Most Ingenious Prison Escapes

There have been numerous world-renowned prison escapes spanning across the decades, but let's take a look at the most ingenious ones, the escapes that took the most planning, dedication and outright bravery.

Choi Gap-bok

South Korean prisoner Choi Gap-bok escaped by squeezing himself through the food slot of his cell door, you know, the small slot on every prison door? Yes that's right, he actually contorted his whole body through a hole only 15 centimetres (6 inches) tall and 43 centimetres (17 inches) wide. Choi Gap-bok was 50 and in prison for burglary. He had spent most of his life in prison and regularly practiced yoga, which must have aided his escape. One night, before lights out, he asked the prison guard for a special skin ointment, which they gave to him. The guards never thought he would be using it to squeeze through a prison door.

Choi Gap-bok was only 5-foot-4-inches which helped, but it's still a bloody impressive feat no matter your size. He squeezed his entire body through the hole in only 30 seconds. Unfortunately he was caught again only 6 days later, and put into a cell with a smaller food slot.

Frank Abagnale  

Frank Abagnale, the infamous conman that Leo DiCaprio played in the film "Catch Me If You Can", had successfully impersonated pilots, teachers, doctors and lawyers. So blagging his way out of prison was nothing short of a day's work.

Frank was imprisoned for 12 years for fraud. He got a stroke of luck, when in 1971, the U.S. marshal transporting him forgot his detention commitment papers. Frank took this opportunity to subtly drop the hint to one of the guards that he might actually be an undercover prison inspector, disguised as an inmate, so the guards gave him preferential treatment. He then called his friend Jean Sebring, who had been previously visited by the FBI agent in charge of Frank's case. The FBI agent, Joe Shea, had left his business card with Jean.

Jean then pretended to be a magazine writer reporting on prisons, to also get the business card of a prison inspector. She visited Frank Abagnale in prison, posing as his fiancé and slipped him both business cards. Frank used the prison inspector's business card to prove to his guards, that he was in fact an undercover inspector. He told the guards it was imperative he speak to the FBI immediately. Frank handed them the FBI agent's business card, but of course Frank's friend Jean Sebring had already doctored the card so it displayed her number instead. Jean picked up the phone, posing as the FBI. Jean said she needed to meet with Frank right outside the prison immediately. The guards happily obliged, after all, they didn't want to get on the wrong side of a prison inspector and FBI agent. The guards watched as Frank Abagnale walked right out of the prison, to be collected by Jean, and they both rode off into the sunset, guilty as hell.

John Dillinger

John Dillinger had already escaped from another prison in 1933 using smuggled in rifles. So in 1934 when he was arrested again for a bank heist, he was placed in the Lake County Jail, which was known as "escape-proof". The jail was constantly guarded by an army of policemen and National Guard. Yet Dillinger still managed a daring escape, by fashioning a bar of soap to look like a gun. He forced his way out of jail with his "soap-gun" and cheekily stole the sheriff's Ford to make his getaway. But he was later caught by the FBI.

The Great Escape

No prison escape in history has every come close to the complexity of "The Great Escape". The escape was from Stalag Luft III, a German prison in operation during World War II. It took about one year and the efforts of 600 prisoners to dig 3 tunnels, which they nicknamed "Tom", "Dick" and "Harry".

The tunnels were 30 feet deep and tunnelled underneath the the main fence. The tunnels required complex systems such as wooden blocks for support, a series of lamps and electrical wire, an air pump to supply air to the prisoners who were digging and a rail cart system to move the earth quicker. The tunnels should have surfaced in a nearby forest but they dug them a little short and during the actual escape they surfaced in plain view of the guards, consequently only 76 prisoners escaped. All but 3 of the escapees where eventually caught by the Nazis.

Colditz

The infamous World War II, German prisoner of war camp, Colditz, was a castle situated on a cliff overlooking the town of Colditz. There were many attempted escapes from Colditz, but the best planned of them all occurred when two British pilots, Bill Goldfinch and Jack Best planned to construct a two-man glider.

Jack and Bill constructed the glider, bit by bit in the lower attic above the chapel. The plan was to ride the glider from the roof across the river Mulde. The pair built a secret wall in the attic to conceal the glider. The glider was painstakingly constructed from stolen pieces of wood such as bed slats and floor boards. The Germans who ran the camp focused their searches on tunnels, it never struck them to search the attic for secret glider workshops. The war ended and the camp was relieved by the allies before Jack and Bill had a chance to make their escape.

However Channel 4 made a replica of the glider in a documentary about the escape called "Escape from Colditz". In the documentary the glider was flown successfully, showing the escape would of likely been successful.

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