‘Prison Break': 9 of the Most Infamous Real-Life Escapes (Photos)
We all at one point thought Michael Scofield’s (Wentworth Miller) numerous ingenious jail breaks in “Prison Break” were too good to actually be plausible. But here are 9 convicts who found their way out of prison — some were more creative than others.
Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was a notorious serial killer in the 1970’s who escaped from jail twice.
In 1977, he was at Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen for a preliminary trial when he asked to visit the courthouse library during recess. Once there, he jumped out of a window and was on the run for a few days before being caught.
When his trial got moved to Colorado Springs, Bundy used a saw to create a hole in the cell’s ceiling and climbed out of it during Christmas break when most of the prison’s staff was gone.
El Chapo
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, an infamous drug lord also escaped from prison twice.
Guzman was imprisoned in Mexico but was indicted in San Diego, so to avoid extradition he bribed prison guards to help him escape and was literally driven out of the jail by a guard.
After being imprisoned again, El Chapo escaped again from a maximum-security Mexican prison. He left through a tunnel from his cell that led to a neighborhood almost a mile away.
Alcatraz Escape
Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin and John Anglin may be the only three men to ever successfully escape from Alcatraz.
In 1962, the three inmates escaped after picking away at ventilation ducts for six months. They then climbed through and assembled a makeshift raft and left the prison.
They had made paper mâché dummy heads to look like them so they could avoid detection during rounds.
Assata Shakur
The first woman to be listed on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in 1979.
The former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army member escaped with the help of three BLA members who held prison guards hostage and took over a prison van that took Shakur to another location.
She fled to Cuba where she currently has political asylum.
David Sweat and Richard Matt
David Sweat and Richard Matt are the only two prisoners to have ever escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in New York.
The duo cut through steel walls with hacksaw blades that were smuggled in through frozen hamburger meat.
After almost two weeks on the run, the two were shot by police. Matt died and Sweat lived.
John Dillinger
This Depression-era, one of FBI’s Most Wanted American gangster also escaped from prison twice.
He first escaped from jail in Ohio with the help of three former prisoners who escaped from the same jail.
Dillinger was caught again about a year later and sequestered to a county jail in Crown Point, Indiana which officials bragged was escape-proof.
Dillinger had whittled a fake gun and used it to force the guards to open his cell and free him.
Brian Bo Larsen
This might be the real life Michael Scofield. Brian Bo Larsen has broken out of prison 22 times.
The Danish convict broke out of his jail cell and was found ten days later after he crashed a car while high on drugs.
James Robert Jones
James Robert Jones eluded capture and was on the run and eluded capture for almost 40 years.
He escaped in 1977 from a maximum-security military prison in Kansas.
Although details of Jones’ escape are unknown, the convict had created a new life for himself in Florida where he got married and was working for an air-conditioning company.
Frank Abagnale Jr.
The real con-man Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Catch Me If You Can” character was based off had a crafty way of breaking out of jail.
When Abagnale was doing time in Federal Detention Center in Georgia he posed as an undercover agent and asked to speak to the FBI — it was really his girlfriend on the line.
The two arranged a meeting which is when Abagnale made his escape.
