Escape Official Escape Official

In July 1992, long shadows formed as the sun set over Medellin, the Colombian city nestled in the Aburra Valley. Perched against one of the steep hills overlooking the city sat the La Catedral Prison, although the word prison was hardly a good description. More like a luxurious estate, the facility boasted a private football pitch, Jacuzzi, and expansive cells more accurately described as hotel suites.
All of this was built especially for Colombia’s public enemy number one: Pablo Escobar, the drug smuggler who at the height of his power was responsible for 80% of the cocaine that flooded into the United States. The kingpin continued to run his empire while he served his time, protected from both the government and rival cartels.
But as nightfall crept closer, Colombian military had begun surrounding La Catedral. Escobar’s time there was up. He had to get out.

In February 1864, a group of Union soldiers escaped from Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. Filthy and starving, the prisoners had set about finding a way out of Libby – which had become an overcrowded hell hole.
For other inmates, the long months spent trying to pass the time as the American civil war raged between the North and South was too much for them to bear.
But there were two captives that felt a deep sense of duty to breakout and make a run for the picket lines. After arriving in Libby, they refused to give in to despair, and instead, they set about finding a way out.

On Sunday, September 25th, 1983, the day started as normal in H-block 7, with the prison officers having no indication of what the prisoners had in store.
Brendan McFarlane, on the other hand, began the day with a sense of anticipation of what the prisoners had planned, mixed with a slight feeling of apprehension, knowing that it was on.

In September 1983, the Irish Republican Army planned and executed a mass escape from Her Majesty’s Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. 38 prisoners made it beyond the walls of the Maze, which the UK government had boasted was the most secure prison in all of Europe.
The IRA prisoners were hell-bent on embarrassing the UK government and attracting attention to their cause – to form a united Ireland.
But to fully understand these IRA prisoners’ determination which led to the biggest escape in British penal history, the first step is to look back at the events that shaped modern attitudes.

Darcy Dugan felt no remorse for trying to get out. When you cage an animal against its will, deprive it of its natural element and kin, it will naturally try to escape – particularly if it can see a way out.
The way he saw it, the warder’s job was to keep him in custody. His job was to get out.
And he had already found another possible way.

A few days after his court hearing, Billy was transported in a red panel truck to the Bakirkoy mental hospital prison facility to begin his 17 days of observation. He and a group of other prisoners were unloaded and escorted into a reception area, where hospital attendants in dirty white smocks took Billy’s watch and the 100 lira note that he had to be stored securely. He was then escorted into the grounds toward Section 13, the home of the criminally insane, and his new home, at least for the moment.