WEBVTT - Don't Fence Me In: Mark DeFriest 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.320 Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:09.280 Elizabeth, and I said I did like the millennial miss 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:12.400 So I got a question for you, miss Dan. Do 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:13.320 you know what's ridiculous? 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.759 I do? I do aperol sprits. You've had one before, right, yeah? 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:18.119 I think so. 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:21.200 It's got apparol, which is like a bitter sweet orange 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:26.960 liqueur prosecco. Just you know, the Champagne of Italy, soda 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.840 water and orange slice. Yes, right, although when when I 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.640 was in Venice and having too many of them, they 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:35.520 put green olives up in there. 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.040 It's pretty good. 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.640 I don't like all so that's just like it was 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:42.479 an interesting. 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:43.839 Do they make a dirty apparol sprits? 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.320 That's probably with the olives a little in a little 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:51.200 Venetian canal water? So anyway, there's also now there's another 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.400 version that's the Italian drinks. You know what the American 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:54.000 version is? 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:55.040 Do I want to know this? 0:00:55.280 --> 0:01:00.880 Yeah? So it's appaol, right, you have the citrus except 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.480 for an orange, used lemon, and instead of prosecco you 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:05.880 use Miller High Life. 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:07.840 Oh god, the Champagne of beers. 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.679 Right, and it's called a spaghett you're kidding me? No, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.360 I'm not kidding it. It's called a Spaghett Miller high life. 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.039 Like they're wilding out right. They made that record of 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.360 bar Noises, all right, yeah. 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:19.679 You know I support them generally. 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:21.440 Oh yeah, well I feel like they were like, you know, 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.679 the millennials loved us, and they truck her hats and 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:27.800 and they're like come back, like no one drinks anymore, 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.840 come on, So they went one step further. Zerin it's 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:32.080 the Spaghett Sicle. 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:33.280 You weren't such a good run. 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:37.280 I know, it's the Spaghett Sicle. So it's the Spaghett cocktail, 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:41.560 but in a push like frozen push pop and uh yeah, 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.160 so you can order them if you want. It's seventy 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:51.440 nine dollars for six packs. You really really love your friends. 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:52.320 This comes to us. 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:53.280 That's an expensive joke. 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.520 Yeah, this comes from us. From from Andrew Bowman on Instagram. 0:01:57.520 --> 0:01:59.640 He's a member of the Subaru Forster Gang ps. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:01.120 Oh wow, doubled up. 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:06.120 Yeah double so. Yeah, spagatsicle ridiculous. 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.720 Ridiculous and I'm gonna forgive that. That's a mashup. I know. 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:12.639 I did that as fast as I could ripped it off. 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:13.360 Thank you. 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:13.920 You're welcome. 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.799 Well you're here. I got something for you. You want 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.120 to allow else is ridiculous? Yeah, okay, Elizabeth, I know 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.080 you're familiar with the saying there, but for the grace 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:23.600 of God go I yes, right. Out of all the 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:25.400 stories we've told here, I think this one feels very 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:26.320 much like that for me. 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:27.000 Really. 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:29.679 Yeah, In short, I relate to this cat, right. He's 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.880 this loner. He's raised by a father who trains him 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.200 and prepares him for the world, but such that when 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.320 he's faced with authority figures, he resists them, and like, 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:39.880 even if it cost him damn near everything. Yeah, so 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.480 I get that right, And well, I'll just put it 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:44.320 this way. You're ready for the mad story of a 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:45.680 prison escape artist. 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:47.600 Always ready for that. 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:13.320 This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:17.760 heist and cons is. It's always ninety percent murder free 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:24.360 and what one hundred percent ridiculous ridiculous? Oh, Elizabeth, Like 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:26.600 I said up top, this is a wild ride, and 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:28.160 I guess the best way to put it is just 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:33.720 buckle up, Buttercup. I'd like you to meet Mark Defriest. Hello, Mark, 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:37.240 aka the Houdini of Florida. Known for that for his 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.480 Houdini like escapes in Florida. In Florida exactly. I figured 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.160 you'd catch on to that album quick. He could wriggle 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.640 out of straight jackets, he could slip free a handcuffs, 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.360 leg irons. What you got He is a water certified 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.440 escape artist. No, he's not that part of Yeah, he's 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:54.160 not so committed to the Houdini bit. 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:56.640 We'll give it a little time. That's charming. 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:58.640 Give him a crowd, let him see what he can do. 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.840 So Mark he was born in rural Florida back in 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.720 August of nineteen sixty and a former prison warden at 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.000 the Florida State Prison, which is a real crazy place. 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.400 A man named Ron McAndrew once said, quote, I've met 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:15.440 a lot of brilliant people in my time, but I've 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.600 only met one, Mark Defriest. His brilliance is so great 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.560 that it's hard to describe. So that's a challenge I'm 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:23.440 up against today. I'm going to try to describe that 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:23.920 to you. 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:24.440 Got it. 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.240 He's what some folks would call a savant. He's also 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.000 he was a child prodigy. He's a true rare one 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:34.440 by many folks estimation. This prison escape artist is the 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:39.560 result of his misunderstood autistic soul. Now, let's start way 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:41.839 back when he was a boy. At the age of six, 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.920 Mark was known to take apart watches, clocks and then 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.000 put them back together, unlike me, who would take them 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.919 apart and just have a bunch of parts everywhere. So 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:52.120 all by himself at six he could do this right, 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:57.760 But not only that. His mechanical genius extended such to motors, engines, telephones, 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.920 transistor radios. He's like, if it moved, it's got you know, 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.159 dials and knobs and stuff. I can take it apart 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:04.040 put it back together. 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:08.000 He had that like spatial uh like understanding of things. 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.680 How he look connects together one hundred percent. 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:12.279 He had like that tesla, I can see it in 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:13.839 my mind, I can take it apart and put it 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.160 back together kind of saying going on totally well. For instance, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.480 later on, when he was a little older, he once 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:23.080 bugged his stepsister's room and he didn't bug it like, oh, 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.480 I can hear what she's doing. He rewired her telephone 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.120 so that her calls were broadcast by a loud speaker 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.200 he'd set up out on the street for an amused audience. 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:33.080 Of neighborhood kids. 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:35.679 Oh no, yeah. 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:37.680 He was kind of like you, an agent of chaos, 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.520 or as Mark puts it, quote, I was a wild child. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:42.320 You know. They tried to get me to interact with 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:44.480 other people, other children, and I was more interested in 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.640 how things work. Right. So they're in the basement of 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.120 his parents' house. He built for himself his own little 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:53.720 private laboratory, and I'm talking he would experiment with chemistry sets, 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:55.960 electronic sets that kind of used to be able to 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.280 buy it like radio shack. Yeah, rip, Oh man, do 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.240 I miss radio Shack, the old day dream store. You 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:02.120 went to radio Shack? 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:02.320 Right? 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:02.479 Oh? 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:03.200 Yeah, totally. 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.720 Do you have any favorite like things about it you remember, 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:07.400 like you know, just like oh, I would go in 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:08.440 and see such and such that. 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.680 At a very young age became obsessed with police scanners 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:18.880 that so well. My grandmother had one, and I loved 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:20.960 like getting into her bed in the evening and listening 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.840 to the scanner because it's like the best gossip and 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.280 like you just you hear all sorts of wild stuff 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.320 that's like not going to make the paper crazy story totally. 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:32.040 It's like the subterranean soap opera. 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.719 Yes and so and then we also there was a 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.360 time too when early cell phone days. My uncle had 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.239 a cell phone that had all these channels. Oh yeah, 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.160 and she and I used to sit there in the 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.000 evening and flip through and listen to other people's calls. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:48.279 This is in Las Vegas. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:49.920 You guys are crazy. 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:52.520 Yeah, and like you know, you're in Vegas and you're 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.200 hearing cell phones. Oh yeah, you're hearing conversations. 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:55.880 Oh yeah, yeah. 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:56.520 We had a great time. 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:58.360 Do you guys ever have to testify for the FBI. 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.240 I'm surprised we didn't, but yeah, anyway, radio shack, it 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:02.599 was like, oh, if you want to like get a 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.200 police scanner, that's your joint right there. 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.359 That was the best. Well, as he tells it, his 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:11.280 basement lab was quote like doctor Frankenstein's science fuction laboratory. 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:13.960 It's been days down there and a couple times, as 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.760 he puts it, I blew myself up. Oh no, oh yeah, 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.440 he was that kid. Now. The majority of quotes from 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.120 Mark that will will be featured in this episode come 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.760 from a documentary by filmmaker Gabriel London called The Mind 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.440 of Mark de Friest, came back out in twenty fourteen. 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.520 I highly recommend it. Now, in my telling of Mark's 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:33.280 life story, I'll be leaving out some of the more 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:35.760 brutal periods of his life in prison, thank you, not 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.160 for what he did. It's not like it like one situation. No, 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:40.840 it's due to what was done to him. 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.800 I can't take stuff these days. 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:44.520 Yeah, I know you can't, So I left that out. 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.480 And also the documentary just so listeners, no, doesn't skip 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:49.280 over those, so if you check it, be warned. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:51.640 Yeah. Well, I mean that's the thing. It's like they're fuller. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.080 Every story that we tell has fuller pictures around it. Yes, 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.840 and we're telling you the safe ridiculous. 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.440 Parts often yeah, yeah, any time that there's like especially 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.080 a one percent. But in his case that's not the case. 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.120 It's just some brutality, trauma and tality. Exactly what's the 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.400 point of sharing that with everybody? You know, let's hear 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:07.920 the funn. 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:08.680 Nothing funny about it. 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:09.360 Yeah. 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.040 Anyway, back to Mark Defriest in his childhood, a lot 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.840 of how he is can be traced back to his upbringing, 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.640 which we often find is the case with the criminals 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.800 we cover. Now, in Mark's case, there is his father, Everett. 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:24.600 He was very much like Mark. His stepsister Barbie Taylor 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.240 compared him to Indiana Jones. She said, quote, if it 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.840 could be done, Everett could do it. You gotta love that. Now. 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.080 His father, Evertt, was a World War Two veteran. He 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.000 was also a spy in the OSS, which is the 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.800 organization that predated the CIA. Now the war changed Everett, 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.640 it reshaped him, it left him perpetually on edge. The 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.400 filmmaker for the documentary, Gabriel London, says, his father quote 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.000 believed that the Communists were coming, and he sort of 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:53.280 prepared his child, his only son, in a way to 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.200 be prepared for the Russians who were coming. Now, when 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.160 Mark tells of his father, the emphasis is a little different. 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.160 He said, and quote he was into that whole fifties 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.679 and sixties thing about the threads were coming in. Now, 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.280 that was really a whole cultural thing back then. That 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.680 dude was nuts. He really was. I never saw Russian 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.320 yet gives you a little. 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:16.880 Sounds like you're saying those of the war changed him. 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:20.240 I mean, my god, what we put people through. No 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.280 train them to go to war, even when they don't 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.800 wind up going. You break someone down and rebuild them. 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.040 And then when you send them into these traumatic situations. 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.559 You know, we every generation we call it something different, 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.960 but we break minds and then we're like, oh yeah, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.280 go out and be in society and raise a family 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:40.640 and like to peoria deal with these pressures. 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:42.400 Yeah, and he was out there on the bleeding edge 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:44.960 of the war, spy stuff, behind the lines, that kind 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:45.319 of stuff. 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:45.959 Yeah. 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.880 Anyway, with his dad's obsession, what that meant for Mark 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.160 was quote, I was trained from the age of six 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:56.720 and guerrilla warfare, guns, explosives, bombs, anti tank rockets. Can 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.520 you imagine from the age of six six, Dad's like, okay, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.640 he got the red wire, not the blue wire. Anyway, 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.000 this fuels his own paranoid self reliance. If you dropped 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.680 him behind enemy lines at age nine, he's getting home like. 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.120 Little boys, like the worst of people, like and stuff. 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:17.720 But that's a fantastic version of a fantasy version. He's 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.440 getting like the like uncensored version. 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.480 Oh yeah, like how to like feel dress your own. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:24.600 Wounds and with the fear on top of it. It's 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.440 not told as an adventure story. It's told as a survival. 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.400 The reds are coming. Yeah. Now, next to Elizabeth, I'd 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:33.360 like you to meet his mother. She was the kind 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.439 of mom who would tickle the hell out of Alfred Hitchcock. 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:38.839 She was a real peach And I say that as 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.600 sarcastically as possible as Mark's first wife, Brenda put it. 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.679 Mark's mother, Marilyn was quote an ice cold. 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:47.240 Oh yeah. 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.559 Brenda also said, quote I thought that she didn't really 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.160 care for Mark. I saw no love, I saw no hugs. 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.760 I saw no I love you. I saw nothing of 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.360 that nature with her. So this is the world he's 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.640 raised in now naturally damaged people totally in these two charmers. 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.400 They eventually get divorced while he's still young, and as 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:06.520 a result, Mark gets sent away to a school for 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:07.520 wayward boys. 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:09.280 Oh he didn't go with either one. 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.920 No. Yeah. So, now, being trained as he was by 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.320 his father, Mark of course tries to escape that school 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.720 and run away. Yeah, and then along come his teenage years. 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.160 Mark then went through all of the expected rebellions that 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.079 come with it. But once again, he's well trained, so 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:25.040 he wasn't a big fan of the other kids or 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.600 other people. So it was no surprise that Mark eventually 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.680 ran into trouble with the law. He was first arrested 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:32.840 in nineteen seventy eight, and at the time he was 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.120 eighteen years old. So when he gets caught, he gets 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.240 real time. He's locked up for a year, and when 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:40.840 he gets out, he comes back to be with his 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.480 father and live in rural Florida again in a part 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.520 of Florida is called a Gadsden County. It's his rural area. 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:50.640 It's in the west of Tallahassee on the Florida Georgia line. Okay, right, 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:52.280 so it's up there like in what used to be 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.520 tobacco country, like way back in the day. But by 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:55.800 nineteen nine. 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:57.920 It's just the top exactly. Okay. 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:02.720 It's the life that was making that area like profitable 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.000 was mostly gone. So the county at this point wasn't 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:08.720 exactly an economic powerhouse, but people got by right now. 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.200 When Mark got out after his first stretch inside, he 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.400 came home to be near his dad. But sadly, his 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.200 father passed away. This is nineteen seventy nine, and this 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:18.840 is the start of his life's troubles because you see, 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.199 when his dad passed away, he was left his toolkit, 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.040 like he left all his tools to his son, and 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.200 apparently he had an amazing tool collection and he was 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.040 like incredible. So Mark he knew it had been willed 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:32.880 to him. Everybody knew it, but he didn't want to 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.120 wait for the lawyers to process probate, so instead he 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:37.760 just went to his dad's place and he tried to 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.000 collect his dad's collection of tools. He had a key 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.040 to look the toolshad or the garage or what have you, 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:44.160 and all the tools had been left for him. As 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.640 I said, So his stepmother knew this, but when she 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.640 saw him, like as she could later claim, breaking in, 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:52.560 she called the local sheriff. And so the sheriff came 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.920 out to see what was what and was not looking 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:56.560 to bus. Mark just wanted to talk to him. But 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.600 Mark sees the police pulling up and he'd already been inside, 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:01.959 so he's like, I'm not going back. He breaks out 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.360 of a window and runs for it. Like with the tools, 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.560 Mark made it all the way to Alabama, where he 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.280 was soon caught. He had a gun on him when 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.560 he was busted, so he was charged with theft, gun 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.719 possession and extradited back to Florida. Since he was now 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.600 an ex con, the gun was considered a violation of 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.480 his parole. Right now, the tools that had been left 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:24.280 to him by his father. You might expect it when 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:27.400 a judge hears this, they would be a bit lenient, Elizabeth, 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.920 That's not what happened. If you had to guess how 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.040 much time do you think he got inside for his 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:33.680 second stretch for a huge tool. 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:35.880 Well he didn't wake out with all the tools. 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.079 Right, but he has a gun. He's extradited from Alabama. 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:40.720 What do you think a judge sees this in nineteen 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:41.920 seventy nine, nineteen seven nine. 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.439 And you mentioned he's autistic, right, yeah, so he's probably 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:51.400 not going to convey himself like others do it. He 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.280 has different things he brings to the game completely, So 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:56.880 I'm going to think it's completely out of control. Yes, 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:57.800 like ten. 0:13:57.720 --> 0:13:59.920 Years, not quite. He got four years in a floor 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:01.280 to state correctional. 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.640 Facility for stealing something that is his. 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:04.920 It would have been his if he just waited like 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:08.040 an extra week or something. So that's no fun. Right, 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.800 there's boom. Now Mark had already been locked up for years, 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.480 I said, so he knew what to expect him. He 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.480 was going back inside. So I guess he didn't dig 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.360 his prison social life that he had previously experienced, because 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.800 within a month of being locked up, he makes his 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.920 first escape attempt. Yeah, one month and by the way, 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:29.880 that was the first of many prison escape attempts. Now, 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.080 let's take a little break, and after these messages we 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:36.080 will get into the many, many prison escapes of Mark 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:59.560 de Friest. Yes, we're back to Elizabeth. You're ready to 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:00.600 bust out the joint. 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:01.760 I certainly am so. 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:04.480 At this point, it's nineteen eighty. Mark Defriest has just 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.360 been locked up at a facility called Bay County Prison 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:09.720 in Florida. And like I said, he doesn't take him 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.080 even a month before he decides I don't want to 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:12.400 be here. 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:13.240 It's not for him. 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.960 Now, thanks to the documentary The Mind of Mark Defriest, 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:18.800 we know exactly how his first month played out. And 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.400 so here's how Mark Defriest tells the story. And I quote, 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.000 it was Tuesday, I remember that Tuesday Bible study. You're 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.320 supposed to be escorted out of the compound at night. 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.440 Eight of us broke camp and hauled for the fence. 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.920 The plan was that simple, run eight of them, Yeah, exactly. 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:37.200 Can't catch all that? 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.000 Maybe you bring some slow vas exactly. 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:40.520 It's the whole thing about like if you're trying to 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:42.120 run from a bear, you just take time to put 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:43.520 on your shoes because you don't have to be faster 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:44.720 than the bear. It's got to be faster than the 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:45.120 other guy. 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:45.560 Right. 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.760 Yeah, So back to Mark quote, half of them got 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.000 hung up on the fence on that that razor wire 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:53.960 and he was scream at de freezed wait up for me, 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.320 And I was like, the f's wrong with you people? 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:56.600 Man? 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:01.320 So obviously, like I said a loaner, Yeah, Mark, he 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:03.520 gets over the fence and he doesn't look back. He 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.480 heads straight for the Florida swamps, which is not the 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.320 choice most folks would make. Sure, But you've ever seen 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.760 them Florida swamps? I mean that's for me. It's scarier 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:13.080 in jail. 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.440 Once and I saw some and it was pretty uh 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.000 And I don't even think I saw like the swamp swamp. 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:19.320 Yeah no, But I've also. 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:20.600 Seen other swamps throughout the South. 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:21.520 You know, it goes. 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:24.480 I always would see him. You see like the the 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.040 you know, cypress trees coming out of this stuff, and 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:29.320 you think, I bet you there are so many bodies 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:30.560 in there, oh one d percent. 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.360 Also easily it's like America's version of Australia. It's like 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.160 everything wants to eat and kill your. 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:36.840 And everything's outsized and yeah. 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.080 Yeah, So Mark, though he's not afraid of the swamps 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.040 right due to his paranoid papa's war training. He's like, oh, 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.080 I can handle this, Yeah totally. So he and another 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.480 inmate they make it to the swamps together. They get 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.680 chased by prison guards and like at some point apparently 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:52.960 they're like shooting rifles at them, trying to scare them 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:54.840 out of the woods and make as they're making their 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.840 way through the swamp. But once again, thanks to Daddy's training, 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.120 they evade the enemy and they make it through the 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:00.840 darkened woods. 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:01.360 Yeah. 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.439 Back to Mark's telling quote, we went to one of 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:08.560 my old friend's houses. They had an old Ford pickup truck. Elizabeth, 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.560 You'll never guess what they did next. You guess, steal 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.679 a car. You win. So Mark hot wired his friend's 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.280 old Ford truck and as he tells it, quote, all 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.320 you gotta do is raise the hood, put a positive 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:22.920 wire to the coil of the battery, hit the solenoid, 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.640 and haul it. You can do this in the dark, 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:28.200 eyes closed, You know what I'm saying. Well, he can, Mark, 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:29.000 not everyone knows. 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:30.760 What you're saying I can't. 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.159 But Mark, Yeah, eyes closed too, that's what I want to. 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:36.200 Bump down the room. 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.840 So this guy's I said, he's mechanically gifted. So now 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.280 thanks to his gifts, they have a hot truck. So 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.199 they hit the road and they make their escape to Tallahassee, 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.080 not spot I would go, but they picked Tallahassee. They oh, 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.240 the big city, will be able to hide and be anonymous. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:50.520 Yeah. 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.000 They hole up in room two sixty eight at the 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.119