Top 10 Most Thrilling Prison Escapes That ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Script written by George Pacheco.

Quick! Make a break for it! Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Real Life Prison Escapes.

For this list, we’re ranking the most dangerous, strange or death defying escapes from incarceration.

#10: The Sobibor Escape

The extermination camp at Sobibor was a deadly part of Germany’s secret conspiracy to eliminate Jewish citizens within the occupied territory of Poland. The fall of 1943 saw an uprising within the camp, however, as an armed resistance of over 300 inmates succeeded in killing 11 of their German captors during a riotous escape attempt. Unfortunately, only between 50-70 people managed to escape recapture, with most of the rest returned to the camp and killed. Still, the Sobibor Escape remains one of the most successful instances of organized resistance by Jewish prisoners during WWII.

#9: Billy Hayes & the Midnight Express

Serving hard time is bad enough, but being sent to prison in a foreign country is even scarier. That’s what happened to American student Billy Hayes in 1970 when he was stopped at a Turkish airport while attempting to smuggle four pounds of hashish out of the country. Hayes was initially handed a life sentence, before Turkey’s Constitutional Court shortened it to 30 years in 1975. Hayes made his escape that year by rowboat, laying low in the small Turkish town of Bandirma before crossing the border to Greece. Hayes wrote the book “Midnight Express” about his experiences, which was developed into the 1978 film of the same name.

#8: Alfred Hinds: A Prison Houdini

Houdini Hinds, as he was known, was a British criminal who staged three successful prison breaks during the 1950s. Hinds was a juvenile delinquent and career criminal who started early: after first escaping a youth detention center, he scaled a 20-foot wall to freedom while serving a prison stint for jewelry theft. His next escape was even more dramatic: on a routine trip to the bathroom while at court, Hinds shoved his guards into the stall and locked them in with a padlock he’d somehow got his hands on. He was caught within hours at the airport, but after his third escape, Hinds was free for two years before being caught on an unrelated matter.

#7: Pascal Payet Takes a Helicopter

Pascal Payet was many things: father, husband, thief, murderer. This French criminal was also daring, as he made a number of brazenly successful prison breaks using one of the most dramatic means possible: a hijacked helicopter. Payet escaped this way not once, not twice but three times between 2001-2007. Perhaps what’s most interesting about these helicopter hijackings is their rate of success, despite Payet’s status as one of France’s most transferred, guarded and closely watched felons. Payet lamented his constant prison movement in a 2005 blog post, going so far as to launch a hunger strike in protest. His current location is kept a secret, to circumvent any future escape attempts.

#6: Frank Abagnale: A Smooth Talker

The real life inspiration behind the film “Catch Me If You Can,” Frank Abagnale was a con man who could talk his way out of any situation...even prison. Abagnale was awaiting trial on fraud and forgery charges when he reportedly escaped an Atlanta detention center by impersonating a prison inspector. The smooth-talking Abagnale was no stranger to impersonations, having passed as an airline pilot, doctor and attorney during his life of crime. He knew that prisons were under intense civil rights scrutiny at the time, and used an outside contact to forge business cards and make convincing phone calls on his behalf. Amazingly, Frank Abagnale now operates a legitimate fraud-consulting firm, Abagnale & Associates.

#5: El Chapo’s Tunnel to Freedom

Better known by the nickname El Chapo, Joaquin Guzman is one of the world’s most dangerous drug lords; the leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel who was first arrested on murder and drug trafficking charges back in 1993. He made his first prison escape in 2001 by successfully bribing his guards, but was finally recaptured by Mexican officials in 2014. A year later, however, the country was shocked to discover that Guzman had escaped once again, this time thanks to an elaborately constructed tunnel that started underneath his cell’s shower and ran for almost a mile out of the prison. El Chapo managed to stay on the run until January 2016.

#4: John Gerard & the Tower of London

To be Catholic in Elizabethan England meant that you might suffer torture and persecution from political authorities. John Gerard was a Jesuit priest during this era, and following his arrest, he was assisted by fellow Jesuit Nicholas Owen in staging a daring escape from the Tower of London in October 1597. Gerard made his way across a rope that’d been stretched across the Tower moat – which was no mean feat considering the priest’s hands had been severely damaged by his captors. It’s also been said that this escape plan included a way out for Gerard’s jailer, whom the priest had befriended while imprisoned in the Tower.

#3: Alfred Wetzler’s Holocaust Escape

Alfred Wetzler’s story is notable not only for his incredible escape from the Auschwitz death camp during WWII, but also for the detailed report he co-wrote about the camp’s numbers and layout. The Slovakia native collaborated with fellow prisoner Rudolf Vrba in a brave and dangerous plan to hide out in a stack of wooden planks set aside on an Auschwitz construction site. The pair waited three days without food or water before finally making a break for it, hiding from German patrols as they eventually made their way to Slovakian soil...and to freedom.

#2: Escape from Alcatraz

Many tried, but only one group succeeded. Located off the San Francisco coast, Alcatraz Island is home to one of the United States’ most famous prison complexes: the national landmark that bears its name. It was June of 1962 when three inmates devised an Alcatraz jailbreak, which involved papier-mâché dummy heads in their beds, an inflatable raft and lotsa luck. Debates rage to this day about whether or not Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers, Clarence and John, successfully made it to shore, as a discarded paddle and remnants of their raft were eventually found by authorities. However, if Morris and the Anglins did make it to freedom, they’ve been fairly quiet about it ever since.

Before we name our number one prison break, here are a few honorable mentions:
- Jack Sheppard: Four out of Five Ain’t Bad
- The Parkhurst Prison Break
- The Maze Prison Escape

#1: The Great Escape

It was the subject of one of the most famous WWII films ever; the real-life breakout from the Stalag Luft III POW camp, located in present-day Zagan, Poland. “The Great Escape” detailed a mass exodus of prisoners from the camp, thanks to a series of three hidden tunnels dug incrementally by the prisoners over a period of time. The tunnels were given the names Tom, Dick and Harry, and were designed to transport as many prisoners as possible out of the camp towards freedom. 76 detainees managed to escape, despite freezing weather conditions and other problems, but only three avoided recapture, with 50 of the original 76 ultimately executed by German soldiers.