10. Glamorous & On the Run In 2017, Tegan Simpson managed to
evade the police for 18 days after escaping from a prison farm on the Gold Coast. Her accomplice,
Abigail Graf, was apprehended soon after. It started when they took off from an open prison
in Numinbah Valley. They got a pretty decent head start because authorities didn't even know they
were gone until they failed to show up for their routine headcount at 11:00 PM. By the time the
cops started looking for them, they were already well on their way to a brief taste of freedom.
Tegan had gotten locked up in the first place for receiving stolen goods,
while her friend Abigail was in for assaulting a police officer. They didn't know of each other
before they were incarcerated, but they became fast friends once locked up. Seeing as the open
prison wasn't really the most secure place, the pair decided that they would just take
their chances and run off through the wilderness. This was despite the fact that neither were facing
particularly long sentences. They could have just served their time and been done with it.
Plus, Tegan, judging by her social media pictures, had been living a pretty glamorous
life before landing herself in prison. She has photos on Facebook with a Mercedes,
she appears to have lots of friends, and she can be seen frolicking at the beach. At 24 years old,
she was pretty normal. But when you look at her mugshots, things change
pretty quickly. After a short stint in prison and then 18 days trying desperately to escape,
she was in rough shape. She almost looks now like a totally different person.
9. Six Days on the Run A 22-year-old woman escaped
from the women’s jail in Santee on a Saturday in 2019. After six days on the run, she was back in
custody and being put back behind bars. The escapee is Destiny Guns, and she managed to
squirrel her way out of the Las Colinas Detention Facility at about 5:30 PM on Saturday. Six days
prior to her escape, she had been arrested on minor charges of misdemeanor drugs and theft.
But let's break down the actual escape. She was discovered missing during headcount at 6:15 PM,
according to Lt. Shawn Wray. The last time she was seen was nearly 45 minutes earlier
at 5:35 PM. Once she was gone, deputies conducted an intense search of the area.
They used helicopters and dogs, but there was just no sign of her. How did she escape?
It turned out later that as Destiny was returning to the facility from a medical appointment,
she managed to leap over a series of fences and evade the deputies. They didn't even see her as
she fled for her life! We don't know where she was while she was hiding for those six days,
but she was caught and rebooked back in jail before the week was over.
And here's where things get crazy. She was released from prison just shortly
after this whole fiasco. Less than a year later, she was arrested on June 22, 2020,
for murder and manslaughter. She was caught in Maryland stabbing someone named Chad Petroulis
to death in his own apartment! 8. Over the Wall
Keana Barnes was serving a 25-year sentence for manslaughter when she managed to break
herself free from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in January of 2013.
Keana had murdered her boyfriend in New Orleans 10 years earlier in 2003, just before she went
on the run in Mexico for a full year before she was apprehended by the authorities in 2004
and sent to Louisiana. Clearly, this was not a woman who liked to be locked up.
She shaved her head just before her escape so that she wouldn't be easy to
recognize. Then she climbed out of her dorm room window one night and scaled the perimeter gate.
And if that sounds easy, it’s because it was easy. It was even the second prison
break from the same facility that week! Keana made it all the way to California
before she was caught again. She even made it onto the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 Most Wanted list.
It was the list that got her busted, as she was recognized by cops in Los Angeles
and arrested. She’s since been sent back to Louisiana to serve the rest of her sentence.
7. Escaped for 38 Years In February of 1977, Margaret B. Smith walked away
from the Robeson County women’s prison. According to her, she did it because she had to protect her
family. Just before she made her daring escape, she had been visited by her 7-year-old daughter.
Margaret never said what it was that her daughter told her during that visit. But whatever she said,
it was so serious that Jessica broke out of jail shortly after. She made it to the highway, stuck
out her thumb, and hitchhiked her way back home. Do keep in mind this was in the 1970s, back when
it was quite a bit easier to literally just walk out of jail. This was back when Ted Bundy escaped
jail twice! Plus, Margaret hadn't been imprisoned for anything too serious. She was convicted
in 1974 of writing over $200 in fake cheques. But here's the thing, she was never recaptured
by the police… until now. 38 years after she escaped from jail, on May 14, 2015,
FBI officer Tonya S. Sconyers knocked on her door. The knock on the door was part of an operation in
conjunction with the FBI and the state Department of Public safety to locate and return over 147
inmates who escaped prison. 14 of those escapees were discovered to already be in prison, while 18
were found to be dead. Most of these escapees come from the 60s and 70s. Margaret B. Smith,
after enjoying a relatively normal life, is now locked behind bars. She even almost died because
the prison mixed up her diabetes medication! Do you think there should be a statute of
limitations on this kind of thing? After all, Margaret went to prison in the first
place for writing fake cheques to feed her seven kids. She was smart enough to escape
for 40 years and now has to go back to jail. Do you think that's right or wrong? Let us
know in the comments below and if you’re liking this video, be sure to hit the thumbs up and
subscribe buttons if you haven’t already! :) 6. Escape at the Troubled Women’s Prison
An inmate escaped from the most infamous women's prison in New Jersey.
But freedom didn’t last long. Hours later, she was tracked down by cops and dragged back to jail.
According to the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office, Jessica Graham was already serving a
sentence of five years for criminal mischief when she escaped. She was reported missing
from the minimum-security unit at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women during headcount.
Because she had no history of violence, there was no reason to keep her under intensive watch.
Jessica used this to her advantage, sneaking out of the house where she was kept
and making a desperate run out of the prison and into the surrounding area. But on foot,
she didn't make it too far. The police picked her up just hours later near a restaurant in
Clinton. The escape seemed like a good idea until she realized she had no mode of transportation,
no food, and no proper clothes to wear. It was a pretty bogus idea anyway considering
she was about to be released. She tried to escape in November when she had her release coming up in
February. If Jessica could have just held on a few more months, she would have been a free woman. But
then again, maybe things were just too horrendous in the jail. After all, this is the place that has
come under serious scrutiny for the male guards assaulting and violating many of the inmates.
The sexual abuse problem has become so severe at this New Jersey prison that the government is
actually trying to close the place down. 5. The Helicopter Escape
In 1987, two convicts escaped prison in one of the most dramatic breakouts in history.
Ronald McIntosh used a stolen helicopter to break his girlfriend out of a federal prison!
According to Ronald himself, his lover Samantha Lopez claimed that she was being
threatened in the prison. This compelled him to do whatever he needed to get her out of there.
She was sentenced to 50 years because she got caught robbing a bank. The breakout only
added five extra years to that, which isn't really much in the grand scheme of things.
But by now you're probably wondering where Ronald got a helicopter from. The truth is that just days
before he broke Samantha out of prison, he too escaped! He walked away from a prison transfer
and ran. He found a helicopter, hijacked it, and then flew right into the prison yard over
the barbed wire fence so that his girlfriend could climb inside. It was totally a 007 move,
but it didn’t end well. The pair then spent 11 days together before the police picked them up
at a jewelry store in Sacramento, where they were trying to get engraved wedding rings.
4. The Accomplice Joyce Mitchell didn't escape from prison. Instead,
she was the woman who helped two inmates to escape by providing them the necessary materials.
She had never been in prison before, but after she got caught helping the convicted killers escape,
she was thrown in the clink for five years. It may not have been so bad if not for the people
she helped escape. Joyce at the time was a prison worker. She became fascinated with Richard Matt
and David Sweat, both of whom were incarcerated at the Clinton Correctional Facility for murder. The
killers schemed together to seduce Joyce Mitchell and get her on their side. She helped provide the
things they would need to break out of the jail, including guns, ammunition, a compass, a hacksaw,
chisels, and a complete bag of camping gear. And before the actual escape, she was getting
busy with at least one of them, maybe both, in the tailor shop where she worked as the prison tailor!
Richard and David used the power tools provided to cut through the back of their cells, smash
through the brick wall, bust open a steam pipe, and then wriggle out of the prison and emerge
through a manhole. The hunt for these guys went on for 22 days, ending with Matt getting shot and
killed and David getting taken back into custody. 3. The Irish Women’s Escape of 1830
In 1830, nine women escaped from an Irish prison, along with a baby. It happened on the 23rd of May,
with all nine of the convicted females serving sentences of 7 years. They were all locked up at
the usual time, but when prison guards went to look in the morning, they were all gone.
Four of the women were named Mary, and one of them had an 11-month-old baby with her!
Two of the women were named Margaret. Then there was an Ellen, a Bridget,
and a Catherine. You can really tell what Irish people were naming their daughters back then.
The guards at the jail slowly pieced together what happened and how the women escaped.
Over the previous week, the nine convicts had been working together to break out of their cells.
They also had two men from the outside scale the prison walls in the middle of the night
with a ladder, gaining easy access to the women's ward. It was actually very simple.
The women only needed to bust through their cages, then the men helped them get out of
the prison with their ladders. In the end, only one of the women, Mary Hickey, was recaptured.
2. Escape From the Auburn Prison for Women Nobody escaped from the Auburn Prison for
Women since it opened in 1894, that was until May 8, 1920. That was when a pair of
inmates made an escape straight out of a movie. Dorothy Creer was incarcerated for shooting her
sweetheart in New York City after they got into a fight. She had already served five years but still
had five to go. Irene Miley was serving a similar sentence, though she was in jail for first-degree
grand larceny. She had robbed a New York lawyer who she’d been working for. These two women worked
together on a scheme to earn their freedom. They fashioned disguises out of materials that
they scavenged at the prison. Using gray blankets, they made suits for themselves,
complete with hats. They even fashioned themselves slippers so they could move silently
and not leave any trails behind. Then they used a screwdriver and some strong files to
break themselves out of their cells. They removed the locks from their rooms, snuck into the prison
kitchen on the second floor, and hopped out of one of the windows that didn't have any bars on it.
They used three blankets tied together to lower themselves to the ground outside.
From here, the women ran into the prison yard and managed to climb over a 12-foot (3.6m) wall
to their freedom. But their freedom didn't last for very long. They were only out of prison
for about 24 hours before police tracked them down and brought them back to jail.
1. The Great Pretender On August 28, 2021, Ellen Goble escaped
from the Randolph County jail by impersonating another inmate who was due to be released. It
was an impromptu scheme that amazingly paid off. The other inmate was supposed to be released just
after 4:00 o'clock in the morning on Saturday. But when she didn't respond to the wake up call,
Ellen seized the opportunity. She gathered up the other inmates belongings, kept her head down,
forged the other girl’s signature, and then walked straight out of the prison.
When she left, she was even given the other girl’s items that she had originally entered
the prison with, including a debit card. Nobody knew what had happened until breakfast,
when the girl who was supposed to be released finally woke up. Ellen managed to stay on the run
for nine days before she finally turned herself in to the authorities. She probably could have stayed
out longer, but the police were hunting after her pretty hard. She's now being charged with
escaping from custody, as well as forgery. The reason she was sent to jail in the first place was
second-degree burglary, drug possession, and operating a vehicle without a license.
Which of these dramatic prison breaks do you think was the most impressive? Let us know
your thoughts in the comments and thanks so much for watching the video! For more great stuff,
be sure to subscribe and look through our huge catalogue of videos! See you next time! Bye! :)