A Brief History
On December 30, 1977, serial murderer Ted Bundy escaped from jail in Colorado, only to continue his murderous ways. Incredibly, he had also escaped only 6 months previously. Today, we ask, what was the most infamous great escape?
Digging Deeper
Here are some to pick from:
John Dillinger, Bank Robber, in 1934 escaped from jail, purportedly using a fake gun carved from a bar of soap.
Henri Charrière, Safe Cracker and murderer, in 1944 escaped from Devil’s Island, writing about it in his book, Papillon.
Pablo Escobar, Drug Lord, in 1992 escaped from a Columbian prison he designed for himself.
The Texas 7, Murderers and Robbers, in 2000, seven inmates escaped from a Texas prison and went on a robbing and killing rampage before being caught.
Richard Lee McNair, Robber and Murderer, in 2006 escaped from a North Dakota prison by mailing himself out in a box!
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Drug Lord, in 2015 escaped from his Mexican prison via a tunnel equipped with a motorcycle. Guzman had a previous escape in 2001.
Question for students (and subscribers): What is your choice as the most infamous escape? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Charriere, Henri. Papillon. William Morrow Paperbacks, 2006.
Matera, Dary. John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America’s First Celebrity Criminal. Da Capo Press, 2005.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by EricaLewHouse of Ted Bundy’s VW Beetle (left) and John Dillinger’s Essex Terraplane (right), is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
