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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Cool People Who Did cool stuff, the

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Speaker 1: show in which I declare myself the arbiter of what

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Speaker 1: counts as cool. This is part two of our two

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Speaker 1: part series in Honor of the Steel Day, which is

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Speaker 1: a mediocre prison break about how to get the funk

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Speaker 1: out of prison if you don't want to be in prison. Normally,

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Speaker 1: here's where I tell you where you have to go

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Speaker 1: back and listen to part one. But let's be honest,

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Speaker 1: this week's episodes are basically like a listical and podcast form,

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Speaker 1: so I don't know, go back and listen to part

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Speaker 1: one because it's cool, not because you like me too.

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Speaker 1: For context for today, my guest is the esteemable Christopher Wong,

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Speaker 1: best known, at least on Twitter for having particularly negative

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Speaker 1: feelings about the institution of Ice. How are you doing today?

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Speaker 1: Pretty good? Still extremely don't like ice. It is a

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Speaker 1: it is a bat is a bat is a bad institution.

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Speaker 1: All the other institution that do similar things are also bad. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Please stop telling me that I shouldn't just say abolish ice,

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Speaker 1: and that I should in fact say abolished border. That

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Speaker 1: is my stated position. I have said so multiple times.

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Speaker 1: Please stop. Only Twitter would come up with the idea

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Speaker 1: that someone says I don't like X thing, and then

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Speaker 1: people say we'll do therefore like why things like no,

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Speaker 1: that's my reference. Um and also with us is our

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Speaker 1: esteemable producer Sophie fun Fact, I tried to call the

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Speaker 1: show esteemable persons whose actions were also esteemable, but Sophie

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Speaker 1: said it wasn't allowed. How are you doing to do Sophie,

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Speaker 1: why do you hate the word esteemable? I mean, I

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Speaker 1: just didn't think that a podcast I was producing deserves

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Speaker 1: such a title because I I, you know, my, my, my,

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Speaker 1: my lack of of of of self esteem here on

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Speaker 1: that impostor syndrome. Yeah, I mean, but it is really

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Speaker 1: fun to say. Can you say that one more time? Yes,

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Speaker 1: estimable persons whose actions were also esteemable. I. I do

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Speaker 1: think we should scrap the current title and just switched

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Speaker 1: to that because it is very fun to stay. That's

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Speaker 1: when we do a live show on an airship. There

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Speaker 1: we go. Problem solved. We're saving it for a special occasion. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so uh something with a transition to about special occasions

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Speaker 1: about breaking out of prison. Anyway, last episode we talked

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Speaker 1: about how sometimes you can just you know, leave prison

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Speaker 1: by walking out the door. Or have friends storm the place.

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Speaker 1: But let's say you you tried that, or just don't

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Speaker 1: have enough friends and for some reason they didn't let

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Speaker 1: you go. What now you can think about most jails

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Speaker 1: is having four layers of security or so you get

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Speaker 1: your physical cell right. Sometimes you're allowed out of it,

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Speaker 1: sometimes you're not. Sometimes you have to start there. Pick

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Speaker 1: the lock, break down the door, break the walls, dig

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Speaker 1: through the floor, get out the window, crawl through the ventilation.

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Speaker 1: Then there's the cell block or pot like the area

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Speaker 1: you're often allowed in as a prisoner, and there are

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Speaker 1: blocked doors throughout the prison to prevent free mobility by prisoners,

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Speaker 1: so similar techniques would apply here. Break the wall, squeeze

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Speaker 1: out through tiny spaces like ventilation, get access to areas

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Speaker 1: you're not allowed in, get smuggled out with the laundry

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Speaker 1: or the trash except round. Then you've got fences, usually

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Speaker 1: multiple concrete walls or chain like fences with razor wire

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Speaker 1: on top, razor wire in the space between, and a

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Speaker 1: guard in the tower watching ready to shoot you. Some

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Speaker 1: people climate, some people cut it. Some people dig under

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Speaker 1: it while the guard has their back turned or is

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Speaker 1: a sleep or got bribed or I guess, just do

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Speaker 1: it really fast and hope for the best. I don't

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Speaker 1: know a lot of Joe break stories involved prisoners picking

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Speaker 1: up really nasty wounds on the way from razor wire

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Speaker 1: or from the movie that stuff I had, I had to.

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Speaker 1: I worked a job where there was like spared like

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Speaker 1: razor wire around and one of the things when the

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Speaker 1: co workers told me is that that stuff has like

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Speaker 1: it's coated in anti clotting agents, so when when it

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Speaker 1: cuts wounds, don't clot because again, and I cannot emphasize

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Speaker 1: this enough, the people who use this stuff are evil,

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Speaker 1: like on a level that he's like just unfathomable. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the wire, the wire is trying to murder you. It

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Speaker 1: is not just trying to murder you by the fact

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Speaker 1: that it's sharp, is trying to murder you by making

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Speaker 1: you bleed the death. So yeah, it's careful. Also, I

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Speaker 1: had a bunch of it almost fall on me, which

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Speaker 1: is great and fun and not do I do not

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Speaker 1: sometimes blink my eyes and have images if they raise

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Speaker 1: your wire fence descending towards my head. It's great. I'm

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Speaker 1: glad you don't have that. That would sound really bad

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Speaker 1: if you did know them I'm sorry, but you've got

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Speaker 1: one last layer of security, or just the guards patrolling

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Speaker 1: the outside, usually in a vehicle. And we've all played

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Speaker 1: video games or seeing a crime film, so you know

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Speaker 1: that what you do is you wait until they're not

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Speaker 1: looking and then get at all. And add to all

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Speaker 1: of this surveillance cameras, video analytics systems that automatically look

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Speaker 1: for people, motion detectors, thermal cameras, various alarms whenever doors

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Speaker 1: are open, der fences are cut in some countries, people

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Speaker 1: have to work tracking collars or anklets. There's anti tunneling sensors,

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Speaker 1: all kinds of ship. But all this technology is still

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Speaker 1: controlled by humans, and humans are controlled by emotions and desires,

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Speaker 1: so an awful lot of jail breaks involve help from

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Speaker 1: the outside, usually by bribery or occasionally by ideologically a

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Speaker 1: lot end cards. And then you've got a fifth layer

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Speaker 1: of security, which we talked a bit about before, which is,

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Speaker 1: even though I said there was only four, I'm just

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Speaker 1: adding a fifth one. And the fifth layer is how

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Speaker 1: fucking hard they try to catch you. But some people

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Speaker 1: trying to bypass as much security as possible by digging

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Speaker 1: a tunnel, why go over or through a wall when

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Speaker 1: you can just go under it. Honestly, I'm shocked by

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Speaker 1: how often on this show I've already found myself telling

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Speaker 1: stories about people who dig tunnels. It's like, I never

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Speaker 1: would have thought minecraft would not only be an analogy

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Speaker 1: for crime, but also the practice of crime. I've lost track,

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Speaker 1: this is what I'm saying, Like tunnel count, I've lost track,

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Speaker 1: Like genuinely, yeah, I I honestly don't remember. I feel

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Speaker 1: like a decent number of our episodes have involved tunnels.

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Speaker 1: Should we have named the podcast tunnel Talk because now

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Speaker 1: m M yeah, I feel I feel I feel like

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Speaker 1: that that's that's where you go with like, that's where

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Speaker 1: you go with the shirts. It's cool people who did

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Speaker 1: cool things. Tunnel Talk, which just two people podcasting for

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Speaker 1: it and definitely isn't a sex podcast. Okay anyway, Okay,

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Speaker 1: So sometimes prisoners or their outside help dig tunnels. And

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Speaker 1: let me tell you about a tunnel guy, Yeah, Moises texts.

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Speaker 1: Arena da Silva is a tunnel guy in Brazil. In

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Speaker 1: two thousand one, he was serving a twenty five years

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Speaker 1: sentence for robbery in Crandiro Penitentiary and South Paulo, Brazil

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Speaker 1: and Karen Dierro wasn't a nice place. It's actually been

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Speaker 1: destroyed now because of how not nice it was. Probably

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Speaker 1: before Moises was there, but I'm not sure. Actually have

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Speaker 1: no way of knowing. They could. I tried finding out,

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Speaker 1: but I think it's before he got there. There was

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Speaker 1: a prison riot. Cops stormed the place and gunned down

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Speaker 1: a hundred and eleven prisoners. Jesus, yeah, that was That

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Speaker 1: was a lot of people's reaction. Mascrow was so bad

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Speaker 1: that some of the cops involved even eventually got convicted

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Speaker 1: of murder, although it took twenty years and they still

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Speaker 1: haven't gone to prison for it was was that tring

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Speaker 1: thegittatorship or was that just like after the dictatorship? Because

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Speaker 1: I do not know enough about the history of Brazil

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Speaker 1: to a pine on this. I'm sorry. It's the kind

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Speaker 1: of thing I don't want to be wrong about, and

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Speaker 1: someone knows the answer and it's not me. So it's

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Speaker 1: so bad that the cops even eventually get convicted twenty

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Speaker 1: years later. And then the guy in charge of it,

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Speaker 1: Uberaton Gimmas, his conviction was overturned though, because and I

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Speaker 1: quote he was just following orders. He was so completely

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Speaker 1: just following orders that he used the motto A hundred

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Speaker 1: and eleven when he ran for political office Jesus Christ,

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Speaker 1: and he won, so some anti prison activists just murdered him.

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Speaker 1: Fair Yeah, that rules. You didn't have to run for

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Speaker 1: office on the basis of the fact that you murdered

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Speaker 1: a bunch of prisoners. In two thousands six, he gets

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Speaker 1: shot to death in his own apartment. Anyway. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if Moyses was there during the massacre, but either way,

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Speaker 1: he didn't like being there, so he and literally more

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Speaker 1: than a hundred other prisoners just tunneled out. Uh, there's

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Speaker 1: frustratingly a little information about this tunnel. I want to

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Speaker 1: know more about this tunnel, but there's more information about

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Speaker 1: his later tunnels because he's a tunnel guy. Yes, I

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Speaker 1: like how often during this research I end up with

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Speaker 1: like this guy is just like I'm a tunnel guy.

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Speaker 1: I do crime with tunnels, and the other people are like,

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Speaker 1: I'm a helicopter gal. I do crime with helicopters. Like

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Speaker 1: people pick a stick and they stick with it, you know. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: look look you when you when you when you start

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Speaker 1: a life of crime, you get assigned to class totally yeah,

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Speaker 1: helicopter tunnel. What's up? Oh, I'm I'm probably a helicopter gal.

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Speaker 1: What about you? I mean, yeah, helicopter gal the way,

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Speaker 1: how about you? I'm definitely tunnels, Like frying doesn't get

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Speaker 1: along with me. Great, alright, tunnel er, you're a level

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Speaker 1: We probably all gouts started level one. We don't want

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Speaker 1: to know a whole a long time. Margaret and I

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Speaker 1: are just just like jumping out of helicopters with like

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Speaker 1: nothing but like one rope. That's where we're at. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: my dad was a pilot, and he would always say

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Speaker 1: this thing that I think it supposed to be from

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Speaker 1: like world were two bombers or something about like people

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Speaker 1: who drop out of helicopters or people trobut of planes,

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Speaker 1: which is like, why would you jump out of a

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Speaker 1: perfectly good aircraft. It's always been my line on parach shooting,

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Speaker 1: like I'm going to be one of those, like I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna wait till I'm like seventy and then I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: parachute because I'm like at the moment that it's not

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Speaker 1: that I think I would die if I did it.

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Speaker 1: I think that I would have so much anxiety around

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Speaker 1: doing it that it would not necessarily be worth it,

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Speaker 1: but not nearly as much as anxiety as I would

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Speaker 1: have in a very small tunnel helicopter. So Moises gets

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Speaker 1: out in two thousand one with his tunnel, and he

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Speaker 1: likes crime, so he goes back to doing it. In

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Speaker 1: October two four eight robbers broke through into the bathroom

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Speaker 1: of a money transport business out of a four d

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Speaker 1: foot tunnel from a nearby They stormed into the main

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Speaker 1: room wearing monkey and clown masks. Wielding a K forty seven.

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Speaker 1: They forced seventy five workers who were in their Italian

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Speaker 1: money for a t m S to instead of putting

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Speaker 1: the money into the a t m S, to put

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Speaker 1: it into bags, and then they made their way out

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Speaker 1: with one point six million dollars worth of reis, which

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Speaker 1: is the Brazilian currency that well, I guess, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I guess it's exchange of that feels like that feels

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Speaker 1: like an amount of money that is like not large enough.

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Speaker 1: Well you know who else thought it wasn't enough money? Moises?

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Speaker 1: It's right, what're you gonna say? Just because for all

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Speaker 1: the work, is what you're saying? Yeah, yeah, because like

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Speaker 1: today you you can still you can still like thirty

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Speaker 1: million dollars by like editing a jpeg and trading for

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Speaker 1: a money like they they dug like a four ft tunnel.

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Speaker 1: They had end well, last had a case. They get

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Speaker 1: like one point six million dollars like that is oh

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Speaker 1: we turned on that. I'm sad, but uh they go

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Speaker 1: back out to the tunnel. They only spend ten minutes

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Speaker 1: inside the building. Considered a warm up, considered a test, okay,

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Speaker 1: a proof of concept. For his next trick, he performs

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Speaker 1: the largest bank robbery in the Western Hemisphere has ever seen,

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Speaker 1: and it's the fourth or so largest bank robbery in

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Speaker 1: world history. Most of the larger ones come later. Actually,

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Speaker 1: this guy was in the Guinness Book of World Records

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Speaker 1: for a while for this next one, the two thousand

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Speaker 1: five Banco Central burglary and Fortlas Brazil. I've heard of this,

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Speaker 1: this guy with this guy, I thought he was that's awesome. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is a massive fucking conspiracy and that a ton

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Speaker 1: of people are involved. Not like hush hush, but like

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Speaker 1: actually the problem is not very hush hush anyway. It's

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Speaker 1: both how they managed to steal so much money and

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Speaker 1: probably why most of the bank robbers did so poorly

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Speaker 1: as a result. But we'll get to that. Two different

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Speaker 1: gangs from two different cities work together on this job. First,

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Speaker 1: they secured investment from a fucking mayor. Of course. Former

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Speaker 1: Mayor Antonio Arguay noon as Vieira was sorry, don't speak Portuguese,

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Speaker 1: was the former mayor of the municipality of Boa Viegam, Recife,

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Speaker 1: which is a rich beachfront neighborhood in the city of Recife.

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Speaker 1: He invested a hundred thousand riya's in exchange for a

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Speaker 1: promise of four million riyays. They rented a house and

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Speaker 1: they set up a fake landscaping business. Their theoretically selling plants,

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Speaker 1: grass and fake grass, but they didn't actually sell anything.

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Speaker 1: They didn't really do the homework for a really good

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Speaker 1: fake front. But the proprietor, you gotta sell some crash

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Speaker 1: to the community. I know, what if someone was like,

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Speaker 1: I need my need my lawn. Um. But the proprietor

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Speaker 1: of the business was a decent enough guy. Everyone knew

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Speaker 1: he wasn't a local. His accent was from somewhere south,

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Speaker 1: but he hung out the local bar and he would

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Speaker 1: ocasionally buy everyone around, so people liked him and the

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Speaker 1: gang spent three months tunneling. Finally we get some details

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Speaker 1: about the tunnel. It was a crawler. That's how I'm

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Speaker 1: going to classify this type of tunnel, because even though

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Speaker 1: I'm a helicopter gal, I still care about the type

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Speaker 1: of tunnels. It was twenty eight inches high. This is

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Speaker 1: why I'm a helicopter gal. Oh yeah, that's that's that's

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Speaker 1: a small tunnel. Yeah. It is twenty eight inches high,

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Speaker 1: and it is thirteen ft below the bank vault, and

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Speaker 1: it's two and sixty two ft long. There's wood panels

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Speaker 1: and plastic sheeting and claud in the walls, and there's

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Speaker 1: electric lights. And no one heard them tunneling because it

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Speaker 1: went right under a busy road. Nice. I know. The

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Speaker 1: whole thing is so claustrophobic. Yeah, Like, how how are

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Speaker 1: they doing with air? I'm not sure because almost every

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Speaker 1: other escape tunnel that I've ever read about they specifically

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Speaker 1: talk about the ventilation. Yeah, this seems like I don't know. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's you know, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I guess I'm

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Speaker 1: really not trying to make any statement about how you should.

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Speaker 1: I'm not a I'm a level zero tunnel learned. What

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Speaker 1: would I know I guess. I guess I can advance

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Speaker 1: a level one by saying, don't suffocate the death in

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Speaker 1: your tunnel. Excellent, excellent, everyone gets XP on this show.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate this, okay. So they they pop up under

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Speaker 1: the floor of the vault and then they cut their

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Speaker 1: way through fucking three point five feet of concrete and steel.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, which again, how do they do that

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Speaker 1: without oxygen? There must have been ventilation. Maybe they're wearing oxygens.

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Speaker 1: Well where you can't fit an oxygen tank like in

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Speaker 1: that spot, carry it after you. I don't know. They

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Speaker 1: probably ventilated it. Nothing sounds fun here um, And they're

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Speaker 1: probably an inside person in the bank. Because the cameras

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Speaker 1: and the motion detectors in the vault weren't operating. So

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Speaker 1: they broke into five containers holding me as notes for

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Speaker 1: inspection and basically these were the the used bills that

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Speaker 1: the inspectors were going to go through and put some

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Speaker 1: of them back into circulation and destroy the damaged ones.

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Speaker 1: Then they go back out the way they came, no

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Speaker 1: shots fired, none the wiser. They made off with around

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Speaker 1: million dollars worth of you that that's a respectable hole. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: is a perfect crime. Except really really not. The heist

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Speaker 1: went great, the rest did not go great. Someone left

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Speaker 1: a prepaid phone card in the rented house by accident.

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Speaker 1: Oh no, and the person who opened the landscaping business,

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Speaker 1: I guess did it under his real name. Why guys,

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Speaker 1: come on. In the end, a hundred and nineteen people

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Speaker 1: get convicted something like that. Every again, every article is different.

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Speaker 1: And also they kept catching people over and overgund even

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Speaker 1: after fell out of the news cycle. And the whole

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Speaker 1: thing is just swimming in corruption. The civil police force,

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Speaker 1: which are like the regional FBI basically um is the

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Speaker 1: best analogy. They skimmed off millions and kickbacks. Probably they

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Speaker 1: took the majority of the money are still because the

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Speaker 1: conspiracy was so large and so many people knew who

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Speaker 1: was involved, other criminals started kidnapping the bank robbers and

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Speaker 1: their families and held them for like huge ransoms basically like, oh,

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Speaker 1: you got one point five million dollars, I got your kid.

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Speaker 1: I would like one point five million dollars please. People

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Speaker 1: started talking about the money like it was cursed, and

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Speaker 1: I don't know many it was. But my my personal

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Speaker 1: theory is that too many crooks spoil the broth. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's a hundred that that is that is too large conspiracy, Like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta keep your numbers down. There's just

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Speaker 1: too many people, you know. So Moises was the last

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Speaker 1: get caught. He spent four years on the run. He

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Speaker 1: had surgery to thin his neck to change his appearance,

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Speaker 1: and he has about hair transplants right amazing, you know,

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Speaker 1: and he kind of does most things right. He changes

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Speaker 1: his sim card constantly, he moves all the time. But

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Speaker 1: basically being on the run is wearing him down, and

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Speaker 1: he was actually considering turning himself in just like the

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Speaker 1: week before he gets finally caught. I think in two

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Speaker 1: thousand nine. I didn't write it down, but I think

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Speaker 1: it was two thousand nine. And when he was finally coughed,

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Speaker 1: he said, quote, you took too long. I thought you

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Speaker 1: guys had given up on me. Of the two point

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Speaker 1: five million reas he had taken his payment, around one

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Speaker 1: point five million of it had been extorted away by

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Speaker 1: the civil police. He actually tried to I know, yeah,

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Speaker 1: he'll rob your own bank. Come on, yeah, totally, this

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Speaker 1: is my robbed this first. So he tried to retire

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Speaker 1: from crime, saying he was focusing on raising his son

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Speaker 1: with socially relevant values whatever that means. I couldn't figure

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Speaker 1: out exactly what values he was he was going for.

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Speaker 1: I liked because I kind of like this guy. I

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Speaker 1: like to imagine the best possible values, you know. And

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Speaker 1: his sentence was reduced to fourteen years and so he

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Speaker 1: should be getting out any year now unless he gets

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Speaker 1: himself out sooner. Yeah, we never know. I know that

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Speaker 1: that is a man who loves his tunnels. I know,

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Speaker 1: and you and else likes being underground potatoes. That's true.

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Speaker 1: Potatoes like being underground, well known product that I is. Also,

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Speaker 1: it can't really be a service. I was trying to

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Speaker 1: figure out how to make it a service. But no,

335
00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:16,120
Speaker 1: just a product, but one of the things that supports

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Speaker 1: to show. I like when people feed me French fries. Yeah,

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00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:22,199
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, somebody mashing a potato for you,

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Speaker 1: slicing seasoning, Yeah, beating potatoes yours. Ads, we're back from

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00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:40,399
Speaker 1: those ads that were all for potatoes. And if you

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00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:42,800
Speaker 1: heard any ads for anything else, you should complain. You

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Speaker 1: can find me on Twitter to complain at at I right, okay, yes,

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Speaker 1: so let's move on to the best form of escape. Helicopters. Yes,

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Speaker 1: The first time I researched this topic was like fifteen

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Speaker 1: years ago. For reasons. It was for a zine I

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Speaker 1: was going to make gazine, and then I didn't make

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Speaker 1: a scene because I figured it would look really bad

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Speaker 1: in court. Um, and here I am making this podcast episode.

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Speaker 1: But in the end I decided, Okay, basically this is

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Speaker 1: fifteen years ago. I was looking at it. I was like, well,

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Speaker 1: the only way that people break out of prison anymore

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Speaker 1: is helicopter, and that's that's actually a bit of an exaggeration,

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Speaker 1: but it's definitely true that, especially in Europe, helicopters are

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Speaker 1: one of the main ways to go. The classic technique

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Speaker 1: is that your spouse or partner or whoever else rents

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Speaker 1: a helicopter tour and then hijacks the pilot or takes

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Speaker 1: flying lessons and hijacks the instructor or. And this one's

357
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Speaker 1: putting in the most work, but it levels you up faster,

358
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Speaker 1: uh straight up learns how to fly a helicopter, and

359
00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:45,480
Speaker 1: then steals a helicopter. These are the main ways that

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Speaker 1: people go. And then you land and you know, let

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Speaker 1: your your person on the helicopter in the way you

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Speaker 1: fly and then you usually both get caught and now

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Speaker 1: you're both in prison. Although I will get to a

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Speaker 1: successful helicopter escape he who's still on the run today.

365
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Speaker 1: So the most prolific helicopter escape guy is a French

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Speaker 1: robber named Pascal Payer, who I'm reasonably sure is tied

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Speaker 1: in with organized crime, though of course newspapers tend to

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Speaker 1: only hint at that kind of thing. He was born

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three. His pastimes included robbing and getting arrested.

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Speaker 1: Ah he was convicted of assault in conspiracy and in

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Speaker 1: n seven he robbed an armored car and killed a guard.

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Speaker 1: Or maybe someone else in his crew killed a guard.

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Speaker 1: Either way, the robbery didn't go so well. He got

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Speaker 1: caught about a year later and he was sent to prison.

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Speaker 1: So two and a half years later, some of his

376
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Speaker 1: friends showed up with a hijacked helicopter and he and

377
00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:37,399
Speaker 1: another prisoner climbed aboard and went off to freedom. But

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Speaker 1: our man Pascal, he was not content to just stay

379
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Speaker 1: free himself because some of his his buddies, probably mafia buddies,

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Speaker 1: were in jail. So in two thousand three, after two

381
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Speaker 1: years as a fugitive, he organizes another helicopter break. This

382
00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 1: time it's not for himself, it's for three other prisoners.

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Speaker 1: He hovered over the roof and the three prisoners climbed aboard.

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Speaker 1: They all got caught three weeks later, while staying at

385
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Speaker 1: some like super fancy law pretending to be athletes training

386
00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:06,080
Speaker 1: for a bathlon, they were like, Oh, where can we

387
00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:07,959
Speaker 1: go hide out in the mountains or whatever and like

388
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:09,840
Speaker 1: just like be bougie for a while, and they do,

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Speaker 1: and then they all get caught. So now he's in

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Speaker 1: jail and he's Mr. Helicopter escaped guy. So they start

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Speaker 1: transferring him constantly. That's the thing I guess about being

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Speaker 1: known for prison breaks. He gets transferred nine times in

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Speaker 1: thirty months. Wow. And he spends most of his time

394
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Speaker 1: in solitary confinement under particular scrutiny because like, hey, Mr

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Speaker 1: helicopter escape guy, we're onto you. And he's like, what,

396
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Speaker 1: I'm not trying to escape by helicopter. That would just

397
00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:37,879
Speaker 1: be wild. But he's got friends and he has a

398
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:42,520
Speaker 1: classy sense of timing, so he waits for but steal day.

399
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Speaker 1: On this but still day in two thousands seven, three

400
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:50,040
Speaker 1: masked people show up at a helicopter tours place with guns,

401
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:52,280
Speaker 1: they grab a pilot. They don't even bother like rent

402
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Speaker 1: the place first. I think I think they just like

403
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 1: walk in. They're like, wow, yeah, that's kind of mean,

404
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:59,640
Speaker 1: Like at least at least give at least give the poor,

405
00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:04,800
Speaker 1: the poor helicopter tour guide some money. Yeah, I mean, like, honestly,

406
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Speaker 1: I don't want to conjecture about this particular helicopter escape guy,

407
00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:11,280
Speaker 1: but I sometimes think that they're like, Okay, we are

408
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:13,240
Speaker 1: a quote you can't see my air quotes. We are

409
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:18,960
Speaker 1: quote kid snapping you. But whatever. So within five minutes

410
00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:22,440
Speaker 1: they show up at the fucking maximum security prison, showing

411
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,320
Speaker 1: up just during shift change while the guards are distracted.

412
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Speaker 1: That's how clockwork. They are nice. That's that's that's impressive,

413
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,480
Speaker 1: I know. And since the pilot was a hostage, the

414
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Speaker 1: guards couldn't like just shoot at the helicopter, which is

415
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:38,080
Speaker 1: this sort of unfortunate advantage of that particular method. So

416
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Speaker 1: Pascal's friends use gas powered saws to solve the hinges

417
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:46,240
Speaker 1: off all the steel doors. That's sweet. And they break

418
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:49,520
Speaker 1: Pascal out out of like solitary confinement with and he's

419
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:53,399
Speaker 1: barefoot and in his underwear. He runs out into the

420
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:58,920
Speaker 1: helicopter and off they go, the whole thing five minutes. Wow. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I guess, I guess they found a crew of of

422
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:04,880
Speaker 1: of professional of professional jailbreakers. Like that is some There's

423
00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:08,359
Speaker 1: a well oiled machine. Yeah, anything is possible if you

424
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,800
Speaker 1: set your mind to it, except staying free. That's apparently

425
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:15,840
Speaker 1: very hard. Yeah. Um, they land on the coast, the

426
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:20,080
Speaker 1: pilot was released unharmed, and Pascal gets caught a few

427
00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:23,960
Speaker 1: months later in Spain, just north of Barcelona, and he's

428
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 1: in prison again now, and for some weird reason, the

429
00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:32,160
Speaker 1: state won't disclose exactly which prison. Yeah, you know, like, yeah,

430
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,600
Speaker 1: but he's not the best helicopter jail breaker. He has

431
00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:37,960
Speaker 1: done it the most at three times, twice for himself

432
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,120
Speaker 1: and once for someone else. He's at three. But organized

433
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 1: crime is not actually very cool. Thank you mafia for

434
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: taking something that should be cool, like crime and making

435
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,879
Speaker 1: something just just another shitty power structure. Yeah, it's very sad,

436
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 1: like it's crime. How how do you make crime bad?

437
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,520
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, you know, there's lots of ways

438
00:23:56,520 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 1: to do it, but yeah, but it turns out crying

439
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:02,919
Speaker 1: legality is entirely divorced for morality, so crime is not

440
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 1: inherently good and following the law is not it anyway.

441
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 1: But the coolest helicopter jailbreaker is named Vasilius Paleokostas. Like

442
00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:14,879
Speaker 1: most people aren't even in this guy's league. He has

443
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 1: two nicknames. One is Greek robin Hood and one is

444
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:25,000
Speaker 1: the Uncatchable Yeah, because he's still Greece's most wanted criminal

445
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:31,080
Speaker 1: free and he's a fucking anarchist. Yeah. So he was

446
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:33,359
Speaker 1: born in nineteen sixty six in a tiny village in

447
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 1: central Greece called mostro fielt Though, which I do not

448
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 1: know to pronounce, and I actually get really annoyed when

449
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: host like story, I don't know to pronounce that, and

450
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:45,119
Speaker 1: here I am doing it. But I'm genuinely sorry. And

451
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,679
Speaker 1: if you have an issue with that, you can complain

452
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 1: on Twitter at I write, okay. Yeah. And so he

453
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:53,679
Speaker 1: was poor. He was like, I we don't own shoes

454
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:56,879
Speaker 1: level poor. His older brother Nikos used to carry him

455
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:58,480
Speaker 1: on his back to get to school when the snow

456
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:01,080
Speaker 1: is too deep for like the little kid to get there.

457
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:03,680
Speaker 1: And in that part of the country, banditry was sort

458
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 1: of socially acceptable, like if you were stilling to feed

459
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,439
Speaker 1: the people you loved because Greece is kind of awesome.

460
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:11,800
Speaker 1: And when he was thirteen, his family moved to a

461
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 1: nearby town, Tracla, and he worked at a cheese factory

462
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:17,440
Speaker 1: for two years. Not a cheesecake factory. At cheese factory.

463
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:22,359
Speaker 1: Oh good to know, very big, Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly,

464
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 1: I know that's what you were thinking. Um. And so

465
00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: he hated making his bosses rich for some weird reason,

466
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:31,080
Speaker 1: so he fucked off and he and his older brother

467
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 1: started doing petty crime. Like Originally they were just like

468
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:37,359
Speaker 1: stealing video recorders, but soon they met a mentor and

469
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 1: they moved up in the world and they were really

470
00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:41,359
Speaker 1: freaking smart about it. Their mentor was a guy with

471
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:44,760
Speaker 1: a nickname The Artist, who I think maybe once broke

472
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:46,439
Speaker 1: out of prison by making a fake gun in the

473
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:48,879
Speaker 1: prison wood shop that was quote loaded with batteries so

474
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:51,080
Speaker 1: it looked like it was loaded when he pointed at

475
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 1: guard spaces amazing. Yeah. I couldn't find a ton of

476
00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:58,880
Speaker 1: details about that one. Um. The Sylist has probably got

477
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,320
Speaker 1: in a whole episode at some point. Um. Anyway, their

478
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: first robbery Vasilus and Nicos and the Artist. They they

479
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,159
Speaker 1: put a giant industrial elevant in front of the doors

480
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:10,200
Speaker 1: of the police station so that the cops can't get

481
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 1: out of the police station. And then Vassilla's climbs on

482
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:15,919
Speaker 1: top a nearby hill and fires a rifle into the

483
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 1: air to get the cops attention while his brother and

484
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,960
Speaker 1: friend were robbing the jewelry store. And so the cops

485
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,200
Speaker 1: are trying to break out of prison, I mean, sorry,

486
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 1: not break out prison, trying to break out of their

487
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,520
Speaker 1: own police station. And they finally do they get in

488
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 1: their cars, but whoops, someone left all these spikes all

489
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:37,080
Speaker 1: over the road and all the cops blow their tires,

490
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: and so begins their spree. And the cops couldn't catch

491
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 1: them because the brothers gave all their money to the poor,

492
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 1: so everyone fucking loved them, so no one would help

493
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 1: the cops. The first prison break that I found was okay.

494
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:54,680
Speaker 1: So so older brother Nikos was in jail, and Silius

495
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,200
Speaker 1: was like, there's a wall that's got to come down.

496
00:26:57,400 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 1: What kind of thing can I use to bring down

497
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: a wall? Christopher, if you had to bring down a

498
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 1: prison wall, what sort of object would you use? The

499
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 1: thing that I beat he left to mind, is one

500
00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: of those craze of the wrecking ball on it. Okay, Okay,

501
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:12,520
Speaker 1: that's a good that's a good choice, Sophie. What would

502
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:17,920
Speaker 1: you pick machete? Okay, um, Vasilias didn't either of these things.

503
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 1: Vascilla stole a fucking tank. Yeah wow, I'm like, what

504
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 1: are rookies? We are? You know, well, if you're if

505
00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: you're if you're dropping out of a helicopter, machette looks

506
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:33,920
Speaker 1: good in your teeth, So I like where you're going, Oh,

507
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 1: fair enough. Whereas like helicopter tank, It's like I've seen

508
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 1: it in movies. But yeah, it's a little overdone, you know. Okay,

509
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,159
Speaker 1: So so he steals a tank and he drives it

510
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 1: through the wall. Unfortunately, this is not one of his

511
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:51,040
Speaker 1: successful escape attempts. He gets caught, and he spends nearly

512
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 1: a year in prison until he ties bed sheets together

513
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 1: into a rope and climbs over the prison wall and

514
00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 1: gets out. Oh my god, that's such a classic. I know,

515
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 1: it's a classic for a reason. Yeah. The brothers stage

516
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:08,439
Speaker 1: the largest bank robbery in Greek history up until that point,

517
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:10,640
Speaker 1: and while the cops were on their way, the brothers

518
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 1: threw money into the street to cause havoc. While they

519
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:18,960
Speaker 1: like both caused havoc and redistributed wealth, so cool. And

520
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: then they stole someone's car to get away, and then

521
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 1: later they polished the car and returned it to the

522
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 1: owner with a hundred fifty thousand drachmas, which is like

523
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:32,479
Speaker 1: seven or something under the carpet. So this is why

524
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 1: everyone loves them. Later, someone interviews the artist when he's

525
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 1: in jail and they're like, did they really do all

526
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 1: that Robin hood ship that people say? And the artist

527
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:43,600
Speaker 1: is like, no, seriously, Like I'm paraphrasing very badly here,

528
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 1: but like, no, seriously. Sometimes we would be in a

529
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 1: car chase running from the cops and they'd stopped to

530
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 1: give money to people on the street. People. Ever, I

531
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:54,840
Speaker 1: am not aware of people who are cooler than them.

532
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 1: Um okay, So I don't wanna tell you everything got

533
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 1: up to because seriously, I want to do a whole episode.

534
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 1: And also I have read his autobiography yet, because he

535
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: just came out with an autobiography because he's still free

536
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:07,200
Speaker 1: and on the run. How how did he I guess,

537
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:08,959
Speaker 1: I guess it's grease, Like that's that's that's the thing

538
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 1: you can do. Increase. It's like talk to people and

539
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: be like, yo, here's my autobiography. Yeah. Well, actually everyone

540
00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 1: loves him, so I'm sure there's people who know where

541
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 1: he is, but the anarchists increase. They don't like talking

542
00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: to the police much. Yeah, who what do I guess?

543
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 1: I know? Um? Okay, So I'm mostly working off I

544
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: haven't read his autography, and I'm mostly working off a

545
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:32,720
Speaker 1: bunch of different articles, including a rather good article that

546
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 1: I would recommend from the BBC by Jeff mash. So

547
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:39,880
Speaker 1: they kidnapped a couple of industrialists. They redistribute millions of dollars.

548
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 1: The facilisk gets caught after he crashes his car high

549
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:47,200
Speaker 1: out of his mind. Uh. He starts planning an escape

550
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 1: and in two thousand three, the guards realize he's got

551
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: a detailed plan of the jail in his cell, so

552
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 1: off he goes to maximum security. In maximum security, gets

553
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 1: a cell mate, an Albanian hitman named al qutt Rose,

554
00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: and they take a couple of weeks to plan an escape.

555
00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:05,800
Speaker 1: When he was free, Vassillas spurged, splurged on only one

556
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 1: item for himself with all of his riches, like he

557
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:09,920
Speaker 1: had only one like fancy thing for himself, which is

558
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:12,600
Speaker 1: a gold crucifix, And they didn't take it from him

559
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 1: in jail. I guess, I guess because it was a

560
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: religious symbol. It was also a handcuff key. Um. But

561
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 1: the warden of the jail, who went by the nickname,

562
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:27,720
Speaker 1: check this out. It's super original. The warden, Wow, I know.

563
00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:31,600
Speaker 1: The warden knew about the crucifix and the escape plans,

564
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: and he also knew about the hidden file that Vassilius

565
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 1: had squirreled away in a packet of spaghetti. So the warden,

566
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 1: because I swear to God, reality better fiction than fiction,

567
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,320
Speaker 1: decides to let Vassilus file his way through the bars

568
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: and into the hallway and then personally confronts him and

569
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 1: beats the ship out of him. Oh no, because he's

570
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 1: basically like, fuck this fake robin hood fucker who thinks

571
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,840
Speaker 1: he's better than us, or, for a non paraphrased quote,

572
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:57,040
Speaker 1: as quoted in that PBC article, he used poverty as

573
00:30:57,080 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 1: an excuse to become a criminal. He started to believe

574
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:02,360
Speaker 1: this robin hood myth, and for that reason he like

575
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:07,040
Speaker 1: personally jumped him, says another failed Joe break from Basilus.

576
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,520
Speaker 1: But the thing is his brother wasn't in prison, and

577
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 1: Vasilius had once driven a tank into prison to free Nikos.

578
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 1: So Nikos wasn't going to leave him to languish. So

579
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,400
Speaker 1: in June two thousand six, Nicos rented a helicopter tour

580
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: then he hijacked it with a handgun and a grenade,

581
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:25,760
Speaker 1: and he made the pilot fly to the maximum security

582
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: prison the Siluss so mate al Quette later said that

583
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,640
Speaker 1: they thought about hiring a pilot instead, but they realized

584
00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:34,160
Speaker 1: that a scared pilot was prepared to take more risks

585
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:37,520
Speaker 1: than a hired pilot. Anyway, the prison guards assumed it

586
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 1: was some higher up showing up to do a spot

587
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 1: inspection when they saw the helicopter landing. So it wasn't

588
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,320
Speaker 1: until the helicopter lands and the pilot screams they have

589
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:51,040
Speaker 1: guns and grenades that the guards realized what was happening

590
00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 1: in the dust kicked up by the spinning blaze of

591
00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:55,960
Speaker 1: a Silus and al Quett climbed aboard the helicopter and

592
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 1: off they go. They land in a quiet cemetery north

593
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 1: of town. They give the higlot some worry beads for

594
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: his trouble, uh, and then they funk off on stolen motorcycles.

595
00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:09,840
Speaker 1: Nice if he had retired at this point, right he'd

596
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:12,280
Speaker 1: already have done enough and maybe a fucking legend he

597
00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 1: did not retire. Oh my god, alct Nikos. They get

598
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 1: caught pretty quick, So actually the escape is kind of

599
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 1: a wash. Alcotts stays in prison and one brother swaps

600
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 1: out with the other. Vasillis goes back to criming. He

601
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: kidnapped a billionaire named George Malona's and was super nice

602
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:30,479
Speaker 1: to him and then ransom him for twelve million euros.

603
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 1: And then after the kidnapping, for whatever reason, Vasillias didn't

604
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 1: like move out of the house that he kept Georgia,

605
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:40,120
Speaker 1: so he gets caught. Mm hmmm. I don't know, I know,

606
00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:42,960
Speaker 1: although I will say I feel like it's impressive that

607
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 1: he was able to do because I feel like that

608
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:47,440
Speaker 1: there's like a point in history where it gets way

609
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:52,840
Speaker 1: harder to do like both hijackings and like ransoming people. Yeah,

610
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:54,960
Speaker 1: and so I'm really impressive he's doing this in like

611
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:58,560
Speaker 1: the two thousand's because that's like that's postline eleven. That's

612
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 1: like that that that that's post like hyper militarization of everything.

613
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 1: This is this is impressed. This is like, this is

614
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 1: this is this is even more impressive than he would

615
00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 1: have been him doing the same stuff like the sixties. Totally,

616
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:14,160
Speaker 1: this is amazing, totally, and I my my personal guess

617
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:18,719
Speaker 1: is that it's like the large, very strong social movement

618
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:20,560
Speaker 1: that is allowing him to get away with it. But

619
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not sure. So he gets caught, he

620
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: gets sent back to jail, and the cops gloated about

621
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:27,720
Speaker 1: it in the press and they're like, hey, we have

622
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:31,719
Speaker 1: had the last laugh. Spoiler alert, they do not have

623
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 1: the last laugh. Knock on wood. So okay. He has

624
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:40,720
Speaker 1: this highly publicized trial in two thousand nine and farmers

625
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,440
Speaker 1: and peasants and anarchists are like chanting outside, like on

626
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,440
Speaker 1: the verge of rioty in the entire time. When Vasilius

627
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:52,520
Speaker 1: is sentenced, al Quett's girlfriend Seula Mitropia sobs like theatrically

628
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:55,080
Speaker 1: and then gives him a huge hug and then slips

629
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,640
Speaker 1: a watch into his pocket and in proper spy movie form,

630
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: it's a cell phone watch. And then to the court,

631
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,760
Speaker 1: Vassilius is like, oh no, you got me with an

632
00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 1: imaginary hand the forehead, uh, or his direct quote, I

633
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:16,399
Speaker 1: played and lost. The police are victorious, which was all

634
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 1: in act, uh, And he's he's in jail, and then

635
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:23,279
Speaker 1: I think the day before sentencing, he gets a call

636
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:26,800
Speaker 1: on his like super cool spy watch from Sula saying

637
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 1: it's time. Then she fucking hijacks a helicopter by getting

638
00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:33,919
Speaker 1: on board once she'd rented, pulling out a grenade and saying,

639
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,120
Speaker 1: and I fucking quote, we're going to pick up the kids,

640
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 1: Cora Dallas prison or you die. So a helicopter hovers

641
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:49,480
Speaker 1: over the yard and throws down a ladder vassiliusent Alqutt

642
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:52,360
Speaker 1: climb aboard al Quette, you know, like saved by his girlfriend.

643
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,960
Speaker 1: Al Qett fights back a guard with a kebab skewer

644
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:58,680
Speaker 1: at some point because the cops are not falling. I know,

645
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 1: the cops are not falling for the like, oh, it

646
00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:05,239
Speaker 1: might be an inspection thing this time, they're like they're

647
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 1: like on the fucking lookout. It's like that sign. It's like,

648
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 1: have you seen this man and it's a helicopter. If

649
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:13,760
Speaker 1: you see this man, shoot at it with guns, please,

650
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 1: So they do. They shoot at it with MP five

651
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 1: machine guns, even even with the hostage in it. Cops

652
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 1: gonna cop I don't know, I mean yeah, yeah, like

653
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:27,920
Speaker 1: I it's eternally haunted by that picture of the cops

654
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:29,759
Speaker 1: trying to stop the guy in the FedEx truck and

655
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:34,160
Speaker 1: they have twelve human shields. Oh god, I haven't seen that. Oh,

656
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,919
Speaker 1: it's really bad. They're just like like they're just they're

657
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: they're they're standing behind like a bunch of people who

658
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:42,160
Speaker 1: are in their cars, and they're using they're using like

659
00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: the people in the cars as cover. Wait, it's the cops,

660
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 1: are yeah, the cops are yeah, yeah, yeah. And I

661
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:53,680
Speaker 1: think they shot the hostages too, because it's the police. Yeah,

662
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 1: that's great. Great people. Yeah, So cops fire on the

663
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,640
Speaker 1: helicopter with their MP five sub machine guns and they

664
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 1: sever the fuel line and the gas tank. There's a

665
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:05,440
Speaker 1: fucking YouTube video of it because the neighbor films it

666
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:09,280
Speaker 1: from a rooftop and you can hear the inmates cheering,

667
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 1: and you can hear the guards firing and the robbers. Actually,

668
00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:15,600
Speaker 1: I forgot to mention this earlier. The robbers take pride

669
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:17,879
Speaker 1: in the fact that through all of this they've never

670
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 1: shot anybody, Like, no one ever gets hurt in their

671
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 1: fucking bank robberies. And so even though they're heavily armed

672
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,759
Speaker 1: during this and they're being fired upon, they don't fire back. Yeah,

673
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:31,840
Speaker 1: that's like that's wild. Like I feel like, I don't know,

674
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 1: like because like there are a lot of sort of

675
00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:37,360
Speaker 1: like like revolutionary groups throughout like the seventies in particular

676
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 1: in the eighties who like do this kind of stuff

677
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:41,040
Speaker 1: and they always shoot people. They almost always like shoot

678
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:45,399
Speaker 1: civilians too, And it's like that is that is incredibly impressive? Yeah, yeah,

679
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,840
Speaker 1: they they they fucking take it seriously. They're like, you know,

680
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:51,080
Speaker 1: they're not just like, wouldn't it be fun to do

681
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:53,080
Speaker 1: some crime? I guess we should throw some politics in,

682
00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:55,799
Speaker 1: you know. I think they're like, all right, Robin Hood.

683
00:36:55,840 --> 00:37:00,839
Speaker 1: Now it's Robin Hood. Yeah. So the three of them

684
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:03,799
Speaker 1: they get away and they rob a bank shortly after that,

685
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:08,279
Speaker 1: and al Cat and Suler caught thirteen years later, a

686
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 1: Solus still free. At least three more bank robberies have

687
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:15,120
Speaker 1: been attributed to him, and there were three bank robberies

688
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:17,440
Speaker 1: that netted about half a million euros, and since no

689
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:19,280
Speaker 1: one was harmed in any of the actions, the police

690
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:25,480
Speaker 1: assume it was him. That's the best. Yeah, So there's

691
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:28,279
Speaker 1: the best helicopter folks. And all three of them are

692
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: are honorary helicopter people as far as I'm concerned. Yeah,

693
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 1: if you. And it's also he's a tank guy, the

694
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:44,320
Speaker 1: only tank. He's not a tank. He's a tank guy. Yeah,

695
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:48,120
Speaker 1: you know, we're we're look, we're we're taking the term

696
00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 1: tanky back. None of you are cool enough for it.

697
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 1: You could only be a tanking. Now if if you

698
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:54,600
Speaker 1: personally rem a tank into a prison and break your

699
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 1: friend out or your brother out. Sorry, them's the rules,

700
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:01,879
Speaker 1: all right. So there's more ways to break people out

701
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,840
Speaker 1: of prison. One is that okay, so if you plant

702
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,640
Speaker 1: a bunch of potatoes around the whole edge of the

703
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:12,280
Speaker 1: prison and then they break the walls down, that would

704
00:38:13,160 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 1: slowly and ineffectively. Yeah no, no, that's a that's not

705
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:20,160
Speaker 1: a very good method. Hey, so sometimes you gotta play

706
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:24,799
Speaker 1: the long game. Yeah that's true. That's true. Well regardless,

707
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:34,239
Speaker 1: here are some advertisers, and we are back. Another way

708
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:35,960
Speaker 1: to break people out of prison is to start when

709
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:38,399
Speaker 1: they're not in prison, that is to say, while they're

710
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 1: off at some work detail or being transported like to

711
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:43,359
Speaker 1: another prison, or to and from court, or to and

712
00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:46,040
Speaker 1: from the hospital. So I've got two stories for you here,

713
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: and first we'll start back in the day with one

714
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:51,600
Speaker 1: of the most important musicians in history. Blues and folk

715
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:56,040
Speaker 1: musician known named Huddy William lad Better far better known

716
00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:59,319
Speaker 1: by his prison nickname Lead Belly. Like a lot of people,

717
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:01,879
Speaker 1: especially poor black people, born in the nineteenth century, There's

718
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,360
Speaker 1: some dispute about his actual date of birth, but probably January,

719
00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:08,759
Speaker 1: probably eight or eighty nine. He's born in Louisiana and

720
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:11,680
Speaker 1: he grows up in Texas. He's a traveling musician in

721
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 1: the auts and the teens, and in nineteen fifteen he

722
00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:17,279
Speaker 1: gets into a bar fight and pistol whips some guy

723
00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:19,560
Speaker 1: and he was sentenced to thirty days hard labor on

724
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: chain gang. The thing as though led Belly didn't really

725
00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:25,359
Speaker 1: want to do it for some odd reason. Yeah who

726
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,279
Speaker 1: who who would object to being forced to be on

727
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:33,680
Speaker 1: a chain gang? Inconceivable? I know? And so uh. Instead

728
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:36,520
Speaker 1: of being on the chain gang, he just ran, like

729
00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:40,120
Speaker 1: he just outran the dogs that were chasing him somehow

730
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:42,440
Speaker 1: threw them off his scent and just got cleaned the

731
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:44,920
Speaker 1: funk away, changed his name, laid low, and paused his

732
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:49,759
Speaker 1: music career. Nice His freedom only lasted two years because

733
00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:52,319
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventeen he was arguing with some relative named

734
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 1: will Stafford about something probably a woman, and Stafford pulled

735
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:57,880
Speaker 1: a gun on him, so led Belly shot him in

736
00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 1: the head and killed him. Oh my god. Whether this

737
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 1: is murder or not, it seems like a reasonable case

738
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:07,840
Speaker 1: for self defense here. But he gets convicted and sentenced

739
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:10,919
Speaker 1: to thirty years. So but but they don't they don't

740
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:12,960
Speaker 1: get they don't get him for the original crime though.

741
00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:16,719
Speaker 1: Oh the thing, the chain gang escape or whatever. I'm

742
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,799
Speaker 1: not sure. I think it's chain gang. Um, he only

743
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:21,759
Speaker 1: got sence the thirty days, so it might be that

744
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 1: just like the prison. Maybe it's just like the murder

745
00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:27,279
Speaker 1: thing so far eclipses that, like you ran away from

746
00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:31,040
Speaker 1: the chain gang. Yeah, I don't know. But his next

747
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:33,239
Speaker 1: escape from prison was more poetic, and I guess in

748
00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 1: a literal sense. In prison, Lead Belly wrote a song

749
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:41,360
Speaker 1: called Please Pardon Me, and he started singing it every

750
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:45,840
Speaker 1: time Governor pat Neff visited the prison. The chorus was quote,

751
00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:49,279
Speaker 1: if I had you, Governor Nef, like you got me,

752
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:51,720
Speaker 1: I'd wake up in the morning and I'd set you free.

753
00:40:52,640 --> 00:41:02,279
Speaker 1: Oh and it worked. Wait, that's incredible. Governor pardoned him.

754
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:06,800
Speaker 1: So five years later he's back in jail. No, no,

755
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:10,440
Speaker 1: this time, the story goes he came up on some

756
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:12,759
Speaker 1: men singing a black spiritual incorrectly. It was like, I

757
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:14,719
Speaker 1: think it was both black and white people and they

758
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: were singing a black spiritual incorrectly. So he joins in

759
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 1: and corrects them, and a white singer kicked him. So

760
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:22,880
Speaker 1: it letally pulled a knife and cut the dude up.

761
00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:25,120
Speaker 1: I don't know if he killed him or not. I

762
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,239
Speaker 1: think not. He gets four years in jail, That's why

763
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:29,439
Speaker 1: I think not. Or he's in jail for four years.

764
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:31,000
Speaker 1: That's not what he gets sentenced to. He's in jail

765
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:33,520
Speaker 1: for four years. And then a musicologist is like, this

766
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,000
Speaker 1: guy is the most important repository of music in the

767
00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 1: US right now, Like he is the knowledge of folk

768
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:42,719
Speaker 1: music in this country. You actually have to let him go,

769
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:50,280
Speaker 1: and it worked. Look, the music is an incredibly powerful force,

770
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 1: and I I have previously not believed this, but I

771
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:55,200
Speaker 1: have now seen this guy get out of prison twice

772
00:41:55,520 --> 00:41:58,800
Speaker 1: by the power of music, and I now believe in it. Yeah, totally.

773
00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:03,480
Speaker 1: But the problem is lead belly. The thing about lead

774
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:10,560
Speaker 1: belly and stabbing dudes. So no. So now it's nine

775
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 1: years later, it's nine lead belly is fifty one years

776
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:15,600
Speaker 1: old and he goes back to prison for a maybe

777
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:20,560
Speaker 1: self defense stabbing, Like, just don't fucking cross Lead Belly. Yeah,

778
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:23,080
Speaker 1: I didn't even include the time. I forgot to mention

779
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:25,000
Speaker 1: this earlier. The first time he's in prison, besides the

780
00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:27,759
Speaker 1: Shane Gang, some guy stabs him in the neck. So

781
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:30,200
Speaker 1: Lead Belly takes the guy's knife away and then stabs

782
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 1: the guy right back. That's the hardest thing I've ever heard. Yeah,

783
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:40,759
Speaker 1: don't funk with lead Belly is where the blues come from.

784
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:46,440
Speaker 1: No one else getting sucking anyway. So this time it's

785
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 1: his last stint in jail, and he served six months

786
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:50,800
Speaker 1: of his year since and his released for good behavior,

787
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:54,800
Speaker 1: and he fucking ruled. In his fifties, he tried to

788
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:56,600
Speaker 1: sign up in World War Two because he hated the

789
00:42:56,680 --> 00:43:00,479
Speaker 1: Nazis and loved like he wanted to defend Jewish people. Uh,

790
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,080
Speaker 1: they didn't take him. I think he wrote a song

791
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 1: against Hitler and in defensive Jews. He died at a

792
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 1: round sixty. Again, no one really knows when he was born,

793
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:09,400
Speaker 1: so no one really knows how old he was when

794
00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:12,320
Speaker 1: he died. He dies of lou Garrig's disease. After completely

795
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:15,840
Speaker 1: revolutionizing music and stabbing multiple people, some of whom deserved

796
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:18,879
Speaker 1: it and some of whom I couldn't promise you, And

797
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,160
Speaker 1: his count is hard to figure out. His prison break

798
00:43:21,239 --> 00:43:24,239
Speaker 1: count Okay, so he definitely it definitely counts when he

799
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:28,160
Speaker 1: ran away. I think it counts when he sang his

800
00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: way out. Yeah that if that counts? Okay. Does famousing

801
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:37,600
Speaker 1: your way out count? Ah? I don't know. I don't.

802
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:42,879
Speaker 1: I I'm inclined to say no because I think, like, well,

803
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:46,759
Speaker 1: I mean, okay, I would say the specific aspect of

804
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 1: the musicologist makes me more inclined to count it that

805
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 1: it would be if it was just like a famous

806
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:55,560
Speaker 1: person being released because they're famous, Because this is like,

807
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:58,320
Speaker 1: this is like he has developed the key, he has

808
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:02,200
Speaker 1: such like a power mastery of the deep lure of

809
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:05,600
Speaker 1: folk music that that that that they had to let

810
00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:08,879
Speaker 1: him go. All right. It's basically like, my skill level

811
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:10,560
Speaker 1: is so high. I put so many points into this

812
00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:14,600
Speaker 1: that like, yeah, okay, okay, um, so he's at least

813
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 1: two and a half and then his final one, his

814
00:44:17,520 --> 00:44:19,920
Speaker 1: good behavior in his way out I believe does not count.

815
00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:22,959
Speaker 1: But I would I would argue most of the time,

816
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:28,480
Speaker 1: the smartest way to get out of prison. Yeah, all right,

817
00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:31,040
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna tell you about another prisoner who decided

818
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:33,080
Speaker 1: to get the funk out, well technically not in prison.

819
00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:36,280
Speaker 1: And this guy is a Puerto Rican independence activist named

820
00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:39,440
Speaker 1: William Morales. And when I say activist, I mean bomb maker.

821
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:43,279
Speaker 1: But what the funk you want when someone you know,

822
00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 1: when you're when your country is under ford occupation, do

823
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:49,279
Speaker 1: you want? So? William Morales is born in nineteen fifty

824
00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:51,120
Speaker 1: and he grew up in East East Harlem. He went

825
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:53,040
Speaker 1: to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He got

826
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:55,600
Speaker 1: a degree in film studies, and then in nineteen seventy

827
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:57,520
Speaker 1: he was part of the f a l N. The

828
00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:00,360
Speaker 1: Where's Armadest de Libery on this you know? Puerto ric

829
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:03,719
Speaker 1: Kanya an underground paramilitary group that blew ship up and

830
00:45:03,719 --> 00:45:06,400
Speaker 1: occasionally people and then takes credit for it. That's their

831
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:09,799
Speaker 1: basic strategy. They wanted independence and communism for Puerto Rico.

832
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,239
Speaker 1: They were active from three They set off more than

833
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:17,880
Speaker 1: thirty bombs. I'm not really convinced that the seventies movements

834
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:19,920
Speaker 1: were right in their hypothesis. If we said a bunch

835
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:23,080
Speaker 1: of bombs, the results will be good. Yeah, I don't

836
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:25,920
Speaker 1: think it ever worked. Anywhere, like at least not in

837
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:30,600
Speaker 1: the US. Yeah. Um, but you can't say they didn't

838
00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:33,080
Speaker 1: give it their whole, that's true. They did set off

839
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:36,799
Speaker 1: a lot of bombs. So William Morales he's a bomb guy.

840
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:40,719
Speaker 1: He's also a joint liberal organizations and sliphing off money

841
00:45:40,719 --> 00:45:45,879
Speaker 1: to support clandestine's actions kind of guy. And he worked

842
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:48,440
Speaker 1: with a charity called the National Commission on Hispanic Affairs,

843
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:51,240
Speaker 1: which was funded by the Episcopalian Church, and he helped

844
00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:53,759
Speaker 1: siphon off their money to fund the f A l

845
00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:57,200
Speaker 1: NDS actions, which is kind of genius. But he's mostly

846
00:45:57,239 --> 00:45:58,680
Speaker 1: a bomb guy. And the thing about being a bomb

847
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 1: guy is that bombs are kind of volatile. Yeah. One

848
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 1: day he's hanging out in his flatting Queens, just doing

849
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:07,560
Speaker 1: his thing, and you know, by doing his thing, I

850
00:46:07,600 --> 00:46:12,960
Speaker 1: mean building a bomb. July twelve, he's working on the

851
00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:14,960
Speaker 1: timer and he sucks it up, like he shaves down

852
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:17,080
Speaker 1: the minute hand on the clock instead of the hour hand.

853
00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 1: So instead of the bomb going off in several hours,

854
00:46:21,239 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 1: where you know, would blow up what he wants to

855
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 1: blow up, it blows up in several minutes while he's

856
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:30,160
Speaker 1: holding it, blows up in his hands, which he loses

857
00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:34,040
Speaker 1: both of his hands and an I and his jaws

858
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:37,880
Speaker 1: all fractured and fucked up. It doesn't go well for him.

859
00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:40,080
Speaker 1: He comes to and he starts trying to destroy all

860
00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:43,359
Speaker 1: the evidence in the apartment, and he figures, all right, look,

861
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:46,200
Speaker 1: I'm I'm fucked. So he decides to set a trap

862
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:47,600
Speaker 1: for the cops who are coming, and he tries to

863
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:51,239
Speaker 1: fill his apartment with gas from the stove, but the

864
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:54,399
Speaker 1: firefighters show up first. They noticed the gas. They break

865
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:56,319
Speaker 1: out the windows to ventilate the room. And no one

866
00:46:56,360 --> 00:46:58,799
Speaker 1: else gets blown up that day besides him, and he

867
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:01,360
Speaker 1: goes off to Joel, well, actually goes off to the hospital,

868
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:03,759
Speaker 1: because this guy is seriously fucked up by the explosion.

869
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:07,319
Speaker 1: But his attorneys are all movement lawyers. One day, I'm

870
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:09,000
Speaker 1: gonna do a whole episode about movement lawyers in the

871
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:12,239
Speaker 1: seventies because they were just fucking hardcore. One of them

872
00:47:12,239 --> 00:47:15,200
Speaker 1: files a lawsuit about how the police had illegally confiscated

873
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:24,080
Speaker 1: their client's fingers. He gets found guilty, which fair, I mean,

874
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,239
Speaker 1: you know he was doing the thing. He gets senced

875
00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:29,719
Speaker 1: to ninety nine years. He makes some statement, I'm not

876
00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:32,000
Speaker 1: really sure to whom too, Maybe to the court or

877
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:34,160
Speaker 1: to the press or I don't know, maybe it's apocryphal,

878
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:36,520
Speaker 1: but he says, they're not going to hold me forever.

879
00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:39,160
Speaker 1: He gets sent to the prison ward of Bellevue General

880
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:41,439
Speaker 1: Hospital on the third floor. But the cool thing about

881
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:43,839
Speaker 1: being part of a movement is you're not alone. So

882
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 1: probably one of the physicians in the hospital is a communist,

883
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:49,880
Speaker 1: and that communist helps her buddy out, and an f

884
00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:52,279
Speaker 1: a l and fugitive rents an apartment across from the

885
00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:54,800
Speaker 1: hospital to do surveillance on the place and draw maps.

886
00:47:56,280 --> 00:48:00,200
Speaker 1: And there's rumors that his movement lawyer uh smuggled him

887
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:02,279
Speaker 1: in some wire cutters by strapping them to her thigh

888
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:04,799
Speaker 1: under her skirt. But since she has one never been

889
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:07,640
Speaker 1: charged of this to denies it, and three is still alive,

890
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:09,759
Speaker 1: I will go ahead and say she did not do it.

891
00:48:10,239 --> 00:48:12,799
Speaker 1: So he somehow ends up with wire cutters or bowlt

892
00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:15,640
Speaker 1: cutters or whatever, fourteen inch bowl cutters. They're kind of

893
00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:18,960
Speaker 1: in between two sizes, and he fucking cuts through the

894
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:22,280
Speaker 1: grate over the window even though he has no hands.

895
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:26,840
Speaker 1: That's incredibly impressive, how like, So he lashes the bolt

896
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:32,879
Speaker 1: cutters to his arms. Oh my god, he then makes

897
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:36,800
Speaker 1: a rope out of elastic medical bandages. Below the window,

898
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 1: there's a waiting crowd from the F A l N

899
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:41,200
Speaker 1: and their buddies in the May nineteen Communist Organization and

900
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:45,160
Speaker 1: the Black Liberation Army the ladder. One of them stole

901
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:50,200
Speaker 1: a cherry picker from their work to help with the escape. Amazing, Yeah,

902
00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:52,520
Speaker 1: which is is honestly about as cool as a tank

903
00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 1: in its own way, you know. So out the window

904
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:58,239
Speaker 1: he goes down the rope. One story says he felt

905
00:48:58,239 --> 00:49:00,680
Speaker 1: twenty ft in the process onto an air Could I

906
00:49:00,719 --> 00:49:08,239
Speaker 1: promised you an air conditioner? Yeah, so either way, he

907
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:10,799
Speaker 1: gets out. His buddies help him get to Mexico, where

908
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:13,680
Speaker 1: he lives safely for years. Then the Mexican police catch

909
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:15,839
Speaker 1: up with him. There's a firefight. Some of his friends

910
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:18,600
Speaker 1: as well as an arresting officer are killed. He's captured.

911
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:21,640
Speaker 1: Mexico refuses to extradite him to the US, even though

912
00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: they have an extradition treaty with US, and after five

913
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:26,319
Speaker 1: years in prison, he's released in Mexico lets him head

914
00:49:26,320 --> 00:49:28,560
Speaker 1: off to Cuba, where he lives free to this day,

915
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:31,960
Speaker 1: having married and started a family. Oh good for him,

916
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:33,800
Speaker 1: you know, he's still in the FBI's most want a

917
00:49:33,880 --> 00:49:37,839
Speaker 1: Terrorist list, but Cuba doesn't give a shit about that. Yeah, well,

918
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:40,480
Speaker 1: I feel like that he's a fusion of two different

919
00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:44,120
Speaker 1: kinds of guys who don't exist anymore. The leftist bomb guy,

920
00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 1: he's like not a thing anymore. And then also like

921
00:49:47,719 --> 00:49:51,120
Speaker 1: the dud fleece to Cuba. Yeah, like we kind of

922
00:49:51,360 --> 00:49:54,279
Speaker 1: stopped doing both of those, and it's I don't know.

923
00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 1: I mean, we're probably better off without the leftist bomb guy,

924
00:49:56,640 --> 00:49:59,839
Speaker 1: but probably the dud too, flee to Cuba like that,

925
00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:02,880
Speaker 1: that was that was a better time for most of

926
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:04,839
Speaker 1: the people who fled to Cuba. Thought it didn't go

927
00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:10,560
Speaker 1: great for people. Yeah, Cubo is not actually like Paradise

928
00:50:10,640 --> 00:50:14,120
Speaker 1: at this point. But yeah, they turned they turned people cops,

929
00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:17,520
Speaker 1: which is not great. Yeah, but this isn't a show

930
00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:21,440
Speaker 1: about bad people. This is a show about mostly good

931
00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:24,800
Speaker 1: people who are at least cool, if not morally good.

932
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:27,520
Speaker 1: There's actually a painting of him at the MET done

933
00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:31,839
Speaker 1: by David Wojan. Now it's called William Moralice, Patron Saint

934
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:37,360
Speaker 1: of prison Breaks. Incredible. Yeah, I think it's not currently

935
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:39,000
Speaker 1: on display at the MET. I like looked it up.

936
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:42,520
Speaker 1: It's like in the collection, it's a cool painting. So

937
00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:46,280
Speaker 1: there's so many fucking cool jail breaks in history. Obviously

938
00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:49,200
Speaker 1: these are only some tiny portion of them. Again, obviously

939
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:50,960
Speaker 1: most of them go terribly in the long run, and

940
00:50:51,120 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 1: most of the time your best bet to jail break

941
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 1: is by letting your lawyer set you free through the

942
00:50:55,200 --> 00:50:59,439
Speaker 1: legal processes or waiting out the clock. But still, cool

943
00:50:59,520 --> 00:51:06,480
Speaker 1: people are mostly cool people and cool stuff again mostly cool. Yeah,

944
00:51:06,760 --> 00:51:08,959
Speaker 1: I mean, hey, we there there. There is a large

945
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:11,600
Speaker 1: number of people in this episode who are free right now,

946
00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:15,560
Speaker 1: so you know, yeah, good, good, good for them. I hope,

947
00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:17,399
Speaker 1: I hope having a nice time if if they ever

948
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:21,080
Speaker 1: hear this, somehow high you're cool, have have have a

949
00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:22,719
Speaker 1: good have a good life. Yeah, I'm sorry if I

950
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:26,000
Speaker 1: got any details wrong, but don't don't contact me to

951
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:34,239
Speaker 1: correct me. No, send all inquiries. I right, Okay. I

952
00:51:34,239 --> 00:51:36,839
Speaker 1: mean that one's actually funny because I think that our

953
00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:39,360
Speaker 1: friend Robert Evans would be better equipped to handle the

954
00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:43,440
Speaker 1: kinds of communications. He's like an actual journalist, it's compared

955
00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:46,960
Speaker 1: to the science fiction writer like me. But that's the episode.

956
00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:50,759
Speaker 1: That's uh, that's Prison Breaks Parts one and two, our

957
00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:55,319
Speaker 1: first inaugural prison breaks. I feel like this will be

958
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:59,920
Speaker 1: a trend because prison breaks are cool. Yeah, they are

959
00:52:00,800 --> 00:52:03,440
Speaker 1: any any plugs for us at the end here? Yeah,

960
00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:07,080
Speaker 1: I'm at Twitter at b h R three or there's

961
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:11,279
Speaker 1: gonna be destroyed. Guy, I work on I work on

962
00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:14,080
Speaker 1: a podcast. It's called it could Happen here. Um, you

963
00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:16,360
Speaker 1: can find it Happened here pod on Twitter, Instagram. You

964
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:21,120
Speaker 1: can also find it wherever fine podcasts are distributed. And yeah,

965
00:52:21,160 --> 00:52:25,759
Speaker 1: I guess I technically mom behind the baschards occasionally. Yeah. Yeah,

966
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:28,359
Speaker 1: so listen to that too. You're also on cool People

967
00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:32,680
Speaker 1: who did cool stuff occasionally. That's true, and people should

968
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:36,800
Speaker 1: definitely listen to that. Yeah, every Monday and Wednesday. Margaret,

969
00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:38,759
Speaker 1: Because this is coming out in July, do you want

970
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:42,040
Speaker 1: to plug your book? Oh? Yeah, I have a book

971
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:45,600
Speaker 1: called we Won't Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories that

972
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:47,360
Speaker 1: is coming out from a K Press. It's a collection

973
00:52:47,360 --> 00:52:51,360
Speaker 1: of my short fiction. Before I was a podcaster, I

974
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:55,239
Speaker 1: was just a writer of science fiction and fantasy. I've

975
00:52:55,280 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 1: never been an actor, you might have guessed. And that

976
00:52:58,719 --> 00:53:00,720
Speaker 1: book is coming out from a K Press on September.

977
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:03,200
Speaker 1: It is probably available for pre order by the time

978
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:06,160
Speaker 1: you hear this. You can also follow me on Twitter

979
00:53:06,400 --> 00:53:10,040
Speaker 1: at Magpie Killjoy where I wish I spent less time.

980
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 1: Yeah and um. We'll be back next week on Wenday

981
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:23,480
Speaker 1: On Wednesday by cool People Who did Cool Stuff is

982
00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:26,440
Speaker 1: a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts on

983
00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:29,719
Speaker 1: cool zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com,

984
00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:32,120
Speaker 1: or check us out on the I Heart Radio app,

985
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.