These men for whom there is little else that life has to offer, little or nothing to lose; these are men who are at the limits; these are men who might walk on hot coals without burning their feet.' In the folklore of World War II, the memory of those heroes who staged 'Great Escapes' from PoW camps still endures. But what of the other side of the coin: the audacious and daring breakouts of gangsters and villains today? The focus of Prison Break is one these 'Great Escapes' from civilian prisons, whether the escape is planned or opportunistic, aided from within by corrupt guards or facilitated by a violent gang of intruders. We travel with out subjects as they go over walls, tunnel out, or are lifted from the exercise yard into the skies. The exploits of such legendary Houdini type figures as the 18th Century rogue Jack Sheppard and the Canadian serial escaper Wayne Carlson are recounted alongside tales of breakouts from seemingly unassailable jails; Alcatraz, Northern Ireland's Maze prison, and the Bangkok Hilton.

Non-fiction that reads like a novel! A thrilling, moment by moment account of an epic escape and the real-life adventures that followed.

The Greatest Escape: A True American Civil War Adventure tells the story of the largest prison breakout in U.S. history. It took place during the Civil War, when more than 1,200 Yankee officers were jammed into Libby, a special prison considered escape-proof, in the Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia. A small group of men, obsessed with escape, mapped out an elaborate plan and one cold and clear night, 109 men dug their way to freedom. Freezing, starving, clad in rags, they still had to travel 50 miles to Yankee lines and safety. They were pursued by all the white people in the area, but every Black person they encountered was their friend. In every instance, slaves risked their lives to help these Yankees, and their journey was aided by a female-led Union spy network. Since all the escapees were officers, they all could read and write well. Over 50 of them would publish riveting accounts of their adventures. This is the first book to weave together these contemporary accounts into a true-to-life narrative. Much like a Ken Burns documentary, this book uses the actual words the prisoners recorded more than 150 years ago, as found in their many diaries and journals.

The real-life epics of men and women whose password was courage, and who gambled everything for freedom or death.

True stories of prison breaks including those of Frank Abagnale, whose story is told in Catch Me If You Can; Henri Charrière who claimed to have escaped from the supposedly inescapable Devil's Island - the true story as opposed to his questionable memoir, Papillon; Bud Day, said to be the only US serviceman ever to have escaped to South Vietnam; the six prisoners who escaped from Death Row in Mecklenburg Correctional Center; and Pascal Payeret, the French armed robber who escaped not once, but twice from French prisons with the help of a helicopter.

True stories of prison breaks including those of Frank Abagnale, whose story is told in Catch Me If You Can; Henri Charrière who claimed to have escaped from the supposedly inescapable Devil's Island - the true story as opposed to his questionable memoir, Papillon; Bud Day, said to be the only US serviceman ever to have escaped to South Vietnam; the six prisoners who escaped from Death Row in Mecklenburg Correctional Center; and Pascal Payeret, the French armed robber who escaped not once, but twice from French prisons with the help of a helicopter.

In Escaping Alcatraz: The Untold Story of the Greatest Prison Break in American History, Alcatraz Historian Michael Esslinger and David Widner, nephew of the Anglin brothers, both featured in the History Channel documentary Alcatraz: Search for the Truth, have compiled hundreds of photographs, FBI and Bureau of Prisons investigative notes, original source documents from the Anglin family library, inmate case file records, interviews with key convicts and officers, and first-person accounts of officials who investigated the escape to produce one of the most detailed accounts of the famed prison break.NOTE: This book contains graphic depictions and photographs of extreme crime and violence and may not be suitable for all readers.