"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" (Sherlock Holmes).
In 1973, I was locked in my cell and the door was bolted as per normal at 8pm. The next morning at 6 o'clock when the night staff made their final roll count before the arrival of the day shift it was discovered that I was not in the cell. The alarm was sounded and a security inspection revealed that no cell bars had been cut or removed, and that no bricks had been removed from the walls. The ceiling and floor were likewise undamaged. The lock and bolt on the cell door had not been tampered with. This posed a mystery for the prison authorities. There was no collusion with the night staff letting me out of the cell.
A search of the prison was made and I was nowhere to be found. The grounds were searched, too, and no ladder or rope or any other escape equipment was found either inside or outside of the prison.
Unfortunately, my bid for freedom did not last long. Modern technology had developed and it was just my bad luck that the first police car I saw had computer equipment fitted which produced a photograph of me for the police officers. They returned me back to the prison. I was physically examined by the doctor and he stated that I was not rubber boned nor double jointed and that it was impossible that I could have squeezed between the cell bars.
Q 1: How did I get out of the cell?
Q 2: How did I manage to walk out of the prison?
Additional information. Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones once spent two nights in this prison. Francis Behan is recorded in the index of prisoners who have stayed there, better known as Brendan Behan the author of The Borstal Boy. Another distinguished visitor to the prison was The Forsyte Saga author John Galsworthy. No prizes for naming the prison.
UPDATE: Link.
37 comments:
Puzzling. I'm going to be thinking about this one all evening.
You created a hole through to the pipe using a rock pick, and cunningly concealed your tunnel it behind a poster of Rita Hayworth...
Bel: I wish you luck.
martine: No damage to prison property whatsoever. Shawshank Redemption, what a brilliant film. Ultimately, I had to have the same degree of patience, perseverance and not give up hope as displayed in the film. Sadly, not the right answer I'm afraid.
You say there was no 'collusion' with the night staff. Does this imply they let you out in the normal course of events -- to admit you to the prison hospital, perhaps, whence you made your mistake?
Astral travelling?
Oops. That was supposed to be 'whence you made your escape'. My mistake, as it were.
not saussure: Actually, at the time, I was in the hospital wing of the prison (which has two floors and I was on the upper landing) undergoing a nervous breakdown. The reason I say that there was no collusion, is because the night staff came under suspicion from the Security Department. They do not hold keys to the cells. The only set of keys is held by the night duty Principal Officer, who sleeps in a bedroom in the Gatehouse. If there is an emergency, he his telephoned and will arrive at the scene. I should point out, that both the gates to the wings and the doors are double locked from the outside by the Principal Officer before he goes to bed. They cannot be unlocked from the inside.
No, as I say, I was locked in at 8pm, and I was still in my cell at 10pm, when the cell light was switched off from the outside by the 'night clockie'.
As for escape? Now, that's a legal question for you. That's what I was charged with and appeared before the Board of Visitors (IMB), and I pleaded guilty to the charge. Here's a reference for you, this chap won a case where he proved that it was only escape if any tools were used to effect it and if there was an actual breach, e.g. bricks out of the wall, cut bars etc, otherwise it was an abscond as from an open prison.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE3DE133FF93AA35752C0A967958260
Tim: No, you can do better than that!
The locks were easily picked.
(Screwed the answer up twice already)
Ron: No. No. See the response above to not saussure.
I wonder where maneatingcheesesandwich is just when you need him?
You were let out of your cell by the man with the keys obviously, and the same keys got you into abscond mode, again obviously. I am not about to speculate on whether this person or any other was harmed, threatened, or themselves detained along the way. Not part of the question.
Opportunistic abscond and hence piss poor preparation and speedy return to prison.
Chris: Only the reference to opportunistic is factual. I was not let out of the cell by the man with the keys. The first any of the staff were aware of my not being in the cell was at 6am.
I think you have deliberately omitted some information. I guess you were locked in as per normal at 8pm but at some point before or after 10pm the door was unlocked by staff and not relocked properly. Therefore, once the lights were switched off you could open the cell door and walk out - hence opportunistic
That's good Calum. The chump keys man turned the key that unlocked all cells the first time - he was that dozy - and John nipped out. The other locks may also have been compromised at this point ... or the second time he made yet another error etc. You get the picture. Human error. Opportunities. Taken.
Calumcarr: The only information I have deliberately omitted is how I achieved it. If this was there then it would not be a mystery. You have the bare facts which were presented to the prison authorities. The door was not unlocked, after it had been locked the previous evening, until just after 6 the next morning. The practice is for the night clockie to draw back the bolt upon inspection at 6am, ready for the morning shift to unlock at 7am. I was told that the night clockie nearly had a heart attack, and was convinced that I was hiding under the bed and was calling me all the names under the sun and demanding that I get out from under it.
Part of the answer is in the text. It just requires logic.
Chris: Once again you have a piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Human error.
Unlike the prison authorities we don't know the locale and the design of things and how numpty the various numpties were and where the opportunities might be.
With this information it took them some time to sort it. Without it the problem may be impossible or tedious or both.
Obviously opportunism following human errorS, and probably system design errors and protocol errors making the fail safes no such thing.
But I feel at this hour at least that expecting us to get any or all the details is going to be too much.
The traditional brain teasers have far less variables and ultimate unknowns.
Various locks have to not be carelessly managed in a single catastrophic or series of smaller errors. Staff and systems have to be dozy.
Probably very dark - no moon - and some coming and going of vehicles or people allowing a cunning individual to slip through one way or another.
That's your lot.
I returned. You were let out by the man or a man with the keys surely? But not knowingly.
The original lock down or the hourly checks gave the opportunities to slip through successive barriers and get a bit of fresh air. The fact the numpty did not have his mind on his job made it easier to get away with it.
Chris: I never said that it was easy. It is probably at Mensa level to solve. "Unlike the prison authorities we don't know the locale and the design of things", agreed, that's why I am providing the extra photos to try and put it in a better perspective for those trying to solve it. Puzzles can be frustrating. The prison authorities had more information as you rightly pointed out, and even they were flummoxed. I assure you that it is not impossible. You are getting there "Obviously opportunism following human errors, and probably system design errors and protocol errors". You are tired. It won't be solved overnight because I am going to bed soon. I never claimed that it was a traditional brain teaser, just a brain teaser. You appear to be getting yourself bogged down, perhaps, understandably.
Actually, it was a May evening or to be precise early morning, and I recall it was quite a bright night and I recall marvelling at the fact that I was moon bathing as opposed to sun bathing. I think it was a crescent moon. No coming and going of vehicles or people or I would have been discovered.
The Sherlock Holmes quote is not there for no reason. So far, you have made more progress than anybody else.
Feel free to ask questions. Apply logic. Don't expect me to give you the answers to Q1 and Q2 outright. I will let you know when you are on the right track and in this way you are eliminating what did not happen.
Chris: "You were let out by the man or a man with the keys surely? But not knowingly". No.
"Lock down" is an American terminology, we use "Bang up" over here. According to the Home Office guidelines, prisoners should be checked hourly, unless they are on some form of special watch, in which case it should be every 15 minutes.
"The fact the numpty did not have his mind on his job made it easier to get away with it". This is true. I was laughing my head off because I could not believe how easy it was. But, remember those business people succeed because the spot the opportunity whereas others do not see it.
OK, so far the best I have is a guess that the doors may have been secure... but the windows were not.
Tim: Spot on.
The hospital wing would normally be placed at the exterior of a prison complex, too. Easier access for emergencies, generally lower security priority and more sunlight. So I'm thinking that the moment you passed through that window and climbed down ground level, you were more or less outside the prison (if not entirely off the grounds).
Tim: The hospital wing is separate from the main prison. It's the building in the bottom photograph, you can just see the roof above the wall. The prison is the same category as that of the prisoners it holds and the hospital wing is no less secure in this respect. That's the theory anyway. In practice, hospital wings tend not to have the same level of security attention because the staff tend to have nurse training rather than security training.
You're so close. However, you are wrong to assume that I climbed down to ground level inside the prison as this would still leave a 20ft wall to scale without the benefit of a rope or ladder etc.
Because they have a no fly zone over prisons Google Earth is useless and all you get is a blur. Because a bird's eye view would help.
There are a couple of clues in the top two photos. And, Chris Paul has hit on human error as being a factor.
It was the one cell in the whole of the prison which allowed me to facilitate an escape. I merely engineered getting located in there. Thinking back, it must have been the old Aspergers Syndrome and that eye for detail.
Can I guess that it was the one with the fireplace in it? Those Victorian chimneys look pretty big.
Other possibilities include that you climbed down the bars on the big windows out front (as seen on picture 2) or that you got yourself closer to the ground by climbing down a tree (as seen on picture two)
john angliss: Firstly, welcome to my blog. No, there was no fireplace in the cell. Although I have read of an account from the Victorian period whereby a prisoner did manage to escape by this method. And, in the mid 80s, whilst I was in Wakefield Prison, a random search of my cell discovered a 18 inch x 15 inch hole in the back wall. When the officers rather stupidly asked "What's this?", I replied "It's cold so I thought I would build a fireplace".
Tim got it right in relation to the window exit from the cell. But, then veered off from there. The original windows in the cells were the same design, on a smaller scale, as those shown in the outside of the gatehouse either side of the gate. They were made of cast iron and the glass panes were 5ins x 4ins. The greater freedom allowed prisoners in the 60s meant that these were vulnerable to being smashed out by steel bed legs. Also, legislation demanded that more light and air penetrated the cells. Therefore, new bars were designed and fitted in all prisons.
What distinguished the hospital wing from the main prison wings, was that it only had two levels as opposed to the four shown in the first photo. In the bottom photo, the apex of the roof is only just above the level of the 20ft high wall. Although it was not close enough to leap the distance.
Observations:
There are drainpipes near the big windows in picture 1.
There are lots of big trees in picture 3.
You were probably on 15-min suicide watch but they either didn't much care and/or were taken in by the old lump in the bedclothes. Possibly some sound effects from outside the window until the numpty gave up visiting.
There certainly weren't doing the proper waking every 15 minutes by shining light in eyes which I hear is favoured by the assiduous suicide watcher and of course offers a marvellous therapeutic effect for the poor sods being cared for.
You may well have spent quite a long time moon bathing right there on that roof or at least somewhere you'd have been spotted:
"No coming and going of vehicles or people or I would have been discovered."
So I'm guessing you didn't travel far and were touching the prison most of the time you were missing.
The police car tech anecdote is a bit of a red herring isn't it? They would have known exactly who you were from your situation wouldn't they?
Mensa tests are easy. The last reasonably arduous IQ test I did I got no questions wrong. It was not hard enough to distinguish IQs over 140. The fact I knew I had got none wrong - easily confirmed by looking at the sample report - meant I was not tempted to pay the £15 or whatever to discover where I went wrong!
Addendum: Trees from window to outer wall. Moonbathing on wall in open view - hence relevance of no traffic or pedestrians. Hiding in plain view.
That outer wall (picture 3) is not 20 feet high. 10 feet high more like. Unless the man for scale is a 12-footer?
Chris @ 11.12:
As you observe there are drainpipes and trees. However, neither featured in my escape.
I wasn't on a 15 minute watch, just the normal every hour. However, once the 10pm lights out and check is done the next check does not occur until 6am.
Whilst I was moon bathing during my night on the tiles, I did remember that I had not stuck a dummy in the bed but I could not be bothered to get back in to rectify this omission.
I didn't actually spend very long moon bathing, only a few minutes before I got dressed and then looked about to see how I could make my exit from the roof.
No red herring. Crazy as it seems, at that time, the standard procedure was for the prison to notify the police of an escape. Then a photograph would be given to the police to copy and circulate. All of this could take two weeks! It was the only car in the force in that area with this technology and they were testing its effectiveness.
The hospital wing was only two floors, the wing shown in photo one is probably 40-50ft high. The low wall you point out @ 8.25 is not the main prison wall, its behind that, and behind that again is the roof of the hospital wing.
To enter the hospital wing from the main prison, you have to go through a gate in the wall separating the hospital wing from the main prison. One end of this wall attaches to the hospital wing.
OK. Cleverly selected hospital cell. Wonky window. Easy enough onto roof. Handy for wall with gate in it. One end attached to hospital block. Other end to somewhere en route for the great outdoors. Patiently reach that end of that wall. Successfully overcome obstacles there and very likely drop down into a relatively unsecured area, even lower down the security pecking list than the hospital. Governor's accommodation? Trustees herb garden? Whatever, from there relatively sodt exit and alas straight into arms of tech-panda-alpha-romeo.
Chris: The few extra clues did it. Well done! I will have to think of a suitable prize. It was difficult. But, even with their inside knowledge they could not see it.
I will post on it shortly, the full sp.
Hurrah!
Bugger....I go away for a few days and you have something like this going on. That being said, my answer would have been a little wide of the mark.
Being a suspicious and pedantic soul, I took "The lock and bolt on the cell door had not been tampered with" as a pointer towards the hinge plates. That was never going to be viable with a regulation cell door, and would only have given access to a wing landing, so I quickly moved onto a hospital wing with crappier doors, giving access to a store room (preferably with a medical orderly's uniform hanging up) with an easy window to the outside.
I assumed that up onto the roof and along wall tops etc to the outside would be the sensible route, but didn't know whether to count that as walking out of the prison - strolling out of the open space with the low perimeter wall (pic 3) would count.
I had a look at the aerial view on Virtual Earth, which isn't blurred as badly as Google's attempt, but couldn't quite get the route down.
My better half suggested that you disguised youself as a washerwoman and sauntered past sex-starved warders with a saucy swing of your hips. Not too likely, but a change from the norm.
Needless to say, a good escape story is always value for money. Just another game of Cops and Robbers, so long as everyone plays fair.
I'm impressed with the techie car though, as 25 years on we still have nothing quite so groovy in general use. Are you sure they weren't yanking your chain? It's not that long ago that I was persuading "passengers" that we had a Traffic-Lights-to-Green button on board, a nitrous oxide set for pursuits and, back at the station, a big hairy bloke called Bob, with whom they would have to share a cell if they didn't behave during the journey.
Sorry to have missed the fun.
maneatingcheesesandwich:
Welcome back. I'm sorry you missed it as well. I thought it would have been right up your street.
The walking out was unbelievable. Off the roof, along the wall to the Visits Room, this newish structure attached to the inside of the Gatehouse on the right of the picture. Across the sloping roof to the Gatehouse on the left of the picture. There was a small sloping roof down to square enclosure. Once at ground level, there was a wooden door with a handle and I depressed the little lever and it was unlocked so I just walked out! Unbloodybeliveable!
As for your better half, as it happens, when I was on the wall attached to the hospital and the Visits Room, I looked down and the night clockie was eating a sandwich, reading a newspaper and had a cup of coffee or tea on the desk. I had to hold my nose to stop myself from laughing. As I crossed over the top of the Gatehouse, a tile slipped down into a gutter. The screw came out of the Gatehouse Office and looked up but failed to see me. I looked into a open window, and the Duty PO was snoring in bed and I considered climbing in and stealing his wallet and see if he had any car keys. On second thoughts, it might have earned me a beating so I left it.
No, I actually saw the computer in the car. They had three rings around the jail and local area. They worked their way in, if I had not been caught within the rings it would have been assumed that I was well away and the search would have been called off.
I had actually been going across the fields, and did two break ins for some money and food and fags and change of clothes from a garage and a scout hut. The first car I heard I went to the roadside to thumb a lift. It was a bloody jam sandwich! The driver stayed put on the radio, and this big, fat, bastard got out to chase me. He was pointing across the fields, it was the first ring and there were dogs. I thought, fuck it!
I didn't get charged with the burglary, in spite of my confession, because I said I had done it about 2am. And, the night clockie swore blind he had checked and I was in my cell at that time! Covering his arse!
I will post the full story shortly.
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