The great escape: World’s most daring jail breaks

THESE infamous prison escapees have demonstrated that concrete cells, high tech security systems and barbed wire fences don’t always trump a daring mind.

MARCH 25, 1999 : Hijacked pilot Tim Joyce (C) recounting ordeal to police after Lucy Dudko forced him to assist in prison esc...

JAIL is a place most of us don’t want to go and would do anything to escape.

There’s no easy way out for prisoners of any institution designed to hold them captive and keep them locked away from society.

But, as many inmates have shown throughout history, concrete cells, high tech security systems and barbed wire fences don’t always trump a daring mind.

Last weekend, an alleged killer and two other inmates escaped from a southern California maximum-security jail by cutting through half-inch (1.3-centimetre) steel bars and rappelling from the roof by a makeshift rope, authorities said Saturday.

The inmates cut through half inch steel bars to facilitate their escape, sheriff’s Leuitenant Jeff Hallock said.

“They also cut through plumbing tunnels and finally made it to an unguarded area of the roof where they were able to rappel to the ground using some kind of makeshift rope,” Hallock said.

They were last seen wearing orange jail jumpsuits at a 5am headcount and were discovered missing at the 8pm count.

“Before the night-time count, there was some kind of disturbance at the jail that may have been part of the escape plan,” Hallock said.

The escapees included 20-year-old Jonathan Tieu, who had been held on a $1 million bond since October 2013 on charges of murder, attempted murder and shooting at an inhabited dwelling.

Hossein Nayeri, 37, had been held without bond since September 2014 on charges of kidnapping, torture, aggravated mayhem and burglary.

Nayeri and three other men are accused of kidnapping a California marijuana dispensary owner in 2012.

They drove the dispensary owner to a desert spot where they believed he had hidden money and then cut off his penis, authorities said.

The third escaped inmate, 43-year-old Bac Duong, was being held without bond since last month on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm and other charges.

All three escapees are now back in custody after eight days on the run. Mr Tieu and Mr Nayeri were taken into custody in San Francisco on Saturday morning after police received a tip-off from an observant witness, officials said.

A citizen alerted police after seeing a white van near Golden Gate Park that looked similar to the one authorities reported the fugitives had stolen.

Mr Duong was taken into custody after surrendering to authorities on Friday morning.

The California jailbreak will go down in history alongside other daring escapes, including one involving a helicopter and a Sydney prison yard.

HELICOPTER ESCAPE, 1999, SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

It’s been dubbed the ‘most brazen prison escape’ in Australian history and has the makings of a Hollywood movie.

Prisoner John Killick was serving time in Sydney’s Silverwater Jail for armed robbery and a when his Russian girlfriend Lucy Dudko hijacked a helicopter during a joy flight from Bankstown Airport and ordered the pilot to land on the prison grounds.

Killick climbed on-board and the pair took off in the aircraft.

Aerial view of police inspecting abandoned White Bell 47G helicopter in Ryde's Christie Park in 1999, rented by Lucy Dudko who forced pilot Tim Joyce to land inside Silverwater Metropolitan Reception & Remand Centre for rescue of her de facto, armed robber John Killick. Picture: Troy Bendeich. NSW / Crime / Prison Escape

The couple remained on the run for 46 days before being recaptured in a caravan park in Sydney’s west.

Killick served more than a decade in prison before he was released last year.

He recently moved to Sydney.

Dudko walked free from jail 10 years ago and reportedly found God.

Killick’s terms of his parole prohibit him from contacting Dudko who is said to have moved on.

John Killick at The Supreme Court in Sydney to hear his judgment in appeal against being extradition to Queensland to face charges for a 1983 robbery. He famously escaped jail when his girlfriend hijacked a helicopter.

GUARD MURDER, 1965, MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA

Peter John Walker fled Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison in 1965 with Ronald Ryan, who was hanged for shooting a guard during their dramatic escape.

It was during the warders’ Christmas party that Ryan and Walker made their bid for freedom from the B Division exercise yard, clambering over the five-metre-high brick wall.

They scrambled down the wall using knotted blankets attached to an improvised grappling hook, then dashed to tower No. 1.

Ronald Ryan (C) was hanged in Pentridge prison, Melbourne in 1967 for the murder of a prison warder. Pic News Corp.

The men used a warder as a hostage, threatening him first with a piece of piping, to get them through the South Gate.

Once through, the warder was clubbed.

The pair then used a visiting Salvation Army Brigadier as a hostage to continue their bid for freedom.

In the process, Ryan fired at and killed much-respected Pentridge Jail warder, George Hodson, 41, using a warder’s M1 carbine he’d taken during the breakout.

Pentridge Jail warder, George Hodson, 41, was shot and killed when he challenged prison escapees Ronald Ryan and Peter John Walker in 1965.

The escapees were recaptured outside Concord Hospital after Ryan arranged a double date with an ex-girlfriend who reportedly tipped off the police.

Ryan was sentenced to death for murder, despite considerable doubt that he had fired the fatal shot.

He was hanged two years after the escape.

He was the last person to receive the death penalty in Australia

THE ALCATRAZ THREE, June 11 1962, San Francisco, United States

Alcatraz, an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, was supposed to be America’s only escape-proof prison.

Frank Morris, and John and Clarence Anglin, who were serving life sentences for robbery, allegedly dug through concrete and vent openings using a metal spoon and an improvised drill made from a stolen vacuum cleaner, until they were wide enough to fit through.

They hid the drilling with accordions played during music hour and left behind papier-mâché heads with hair stolen from the prison barber attached to the scalps to make it appear as if they were asleep in their bunks.

They scrambled through the vents before emerging on to the jail roof and made their makeshift raft out of raincoats, which they then inflated using a concertina.

The prison claimed the men drowned at sea but their remains have never been found.

The prison mug shots of convicts of, left to right, Frank Lee Morris, Clarence Anglin and John Anglin.

The break was the basis for the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood.

Siblings John and Clarence Anglin and fellow prisoner Frank Morris made it off the island on San Francisco Bay via a makeshift raft in June 1962 and were never seen again.

The trio — who would now be in their 80s — sailed from the island’s northeastern shore and were never seen again. The raft was found the next day on the San Francisco coast.

The investigation closed in 1979 with Alcatraz officials and the FBI insisting the men drowned. They say no one ever successfully fled Alcatraz.

But relatives of the Anglins claim the brothers survived and that they had photos and Christmas cards to prove it.

This family photo allegedly shows escaped Alcatraz prisoners Clarence (left) and John Anglin in Brazil in 1975. Picture: History Channel

GREAT ESCAPE MARCH 24, 1944 ZAGAN, POLAND

More than 600 WWII Allied prisoners of war worked on a plan to escape Stalag Luft III, a Nazi maximum-security work camp by digging three tunnels, nicknamed Tom (in a dark corner), Dick (under a bathroom drain) and Harry (behind a stove) positioned nine metres underground. Only the Harry tunnel was completed. Two hundred men used it on March 24, 1944, only to discover that it was too short and they were visible near a guard tower. Only 76 men escaped. All but three were recaptured. Of those, 50 were shot by the Gestapo.

The escape was the subject of the 1963 film The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN APRIL, 1971, ATLANTA, UNITED STATES

Con man Frank Abagnale was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Atlanta, Georgia, but was transported by a US Marshall who had forgotten his papers. Abagnale persuaded guards he was actually an undercover prison inspector. He enlisted the help of Jean Sebring who doctored two business cards — one an FBI agent’s, the other a prison inspector’s — and smuggled them into Abagnale. Abagnale told guards he needed to speak to the FBI agent. The guards called the number on the card, Sebring answered, told them she needed to meet Abagnale outside prison, and he walked out of the prison door. Abagnale’s early life was retold in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

USA fraud expert and reformed criminal con man Frank Abagnale in Adelaide 20 Mar 2000.

THE SHAWSHANK’ ESCAPE JUNE 7, 2015 NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

Inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat, both serving time for murder, were discovered missing during a 5.30am bed check at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. They escaped through a tunnel dug with tools taken from contractors’ toolboxes. The pair were allegedly meant to be picked up by a prison employee, who changed her mind. Matt was shot and killed by police and Sweat was caught. The escape was compared to 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption.