13 of the most successful prison escapes where the inmates are still at large
What do you know about prison breaks? You may have seen them occur in movies and thought such was only fiction. Well, you will be surprised. In reality, there have been countless prison breakouts worldwide. But in most cases, the escapees are caught while others become fugitives. What are the most successful prison escapes where detainees are still at large?
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Successful prison escapes are primarily a result of well-planned, well-coordinated efforts. Some collaborate with the jail guards; others result from poor prison security, while some are sophisticated breakouts. Despite most fugitives becoming apprehended after some time, a sizeable number remain on the run.
Most successful prison escapes
From dramatic getaways from one of the most secure jails in the world, Alcatraz, to dramatic breakouts in Greece, the list of successful prison escapes is endless. These convicts are some of the most daring, and their cases are odd as they are still at large.
1. Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe (1937)
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Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe were Oklahoma bank robbers, and their 1937 penitentiary breakout is one of the top 5 successful prison escapes of all time. The pair were arrested separately around the early to mid-1930s and incarcerated at McAlester prison, where they secretly tried to escape and failed.
As a result, they were taken as escape risks to Leavenworth Prison, a high-security facility, before being finally transported to Alcatraz in 1936.
On 16 December 1937, the pair escaped while working at the penitentiary tire repair shop. According to police reports, Cole and Roe cut a small hole in the shop window, slipped through, and disappeared, never to be seen again.
2. Eleanor Jarman (1940)
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Eleanor Jarman was an American fugitive from justice who was imprisoned and escaped in 1940. Eleanor, called "The Blond Tigress" by the tabloids, was a robber serving a 199-year jail sentence for the murder of Gustav Hoeh, the owner of a clothing business. Eleanor fled from prison on 8 August 1940.
3. John Patrick Hannan (1955)
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Who is the longest escaped prisoner? According to the Daily Mail, John Patrick Hannan, an Irish jail runaway, holds the record for the longest prison escape. Hannan has been a fugitive for over sixty years, breaking Leonard Fristoe's record of 45 years and 11 months in 2001.
Hannan and fellow inmate Gwynant Thomas escaped from Verne Prison on the Isle of Portland in December 1955, using a knotted bedsheet to scale penitentiary walls. Authorities apprehended Thomas, but Hannan is still at large.
4. Frank Morris and the Anglin Brothers (1962)
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What is the most successful prison escape? Frank Morris and the Anglin brother's (John and Clarence Anglin) escape is among the most successful in history. In June 1962, the trio escaped Alcatraz, the most secure prison.
The trio using a complex system of fake dummy heads, ventilation shafts, and an inflatable raft, made their daring escape sailing into the sea.
5. Jerry Bergevin (1969)
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Jerry Bergevin was an ex-army man who, after serving, resorted to crime to fend for his family. His criminal life caught up with him, and he was convicted and handed a 10 to 15-year sentence for robbing a drug store.
Jerry Bergevin escaped in 1969 after being transferred from state prison to a minimum security prison camp. It took authorities 44 years to call off his search in 2013, and his charges dropped. But still, Jerry was nowhere to be found and was believed dead.
6. Sharon Kinne (1969)
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Sharon Kinne was a convicted murderer serving a thirteen sentence in a Mexican prison when she escaped in 1969. On 7 December 1969, Kinne escaped from the Mexican jail after a blackout, combined with lax security at the facility.
7. George Edward Wright (1972)
George Edward Wright is a Portuguese-American citizen known for his involvement in hijacking Delta Air Lines Flight 841. George was serving a 30-year sentence when he escaped prison in 1970. In 1972, he and three other accomplices hijacked a Delta Air Lines flight.
After collecting ransom and releasing the passengers, Wright and his crew flew the plane to Algiers, where they sought political asylum. In 2011, the police caught up with him in Portugal but released him since Portugal has no extradition treaty with the USA.
8. Joanne Deborah Chesimard (1979)
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JoAnne Deborah Byron, also known as Assata Shakur, is a former member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). She was found guilty by a US court in 1977 of first-degree murder in the shooting death of State Trooper Werner Foerster during a gunfight in 1973.
Assata Shakur fled from prison in 1979 and sought political asylum in Cuba in 1984. The FBI has issued a $1 million reward for her capture.
9. Glen Stewart Godwin (1987)
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Glen Stewart Godwin was serving a life sentence in Folsom Prison for murder in 1987 when he escaped down a storm drain. He fled to Mexico, was apprehended, and broke out in September 1991. His current whereabouts are unclear. However, authorities believe Godwin to be involved in the Latin American drug trade.
10. Glen Stark Chambers (1990)
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Glen Stark Chambers was a convict serving a life sentence in Florida's Polk Correctional Institution for murdering his girlfriend in 1975. In 1990, while loading boxes onto a truck, he ripped a little slat out of the roll-up door and hid.
As the lorry exited the premise, Chambers lay hidden as a stowaway riding out of the maximum-security jail to freedom.
11. Victor Figueroa (1997)
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Victor Figueroa was a narcotics possession criminal sentenced to 1-4 years. When he fled, he served time at the Moriah Shock Incarceration Facility in Mineville, New York. Figueroa was on his way to the mess hall on 6 February 1997 when he escaped. However, authorities believe Figueroa may have fallen in a mine shaft close to the facility.
12. Omid Tahvili (2007)
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Omid "Nino" Tahvilli is an Iranian-Canadian tycoon and a Persian crime syndicate head. In 2007, Tahvili paid a guard and strolled out the front door while awaiting trial in a maximum-security Canadian penitentiary. To complete his escape, Nino pretended to be a jail caretaker. The guard received three years in prison, while Tahvili remains at large.
13. Vassilis Palaiokostas (2009)
Vassilis Palaiokostas is among the escaped prisoners never caught. The Greek bank robber and fugitive escaped Greece's Korydallos Prison in 2006 while serving a 25-year sentence. Two accomplices stole a sightseeing chopper and busted him out of jail.
Palaiokostas was eventually apprehended. Nevertheless, he fled for the second time in 2009, again using a helicopter. Despite a fierce gunfight, Palaiokostas escaped, never to be seen again.
What is the most prison escape by one person?
American Mark DeFriest, also known as the Houdini of Florida, holds the record for the most prison escapes by one person, having done so seven times.
How many successful prison escapes have ever been recorded per year?
According to Statista, a survey conducted from 2000 to 2019 revealed that an average of 3000 inmates in the USA escape from state or federal prisons per year. In 2019, 2,231 inmates escaped. The figure is a decrease from 2000 when the number was 5,168.
How many escaped prisoners are still at large?
Per the latest figures from Statista, the estimated number is over 2000 inmates at large.
What was the most secure prison ever built escape?
Only five of the fourteen prison escape attempts at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary have gone unaccounted for. The jail, one of the most secure in the world, was closed in 1968. Alcatraz was on an island two kilometres off the coast of San Francisco.
Successful prison escapes might sound like a plot from the movies, but you will be surprised to learn that they are real. These inmates escaped captivity and are still at large.
Are you looking for information about the world's most secure prison? Yen.com.gh published an in-depth article about some of the most secure jails worldwide.
What makes a prison to be the most secure? The security measures used at the facility, plus the types of inmates at the facility, determine the institution's security level. So, which are the most secure prisons in the world?
Source: YEN.com.gh
