Some might think that going to prison is the end of the road. Others will endure their time and press on with what they can. Studying, working or just plain laying around waiting for your time or life to end. Then, there are others, who cannot see their lives spent behind bars. Those specific people just can't stand the life that was chosen for them. Only one solution remains, escape, breakout, take the midnight express. Here are a few of the most famous people that, in a way or an other, just had to flee.
Henry Charrière by some is a survivor. He is also by others a great fiction writer. While maybe the name may not ring a bell, Papillon on the other hand is a worl renound nickname. It is that nickname that Henry was given in prison due to his butterfly tattoo on his chest. In his book he explains the events that took place between 1932-1945. Wrongly convicted of murder in France, papillon spent 13 years in and out of prisons. Some attempts might not have been very successful, but never did he despair. One prison in particular gave him more trouble though. He tried to escape from the Barranquilla prison five times, every attempt he failed.
Through prison transfers, escape attempts, solitary confinement, surviving horrible conditions, papillon was set free at last.
Reading through Henry Charrière's book, I can understand why critics where so inclined to call it a fiction tale. But papillon has always maintained throughout the years that all was true.
Jack Sheppard, an apprentice carpenter, decided that the art of wood would not be enough to suffice. With only one year left before his training would be done, he took to burglary. In 1724 he was arrested five times and escaped on four of them. His career as a burglar would be very short but would be very memorable. After his fifth arrest in less thant two years, he was hanged, ending his brief criminal life.
After his first arrest, Sheppard was to be locked up over night on the top floor of the prison for further questioning in the morning. It took him less than three hours to break through the timber roof. He lowered himself to the ground with a rope he made out of the bed sheets. Still wearing his "irons" he joined a crowd that had gathered by the sound of the breakout. In a very Hollywood movie like manner, he distracted the crowd by pointing on the shadows on the roof and said he could see the escapee, while all we're looking, he silently departed.
On May 19 1724 he was arrested yet again. This time he was caught pick-pocketing. Kept over night, he didn't attempt an escape. The next day a woman came to visit him and was recognized as his wife. They locked in the same cell as her husband. On May 25th they escaped. They filed through their handcuffs, removed a bar from the window and again used the "use the bed sheet as a rope" trick, and they we're gone...well almost. There was still a 22 foot high wall to climb over. This particular escape made headlines only because Sheppard was known to be a small man(5'4) and his wife a large buxom woman.
His third arrest was one of betrayal. His wife, drinking in a bar was offered many drinks by the inspector trying to find him. Once she had had her fill of alcohol she didn't think twice and told the inspector where Sheppard could be found. He was arrested and accused of three thefts. He was cleared of the first two, lack of evidence. On the third charge though, the evidence was there and he was sentenced to death. On September 4th, the day of his execution, he escaped. He loosened an iron bar in a window used when talking to visitors. He was visited by his wife and a friend. While they talked to the guards, he removed the bar. He slipped through the window and was smuggled out of the prison by wearing women's clothes his visitors had brought him. He took a boat up the River Thames and escaped he did again.
At the time of his fourth arrest, Jack Sheppard was a working class hero. Being a cockney, non-violent, handsome and seemingly able to escape from anywhere he wanted.
On September 9th, while he was visiting in London, we was finally captured again after eluding the law a few times. He had planed to escape a few times in September but guards found files and others tools in his cell. So they transfered him to a strong-hold prison and put him in leg irons and clamped them to the floor making sure he could not escape. Laughing off the attempts they made to stop him, he got out of his leg cuffs using a small nail. They then tightened his leg cuffs and put handcuffs on him. Again he was able to escape. He unlocked his handcuffs and pulled on the chains that kept his feet in place. Still having the leg-irons on, he fled. Again his escaped astonished the authorities.
