Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth, and I said I did like the millennial miss
Speaker 2: So I got a question for you, miss Dan. Do
Speaker 2: you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: I do? I do aperol sprits. You've had one before, right, yeah?
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 3: It's got apparol, which is like a bitter sweet orange
Speaker 3: liqueur prosecco. Just you know, the Champagne of Italy, soda
Speaker 3: water and orange slice. Yes, right, although when when I
Speaker 3: was in Venice and having too many of them, they
Speaker 3: put green olives up in there.
Speaker 2: It's pretty good.
Speaker 3: I don't like all so that's just like it was
Speaker 3: an interesting.
Speaker 2: Do they make a dirty apparol sprits?
Speaker 3: That's probably with the olives a little in a little
Speaker 3: Venetian canal water? So anyway, there's also now there's another
Speaker 3: version that's the Italian drinks. You know what the American
Speaker 3: version is?
Speaker 2: Do I want to know this?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So it's appaol, right, you have the citrus except
Speaker 3: for an orange, used lemon, and instead of prosecco you
Speaker 3: use Miller High Life.
Speaker 2: Oh god, the Champagne of beers.
Speaker 3: Right, and it's called a spaghett you're kidding me? No,
Speaker 3: I'm not kidding it. It's called a Spaghett Miller high life.
Speaker 3: Like they're wilding out right. They made that record of
Speaker 3: bar Noises, all right, yeah.
Speaker 2: You know I support them generally.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well I feel like they were like, you know,
Speaker 3: the millennials loved us, and they truck her hats and
Speaker 3: and they're like come back, like no one drinks anymore,
Speaker 3: come on, So they went one step further. Zerin it's
Speaker 3: the Spaghett Sicle.
Speaker 2: You weren't such a good run.
Speaker 3: I know, it's the Spaghett Sicle. So it's the Spaghett cocktail,
Speaker 3: but in a push like frozen push pop and uh yeah,
Speaker 3: so you can order them if you want. It's seventy
Speaker 3: nine dollars for six packs. You really really love your friends.
Speaker 3: This comes to us.
Speaker 2: That's an expensive joke.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this comes from us. From from Andrew Bowman on Instagram.
Speaker 3: He's a member of the Subaru Forster Gang ps.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, doubled up.
Speaker 3: Yeah double so. Yeah, spagatsicle ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous and I'm gonna forgive that. That's a mashup. I know.
Speaker 3: I did that as fast as I could ripped it off.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: You're welcome.
Speaker 2: Well you're here. I got something for you. You want
Speaker 2: to allow else is ridiculous? Yeah, okay, Elizabeth, I know
Speaker 2: you're familiar with the saying there, but for the grace
Speaker 2: of God go I yes, right. Out of all the
Speaker 2: stories we've told here, I think this one feels very
Speaker 2: much like that for me.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, In short, I relate to this cat, right. He's
Speaker 2: this loner. He's raised by a father who trains him
Speaker 2: and prepares him for the world, but such that when
Speaker 2: he's faced with authority figures, he resists them, and like,
Speaker 2: even if it cost him damn near everything. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: I get that right, And well, I'll just put it
Speaker 2: this way. You're ready for the mad story of a
Speaker 2: prison escape artist.
Speaker 3: Always ready for that.
Speaker 2: This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
Speaker 2: heist and cons is. It's always ninety percent murder free
Speaker 2: and what one hundred percent ridiculous ridiculous? Oh, Elizabeth, Like
Speaker 2: I said up top, this is a wild ride, and
Speaker 2: I guess the best way to put it is just
Speaker 2: buckle up, Buttercup. I'd like you to meet Mark Defriest. Hello, Mark,
Speaker 2: aka the Houdini of Florida. Known for that for his
Speaker 2: Houdini like escapes in Florida. In Florida exactly. I figured
Speaker 2: you'd catch on to that album quick. He could wriggle
Speaker 2: out of straight jackets, he could slip free a handcuffs,
Speaker 2: leg irons. What you got He is a water certified
Speaker 2: escape artist. No, he's not that part of Yeah, he's
Speaker 2: not so committed to the Houdini bit.
Speaker 3: We'll give it a little time. That's charming.
Speaker 2: Give him a crowd, let him see what he can do.
Speaker 2: So Mark he was born in rural Florida back in
Speaker 2: August of nineteen sixty and a former prison warden at
Speaker 2: the Florida State Prison, which is a real crazy place.
Speaker 2: A man named Ron McAndrew once said, quote, I've met
Speaker 2: a lot of brilliant people in my time, but I've
Speaker 2: only met one, Mark Defriest. His brilliance is so great
Speaker 2: that it's hard to describe. So that's a challenge I'm
Speaker 2: up against today. I'm going to try to describe that
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 3: Got it.
Speaker 2: He's what some folks would call a savant. He's also
Speaker 2: he was a child prodigy. He's a true rare one
Speaker 2: by many folks estimation. This prison escape artist is the
Speaker 2: result of his misunderstood autistic soul. Now, let's start way
Speaker 2: back when he was a boy. At the age of six,
Speaker 2: Mark was known to take apart watches, clocks and then
Speaker 2: put them back together, unlike me, who would take them
Speaker 2: apart and just have a bunch of parts everywhere. So
Speaker 2: all by himself at six he could do this right,
Speaker 2: But not only that. His mechanical genius extended such to motors, engines, telephones,
Speaker 2: transistor radios. He's like, if it moved, it's got you know,
Speaker 2: dials and knobs and stuff. I can take it apart
Speaker 2: put it back together.
Speaker 3: He had that like spatial uh like understanding of things.
Speaker 3: How he look connects together one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: He had like that tesla, I can see it in
Speaker 2: my mind, I can take it apart and put it
Speaker 2: back together kind of saying going on totally well. For instance,
Speaker 2: later on, when he was a little older, he once
Speaker 2: bugged his stepsister's room and he didn't bug it like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can hear what she's doing. He rewired her telephone
Speaker 2: so that her calls were broadcast by a loud speaker
Speaker 2: he'd set up out on the street for an amused audience.
Speaker 2: Of neighborhood kids.
Speaker 3: Oh no, yeah.
Speaker 2: He was kind of like you, an agent of chaos,
Speaker 2: or as Mark puts it, quote, I was a wild child.
Speaker 2: You know. They tried to get me to interact with
Speaker 2: other people, other children, and I was more interested in
Speaker 2: how things work. Right. So they're in the basement of
Speaker 2: his parents' house. He built for himself his own little
Speaker 2: private laboratory, and I'm talking he would experiment with chemistry sets,
Speaker 2: electronic sets that kind of used to be able to
Speaker 2: buy it like radio shack. Yeah, rip, Oh man, do
Speaker 2: I miss radio Shack, the old day dream store. You
Speaker 2: went to radio Shack?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2: Do you have any favorite like things about it you remember,
Speaker 2: like you know, just like oh, I would go in
Speaker 2: and see such and such that.
Speaker 3: At a very young age became obsessed with police scanners
Speaker 3: that so well. My grandmother had one, and I loved
Speaker 3: like getting into her bed in the evening and listening
Speaker 3: to the scanner because it's like the best gossip and
Speaker 3: like you just you hear all sorts of wild stuff
Speaker 3: that's like not going to make the paper crazy story totally.
Speaker 2: It's like the subterranean soap opera.
Speaker 3: Yes and so and then we also there was a
Speaker 3: time too when early cell phone days. My uncle had
Speaker 3: a cell phone that had all these channels. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: and she and I used to sit there in the
Speaker 3: evening and flip through and listen to other people's calls.
Speaker 3: This is in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: You guys are crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like you know, you're in Vegas and you're
Speaker 3: hearing cell phones. Oh yeah, you're hearing conversations.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: We had a great time.
Speaker 2: Do you guys ever have to testify for the FBI.
Speaker 3: I'm surprised we didn't, but yeah, anyway, radio shack, it
Speaker 3: was like, oh, if you want to like get a
Speaker 3: police scanner, that's your joint right there.
Speaker 2: That was the best. Well, as he tells it, his
Speaker 2: basement lab was quote like doctor Frankenstein's science fuction laboratory.
Speaker 2: It's been days down there and a couple times, as
Speaker 2: he puts it, I blew myself up. Oh no, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: he was that kid. Now. The majority of quotes from
Speaker 2: Mark that will will be featured in this episode come
Speaker 2: from a documentary by filmmaker Gabriel London called The Mind
Speaker 2: of Mark de Friest, came back out in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2: I highly recommend it. Now, in my telling of Mark's
Speaker 2: life story, I'll be leaving out some of the more
Speaker 2: brutal periods of his life in prison, thank you, not
Speaker 2: for what he did. It's not like it like one situation. No,
Speaker 2: it's due to what was done to him.
Speaker 3: I can't take stuff these days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know you can't, So I left that out.
Speaker 2: And also the documentary just so listeners, no, doesn't skip
Speaker 2: over those, so if you check it, be warned.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I mean that's the thing. It's like they're fuller.
Speaker 3: Every story that we tell has fuller pictures around it. Yes,
Speaker 3: and we're telling you the safe ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Parts often yeah, yeah, any time that there's like especially
Speaker 2: a one percent. But in his case that's not the case.
Speaker 3: It's just some brutality, trauma and tality. Exactly what's the
Speaker 3: point of sharing that with everybody? You know, let's hear
Speaker 3: the funn.
Speaker 2: Nothing funny about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Anyway, back to Mark Defriest in his childhood, a lot
Speaker 2: of how he is can be traced back to his upbringing,
Speaker 2: which we often find is the case with the criminals
Speaker 2: we cover. Now, in Mark's case, there is his father, Everett.
Speaker 2: He was very much like Mark. His stepsister Barbie Taylor
Speaker 2: compared him to Indiana Jones. She said, quote, if it
Speaker 2: could be done, Everett could do it. You gotta love that. Now.
Speaker 2: His father, Evertt, was a World War Two veteran. He
Speaker 2: was also a spy in the OSS, which is the
Speaker 2: organization that predated the CIA. Now the war changed Everett,
Speaker 2: it reshaped him, it left him perpetually on edge. The
Speaker 2: filmmaker for the documentary, Gabriel London, says, his father quote
Speaker 2: believed that the Communists were coming, and he sort of
Speaker 2: prepared his child, his only son, in a way to
Speaker 2: be prepared for the Russians who were coming. Now, when
Speaker 2: Mark tells of his father, the emphasis is a little different.
Speaker 2: He said, and quote he was into that whole fifties
Speaker 2: and sixties thing about the threads were coming in. Now,
Speaker 2: that was really a whole cultural thing back then. That
Speaker 2: dude was nuts. He really was. I never saw Russian
Speaker 2: yet gives you a little.
Speaker 3: Sounds like you're saying those of the war changed him.
Speaker 3: I mean, my god, what we put people through. No
Speaker 3: train them to go to war, even when they don't
Speaker 3: wind up going. You break someone down and rebuild them.
Speaker 3: And then when you send them into these traumatic situations.
Speaker 3: You know, we every generation we call it something different,
Speaker 3: but we break minds and then we're like, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: go out and be in society and raise a family
Speaker 3: and like to peoria deal with these pressures.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was out there on the bleeding edge
Speaker 2: of the war, spy stuff, behind the lines, that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Anyway, with his dad's obsession, what that meant for Mark
Speaker 2: was quote, I was trained from the age of six
Speaker 2: and guerrilla warfare, guns, explosives, bombs, anti tank rockets. Can
Speaker 2: you imagine from the age of six six, Dad's like, okay,
Speaker 2: he got the red wire, not the blue wire. Anyway,
Speaker 2: this fuels his own paranoid self reliance. If you dropped
Speaker 2: him behind enemy lines at age nine, he's getting home like.
Speaker 3: Little boys, like the worst of people, like and stuff.
Speaker 3: But that's a fantastic version of a fantasy version. He's
Speaker 3: getting like the like uncensored version.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, like how to like feel dress your own.
Speaker 3: Wounds and with the fear on top of it. It's
Speaker 3: not told as an adventure story. It's told as a survival.
Speaker 2: The reds are coming. Yeah. Now, next to Elizabeth, I'd
Speaker 2: like you to meet his mother. She was the kind
Speaker 2: of mom who would tickle the hell out of Alfred Hitchcock.
Speaker 2: She was a real peach And I say that as
Speaker 2: sarcastically as possible as Mark's first wife, Brenda put it.
Speaker 2: Mark's mother, Marilyn was quote an ice cold.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Brenda also said, quote I thought that she didn't really
Speaker 2: care for Mark. I saw no love, I saw no hugs.
Speaker 2: I saw no I love you. I saw nothing of
Speaker 2: that nature with her. So this is the world he's
Speaker 2: raised in now naturally damaged people totally in these two charmers.
Speaker 2: They eventually get divorced while he's still young, and as
Speaker 2: a result, Mark gets sent away to a school for
Speaker 2: wayward boys.
Speaker 3: Oh he didn't go with either one.
Speaker 2: No. Yeah. So, now, being trained as he was by
Speaker 2: his father, Mark of course tries to escape that school
Speaker 2: and run away. Yeah, and then along come his teenage years.
Speaker 2: Mark then went through all of the expected rebellions that
Speaker 2: come with it. But once again, he's well trained, so
Speaker 2: he wasn't a big fan of the other kids or
Speaker 2: other people. So it was no surprise that Mark eventually
Speaker 2: ran into trouble with the law. He was first arrested
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy eight, and at the time he was
Speaker 2: eighteen years old. So when he gets caught, he gets
Speaker 2: real time. He's locked up for a year, and when
Speaker 2: he gets out, he comes back to be with his
Speaker 2: father and live in rural Florida again in a part
Speaker 2: of Florida is called a Gadsden County. It's his rural area.
Speaker 2: It's in the west of Tallahassee on the Florida Georgia line. Okay, right,
Speaker 2: so it's up there like in what used to be
Speaker 2: tobacco country, like way back in the day. But by
Speaker 2: nineteen nine.
Speaker 3: It's just the top exactly. Okay.
Speaker 2: It's the life that was making that area like profitable
Speaker 2: was mostly gone. So the county at this point wasn't
Speaker 2: exactly an economic powerhouse, but people got by right now.
Speaker 2: When Mark got out after his first stretch inside, he
Speaker 2: came home to be near his dad. But sadly, his
Speaker 2: father passed away. This is nineteen seventy nine, and this
Speaker 2: is the start of his life's troubles because you see,
Speaker 2: when his dad passed away, he was left his toolkit,
Speaker 2: like he left all his tools to his son, and
Speaker 2: apparently he had an amazing tool collection and he was
Speaker 2: like incredible. So Mark he knew it had been willed
Speaker 2: to him. Everybody knew it, but he didn't want to
Speaker 2: wait for the lawyers to process probate, so instead he
Speaker 2: just went to his dad's place and he tried to
Speaker 2: collect his dad's collection of tools. He had a key
Speaker 2: to look the toolshad or the garage or what have you,
Speaker 2: and all the tools had been left for him. As
Speaker 2: I said, So his stepmother knew this, but when she
Speaker 2: saw him, like as she could later claim, breaking in,
Speaker 2: she called the local sheriff. And so the sheriff came
Speaker 2: out to see what was what and was not looking
Speaker 2: to bus. Mark just wanted to talk to him. But
Speaker 2: Mark sees the police pulling up and he'd already been inside,
Speaker 2: so he's like, I'm not going back. He breaks out
Speaker 2: of a window and runs for it. Like with the tools,
Speaker 2: Mark made it all the way to Alabama, where he
Speaker 2: was soon caught. He had a gun on him when
Speaker 2: he was busted, so he was charged with theft, gun
Speaker 2: possession and extradited back to Florida. Since he was now
Speaker 2: an ex con, the gun was considered a violation of
Speaker 2: his parole. Right now, the tools that had been left
Speaker 2: to him by his father. You might expect it when
Speaker 2: a judge hears this, they would be a bit lenient, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: That's not what happened. If you had to guess how
Speaker 2: much time do you think he got inside for his
Speaker 2: second stretch for a huge tool.
Speaker 3: Well he didn't wake out with all the tools.
Speaker 2: Right, but he has a gun. He's extradited from Alabama.
Speaker 2: What do you think a judge sees this in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy nine, nineteen seven nine.
Speaker 3: And you mentioned he's autistic, right, yeah, so he's probably
Speaker 3: not going to convey himself like others do it. He
Speaker 3: has different things he brings to the game completely, So
Speaker 3: I'm going to think it's completely out of control. Yes,
Speaker 3: like ten.
Speaker 2: Years, not quite. He got four years in a floor
Speaker 2: to state correctional.
Speaker 3: Facility for stealing something that is his.
Speaker 2: It would have been his if he just waited like
Speaker 2: an extra week or something. So that's no fun. Right,
Speaker 2: there's boom. Now Mark had already been locked up for years,
Speaker 2: I said, so he knew what to expect him. He
Speaker 2: was going back inside. So I guess he didn't dig
Speaker 2: his prison social life that he had previously experienced, because
Speaker 2: within a month of being locked up, he makes his
Speaker 2: first escape attempt. Yeah, one month and by the way,
Speaker 2: that was the first of many prison escape attempts. Now,
Speaker 2: let's take a little break, and after these messages we
Speaker 2: will get into the many, many prison escapes of Mark
Speaker 2: de Friest. Yes, we're back to Elizabeth. You're ready to
Speaker 2: bust out the joint.
Speaker 3: I certainly am so.
Speaker 2: At this point, it's nineteen eighty. Mark Defriest has just
Speaker 2: been locked up at a facility called Bay County Prison
Speaker 2: in Florida. And like I said, he doesn't take him
Speaker 2: even a month before he decides I don't want to
Speaker 2: be here.
Speaker 3: It's not for him.
Speaker 2: Now, thanks to the documentary The Mind of Mark Defriest,
Speaker 2: we know exactly how his first month played out. And
Speaker 2: so here's how Mark Defriest tells the story. And I quote,
Speaker 2: it was Tuesday, I remember that Tuesday Bible study. You're
Speaker 2: supposed to be escorted out of the compound at night.
Speaker 2: Eight of us broke camp and hauled for the fence.
Speaker 2: The plan was that simple, run eight of them, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Can't catch all that?
Speaker 3: Maybe you bring some slow vas exactly.
Speaker 2: It's the whole thing about like if you're trying to
Speaker 2: run from a bear, you just take time to put
Speaker 2: on your shoes because you don't have to be faster
Speaker 2: than the bear. It's got to be faster than the
Speaker 2: other guy.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So back to Mark quote, half of them got
Speaker 2: hung up on the fence on that that razor wire
Speaker 2: and he was scream at de freezed wait up for me,
Speaker 2: And I was like, the f's wrong with you people?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 2: So obviously, like I said a loaner, Yeah, Mark, he
Speaker 2: gets over the fence and he doesn't look back. He
Speaker 2: heads straight for the Florida swamps, which is not the
Speaker 2: choice most folks would make. Sure, But you've ever seen
Speaker 2: them Florida swamps? I mean that's for me. It's scarier
Speaker 2: in jail.
Speaker 3: Once and I saw some and it was pretty uh
Speaker 3: And I don't even think I saw like the swamp swamp.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, But I've also.
Speaker 3: Seen other swamps throughout the South.
Speaker 2: You know, it goes.
Speaker 3: I always would see him. You see like the the
Speaker 3: you know, cypress trees coming out of this stuff, and
Speaker 3: you think, I bet you there are so many bodies
Speaker 3: in there, oh one d percent.
Speaker 2: Also easily it's like America's version of Australia. It's like
Speaker 2: everything wants to eat and kill your.
Speaker 3: And everything's outsized and yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Mark, though he's not afraid of the swamps
Speaker 2: right due to his paranoid papa's war training. He's like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can handle this, Yeah totally. So he and another
Speaker 2: inmate they make it to the swamps together. They get
Speaker 2: chased by prison guards and like at some point apparently
Speaker 2: they're like shooting rifles at them, trying to scare them
Speaker 2: out of the woods and make as they're making their
Speaker 2: way through the swamp. But once again, thanks to Daddy's training,
Speaker 2: they evade the enemy and they make it through the
Speaker 2: darkened woods.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Back to Mark's telling quote, we went to one of
Speaker 2: my old friend's houses. They had an old Ford pickup truck. Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: You'll never guess what they did next. You guess, steal
Speaker 2: a car. You win. So Mark hot wired his friend's
Speaker 2: old Ford truck and as he tells it, quote, all
Speaker 2: you gotta do is raise the hood, put a positive
Speaker 2: wire to the coil of the battery, hit the solenoid,
Speaker 2: and haul it. You can do this in the dark,
Speaker 2: eyes closed, You know what I'm saying. Well, he can, Mark,
Speaker 2: not everyone knows.
Speaker 3: What you're saying I can't.
Speaker 2: But Mark, Yeah, eyes closed too, that's what I want to.
Speaker 3: Bump down the room.
Speaker 2: So this guy's I said, he's mechanically gifted. So now
Speaker 2: thanks to his gifts, they have a hot truck. So
Speaker 2: they hit the road and they make their escape to Tallahassee,
Speaker 2: not spot I would go, but they picked Tallahassee. They oh,
Speaker 2: the big city, will be able to hide and be anonymous.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: They hole up in room two sixty eight at the
Speaker 2: Driftwood Motel. Hey, that's also where the police and prison
Speaker 2: officials finally caught up to them. The cops and the
Speaker 2: prison officials were very much not cool with his first
Speaker 2: escape attempt. They were not impressed. Yeah, but if you
Speaker 2: ask Mark, he says, nobody has a sense of humor. Anyway, Mark,
Speaker 2: he catches new charges for this prison escape attempt, and
Speaker 2: not a few. I mean he caught six new charges
Speaker 2: that added a lot more time to his sentence.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 2: Remember he's just twenty years old. He's got his entire.
Speaker 3: Life and started a four year sentence exactly. So it's
Speaker 3: not like, oh, it was just almost done, and now
Speaker 3: he tack on a couple of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it's rough now, Based on his escaped attempt
Speaker 2: and his odd behavior, the prison officials sent him to
Speaker 2: the Florida State Hospital to test if Mark was competent
Speaker 2: to stand trial for all these new charges. The Florida
Speaker 2: State Hospital is basically like a facility like you would
Speaker 2: see in One Flew Over the Cucko's Nest. It's a
Speaker 2: mental health facility and like a state hospital. So the
Speaker 2: year is now at this point, nineteen eighty one, and
Speaker 2: here comes a new wrinkle in the story because at
Speaker 2: the Florida State Hospital he reconnected with his wife because
Speaker 2: that's where she worked.
Speaker 3: So he got married at some point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was married when he was I should mentioned
Speaker 2: that his first wife. He was married very young, and
Speaker 2: she liked him. He was this handsome blonde guy. She's like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, he's so free, he's so confident. He
Speaker 2: just went to jail and now he's in jail, right,
Speaker 2: and so can you imagine that, Like how rough it
Speaker 2: must have been for her when her husband was booked
Speaker 2: at her place of work. Yeah right, like that's no fun, right,
Speaker 2: or she put it that sucked, Yeah, that's sure. And
Speaker 2: she was a social worker there, so she's taking care
Speaker 2: of inmate patience. And meanwhile, she put it, quote, I
Speaker 2: had patients that were looking up to me as their
Speaker 2: social worker, and then I was trying to help and
Speaker 2: give them advice. And I've got this husband over there
Speaker 2: at forensic services. Oh no, right, yeah, it's rough. H Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Mark takes one look at this place's security and he's like,
Speaker 2: I can bust out of here, Elizabeth. This brings us
Speaker 2: to his second prison escape attempt. We'll call it the
Speaker 2: great lsdkper Oh no, yes, back to Mark's telling, no, quote,
Speaker 2: I figured that I get everybody stoned. I got my
Speaker 2: hands on Do you know what blotter as it is? Right,
Speaker 2: it's LSD twenty five.
Speaker 3: Yes, he gets acid in yes, mental They.
Speaker 2: Were using it for like therapeutics, right, trying to like
Speaker 2: help people have like constructors. There was a lot of
Speaker 2: that stuff coming out of like, yeah, the sixty seventies
Speaker 2: and eighties, I mean even before that. That was the
Speaker 2: part of the original intention was like this could be
Speaker 2: and it's same with MDMA.
Speaker 3: They locked the cabinet.
Speaker 2: No, his plan was simple, straightforward. You give the prison
Speaker 2: guards and the officials their acid, and in the chaos
Speaker 2: he just slip away.
Speaker 3: Nice so to enact his plan.
Speaker 2: He hid in a closet by the nurses station, and
Speaker 2: there he waited for a shift change. Half an hour before,
Speaker 2: like four in the afternoon, just before the new shift
Speaker 2: came on, he snuck out of the broom closet and
Speaker 2: as Mark tells it, quote, they got this coffee pot machine,
Speaker 2: and I took the whole bottle of blotter acid. It
Speaker 2: was like maybe seventy five to one hundred tabs worth,
Speaker 2: So I dumped the whole thing in this fresh pot
Speaker 2: of coffee. That's what I did in that's a lot
Speaker 2: of acid, A lot.
Speaker 3: I used to have these like fantasies when I was
Speaker 3: sitting in faculty meetings in the college and everyone was
Speaker 3: just really pushing my buttons and they all love sweet tea.
Speaker 3: Maybe out there like this huge like you know, caraffe
Speaker 3: of sweet tea hitting the thing, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I used to think, like what if I put
Speaker 3: like half a drop of LSD in this giant like
Speaker 3: you know container, Yeah, like what would happen? Or if
Speaker 3: I put a whole you know, like what would happen?
Speaker 3: And this guy is taking like a quarter of the
Speaker 3: amount of liquid and like a hundred times oh, my god,
Speaker 3: he's gonna break brains.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it'll certainly do the trick.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, Mark is rare and to go. He's just like
Speaker 2: sitting there geeking out in the closet waiting for things
Speaker 2: to happen. And also I should say he's got clothes
Speaker 2: to change into once he gets outside, so he's like
Speaker 2: prepared for this.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And also he's worked out like which locks he'll need
Speaker 2: to pick to make his escape, so he's got his
Speaker 2: whole path planned. Is like he's got his like after
Speaker 2: care planned, Like I'm gonna put on this outfit and
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go get a cad like a diddy bag.
Speaker 3: To like make sure that he's all set exactly.
Speaker 2: So he just needs to wait for the LSD to
Speaker 2: kick in, which it does around four to twenty pm.
Speaker 2: Not to it's just coincidental. So the prison staff they
Speaker 2: start to feel the strange disorienting effects of the acid,
Speaker 2: and starts out with this one prison aide who's working
Speaker 2: in the laundry room. As Mark tells it, quote, you
Speaker 2: know how the clothes and the dryer go around and
Speaker 2: around and around. Well he got really freaked out about that,
Speaker 2: and he attacked the dryer. He beat the out of
Speaker 2: that dryer. He ripped the door off, he started kicking
Speaker 2: it and screaming. So, oh yeah, there's other ones, like
Speaker 2: there's a psychiatrist, this redheaded woman psychiatrist. She's walking down
Speaker 2: the center aisles like saying all kinds of nonsense and
Speaker 2: like gripping out her body and stuff. Like everybody's freaking out.
Speaker 3: Is my night mare?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah? And then you're in a prison because I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, oh, don't talk to me until I've had my coffee.
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna have a little pick me up. And
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden, I'm just say my mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, faces are melting off of heads. Soon there were
Speaker 2: other freakouts like happening all over the prison, and as
Speaker 2: Mark tells it, quote well, somebody got wise and called
Speaker 2: security right before I could make my move. They surrounded
Speaker 2: the whole goddamn warden locked it all down, right, They
Speaker 2: finally figured out the coffee had been poisoned. So much
Speaker 2: for the Great lsd kper HeiG fizzled before he could
Speaker 2: even get out of the facility. But don't lose hope, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: because next came his third prison escape attempt. The third
Speaker 2: prison escape attempt was motivated by what he saw in
Speaker 2: the prison wood shop. As you know, a wood shop
Speaker 2: means tools, sure, and Marcus clearly good at using tools,
Speaker 2: so yeah, but.
Speaker 3: They're also like like pruce madeleine where it's like memories.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he's having flashbacks. So back to Mark's retelling
Speaker 2: of events quote, they sent me to arts and craft
Speaker 2: school and they had these rolled up copper sheets. I'm
Speaker 2: just looking at it and looking at them, thinking, they
Speaker 2: really don't want me to stay here. So what does
Speaker 2: he do, Elizabeth? Does he make a key? Does he
Speaker 2: swipe a saw blade to cut the bars in his
Speaker 2: cell window and then shimmy out to freedom? Instead he
Speaker 2: makes himself a prison zip gun?
Speaker 3: A zip gun?
Speaker 2: What is a zip gun? I glad you out.
Speaker 3: Great asking, and me for asking, and everyone for asking.
Speaker 2: So we'll have Mark tell you what a prison zip
Speaker 2: gun is because it's better than my explanation. Quote. You
Speaker 2: cut a twelve inch piece of it and roll it
Speaker 2: up around a pencil, and you got a beautiful gun
Speaker 2: barrel that's of the copper sheets. Right, And then back
Speaker 2: to Mark, So I put two on a piece of
Speaker 2: wood cut out like a pistol grip so I built
Speaker 2: these two double barreled zip guns. So I took one
Speaker 2: of the guns and taped it right in front of
Speaker 2: my nuts, and I had the other gun in the
Speaker 2: crack of my right. So now he's got a zip gun,
Speaker 2: but he needs to find the perfect time in place
Speaker 2: to use it.
Speaker 3: What's the ammunition in the zip gun?
Speaker 2: A bullet? He's got bullets in there, and there's like
Speaker 2: a little cap that'll make it go.
Speaker 3: It's a gun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just a thing. It's like a single shot,
Speaker 2: like a like a derringer, like a one hitter. Yeah exactly,
Speaker 2: my goodness. So he decides the perfect place to use
Speaker 2: this would be the dentist office. Right it's closing after
Speaker 2: the front gate, that he can pull out his gun
Speaker 2: and sort of just walk out the front door, just
Speaker 2: like he's the reincarnated John Dillinger. Yeah, now to get
Speaker 2: a ticket to the dentist's.
Speaker 3: Office full of like butt sweat.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, he's good, but it's copper. It's like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's just gonna turn it nervous. Yeah, exactly, you are.
Speaker 2: So he gives his ticket to the dentist office by
Speaker 2: using an ice pick and digging out a tooth from
Speaker 2: his own mouth. Oh son, Yeah. Then he goes to
Speaker 2: the nurses station where like, and the nurse takes one
Speaker 2: look at all the blood in his mouth, and you
Speaker 2: go rushing him to the dentist office pretty much. And
Speaker 2: then he goes with his two homemade guns secreted on
Speaker 2: his person. So, as Mark recalls, here's what went down
Speaker 2: once he got there. Quote, you got two aids with
Speaker 2: you and an armed guard. If you're a forensic patient.
Speaker 2: The arm guard's got a little thirty eight. So I
Speaker 2: go to the dentist and he takes one look at
Speaker 2: my mouth and says it's self mutilation. So he patches
Speaker 2: me up as best he can. And in the lobby
Speaker 2: they got a bathroom. I said, I got a piss,
Speaker 2: real bad man. So they let me go in there
Speaker 2: by myself. Wrong move, super wrong move. So in the bathroom,
Speaker 2: of course, he pulls out his two zip guns. Then
Speaker 2: he comes back out all John Dillinger style. As Mark says, quote,
Speaker 2: come out of the bathroom, and I threw down on
Speaker 2: the arm guard. I pointed it right at his face,
Speaker 2: and I said, if you move, I'll blow your brains out.
Speaker 2: I got a pretty good psycho act when I want
Speaker 2: to write, I want to But when the prison staff
Speaker 2: and his fellow inmates were there waiting for their turn
Speaker 2: in the dentist chair, they all catch sight of this
Speaker 2: pretty good psycho act going down. They don't see John Dillinger.
Speaker 2: They think it's all just a dumb joke, so they
Speaker 2: all bust out laughing. So there he is holding us
Speaker 2: two homemade guns and everybody's laughing like it's an all
Speaker 2: big joke, Elizabeth, he was not joking. To get them
Speaker 2: to understand that he was not joking, Mark says, quote,
Speaker 2: I fired the zip gun, yeah, but not in a
Speaker 2: person though. He was like safe. You know, Mark shoots
Speaker 2: the phone off the desk, right, he goes.
Speaker 3: Off Western right exactly.
Speaker 2: So now everyone stops laughing, the piano player stops flying,
Speaker 2: and it's time for Mark to get free. So back
Speaker 2: to Mark's description, So I ran out of the dentist's
Speaker 2: office and see there's a lot of traffic during the day,
Speaker 2: and and just my luck, I'm looking for somebody driving
Speaker 2: by who would be happy enough to donate their car
Speaker 2: to a worthy cause, and there was nobody convenient. There
Speaker 2: was no traffic. So with no cars for his what's
Speaker 2: he supposed to do now, question Elizabeth. No, that's like
Speaker 2: you you'd think, right. Well, as Mark puts it, I said, oh, well,
Speaker 2: back up plan too. So I head for the.
Speaker 3: Swamp with a mouthful of blood.
Speaker 2: By the way, wound. And Mark says it because I'd
Speaker 2: already been there, I know that. So I run off
Speaker 2: in the woods, right, and you can you can forget
Speaker 2: catching me in a situation like that. Because all of
Speaker 2: his dad's oss training, being a soldier behind enemy lines,
Speaker 2: he knows he's got what he needs to survive. He does,
Speaker 2: he puts it to work, and since he's armed and dangerous,
Speaker 2: the prison guards they released the bloodhounds to catch a
Speaker 2: whiff of his trail. The dogs and the guards, they
Speaker 2: aren't able to catch him. He totally avoids the dogs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he just swallowed all the blood in his mouth.
Speaker 2: Apparently, you would think that these dogs will be able to.
Speaker 3: Catch that's in the name, yes, right, blood exactly. And
Speaker 3: this man is bleeding from the face and from the.
Speaker 2: Mouth, and he's running so dribbling blood.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you'd think that, like you know, in those cases,
Speaker 3: you'd be like spitting out the salim and the blood.
Speaker 3: But he's swallowing it. And that's his new fuel.
Speaker 2: Apparently he makes it to the water, he swamps and
Speaker 2: gets away.
Speaker 3: He marked that.
Speaker 2: What does he do next? He heads home, and he
Speaker 2: makes it all the way back to his place that
Speaker 2: this will not exactly his home, but like his neighborhood.
Speaker 2: So he goes to this place that he'd worked as
Speaker 2: a as a teenager. It's an old metal salvage yard
Speaker 2: in like North Florida.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So there he grabs some tools and he breaks to
Speaker 2: maybe three different bolt cutters, trying to get the handcuffs
Speaker 2: off and to cut off the leg irons because remember
Speaker 2: also he's running away in handcuffs and leg irons.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Once he's fully free, where do you think he goes next?
Speaker 3: Disney World?
Speaker 2: Good guest. No, he heads to the trailer of his
Speaker 2: estranged versus wife Brenda.
Speaker 3: Oh that's gonna make her.
Speaker 2: That must have been really fun for her.
Speaker 3: Right, Wait a second, Brenda's not the one who works
Speaker 3: at the house.
Speaker 2: That's the one. Yes, Oh it is, yeah, same one.
Speaker 3: First wife. Well how young was he? Okay, so I'm
Speaker 3: getting it.
Speaker 2: Yes, his first wife Brenda the one, so he knows
Speaker 2: that she knows he's escaped.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's home from work.
Speaker 2: So the trouble is now she wants nothing to do
Speaker 2: with her now outlaw husband, and so he broke out
Speaker 2: of the place where she works, which is why in
Speaker 2: the documentary she says he broke my heart. I mean,
Speaker 2: like she really did care for him, but she just
Speaker 2: cannot put up with this because mostly he just keeps
Speaker 2: busting out, embarrassing her, and he just refuses to go
Speaker 2: along with law in society. There's just no future there.
Speaker 2: And also he keeps adding more years to his sentence.
Speaker 2: So she tells him, you need to go. Yeah, now, Mark,
Speaker 2: he needs a new plan, so else I would imagine.
Speaker 3: That the people at work would be like, we should
Speaker 3: probably check Brenda's house.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, exactly. She knows that the thirty seconds behind him. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so Mark, now he needs a getaway car and he
Speaker 2: doesn't want to take Brenda's, so he leaves and he's
Speaker 2: steal some other car. As Mark tells it, I got
Speaker 2: jammed up and caught by the police. He doesn't make
Speaker 2: it very far. Oh no, Mark wasn't on the loose
Speaker 2: long before he's recaptured and he sent right back to
Speaker 2: his previous spot at Bay County Prison, where he catches
Speaker 2: some more charges since he stole a car at one point. Right,
Speaker 2: So when he shows up at his old prison, the
Speaker 2: correctional officers are none too pleased to see him back.
Speaker 2: He's like their own cool hand Luke. Right, he's not
Speaker 2: a movie cool. So he's put in a straight jacket
Speaker 2: and he gets tossed in solitary confinements. But he's still
Speaker 2: got that wild side, right. So next they throw him
Speaker 2: into an escape proof cell. Spoiler alert, Elizabeth, it.
Speaker 3: Was not escapade anytime they say it's escape proof. It
Speaker 3: can't sink, it can't crash.
Speaker 2: It's crashing. Its sinking, and he's getting away this. Yeah, So,
Speaker 2: as Mark tells it, they threw me in another cell.
Speaker 2: But I smashed the light out and got into the wall.
Speaker 2: You can actually climb into a pipe galley and get
Speaker 2: all kinds of metals. I got this big long crowbars
Speaker 2: and so I just bam. I rolled the door down
Speaker 2: like a can of sardines.
Speaker 3: Well, so it's not even that he went and got supplies.
Speaker 2: He reaches into the wall.
Speaker 3: Escape We'll just go get supplies.
Speaker 2: Now. This is about the point when Mark earned his
Speaker 2: nickname the Houdini of Florida.
Speaker 3: I give it to him.
Speaker 2: Y're also the prison Houdini. There's two different ones both.
Speaker 3: I think he's earned them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so too. Nineteen eighty one is the
Speaker 2: year at this point, and the Florida prison system is
Speaker 2: a doctor to find the determined if Mark Defriest is
Speaker 2: mentally competent to stand trial for his now many new
Speaker 2: additional charges. That doctor was named doctor Robert Berland, and
Speaker 2: he worked as the director of the forensic ward at
Speaker 2: the Florida State Hospital. So he knows Mark, and he
Speaker 2: also knows Mark's now ex wife, Brenda. Plus he'd already
Speaker 2: been made to look foolish when Mark pulled his LSD
Speaker 2: stunt at the psych ward. His psych ward, so one
Speaker 2: might say this doc holds a grudge against Mark. Surprise, surprise,
Speaker 2: doctor Berlin deems Mark mentally competent to stand trial. Man
Speaker 2: I should point out that there were other psychiatrists called
Speaker 2: in to evaluate Mark. Four out of five of the
Speaker 2: court appointed psychiatrists determined Mark is mentally ill and he
Speaker 2: is incompetent to stand trial. But that fifth doctor, doctor Berlin,
Speaker 2: the one with the grudge against Mark. He's who the
Speaker 2: judge listened to. And he says he believes Mark is
Speaker 2: faking it all major. No, it's like that old advertisement
Speaker 2: four five dentists recommend try it's.
Speaker 3: All about the juicy. No, he shouldn't be doing that.
Speaker 2: So in this case, uh, you know, as he recommends juicy,
Speaker 2: Ferdy also rules against Mark, and he's sent to prison
Speaker 2: right now, he's now about to stand trial. So what
Speaker 2: does Mark do? Well, you know the answer. He tries
Speaker 2: to escape again.
Speaker 3: I mean, the thing is like they always say that
Speaker 3: you know, by reason of insanity, means that like you
Speaker 3: don't know that versus right versus wrong.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: But it's all this is more of the competency and
Speaker 3: it's like he's incapable of processing staying in jail. I mean,
Speaker 3: and if you're going to gouge your own tooth.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he's got plenty of evidence he's mentally under Yeah.
Speaker 2: So when we'll get back.
Speaker 3: To that point, toss like what's worse prison or the
Speaker 3: prison mental health?
Speaker 2: Truly? Yeah, it's a good question. So at this point
Speaker 2: he tries to escape again, So he makes another zip gun. Sure,
Speaker 2: as Mark puts it, you know how you go through
Speaker 2: phases in life. I was in my Gunsmith phase. So
Speaker 2: Mark makes a gun out of a rolled up toothpaste
Speaker 2: tube and a bunch of rags. What Yeah, and obviously
Speaker 2: in a bullet as well.
Speaker 3: But that's is he getting these bullets?
Speaker 2: Well, he's making them. You just have to, yeah, because
Speaker 2: you just need like certain match heads as a propellant.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then you just put it in like a tube.
Speaker 2: You've made this small metal tube and you put something
Speaker 2: on top of that that's packed in with the match
Speaker 2: hads and then they go boom. Right, Well, we used
Speaker 2: to make firecrackers out a match shed. You can make
Speaker 2: a hell of a bomb out of matchets. So he
Speaker 2: busts out right with others. Now, the prisoners with him
Speaker 2: for that prison escape attempt, his fourth one. They chicken
Speaker 2: out at the last minute because one of them says,
Speaker 2: my mom is here this day. She came to visit me,
Speaker 2: and I want to go back and see her.
Speaker 3: And he's like, are you kidding me? We're escaping it
Speaker 3: should have been. Everyone goes and then they all stop
Speaker 3: and turn.
Speaker 2: Long story short, the prison guards catch him before he
Speaker 2: even makes it out of prison. So after his failed
Speaker 2: attempt to escape, his fourth Mark is brought up on
Speaker 2: even more charges. This time, Florida authority's charging with an
Speaker 2: attempted murder because he fired his zip gun while he
Speaker 2: was making his escape. He's thrown back in solitary confinement,
Speaker 2: which is brutal. They want to break him and his
Speaker 2: cavalier attitude about staying in prison. So there solitary, he's
Speaker 2: stripped naked, he gets no mattress, no sheets, he has
Speaker 2: to sleep on the stone floor. He gets no matches obviously,
Speaker 2: no cigarettes, no toiletries, no toothpaste, no soap, no tissue,
Speaker 2: no toilet paper, nothing. He doesn't even have water in
Speaker 2: his cell, which means he can't flush the toilet. So
Speaker 2: that's got to like just be like a health hazard.
Speaker 3: Did worse than animals in the pound pretty much.
Speaker 2: And to wash him, guards would just like stick a
Speaker 2: hose in and then hose him in the cell down
Speaker 2: with a fire hose. And when he gets food eat
Speaker 2: he has to eat with his hands because he's allowed
Speaker 2: no utensils because he may use those to pick a lock.
Speaker 2: He also had no light because he punched out a
Speaker 2: light to be able to get out before. So in
Speaker 2: the official prison documents, the authorities even compared his confinement
Speaker 2: to being any North Vietnamese prison camp. In their own words,
Speaker 2: the people doing it are like, this is just like
Speaker 2: a North Vietnamese prison camp. Yeah, so they knew what
Speaker 2: they were doing. And Mark compared it to being in
Speaker 2: a dungeon, like all naked in the loan. Also, oh
Speaker 2: I forgot. Also, he had no communication with the outside
Speaker 2: world or even with the guards unless it was absolutely necessary.
Speaker 2: The guards, we're not supposed to speak.
Speaker 3: This is worse than killing him totally.
Speaker 2: This is all done to break him right, to make
Speaker 2: him recognize that they are in charge and there'd be
Speaker 2: absolutely no more escape attempts. And then they send in
Speaker 2: the same dock from the Florida State Hospital doctor Berlin
Speaker 2: to determine if he's now competent to stand trial. Oh,
Speaker 2: let me guess right now, I gotta say I admire
Speaker 2: Mark's will to live and to deny the prison's attempts
Speaker 2: to break him, because eventually Mark's taken to a courthouse
Speaker 2: and as he tells it, quote, they walk me over
Speaker 2: to the courthouse and they say, plead guilty to life,
Speaker 2: and we'll drop all these other cases we're charging with
Speaker 2: that you picked up in jail. So in order to
Speaker 2: get out of the hellhole of solitary confinement. Mark waives
Speaker 2: his rights to legal counsel. His court assigned public defender
Speaker 2: objects to what's going down, but Mark takes the offered
Speaker 2: deal and he's given a life sentence. So he's like
Speaker 2: twenty one years old at this point. I remember, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: This all started because Mark allegedly stole his father's tools,
Speaker 2: which were willed to him.
Speaker 3: Go back, we go back to that as the core crime.
Speaker 2: All he had to do was wait for probate to clear,
Speaker 2: but nope. So also if he had run from the
Speaker 2: sheriff who came to his home back when he was nineteen,
Speaker 2: and also he just lost his father, I mean like
Speaker 2: he was in a lot of trauma and strain. Now
Speaker 2: he's facing a life sentence in Florida's most brutal and
Speaker 2: he's being punished for what being hard headed. He's just
Speaker 2: being a punk kid who couldn't be broken. Yeah, But
Speaker 2: also he's a savant and autistic loaner, right, but they
Speaker 2: don't think of it in those terms. And therefore, the
Speaker 2: one out of five doctors who determines he's competent to
Speaker 2: stand trial, and he's now deemed competence, so they throw
Speaker 2: away as the rights, he takes the plea deal. At
Speaker 2: this point, at age twenty one, he's facing life in prison.
Speaker 2: So let's take a little break and after this bevy
Speaker 2: of ads, we'll get back to the story of Mark Defriest.
Speaker 2: And I promise there is light at the end of
Speaker 2: this tunnel, and also way more prison escapes, thank God,
Speaker 2: And we're back Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: Hello, you're ready.
Speaker 2: To find the good side of this story.
Speaker 3: I am desperate for you.
Speaker 2: There is one, I promise you.
Speaker 3: Because they seem to love the old torture chambers down
Speaker 3: there in Florida.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, what have all those like Spanish fortresses with
Speaker 2: all the Spanish boss.
Speaker 3: And mentality apparently, you know, dehumanization is Yeah.
Speaker 2: They're like, hey, let's get medieval with this. Yeah, So,
Speaker 2: as I promised, there's more prison escapes. In October of
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty one, at a place called Lean County Jail
Speaker 2: and Tallahassee, Florida, m hmm, roughly two months after he
Speaker 2: received his life sentence, Mark gets placed on a cell
Speaker 2: block with nineteen black inmates. He's the only white inmate.
Speaker 2: This was obviously done on purpose because Florida and the
Speaker 2: prison guards tell the black inmates. If this guy does
Speaker 2: anything wrong, we're taking the TV's away for you all
Speaker 2: and your canteen privileges. So now they're using they're trying
Speaker 2: to weaponize the black inmates against give pretty much. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so one man race, right, Yeah. But Mark is able
Speaker 2: to charm all the brothers and win them to his
Speaker 2: side because, for one, all those black inmates had heard
Speaker 2: about him, and so they tell Mark, hey, look, man,
Speaker 2: we're trying to escape and you want to join us.
Speaker 3: He's just real. I think this is when being on
Speaker 3: the spectrum benefits, where he's like literal yeah, and he's
Speaker 3: just going to tell you these you're just a person
Speaker 3: to be a little sarcastic and funny about it at
Speaker 3: the same time. And it's like he this is his wheelhouse.
Speaker 2: He's like hey, and they respect how he is this
Speaker 2: guy is because you point out his one hundred percent reel.
Speaker 2: So Mark tells him, you guys are trying to escape.
Speaker 2: I think that's a great idea. He asked them what
Speaker 2: they have to bust out, and so they show them
Speaker 2: their stash and they have like a stolen diamond chip,
Speaker 2: saw blades, like a few dang.
Speaker 3: They're like, yeah, we got supplies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're ready. They're like, we've been waiting for a
Speaker 2: Mark to come along. So Mark tells him quote, I say,
Speaker 2: how long you guys had these? And they say, oh,
Speaker 2: we had him about a month. I said, what are
Speaker 2: you still doing here? So boom. Just like that, they
Speaker 2: make him in charge of their prison escape plan. They're like,
Speaker 2: show us how to do it, brother, Yeah, and the
Speaker 2: first thing starts, as Mark recalls it, I ripped the
Speaker 2: toilets off the wall. I took the damn light fixtures apart,
Speaker 2: and I got some pipes and I made a double
Speaker 2: barrel zip gun. Now we're talking. He's back in business.
Speaker 2: Got double carrel' zip gun. He's cool. I do love.
Speaker 2: He has no quit in him, like.
Speaker 3: Just zero zero zero.
Speaker 2: So, as Mark tells it, quote, I started sawing the bars.
Speaker 2: It takes eight hours to get through one cut, eight
Speaker 2: hours to get through another cut. And I gotta admit
Speaker 2: things were coming apart in there because they're starting to doubt,
Speaker 2: like is this the plan? Like he's taking you a
Speaker 2: long time. He's liked, don't trust me, give me another
Speaker 2: eight hours. So Mark gets the idea that that he's
Speaker 2: now about five minutes away from them. Taking away his
Speaker 2: zip gun and just using it on him, or perhaps
Speaker 2: handing it over to the guards, or handing him over
Speaker 2: to the guards or whatever. But the brothers don't because
Speaker 2: they still trust his escape plan. Back to Mark. So
Speaker 2: at nine o'clock I made the move and Bob Seger
Speaker 2: was on the TV playing Turn the Page. You know
Speaker 2: that's all right here? I am on the road again, right, So,
Speaker 2: I mean, like, what a perfect song to soundtrack your
Speaker 2: prison escape. You feel like God is on your side. Anyway,
Speaker 2: back to his escape attempt. Once the bars are cut
Speaker 2: off the window, Mark looks out and he sees freedom.
Speaker 2: He's like, we're rolling, guys. The guys are like, I
Speaker 2: don't know, because he's three floors up. The brothers are like,
Speaker 2: you're on your own, white boy, good luck. So he's
Speaker 2: uses a bunch of sheets knodded together, and that lowers
Speaker 2: him only part of the way down.
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't have to go all the way
Speaker 3: to the ground.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, Well he gets down not close enough and
Speaker 2: then just jumps Mark. But rather than me tell you
Speaker 2: what happens next to Elizabeth, I'd like you to close
Speaker 2: your eyes and I'd like you to picture it. It's
Speaker 2: nighttime outside the Leon County Prison in Florida, and you, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: are falling through the air, plummeting to the ground because
Speaker 2: you are marked to Freeze's right boot. The night air
Speaker 2: is cool against your leather as you race toward the
Speaker 2: wet grass below. When you slam into the dew laden groundcover,
Speaker 2: you hear Mark de frieze grunt, ye, shock and pain.
Speaker 2: But this doesn't stop him because he's bound for freedom.
Speaker 2: You feel yourself lift and then fall, lift and then
Speaker 2: fall again. You recognize he's running, or sort of half limping,
Speaker 2: half running. You're now by the way in the women's
Speaker 2: exercise yard at the women's prison next door, but not
Speaker 2: for long. At a chain link fence, you're shoved into
Speaker 2: a section of the fence, and with an audible pain
Speaker 2: in his voice, you hear Mark muscle his way up
Speaker 2: the hurricane of fencing. At the top is razor wire,
Speaker 2: which soon enough scratches against your leather sides as he
Speaker 2: flips himself up and over the razor wire. Now you
Speaker 2: feel the hard asphalt of a road come rushing up
Speaker 2: and booms strike. Mark then begins to limp walk down
Speaker 2: the road, and you're guessing that He's probably broken his
Speaker 2: ankle based on how quickly you can feel the swelling
Speaker 2: start to press against you. But he doesn't stop. Turns
Speaker 2: out he's broken both ankles and both wrists from the falls,
Speaker 2: yet he doesn't give up. Instead, Mark keeps going, you
Speaker 2: don't know this because you're a leather prison boot. But
Speaker 2: he spots a big rig truck in the parking lot.
Speaker 2: It's an International rig. You become aware of it as
Speaker 2: he steps up onto the truck, opens the door and
Speaker 2: climbs inside. He quickly hot wires the truck, and then
Speaker 2: that big rig fires to light. Next thing you know,
Speaker 2: you're pressing down on a gas pedal as the truck's
Speaker 2: engine roars with throaty menace against the stillness of the night.
Speaker 2: The big rig rumbles out of that parking lot. When
Speaker 2: Mark spots the police cars parked down the road as
Speaker 2: a roadblock, you feel him pressed down hard on you,
Speaker 2: and you press down hard against the truck's gas pedal.
Speaker 2: With a terrific boom, the cock cars give way to
Speaker 2: the big rig truck. As Willie Nelson was saying, you're
Speaker 2: on the road again. You can hear police sirens. They're
Speaker 2: well tuned engines as they race to catch up to
Speaker 2: the big rig. A police officer and a Ford Faremont
Speaker 2: pulls up just behind the big rig. That's about the
Speaker 2: same time when Mark uses you to hit the brakes.
Speaker 2: You push down on the brake pedal, and then after
Speaker 2: a grinding of the gears, it's back to the gas pedal.
Speaker 2: I mean, now the big rig is moving in reverse.
Speaker 2: The truck climbs right up onto that police cruiser, crushing
Speaker 2: it with its way. Mark laughs with a fiendish glee.
Speaker 2: And then come the gunshot. These Florida cups ain't playing around.
Speaker 2: Bullets ricochet around inside the truck. One sings right past you.
Speaker 2: But Mark isn't about to quit. He presses you down
Speaker 2: against the gas pedal again. But he's no longer looking
Speaker 2: where the truck is headed. Says he's hiding from the
Speaker 2: hail of bullets. You feel the big rig hits something,
Speaker 2: but something is stout and unforgiving. It turns out it's
Speaker 2: the wall of a living room of someone's home. The
Speaker 2: big rig barrels into the home. Luckily, due to the
Speaker 2: hour of the night, no one is in the living room.
Speaker 2: That makes you feel a little better. You are on
Speaker 2: very moral boot and you feel much better knowing that
Speaker 2: this wild ride is now done.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Good. So that was his fifth prison escape attempt. Now
Speaker 2: in the documentary, Mark has asked about this, and more
Speaker 2: generally about his series of terrible choices, his history of
Speaker 2: resistance all and his many attempts to escape, and Marks
Speaker 2: asked to explain why it is that he does the
Speaker 2: things that he does. Yeah, he says, he sees all
Speaker 2: of his attempts as attempts to survive, even if all
Speaker 2: of his choice this is actually caused him more trouble
Speaker 2: and earn him more time. Mark stoically explains, quote, I'm
Speaker 2: still alive, and a lot of people I know, ain't
Speaker 2: you know if i'd been just a rapist or a
Speaker 2: murderer or something, they let me out. I'm the idiot
Speaker 2: that made them look like idiots. Yeah, so he knows
Speaker 2: why he's being punished, but he cannot stop himself.
Speaker 3: Well because they also they treat him like an animal,
Speaker 3: and she's acting like a caged animal. Doesn't do anything
Speaker 3: to get out.
Speaker 2: Very good point, totally this, but also his quote kind
Speaker 2: of says it all. Because Mark DeFries makes terrible choices. Yes,
Speaker 2: most certainly he knows it. He's also punished unfairly because
Speaker 2: he just won't let the prison break him. He has
Speaker 2: this indomitable spirit that his father imbued him with, and
Speaker 2: in response, he's punished far more than anyone else he
Speaker 2: ever meets in prison, including murderers, rapists, horrific criminals. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: so it's not his crimes per se, it's his attitude
Speaker 2: that they're trying to punish. Now, the Leon County Prison
Speaker 2: escape attempt was the last straw for the state of
Speaker 2: Florida in nineteen eighty two. He's transferred back to the
Speaker 2: hellhole known as the Florida State Prison, which the warden
Speaker 2: there called quote hell on Earth. The ward knew what
Speaker 2: it was, Yeah, Mark was by design, Yeah exactly. Marks
Speaker 2: then put in the X wing, where only the most brutal,
Speaker 2: hardened criminals.
Speaker 3: Were sent for essentially stealing tools, yes, and.
Speaker 2: Trying to constantly escape and make them look like idiots. Right.
Speaker 2: His cell is located just above the electric chair, so
Speaker 2: he have to hear all the executions. At one point
Speaker 2: while he's there, the serial killer Ted Bundy gets sent
Speaker 2: to meet his maker in that same electric chair. As
Speaker 2: Mark tells it, quote Ted Bundy was my neighbor for
Speaker 2: a long time. I was in the cell right above
Speaker 2: him when they barbecued his dumb Oh god. Yeah. So
Speaker 2: in the X wing, Mark was kept in a seven
Speaker 2: x eight windowless cell that was specially designed to hold him.
Speaker 2: And in that special windowless cell he spends ten years
Speaker 2: without ever seeing the sun. They weren't letting him out,
Speaker 2: not even like the hour outside.
Speaker 3: Ten years.
Speaker 2: That's not all. There was also his prison diet that
Speaker 2: they were feeding him. They serve him what's called prison loaf.
Speaker 2: It's like a meat loaf, except there's no meat in
Speaker 2: this loaf. Yeah, Instead it's just an unseasoned loaf of
Speaker 2: like smashed vegetables, beans and enough starch to keep him
Speaker 2: on this side of the grass. Can you imagine that's
Speaker 2: all you ever get? Deep prison loaf?
Speaker 3: And then you think about like what that's going to
Speaker 3: do to your physical health, I mean, like the vitamin
Speaker 3: D deficiency alone totally, And then you think of all
Speaker 3: of just like the health ramifications of not having the
Speaker 3: full diet, not being able to move, not getting fresh air.
Speaker 2: So he starts to like spiral, if you will, oh sure, now,
Speaker 2: if you can believe it, Mark still tries to escape prison.
Speaker 2: At one point, he's able to pull this stunt reopens
Speaker 2: all the cell doors on his cell block at the
Speaker 2: same time. To this day, prison authorities still can't figure
Speaker 2: out how this mechanical genius did it, so they don't
Speaker 2: know how to stop it if that ever happened again.
Speaker 2: Lucky there's no other Mark Defriese around to try this.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: All in all, his time inside earns him two hundred
Speaker 2: and nine disciplinary reports. It's reported to be a record
Speaker 2: number for a single inmate in the Florida prison system.
Speaker 2: He holds the record for the most does they call
Speaker 2: him dr So you get to that.
Speaker 3: Point, you're just like, yeah, let's let's see how far
Speaker 3: he can push it.
Speaker 2: Pretty much. And he also he can't. He is compulsive.
Speaker 2: He cannot help him.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Over his decades inside the Florida penal system, Mark is
Speaker 2: often able to use his special talents for taking things apart.
Speaker 2: So he was known to memorize a prison guard's keys
Speaker 2: on his key ring and just by seeing them, and
Speaker 2: then he'd fabricate a copy of the key using a
Speaker 2: prison dinner tray because they were aluminum and they were
Speaker 2: the right way for him to make a key.
Speaker 3: No way so that.
Speaker 2: Meant often when his cell was rousted and they would
Speaker 2: go like searching through it, guards would often find homemade
Speaker 2: aluminum handcuff keys along with hacksaw blades. One time guards
Speaker 2: found this key hidden in his mouth. It was hidden
Speaker 2: so well that only an X ray of his skull
Speaker 2: revealed where he'd hidden it. They could not find it
Speaker 2: just searching around. Yes, I do not know how he
Speaker 2: did that. So, as Mark says, quote, I know a
Speaker 2: lot of secret prison crafts, weapons, locks and keys, stashes,
Speaker 2: all sorts of bizarre. My prison file is two and
Speaker 2: a half feet thick, and it reads like a double
Speaker 2: oh seven James Bond Spye novel Oh my God. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that becomes another prison nickname is a double oh
Speaker 2: seven James Bond. Right. So I should also point out
Speaker 2: Mark used his special skill set to make good things,
Speaker 2: like at one point in the eighties he invented the
Speaker 2: butt man. Elizabeth, you want to guess what the butt
Speaker 2: man is? Oh, As Marcas says, Sony had the walkman,
Speaker 2: he invented the butt Man. It's a homemade radio that
Speaker 2: a prisoner so can secure in his holiest of holies.
Speaker 2: It was the size of a big cigarette lighter and
Speaker 2: so late at night he could pull this out and
Speaker 2: listen to the radio in his cell, which gave him
Speaker 2: a small escape. In the documentary, he talks about listening
Speaker 2: to guns and roses knocking on Heaven's door. He also
Speaker 2: remembers later on in the nineties listening to Alison Chain's
Speaker 2: Man in the Box, all very fitting songs, all thanks
Speaker 2: to his buttman radio now, which was of course illegal,
Speaker 2: which means more prison time. When the guards found all
Speaker 2: of his escapes and as many rules violation earned Mark
Speaker 2: all sorts of additional prison time. At one point, the
Speaker 2: date for his eventual parol was the year twenty forty.
Speaker 2: Later on it was the year twenty eighty five. He
Speaker 2: would have been one hundred and twenty five years old
Speaker 2: in twenty eighty five. The state of Florida seemed awfully
Speaker 2: optimistic about how long he'd last inside, because they're like, yep,
Speaker 2: we're holding um till five. But then in nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 2: Mark finally catches some good luck. Enter John Middleton, a lawyer.
Speaker 2: Middleton starts to argue for his case, takes him on
Speaker 2: as a client, and he argues for a compassionate release
Speaker 2: of his client. While still acknowledging that he has a
Speaker 2: disruptive and cavalier force. In a story from The Miami,
Speaker 2: Harold Middleton says, quote, He's not shanking or stabbing anyone,
Speaker 2: and he points out that Mark's disciplinary reports aren't violent offenses.
Speaker 2: Instead they are quote for possessing contraband. He's made his
Speaker 2: own alcohol. He's had weapons, usually defensive. He's not hurt people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's a good point to make, it is.
Speaker 2: It needs to be said. Now, with Middleton representing them together,
Speaker 2: they begin to fight to get Mark free. In this
Speaker 2: fight last decades. But then Mark finds a second ally
Speaker 2: and source of support. You see, Elizabeth Mark found love
Speaker 2: enter his wife Bonnie. In an email interview with Florida Weekly,
Speaker 2: she wrote about how the two met and first fell
Speaker 2: in love, which ain't easy when one of you is
Speaker 2: in prison on a life sentence. Yea, as she explained it,
Speaker 2: although she lived in Montana, I first met Mark via
Speaker 2: a pen Pal list, one dedicated to quote metaphysics and
Speaker 2: higher consciousness and that it quotes somehow fell into the
Speaker 2: hands of inmates at FSP like Florida State Prison. Somehow, Yeah, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: you worked in a state prison teaching English, so you
Speaker 2: know firsthand how penpals can be a lifeline for inmates.
Speaker 2: They could also be a love line, sure, and the
Speaker 2: two began to share regular letters. As Bonnie told Florida
Speaker 2: Weekly Quote, although I was a little uneasy about writing
Speaker 2: to an inmate, as I had never known one before,
Speaker 2: I felt drawn to him, and I chose love instead
Speaker 2: of fear, feeling that this man needs my help, so
Speaker 2: I began my letter to him, dear holy child of God,
Speaker 2: Oh goodness. Eventually the two fall in love, and then
Speaker 2: in May of nineteen ninety four, they get married in Montana.
Speaker 2: How is that possible?
Speaker 3: That's a good question, Saren. Thank you for us.
Speaker 2: It was a proxy marriage, one wherein Mark's brothers stood
Speaker 2: at the altar in his place. No, but then five, oh,
Speaker 2: totally a thing. Yeah, military people do it. And then
Speaker 2: five days after they were married in Montana, for their honeymoon,
Speaker 2: she travels down to fl so they can meet for
Speaker 2: the first time in person. Now here's Bonnie's version of
Speaker 2: that first meeting, as told to Florida Weekly Quote. I
Speaker 2: waited in the visiting room for him to appear, and
Speaker 2: then saw him come through the door from the changing room.
Speaker 2: I practically sprouted wings and flew into his arms. The
Speaker 2: attraction was so powerful, the energy between us undeniable. His
Speaker 2: response was immediate, as his tall, lanky bodies arms took
Speaker 2: possession of me and he planted a wonderful, deep kiss
Speaker 2: on my mouth. Yes, ladies, he is a good kisser.
Speaker 3: Oh good God.
Speaker 2: Now, Elizabeth, there are what we call May December relationships.
Speaker 2: There was a May December relationship from like different calendar years.
Speaker 2: Because Mark was born in nineteen sixty No, Bonnie was
Speaker 2: born in nineteen thirty.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: When they married, she was sixty four years old and
Speaker 2: he was thirty four years old. However, love doesn't care
Speaker 2: about calendars, Elizabeth, as she told the Miami Herald in
Speaker 2: a phone interview, quote through his letters, I could see
Speaker 2: he was a good person in his soul and in
Speaker 2: a lot of emotional pain. I love him on a
Speaker 2: much deeper level than I have ever loved anyone. And
Speaker 2: you know, like any couple, they shared their finances. For instance,
Speaker 2: she was able to sponsor three orphans in India with
Speaker 2: money that he made from selling contraband in prison, So
Speaker 2: you know they were able to make do as a couple. Sure, Okay,
Speaker 2: the Indian Orphans with contraband. It's of course it's difficult
Speaker 2: to be separate from the person you love. The plus
Speaker 2: there is that age gap. But Bonnie was optimistic and
Speaker 2: remained optimistic as Mark is also equally realistic. As she
Speaker 2: put it, quote, I have some heart problems and pretty
Speaker 2: severe arthritis in my back and knees, so I have
Speaker 2: to walk with some support. He feels determined to come
Speaker 2: home and take care of me, And that's a plus
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 3: Like when you take her description of him and then
Speaker 3: put it up against the quotes you've read.
Speaker 2: Yes, like it's a little in congress, a little bit.
Speaker 2: Thanks to all of his time inside, Mark had time
Speaker 2: for arts and crafts, so he would send her thoughtful
Speaker 2: gifts and shows of his love. For instance, as she
Speaker 2: told the Miami Herald, quote, lately he has taken up
Speaker 2: knitting and crocheg. He's done a good job, made me
Speaker 2: a shawl without dropping a stitch.
Speaker 3: There's a reason behind him picking up these crafts.
Speaker 2: Like that's another We's got a lot of time on
Speaker 2: his hands. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's also it's like I'd be really keeping
Speaker 3: an eye on him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's getting their tools again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: So to get her husband free, she works with his lawyer,
Speaker 2: John Middleton to come up with a plan to get
Speaker 2: Marked out, and as Middleton explained, quote we have a
Speaker 2: detailed plan. It includes job offers, health insurance, a lot
Speaker 2: of things. Right, it's a whole range of stuff. And
Speaker 2: of course once Mark is free, he is quote gonna
Speaker 2: have to behave himself.
Speaker 3: You know this is the truth.
Speaker 2: So now, ironically their efforts are soon aided by the
Speaker 2: same doctor who first put him away. Doctor Robert Berland
Speaker 2: was that fifth doctor who said Mark Defriese was competent
Speaker 2: to stand trial way back in the day. Yeah, But
Speaker 2: over time he comes to regret what he'd done and
Speaker 2: he recants his prior testimony really starts to work to
Speaker 2: help free Mark. Well, the years later, he was.
Speaker 3: Probably from that moment forward just cursed and bad things
Speaker 3: kept happening. When did this bad luck streak start up?
Speaker 2: Only if it worked like that, But he had more
Speaker 2: of a like a real you know, come to Jesus,
Speaker 2: as they say in the South. In an interview in
Speaker 2: the documentary, we see Mark meet with doctor Berlin in prison,
Speaker 2: like early on when there he's first coming to him,
Speaker 2: going I'd like to help get you free. And after
Speaker 2: they're done talking in this like you know, however much
Speaker 2: time they were allotted, Mark says sarcastically, well, been nice
Speaker 2: to see you again, Doctor Berlin, to which doctor Berlin
Speaker 2: tells Mark, you're a gentleman to even say that, And
Speaker 2: then Mark says, what was it you said? I was
Speaker 2: a malingering idiot? And doctor Berlin confesses something meaningful. He says, well,
Speaker 2: what can I say? There are things that you do
Speaker 2: and say when you were young that you then decide
Speaker 2: later we're wrong. So then Mark asked the big, big question,
Speaker 2: but where's the fairness in all this crap? I mean,
Speaker 2: for real, I went to prison when I was what
Speaker 2: twenty for doing a bunch of stupid I ain't never
Speaker 2: hurt nobody, and here I am still. I've done thirty
Speaker 2: years and I got thirty more to go. Why ain't
Speaker 2: that nice? Now? Thanks to doctor Berlin's interviews, in his
Speaker 2: new assessment of Mark's mental health, he does all these
Speaker 2: inventories of his mental health so he can prove it
Speaker 2: statistically that he's psychotic. He's suffering from various mental ailments
Speaker 2: along with his lawyer John Middleton and his wife Bonnie.
Speaker 2: This team up secures Mark a new parole hearing after
Speaker 2: his twenty nine years behind bars. Is when it occurs.
Speaker 2: In twenty fourteen, his case gets heard before the Florida
Speaker 2: Commission on Offender Review aka the Parole Board. His family
Speaker 2: is also there to support him and a hearing in
Speaker 2: November twenty fourteen, his stepsister Barbie testifies that quote, I
Speaker 2: truly believe it's an autistic thing, but they didn't know
Speaker 2: that at the time. It was a heartache after heartache,
Speaker 2: So now they're already to have new language to describe
Speaker 2: what's going on inside of him. Meanwhile, doctor Berlin suggests
Speaker 2: that Mark's antisocial and compulsive and sometimes psychotic behavior might
Speaker 2: actually be the result of shaken baby syndrome, going back
Speaker 2: to his mother's effect on him as a child. In
Speaker 2: after a few hearings of Florida Parole Board votes to
Speaker 2: reduce his parole date from twenty eighty five to twenty
Speaker 2: fifteen and to consider early release, that is, if he
Speaker 2: can maintain good behavior for a review period of two years.
Speaker 2: Then comes to this documentary that I keep quoting from
Speaker 2: the mind of Mark Defriest and the efforts of the
Speaker 2: filmmaker Gabriel London. The Florida Parole Board begins to change
Speaker 2: its tone, as the Associated Press reported in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: because he's not released even though they reduce his date,
Speaker 2: they then bump it back out into a whole machination
Speaker 2: of like, oh one prison parole board. A person said this,
Speaker 2: another votes against it, So then they don't. They give
Speaker 2: him two years review and they give him another year.
Speaker 2: So in twenty sixteen, the Florida Commission on Offender Review
Speaker 2: chairwoman at the time, Melinda Kohnrod, says of Mark's case, quote,
Speaker 2: He's not a murderer, he's not a rapist, he doesn't
Speaker 2: have a history of violence. He's in the worst situation
Speaker 2: that he has been in for a long time. The
Speaker 2: system has failed him, and we put him there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: finally freedom comes from Mark defriest. In twenty sixteen, Florida
Speaker 2: sends Mark to California to be enrolled in a transition
Speaker 2: program they have there, and then in February of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: he's granted full parole and is released to a halfway
Speaker 2: house close to where his wife, Bonnie lives and now
Speaker 2: an Oregon Okay, I wish I could say this is
Speaker 2: where the story ends on a happy note. He's freed
Speaker 2: and they get to be together. There is not exactly
Speaker 2: happy ending, because sadly, his freedom is short lived. In
Speaker 2: just ten days time, he's arrested for testing positive for
Speaker 2: meth amphetamine at the facility, the Halfway House, and he's
Speaker 2: sent back to a prison mental health facility, and he
Speaker 2: has since been locked up and has remained there ever
Speaker 2: since as well. In twenty twenty, Bonnie de Friest passed
Speaker 2: away at the age of ninety, so she's passed as
Speaker 2: for Mark Defriest. At the moment, best as I can find,
Speaker 2: he's currently in a Washington, d C. Prison mental health
Speaker 2: facility in DC Yes District of Columbia, but his status
Speaker 2: was denoted as quote in transit, so I don't know
Speaker 2: where he is exactly. He's now sixty four years old
Speaker 2: or sixty five years old, either one. I don't know
Speaker 2: when his birthday is, and has been inside for forty three,
Speaker 2: if not forty four years. It is a damn shame
Speaker 2: the Florida penal system has treated him the way they
Speaker 2: have and now he's just bumping around This sure ain't
Speaker 2: just as as far as anybody not in my book. Yeah, now,
Speaker 2: I know I ended on a bit of a bummer,
Speaker 2: but without being too tried, I got to ask you,
Speaker 2: what's a ridiculous takeaway here?
Speaker 3: Well, I've talked about it a million in times, impulse
Speaker 3: control being a core issue in the inmate population. But
Speaker 3: I just struck with the fact that this guy is
Speaker 3: so smart and so creative, and how had he had
Speaker 3: the correct atmosphere growing up and resources and been encouraged,
Speaker 3: like he could be like solving some sort of scientific
Speaker 3: issue that we have, ye you know, discovering a medicine
Speaker 3: or fixing some sort of you know, technology, and instead,
Speaker 3: you know, he had this really rough home life. You're saying,
Speaker 3: like possible shaken baby syndrome, so he could have some
Speaker 3: sort of you know, damage coming in and you know,
Speaker 3: but here you have people who you know, every different,
Speaker 3: Every person is different, and whatever kind of issue you
Speaker 3: have coming with you, mental, physical, whatever, you bring something
Speaker 3: to the party, right, And so it's not a negative.
Speaker 3: It's like I just come at something a little bit different.
Speaker 3: So he comes at this a little bit different, and
Speaker 3: he could have been making incredible positive things. But you know,
Speaker 3: like you're saying, but for the grace of God. This
Speaker 3: is the opposite. Like, you see, what could have been
Speaker 3: is so painful. It's so painful to think about the
Speaker 3: wonderful things he could be giving to society. Instead, we
Speaker 3: just continue to punish, and instead of having some moment
Speaker 3: where his behavior is caught and recognized and say all right,
Speaker 3: let's work with you to figure out how we can
Speaker 3: turn this positive because you're obviously a genius. Yes, But
Speaker 3: instead we're so hell bent on dehumanizing and so hell
Speaker 3: bent on punishing with no benefit to society. Let's say
Speaker 3: he does get out, all right, Now, what what's he
Speaker 3: going to do? Now he's sixty.
Speaker 2: Four years old? He does nothing. I mean, he cannot
Speaker 2: be his productive years. Not that I'm saying the person
Speaker 2: who's sixty four can't be productive, but he had many
Speaker 2: years he could have been productive. And at this point
Speaker 2: he's so broken by prison.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no trade, no skill, no education, no experience. He's broken.
Speaker 3: You look at his father, the ramifications of him being broken.
Speaker 3: Now he's broken. And it's like, we aren't doing any
Speaker 3: to benefit society with the system that we have. Yes,
Speaker 3: you know, and yes people need to you know pay
Speaker 3: for what they do, sure in one way or another.
Speaker 2: But come yes, and my ridiculous take away thank you
Speaker 2: for asking about ahead, is like this is I mean,
Speaker 2: ultimately it's the prison that's ridiculous. Like their whole idea
Speaker 2: is like, oh, there's a lot of points in the
Speaker 2: vide where people are talking about like you know, from
Speaker 2: the prison, about we've got our woodshop here. It's to
Speaker 2: help teach them productive skills and they can become you know,
Speaker 2: productive members of society. And when they're let out, so
Speaker 2: there's always this talk about reform and how we're going
Speaker 2: to help these inmates, but they don't exceed the person,
Speaker 2: so they're treating them like numbers and we're going to
Speaker 2: push these widgets like they're making things as opposed to
Speaker 2: shaping and remaking and refixing and doing what they can
Speaker 2: to assess what's going on individually and then provide them
Speaker 2: not just like you know, mental health services and physical services,
Speaker 2: but give them an avenue for growth, give them a
Speaker 2: place to be too.
Speaker 3: Is it so slow moving that the trays that they're
Speaker 3: learning have already been passed by they're useless, So they're
Speaker 3: learning things that no one needs anymore. They're not learning
Speaker 3: up to.
Speaker 2: Date and usually used for prison labor that is essentially
Speaker 2: for some corporation.
Speaker 3: Well that's something too, is that in the in the
Speaker 3: state prison where I taught, they were doing some sort
Speaker 3: of airplane parts and they had a factory thing in
Speaker 3: the corner. They're not going to have the skills. The
Speaker 3: skills that they have there are not going to translate outside,
Speaker 3: and so it's really only this very basic machine work
Speaker 3: that again it's such old machinery that you can't get
Speaker 3: hired at corporate.
Speaker 2: It's not like a real tool to die where you're
Speaker 2: going to go all not at all.
Speaker 3: And so you know, we you know, with prison education
Speaker 3: programs you're at least giving people like a degree to
Speaker 3: walk out with sure, but even then it's like what
Speaker 3: are you going to do with that?
Speaker 2: Or the firefighters in California where then they cannot then
Speaker 2: become firefighters once they're outside of the system.
Speaker 3: I know that they're trying to change that, trying to
Speaker 3: but weird in desperate need of firefighters through the Califire program,
Speaker 3: and you've got some of the most experienced and courageous,
Speaker 3: ageous people men and women doing this, and then they
Speaker 3: can't get hired when they get out.
Speaker 2: That's criminal totally, and also the just ridiculous and it's criminal,
Speaker 2: and the fact that it's like they still want to
Speaker 2: break this guy because he won't bend to their will.
Speaker 2: You see what the real point of the prison is.
Speaker 2: It's not about justice. You in the mood for talkback
Speaker 2: to I thank goodness, Oh my god, super I love Get.
Speaker 4: Ridiculous Crime With's Olivia. I'm also listening to your money
Speaker 4: heist episode and I almost got scammed. I got a
Speaker 4: phone call from someone that was trying to hack my
Speaker 4: bank account saying that I did get scammed and anyways,
Speaker 4: and it was just funny that the next episode is
Speaker 4: about rods and scams. I love your Guys podcast. I
Speaker 4: love you guys, and I love the Doggy and terranspect.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for all the laps and hopefully
Speaker 4: not getting scammed.
Speaker 3: That was a close one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're glad we can help with your criminal education.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm glad that you didn't get to get
Speaker 3: taken totally.
Speaker 2: And you can probably hear the Doggy interns in this episode,
Speaker 2: so know that they are also glad to be here for.
Speaker 3: You, glad to be here well.
Speaker 2: As always, you can find us online at Ridiculous Crime
Speaker 2: on Instagram and Blue Sky and occasionally Twitter who knows
Speaker 2: or whatever x whatever it's called. Now. We also have
Speaker 2: the account ridiculous Crime Pod on YouTube. Please go check
Speaker 2: it out. Tell it to your friends or people who
Speaker 2: like to watch videos. Even though it's mostly just an
Speaker 2: animation of us talking, but it's still a video. What
Speaker 2: have you. We also have our website, ridiculous Crime dot com.
Speaker 2: We were the recent winner of the LP of the
Speaker 2: Year for Finland. We were very excited. We didn't even
Speaker 2: know that websites could count as LPs, So very exciting. Yeah.
Speaker 2: LP of the Year's Long Play Record.
Speaker 3: So there you know.
Speaker 2: And email if you like at ridiculous Crime at gmail
Speaker 2: dot com. We always look forward to your emails. Thanks
Speaker 2: for listening and we will catch you next crime. Ridiculous
Speaker 2: Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produce
Speaker 2: and edited by the inventor of the armpitman, Dave Cousten,
Speaker 2: and starring Anaalice Rucker as Judith. Research is by our
Speaker 2: prison lawyer Marissa Brown. Our theme song is by The
Speaker 2: Blues Brothers Rhythm and Blues Review cover band Thomas Lee
Speaker 2: and Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Bonny five hundred.
Speaker 2: Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshop and mister Andre. Executive
Speaker 2: producers are the cats who run this cell block, Ben
Speaker 2: Hard Times Bowlin and Noel. What You're looking at? Brown Gee?
Speaker 3: Why say it one more time?
Speaker 1: Geek Crime Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four
Speaker 1: more podcasts. My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.