Time Flies When You're on the Run Quiz

Answer: Four

Yoshie Shiratori was convicted of murder and sentenced to life plus 23 years in prison early in the 20th century. Shiratori's first escape occurred in 1936. He was re-captured and sent to a different prison where he escaped in 1942. Upon his re-capture, he was sent to a third prison where it is said that he escaped by rusting his handcuffs with soup.

In 1946, he was sentenced to death, so he dug a tunnel and escaped for the fourth time. He was recaptured in 1948, his death sentence was revoked and he eventually served 26 years before being paroled in 1961.

Answer: He was shot by law enforcement officers.

Dillinger actually escaped from prison twice. After being incarcerated for bank robbery the first time, fellow inmates who had escaped returned disguised as official prison authorities and had him released into their custody. He continued to rob banks after this first escape, but was caught and imprisoned in Crown Point Jail in 1934. Police boasted that the jail was escape proof, but Dillinger proved otherwise. Dillinger captured and imprisoned his own guards using a fake pistol that he had made. John Dillinger travelled to Chicago where police received a tip that resulted in a shootout.

He was shot three times by police and declared dead at the scene.

Answer: Mensa

Hinds' first escape was from a Nottingham prison in 1958. To get out, he managed to get through a number of locked doors and to scale a 20-foot prison wall. He had 248 days of freedom in Europe after this escape. Upon his re-arrest, he brought a lawsuit against the authorities.

When he was at the courthouse, he was escorted to the washroom where accomplices had left a locking mechanism. He locked his guards in the cubicle and fled to the airport where he was captured five hours later. His final escape came less than a year later.

He fled to Ireland where he lived under an assumed name for two years before he was stopped for a traffic violation and re-arrested. He joined Mensa on his eventual release from prison.

Answer: Jesuit priest

John Gerard was imprisoned in the Tower of London when he refused to stop preaching his Catholic faith. He was severely tortured while there, and eventually sentenced to death. He was able to communicate his desperate situation to allies who were able to row a boat to the Tower moat one night and throw a rope up to Gerard.

He climbed down, and was able to escape to the continent where he lived out his days in Rome. He wrote a book about his experiences that was published in English in 1951. It is a rare first-hand account of the dangers encountered by Catholic priests during Elizabethan times.

Answer: Seven

The seven prisoners, dubbed "The Texas Seven", overpowered their guards in December, 2000 to steal identification, credit cards, and clothing. The group restrained the 16 prison officials and three uninvolved inmates before using the ID to impersonate civilians and escape using a prison maintenance truck.

They were on the run for just over a month. Once recaptured, six of the seven were placed on Texas' Death Row while the seventh (Larry James Harper) committed suicide rather than return to prison.

Answer: US Civil War

Libby Prison was a Confederate prison located In Richmond. Virginia during the US Civil War. On the night of February 9-10, 1864, 109 Union prisoners escaped. Two escapees drowned while crossing a nearby river, and 48 were recaptured and returned to prison. The remaining 59 escapees made it back to ground that was held by Union forces.

Answer: Spain

Fort San Cristóbal was built inside a mountain, but was susceptible to air strikes, so it was turned into a prison shortly after it opened in 1919. During the Spanish Civil War in 1938, 792 prisoners fled during an uprising. Only three of them made it to their goal of the border with France. Of the remaining prisoners who escaped, over 200 died, and the remaining escapees were recaptured and returned to prison.

Answer: 3

In 1944, 76 Allied POWs escaped from Stalag Luft III. They had spent their time in the prison digging an escape tunnel. Unfortunately, it was shorter than they expected and didn't quite make it to the wooded area a distance from the prison, so they were spotted by guards as the 77th man tried to escape. Of those who did make it out, 73 were captured and of those, 50 were executed by the Gestapo.

After all the work, only three of the escapees actually reached neutral territory.

Answer: True

Billy Hayes was an American student who was caught trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey on October 7, 1970. He was sent to a Turkish prison in Imrah, Turkey. In 1978, he escaped from prison using a rowboat. Upon his escape, he travelled to Greece where he was deported back to the United States.

The movie is based on his autobiography that details his experiences in prison and his escape.

Answer: James Earl Ray

James Earl Ray was convicted of murdering Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. He started his sentence after pleading guilty in 1969. In 1977, he escaped from the Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee along with six other prisoners. He was recaptured after two days after running in the forests and mountains surrounding the prison.

As a result of his escape, he had one year added to his 99-year sentence.