Whether it’s down to the individual’s own stupidity, over-zealous authorities, or even being framed, people can sometimes land up behind bars. Yet whatever the cause for incarceration, inmates may become desperate enough to opt for a prison break – regardless of the consequences.

These 10 tips offer examples of real-life methods used by prisoners to bust out of jail. The escapees’ techniques ranged from an ingenious break that took months of planning, to dressing up in a disguise, faking serious illness, and simply clambering over the wall using a garden hose. All, however, are fascinating in the extreme.

10. Dress Up as a Woman – Dwight Worker

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In 1973, Dwight Worker was arrested in Mexico’s Benito Juarez Airport for trying to smuggle 780g of drugs out of the country. He was soon locked up in notorious prison, The Black Palace of Lecumberri. During his two years there, Worker was stabbed four times, hospitalized on several occasions after harsh beatings, and spent over a month in isolation. Fortunately, he had an ally in Barbara Chilcoate, whom he married while in prison – on the same day as his escape.

Chilcoate smuggled a costume in to him; and so, on December 17, 1975, Worker donned a bra stuffed with socks, enlarged his rear with a bit of foam, put on make-up, a wig, skirt and blouse, and strolled out of Lecumberri in the guise of a visiting woman.

9. Fake Having AIDS – Steven Jay Russell

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Steven Jay Russell is currently serving a 140-year sentence, but don’t let that fool you. He is a master con artist and has escaped from prison multiple times; events dramatized in the 2009 film I Love You Phillip Morris.

Russell’s most inventive escape also took the greatest amount of planning and panache. He was incarcerated in a high-security Texan prison for fraud and a previous escape. And in 1998, he spent 10 months starving himself and drinking laxatives in order to make it look as if he had AIDS. During this time, he wrote up multiple fake health records, which he mailed to the department responsible for updating his medical file.

Russell was eventually sent to a nursing home where, pretending to be a doctor, he called the prison to give progress reports. Eventually, he told the prison that he had died, when in reality he was, if only temporarily, tasting sweet freedom.

8. Smuggle in Some Guns – John Dillinger

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Infamous bank robber John Dillinger made lots of delinquent pals while spending time behind bars in the Indiana State Prison for assault and battery. During this period, he studied bank-robbing techniques and planned future heists with fellow inmates. Then in May 1933, he was released on parole, went on to rob a bank, and was later caught by Ohio police in September the same year. Dillinger was locked up again, this time in Ohio county jail, but not before he had concocted a meticulous escape plan.

A group of friends back at Indiana State Prison managed to get firearms snuck into their jail cells and shot their way out. And on October 12, 1933, they went to where Dillinger was being held. The group impersonated officers and told police that they wanted to return Dillinger to Indiana State Prison for breaking parole. When questioned, they shot the sheriff, freed Dillinger, and made their escape.

7. Climb Over the Walls With a Hose – Lucien Rivard

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Sometimes, all you need in order to make a daring escape is a bit of ingenuity and something innocuous – like a garden hose. On March 2, 1965, drugs and weapons dealer Lucien Rivard used just such an object to flee prison.

While incarcerated in Montreal’s Bordeaux Prison, Rivard told authorities that he needed a garden hose to flood the ice rink. What happened instead, however, was that he and another prisoner used the hose to clamber up the prison wall to freedom. Unfortunately for Rivard, he was captured after four months on the run and was sent to the USA and convicted.

6. Go Through the Laundry Room Window – Laurie Bembenek

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In 1982, Laurie “Bambi” Bembenek was convicted of murder and sentenced to life behind bars in Wisconsin’s Taycheedah Correctional Institution. Bembenek maintained her innocence until the day she died and, perhaps for this reason, was driven to escape.

The woman who inspired the slogan “Run, Bambi, Run” had already served eight years in prison when she saw an opportunity to flee and squeezed through a minuscule laundry room window. (In order to use this tip, it helps to be small.) Bembenek made it to Canada and, with a fake identity, took up work at a restaurant. Although the authorities caught up with her, she was sentenced to time served and 10 years of probation.

5. Steal a Boat During a Storm – Billy Hayes

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On October 7, 1970, Billy Hayes ran into big trouble when he attempted to smuggle hashish out of Turkey. After spending several years at Sagmalcilar prison and then Bakirkoy Mental Hospital, he got a transfer to Imrali, an island prison 17 miles offshore. Although boats came to the island with food, they weren’t allowed to stay in the harbor throughout the night. However, after studying the vessels, Hayes saw that they would moor up in the harbor overnight during inclement weather and, even more interestingly, that each one had a little rowing boat attached to its rear.

During one such storm, Hayes swam out, stole a rowboat, and made it to the mainland. He fled across Turkey, picked his way through a minefield, and swam across a river to Greece. He later wrote about his experiences in prison and his exciting escape in the book Midnight Express.

4. Make a Bamboo Ladder and Carry an Umbrella – David McMillan

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David McMillan’s drug-trafficking ways landed him in Bangkok’s high-security Klong Prem Central Prison. From the moment he was arrested, McMillan began planning a complicated escape – which took him two years and a lot of money. He paid for his own cell and had furniture built specifically so that he could take it apart to assist him in his escape attempt.

A hacksaw was smuggled in to him, and, in August 1996, he painstakingly cut part way through one of the bars. McMillan greased himself up and forced his way through, wearing nothing but underwear and a pair of shoes. From there, he scaled multiple walls, the last of which he mounted using bamboo poles he’d taken from the prison factory. Once outside, he sauntered away, clutching an umbrella, and hailed a taxi. Escaped prisoners, he claims, don’t use umbrellas.

3. Build a Raft Out of Coconuts – Henri Charrière

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In 1931, Henri Charrière was convicted of murder, a charge he denied, and as a result spent time on a French Guiana labor camp called Devil’s Island – appropriately enough, given its reputation for being grueling and brutal. The place was meant to be impossible to flee from, but Charrière didn’t let this stop him from trying. Over the course of 11 years, he attempted multiple methods of escape – and he was severely punished after each one.

In the end, Charrière secured his freedom by taking a bag of coconuts and launching himself into the sea. The coconuts acted as a raft, allowing Charrière to make his way to Venezuela, where he was eventually granted citizenship. His account of the escape has been immortalized in Papillon, although some critics have claimed that he falsified information in the book.

2. Pick Locks and Falsify Keys – Tim Jenkin

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Tim Jenkin was a political prisoner sentenced to 12 years in South Africa’s Pretoria Central Prison, but he and two others got out after months of meticulous planning. When warders left keys in locks or gave them keys to access tool cupboards, the trio took impressions of them in soap, then made fakes out of aluminum and wood.

As they couldn’t access all the doors they would need to escape through, they also taught themselves lock-picking. They got civilian clothing by searching through the trash, dyeing T-shirts and making things in the workshop. On December 11, 1979, the three used their forged keys, lock-picking skills and a precisely practiced routine to make their way through 14 locked doors to the outside.

1. Get Your Friends to Hijack a Helicopter – Pascal Payet

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While it’s hard to top the ingenuity and pure craftsmanship of Tim Jenkin’s method, Pascal Payet made his escape with such style, that he and his “tip” are our number one entry.

A convicted murderer and armed robber, the Frenchman, nicknamed “Kalashnikov Pat,” knows the inside of a prison well. He also knows how to get out from behind bars, having used a helicopter to escape not once, or even twice, but three times. His last bid for freedom was made in July 2007, when a group of masked men stole a helicopter from Cannes airport and landed on the roof of Grasse prison, in southeast France, where Payet was being held. The men forced their way inside, holding off guards with firearms. They then emerged with Payet, and the helicopter flew off.

By Yvonne McArthur