested in 1939. He was sent to a Soviet prison and suffered horrific tortures. When he simply could not stand anymore, together with six other prisoners escaped the Gulag camp and headed towards India. In the book and movie The Long Walk it is described his journey on foot from Siberia to the British India. His story has been doubted many times and Witold Glinski, a WWII veteran claimed that this story was his own not that of Rawicz.


3. The Great Escape
Roger Bushell, a British squadron leader, was the main coordinator of the escape from a German prison camp. He was there as a war prisoner. In 1943, he dug tunnels and managed to escape together with his friends out into the freedom. The interesting fact was that the tunnels were dug really deep at about 30 feet. In that way, the German microphones would not be able to detect them. The tunnels could hold inside them an air pump and even a quite large workshop where the prisoners would stop along the way.


2. Colditz Castle Escape
Used as a prison during the Second World War by the Germans, Colditz Castle was believed to be so secure that no one could be able to escape. Many people attempted to do such thing, but it was thought to be virtually impossible. However, two allied pilots managed to get out of there with the help of a glider. It was designed for two men and flew its way to total freedom.


1. The Escape from Alcatraz
Known as one of the most famous prisons, Alcatraz was in use for over 30 years. During this period of time there were 34 inmates who tried to get out of there. It was a total of 14 attempts, but each one failed to succeed. The prisoners ended up killed or were captured soon after the attempt before they could leave the island. The icy waters that surrounded Alcatraz were thought to be too cold to be swum. No one was believed to be capable of swimming the rather small distance of three miles because of the horrible conditions in the water. In 11th July 1962, the Anglin brothers and Frank Morris had a great plan for getting out of the cells and using an air-duct to escape. After that they were supposed to paddle into a raft made of cement and raincoats. No one knows if their attempt was successful or not as the men were never to be seen.

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