The Best Prison Breaks

Frenchman's joins infamous company with clever escape

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 31, 2009 4:43 PM CDT

(Newser) – A Frenchman’s daring escape from a London prison—Julien Chautard turned himself in yesterday after busting out by gripping the bottom of a prisoner transport van as it left the courtyard—gets Jon Henley, in the Guardian, thinking about the best such tries ever. His highlights:

Colonel Thomas E Rose, Virginia, 1864. Rose and other Union officers dug their way out of a warehouse serving as a Confederate prison using pocket knives and scrap wood. He returned after his escape to free 15 more men.
Henri Charrière, aka Papillon, multiple attempts. French mobster escaped numerous times from islands off French Guiana and elsewhere from 1933 onward—and was played by Steve McQueen in the 1973 film Papillon.
Frank Morris, Clarence and John Anglin, Alcatraz, 1962. These three defeated the “escape-proof” Alcatraz by chipping away at the concrete around the vent shafts in their cells, using a newspaper paste to hide their progress. However, they and their makeshift raft probably didn’t survive San Francisco Bay.

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In this 1934 file photo, three armored railroad cars arrive on a car ferry at the United States Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, Calif. (AP Photo)

Visitors walk down "Broadway" in the main cellhouse on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, April 24, 2007. (AP Photo)

Da Vid, director of the Global Peace Foundation, stands on Broadway and looks out at cells in the main prison building on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, Jan. 29, 2008. (AP Photo)

A vintage sign where telescopes once looked out at Alcatraz Island is shown at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, Friday, Feb. 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

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Steve McQueen in "Papillon." (EI747SYDNEY)

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The Best Prison Breaks