WEBVTT - Jelly Beans 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:10.640 A campsite media. Roger was back at the Kingston Penitentiary 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.880 for the very simple reason that the wardens and directors 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.880 of the Canadian Penitentiary Service wanted out of the business 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:22.480 of worrying about Roger Kuran. He'd built a reputation for escaping, 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.200 for being a go boy, for striking fear in the 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.520 hearts of those tasked with keeping him behind bars. The 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.760 Kingston pen was the one place where they could definitively 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.080 say he wasn't going anywhere, even he knew it, and 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:42.680 the thought depressed him walking through KP. Now you're struck 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:45.760 by how every few paces there seems to be another 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:50.120 checkpoint with steel bars. One cannot simply move through the 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.440 indoor spaces freely. Guards and inmates alike are faced with 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:59.279 checkpoint after checkpoint. The only part of the prison that 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.000 allows for the dream of freedom to even cross your 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:07.000 mind is out in the recreational yard. But even it 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.440 is surrounded on all sides by a formidable concrete wall 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:17.200 with five guard towers, each occupied with armed men. In 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.960 this venue, they wouldn't even need to watch Roger especially close. 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.160 All they'd have to do is treat him like any 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:30.039 other inmate. That was the idea anyway. One night in 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.600 nineteen sixty two, at around midnight, an old jailor was 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:37.920 walking his rounds flashlight in hand, ensuring that everyone was 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:43.840 in their cells asleep. Everything appeared as it should until 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:48.920 he got to sell C two seven. The inmate was 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.840 in his bed, but as the guard squinted into the 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.840 darkness of the cell, he sensed that something wasn't right. 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.680 He says, Cara. He says, are you all right? 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:00.880 Karan? 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:06.200 He called again, but Roger didn't respond. The guard got 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.880 right up against the bars and shone the light directly 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.640 on Roger's head. His hair looked messy, his skin paler 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:18.080 than it should, and he remained unresponsive. So the guard 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.960 speed walks to the nearest call station and calls the 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.239 hospital line to say, you better get down here. 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.320 So a lot of guys that slashed to visa at 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:28.799 night when he went to day, and the guard to 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.400 come in the morning. The only way he knew was 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.320 there just helsposed to blot out break from him. 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.959 A nurse and some more guards rushed to sell C. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.600 Two seven, got the other guard and got the nurse 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:41.760 in the arms, open the door, lift the leader swarm 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.080 the door over, Carl, Are you all right? 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.399 Still no movement from Roger. So the guard reaches out 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:53.560 to nudge him awake. But when he did, Roger's head 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:58.240 rolled off the bed and fell on the floor, by 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:02.120 which I mean the mannequin head made by Roger Karan 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:04.079 fell to the floor. 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.680 Over fell on the floor. And the guys, they told 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:13.320 me the garden almost fell over. The radiote on the floor. 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.480 You don't have and he said, walks on wims. 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.799 The police rushed to the prison and out on the lake. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.040 A police boat putted back and forth on Lake Ontario 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.280 with its spotlight on the exterior wall. Guards were called 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:32.800 in the middle of the night. They brought in the dogs. 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.400 It was all hands on deck. And while all that 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.040 was going on, as the crowd and the sound of 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:43.720 sirens grew, Roger was cursing himself, huddled under the weather 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.760 tarp in the Kingston Pen sports shack, muttering to himself 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:50.760 that he should have spent one more day on the 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:51.600 mannequin head. 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:54.360 So I had a hair from the barber shop, I 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.320 had blacks with parison, and I may have managed, and 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.080 I had turned his head into the wall, but I 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.800 didn't have time to this skinning was almost pale light. 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.440 I didn't have time to get the guy was going 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:05.960 to give me his artist kit, and he didn't have 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:06.280 time to. 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:06.840 Deliver it to me. 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.480 He knew that it was going to be too pale, 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.040 and now his whole plan was foiled. He was not 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.600 a go boy this night, but merely a man under 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.680 a tarp with forty feet of rope and a grappling hook. 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.520 Oh yeah, he managed to procure a grappling hook somehow. 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.120 But even though the jig was up, he certainly wasn't 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:30.880 just going to step out with his hands up. Not 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.720 his style. If they were going to find him, he 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.080 was going to stubbornly make them find him. 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:39.800 And they pound me a two dollard warning there. I 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.560 understand he found me. He was sports check. I got 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:44.839 my head in, hands on my hit and my rope 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:46.839 book is all kid knuckle in his shaw and they 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.440 got shot guns. And right, wasn't the gun towers or 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:51.760 counting squat by something that they get tacked? Thought was 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:52.360 very easy. 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.480 Once they had him, they marched him straight to the warden, 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:57.880 who had made his way down the hill in his 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:02.000 pajamas from his home across the street. He greeted Roger 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:08.240 with a sarcastic good evening. The warden was done worrying 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:12.160 about Roger, the most slippery inmate in his prison, so 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.600 to put him out of his mind, the warden sentenced 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:19.440 him on the spot to two years in the hole. 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.679 Roger knew that he was in trouble, but two years 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:25.200 he was shocked. 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.160 Two years ago, holds unheard of him. You go to 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:30.960 hold the twenty one days on bread and water, seven days, 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:32.400 thirty days I maginum. 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.120 But Roger was led away to begin two years of solitary. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.159 It was clear that the warden was trying to erase 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:44.240 Roger from his prison and bury him beneath the foundations, 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.840 and it would take everything Roger had to claw his 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:56.240 way back from iHeart podcasts and campsite media. I'm Sam 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:03.919 Mullens and this is Go Boy, episode four Jellybeans. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:17.440 So we're really going down at the base of the air. 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:23.040 The hole in the Kingston Pen refers to a much 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:26.360 feared block of cells where inmates were sent for prescribed 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:31.440 amounts of solitary confinement as punishment. Parents have timeouts to 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.040 keep their children in line, teachers have detention, and the 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.640 guards at KP had the hole with which to threaten 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:44.760 their subjects. I'll give you the tour. Imagine a short, 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.720 well liit hallway with ten wooden doors on the right 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:51.400 and ten wooden doors on the left. Every time I 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:53.600 see the photo of the cell block when it was 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.840 still in use, and I see the brightness and cleanliness 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.800 and perfect symmetry of that cursed hallway, I'm struck by 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:04.719 how much it looks like a Stanley Kubrick set. Behind 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.480 all twenty doors lies a second steel door with a 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:13.040 food slot in it, and beyond that lies the cell itself. 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:19.239 No sheet, no matrist, no nothing cover, all spots paper, 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.080 cup of toothbrust and a cement clock worn grew day. 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:26.040 It was all as bare as bear could be, and 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:27.560 he couldn't bring anything with you. 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:29.120 No personal effects. 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.720 This is Bill Isaacs, a longtime guard at KP, who'd 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:33.320 seen it all. 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.200 If themate wanted to read, he was entitled to a 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.680 Bible and that was the only source of reading material. 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:44.400 The walls are solid, impenetrable concrete. There are no windows 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.320 or natural light in the hole, which is not to 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.239 say it's dark or gloomy. 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:51.760 For two years and you didn't know what the darkness 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.640 like and no windows, nothing, just a two hundred ball 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.320 burn ninety day like being in the middle of Sahara desert. 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:00.720 He never turn the lights out. 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.680 With the aspect of the whole that would drive men 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.200 literally out of their minds was the light bulb. To 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.760 hear Roger describe it, it was brighter than the Saharan sun. 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.000 And they kept that thing on twenty four hours a day. 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.600 The only way that you were allowed to dim the 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:21.680 brightness was with your eyelids. Anything beyond that was strictly prohibited. 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:24.480 If I pull the lights over, nay, the darks Committee 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.520 take my minkets away from the trevells over the head, 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:29.720 they take my coveralls and probably even make it. 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.439 Prisons are, in fact, the whole criminal justice system is 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:35.479 an analyst theaters of humiliation. 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.680 Grahame Stewart is a prison rights advocate and the former 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.800 executive director of the John Howard Society, a nonprofit focused 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.920 on prison reform. He's seeing what solitary can do to 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:46.319 a man. 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.800 Losing that kind of control in your life is humiliating, 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.800 and you don't get over that. You don't get over 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.520 I absolutely convinced that of all the pains of imprisonment. 0:08:58.040 --> 0:08:59.720 That's the one you can't get beyond. 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.720 The guards would supervise the sory souls of the whole 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.520 through a barred sort of skylight. In the ceiling of 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.680 each unit. There was a catwalk that they would pace 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.920 above the cells on, so when an inmate would look up, 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.439 there would periodically be the face of a guard peering 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:18.640 down on them like a malevolent god. 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.920 They were against the officers looking down at them because 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.280 it looked like they were in a lockage, like somebody 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:28.920 looking in a zoo cage looking at an animal. So 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.400 you'd get inappropriate comments and a lot of bad language 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.360 from the inmates, you know, like what the hell are 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.360 you looking at? But a lot stronger than that. 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.160 According to Roger, the guards who were assigned to the 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:41.800 hole were some of the most sadistic in the prison. 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:44.800 Let me put it this way. If they were well 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.719 liked and charismatic in the eyes of the Brotherhood of 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:52.160 prison guards, they'd probably be working upstairs on a better assignment. 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.840 Well, guards are charged the whole, nice people. No decent 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.160 guard would ever ask the whole. Only said that as 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:01.240 keep it real. 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:06.120 Say, one could frame solitary confinement as quiet time. Perhaps 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.600 a break from having to watch your back. 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:14.480 But solitary confinement is not private accommodation. Okay, it's a 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:15.319 lot worse than that. 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:16.480 Graham Stewart. 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:18.520 Again, I've had many people say, well, i've ever had 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:20.400 to go to prison, I'd want to be in solitary 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.760 because basically it's the afraid of being in the population. 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:31.439 But solitary is deeply painful. It's such isolation from every stimulus. 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:34.200 You don't know if it's date or night, you don't 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.400 know what time it is, you have nothing to do. 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.800 It's just like being in a closet or or a 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.760 bathroom really for twenty three hours a day. 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.760 We went into the hole during our reporting trip to 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:53.280 KP and I hated it in there. In the hole, 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.600 the walls are so close that you can hear your 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.760 breath echo, if that makes sense, like you've been bare alive, 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.840 and that feeling is psychologically dangerous. 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.079 Longer they're there, the more damage they are, and it's 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:12.280 a damage that lasts the rest of their life. You 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:14.240 can't undo an experience. 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:17.160 Like that, which is all to say for Roger, there 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:19.599 was much more at stake than finding a way to 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:24.040 endure this punishment. This wasn't something he could white knuckle 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.120 like the paddle or shock therapy to get through this. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.040 He'd need to stay vigilant just to keep his grip 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:36.240 on his sanity. But would you believe me if I 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:41.120 told you that inside this cell, this tomblike space, is 0:11:41.160 --> 0:12:05.760 where Roger would eventually have his greatest breakthrough. One day, 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.880 Roger was in a cell when suddenly he heard a 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.720 tapping sound near his toilet. Could this be the first 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:14.439 sign of him starting to lose it? 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:15.920 It was not. 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:23.040 Themates way of communication. The ways that she used to talk, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:28.280 especially in segregation, was you know, obviously, through the toilet system. 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.200 Even though great effort was put into keeping these men 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:36.800 in perfect isolation, something was overlooked. Like Jeff Goldbloom says 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.880 in Jurassic Park, Life finds a Way. 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:43.520 I had some niggers down there. I never seen it. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:45.400 I knew there was a guy called Jocko and a 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.560 guy called George down there, and we could never see 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.280 each other. We discovered that the old plumbing system was 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.520 so old, sore, so primitive that it weaned very quietly, 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.240 took our paper cup and took the water on the toilet, 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.040 bowed it down. The state until there was no more 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.040 water in the toilet, and then we cleaned their toilet 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.439 old really well. And then after midnight in the gardens 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.800 would change shift, we'd stick our head in the toilet. 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.160 If I wanted to talk to Jocko and number five 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.679 cell I capped five times in the flour that meant 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.000 for Jocko Bale's toilet that would get on the phone. 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.360 The only drawback to this clandestine phone line was that 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.760 sometimes it'd be too busy to work because the men 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.280 in the hole weren't the only ones on the line. 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.120 Kingston was infested with the biggest, fattest stewart rats you 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.560 ever seen, and then the ukating down every two centuries. 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:38.040 No bake along, yellow teeth creature. You're all running into. 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.760 Pikes that we're talking to do And for several months, 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.360 this is how Roger was able to keep it together. 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.800 The days of silence were more bearable knowing that that 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.439 night when the guards change shifts, that at least be 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:51.520 someone to talk to. 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.679 Oh nay long from midnight till six o'clock and guards 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.360 to come on duty next morning. I said, hey, Jocko, 0:13:57.480 --> 0:13:59.040 say yeah, say what's happening. 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.240 Maybe one of the more iconic do you remember where 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:06.360 you were? Moments Roger learned that JFK was shot with 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.120 his head in the toilet, straining to hear the details 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:15.920 in disbelief. This period of nightly chatter definitely bought Roger 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.960 some time, a precious little engagement to keep his head clear, 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:23.960 but it wasn't to last. Guys were usually only put 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.800 down there for a few weeks here or a month there, 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.800 but sometimes there wouldn't be anyone staying in the hole 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.440 except for Roger. He put out the call on the phone, 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:39.680 but no one would answer. Time passed in an untraceable way, 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:45.120 and Roger started spending more and more time daydreaming, week dreaming, 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:46.720 month dreaming. 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.440 I'm going to escaped prison. You curl up on the 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:57.880 poor and get day dream I'm not in jail. I'm 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.040 not in jail. I'm in Hawaii. And all of a sudden, 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:06.080 you're in all white, And the gardener looked into the 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.440 people and said, you're not an all white take his cue. 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:10.680 It gets a place of guys with like a bomb 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:11.880 going off hisself. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:17.040 Like an he gets a whole screaming and red and 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.200 raving and shaving from now wrapper the garden will walk 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:22.520 down to the catwalk lacking go steth each other was 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:23.080 really funny. 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.560 Was shaking on, going crazy, literally crazy. 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.400 When the guards would suddenly wrap the glass with their keys. 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.240 It would take him hours to recover from the shock 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.840 from this one single stimulus, the one sound in his life. 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.000 In Roger's brief moments of lucidity, he could see where 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.360 this was going, and he knew that if he didn't 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:48.200 do something, he could get lost forever. And it's here 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.720 that Roger got an idea. One day, when the guard 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.840 swung by to collect Roger's food tray, the guard was 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.520 surprised to see that the food remained untouched where he 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.320 had left it. When he asked Roger why he didn't 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:06.600 eat it, Roger said, I'm not hungry. The next meal 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.880 was the same, and the one after. Roger wrote about 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.120 his scheme to get out of the hole and into 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.440 the psychiatric ward and here's our actor reading it. 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.920 My scheme was to put on a crazy act. By 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.920 no means an original idea, because cons in every prison 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.400 throughout the world have tried it. I was going to 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.400 have to put on a tremendous act to convince the guards, 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:30.880 doctor and warden that I was psychotic. They knew all 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.400 the tricks. I decided to be more cunning than the 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.480 average con and so instead of firing my food tray 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:38.200 at them and telling them that I was on hunger 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.560 strike because they were poisoning me, I'd let them advise 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.920 me that this was what was happening, sort of reverse psychology. 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.000 But in the early going, they weren't buying what Roger 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.400 was selling. They knew who he was and what he 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:52.240 was capable of. 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:54.800 The guards a genio or rigord meal, and they said, no, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:56.400 old boss like the one, and the key just said, 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:57.280 well can I add it? 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.320 So, right in front of Roger, as a stomach was 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:05.479 practically digesting itself, the guard would make Roger watch as 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.400 he slowly would eat his dinner in front of him. 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.920 By day eight, Roger didn't have to act like his 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.080 health was in jeopardy anymore. It literally was. It's a 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.000 testament to how sick Roger must have looked on that 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:23.280 day because the guards were concerned enough to call the doctor. 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.160 On day twelve, it was the psychiatrist who finally made 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:31.840 the call to transfer Roger to the psychiatric ward. His 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.600 wish was about to come true. Roger now had the 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.200 great honor of going to join the Regional Treatment Center, 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.679 which held some of the most criminally insane men. 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.119 In the country if one flew over the propos nests team. 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.880 Compared to this, in all, the Regional Treatment Center or RTC, 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.240 was a separate building within the walls of the Kingston 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:58.119 Penitentiary campus, and it operated completely separate from the prison. 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:01.760 They had their own innate that didn't mix. They had 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.720 their own staff and guards that operated independently of the prison, 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.040 and it wasn't often that an inmate was transferred from 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.800 the pen to the RTC. The old guards and historians 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:15.239 we talked to say that of all the messed up 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.480 things that happened at KP, all of the worst stories, 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:23.400 the craziest, the most depraved, all come from the RTC, 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:28.760 and Roger was there by choice, and it wasn't just 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:33.040 to escape the hole either. The RTC building is unique 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.440 on the campus in that it's one of the tallest 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.800 buildings inside the prison wall, and it also happens to 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:44.600 be one of the closest to the wall. When we 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.280 climbed to the top floor of this extreme bad vibes building, 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:53.040 this building, this building is nuts this place that deserves 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:57.600 its own abandoned mental hospital Instagram account. It was easy 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:00.720 to see why Roger was willing to litter, really starve 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:02.000 himself to get here. 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:04.359 What's your guys, best guess? 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.320 Is this like thirty feet yeah? 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:08.919 Okay? 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.440 Standing there eye level with the top of the wall. 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:17.480 It really is tauntingly close. It's easy to imagine Roger 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:21.159 sipping his soup, peering over the top of it, his 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.840 freedom staring him in the face. Once Roger got his 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:29.600 health back to a relatively robust state in between his 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.920 bi weekly electroshock therapy sessions, he got down to what 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:38.680 he does best. He worked quickly to procure a hacksaw 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:40.960 blade and was even able to get word to some 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:43.040 old friends in the shop that he was going to 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:48.639 need another grappling hook. Inside the RTC, Roger enjoyed a 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:52.760 sense of freedom he hadn't experienced in some time. There's 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:55.600 lots of free time to mingle, and it was easy 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.200 to elude the eyes of the staff as he would 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.679 work on the bars every chance he got. Everything seemed 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.640 to be coming together for Roger very quickly. He made 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:07.920 it through the bars on the window. He had his 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.480 grappling hook, safely hidden, and the autumn was giving way 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.159 to winter, which meant that all that was left for 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:18.280 his escape to become a reality was for the first 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.359 snowy night to arrive. There was only one guard tower 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:24.560 he needed to worry about on this side of the building. 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:27.480 Some snow could be enough of a screen for him 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.240 to throw his grappling hook over the top of the wall. 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.240 But with all of these things in place, Roger got 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:39.600 pulled into something he hadn't in a long time. He 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:42.560 got into a fight with the ward tough guy, a 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:46.639 dude named Punchy, But unlike most of his other prison fights, 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.240 this one didn't seem to arrive at a resolution. When 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:55.119 the fisticuffs were over. Afterward, Punchy was telling anyone who'd 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:57.879 listen that he was going to kill Roger at the 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:02.480 earliest opportunity, and had it snowed a day or two earlier, 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:05.960 maybe nothing would have happened. Maybe Roger would have made 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.400 it over the wall and all the way to Mexico, 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.159 never to be seen again. But that's not how it 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:16.120 went down. There was a party a few cell blocks over. 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:19.280 Roger could hear that everyone was lit up on prison 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:24.480 brew and pills. When Suddenly, this punchy guy appeared out 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:28.920 of nowhere. Roger didn't know what hit him. Before he 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:33.280 could even protect himself, the blade was in him. Punchy 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:37.000 withdrew the ship from Roger as he gasped for breath 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:41.680 and begged, kill me, just kill me, but he offered 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:46.399 no such mercy. Instead, Punchy just walked away, leaving Roger 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:50.679 slumped against a wall in the corridor, his blood pooling 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:51.600 on the floor. 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.359 I was stad in the stomach. Gucks come over my 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:59.680 hand and my spleaming montred. I gotta put long star 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:02.080 on my stomach. Got two knights slaves and my. 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:03.720 Nose and oh nose, you know over. 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.520 When he was discovered by two orderlies, they moved quickly 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:10.880 and rushed him to the civilian hospital. 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:12.879 I was the fastest I ever got out the penitentiary 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:16.680 in Yami's eleven o'clock at night, going through the front gates, 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:17.640 and I got to my hand. 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:19.400 Blood's flying out everywhere. 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.760 As Roger slushed around in the ambulance like a puddle 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:26.960 on the floor, everything around him was frantic and chaotic, 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.560 but inside he was certain that this would be his 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.159 final night on earth. He watched the paramedics as he 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:35.520 slipped in and out. 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:37.200 By the time he got to hot I was just 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:40.280 going unconscious, you know, and all these keyboard ripping my 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:42.640 toes off, and you don't know me. And a priest 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:44.560 comes over to me and he says, you know, he 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:46.960 says he mind go to pray over it, and everything's 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:48.440 all blurred and on our member. 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:50.560 Saying, well help you south now, I just played you 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:51.080 say you're. 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:51.560 Shifting the day. 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.640 Meanwhile, one hundred and eighty miles away in Montreal, well, 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:56.280 we were at home. 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:57.240 In the phone rings. 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:00.720 This is Roger's niece, Diane, and my mother. 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.359 Gets off the phone and she was really really upset 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:05.640