In the most heavily guarded Florida prison in the United States, there was a custom cell. There was a prisoner who was alone in captivity for decades. He never saw the sun. But even then, he continued to try to escape.

This prisoner is called Mark DeFriest. Compared to him, Shawshank Redemption is nothing. He is the most talented prisoner -oh, no, jailbreak master- in history!

At the age of 19, he was imprisoned and became a nightmare for all prison guards in the United States. In 35 years of prison life, he was tortured by prison guards and bullied by prisoners. He escaped 13 times and succeeded 7 times. The most unimaginable thing is that his initial sentence was only four years. But because he always escaped from jail, the final sentence was increased to 105 years.

Next, let me talk about his legendary life from the beginning. Mark was called a “genius child” from an early age. Like the clever boys, he liked to drum all kinds of machinery from an early age. Because of his superior IQ, when he was less than 6 years old, he was free to disassemble things, whether it was a watch or an engine. He also liked to do some experiments. He almost blew himself up several times.

He also had a good father. Mark’s father worked at the Strategic Intelligence Agency during World War II, and he was deeply convinced that the Soviets would kill and destroy their lives. Therefore, he gave his life’s survival skills to his only son, including various tactics, gun use, machine building, and all the escape skills he wanted. From small to large, Mark’s toys are all kinds of guns, and the stories before bedtime were about all kinds of guerrilla warfare.

Of course, genius also caused his own distress: Mark seems to present a certain degree of mental abnormality. This condition has not been diagnosed so far. But the basic consensus now is that he suffers from autism and this affects his social skills. He will never hurt others, but he is deeply immersed in his own world.

Unfortunately, this made his stepmother very unhappy. In 1979, when Mark was 19, his father died and his legacy was a pile of mechanical tools he loved. Before he could inherit these tools , it was necessary to go through a legal process. Mark did not understand this. Before he had finished the legal process, he opened the log cabin where the tools were stored, and “stole” a few favorite tools.

Originally, this was no big deal. However, the stepmother reported it to the police. When the police came, Mark was frightened and chose to escape. He was still holding a gun when he was caught. In this way, he was sentenced to four years in prison.

Two years after his imprisonment, Mark began to plan a jailbreak. His various arbitrariness, singularity, and incredible jailbreak ideas fully demonstrate his extraordinary brain and the creativity of genius.

1. Mark’s first jailbreak was in 1981, and the plan was to make everyone “quiet.” He sneaked into the hospital pharmacy to get 75 to 100 powerful anesthetic pills, mixed into the guarded coffee. “When everyone enters the state, I can go.” The drug did work, but someone called the police.
2. On another occasion, he designed a device to “bounce” himself out of the grid and high walls. This time, he successfully reached the marsh outside the prison.
3. Another time, he activated a car’s ignition device by a short circuit and drove the car into a friend’s house.
4. He also made a simulation of a gun with a toothpaste tube. This trick was tried and tested in several jailbreak plans.
5. The most amazing one, he just glanced at the key hanging on a guard’s belt and copied the same key with his memory, and then effortlessly went out of the prison gate.

Up to now, he has escaped 13 times, 7 of which have successfully reached the “free world.”

Mark, who has been jail-broken many times, has given the Florida Reeducation System officials and a large wave of judges, prison guards, and patrolmen a headache, which directly led to his sentence becoming longer and longer. He was originally to be released from prison in 4 years, but as a result of his jailbreak attempts it was extended to 105 years.

That is to say, he will not be released until 2085.

Probably the prison life is too long and too stuffy, he sometimes makes some pranks to pass the time. On one occasion, all the locked doors of the cells were suddenly open, and the prisoners were free to stroll around the prison. So far, no one knows how this was done except himself. Similar violations were recorded more than 400 times, setting a single highest record.

The turnaround occurred in 2001, when a college graduate named Gabriel London, noted Mark’s case while investigating rape in the United States. He found that Mark was the only prisoner in Florida who did not have violent behavior, but he was treated the most unfairly. Young people were deeply shocked by this and had a strong interest. He spent more than a decade working on the case and filming the documentary “The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest” In 2014, the film was broadcast, which caused great repercussions. For a time, Mark was praised by many people and became a “hero” against the “evil justice system” of the United States.

Under pressure from public opinion, the Florida Criminal Review Board decided at the end of 2014 to reduce Mark DeFriest’s sentence by 70 years. He was expected to be released on parole in two days. Unfortunately the Florida Parole Board announced that he had to keep him locked up for another six months so that he could complete a “life transition plan” in prison and learn about life skills after he was released from prison. However, even if this “transition plan” is completed, he may not be able to get out of prison on time. Because he had committed crimes during his time in California and Alabama prisons, he had to wait for the judiciary there to lift his legal sanctions. Most importantly, no one can guarantee that he will not be jail-broken again during his last six months of prison. Because, outside the prison, there is another person who is waiting for him. This man is Mark’s wife Bonnie, a woman who is called a noble soul.

Bonnie is 30 years older than Mark. But this does not hinder the intimate feelings of the two. The two met and was a list of pen pals who got through Mark’s friends in prison. I have never been uncomfortable with Bonnie, who has never passed the letter with the prisoner, but eventually chose to “love.” She felt that Mark needed help, so she wrote to Mark at the beginning: Dear Holy Child of God. Then, it is the frequent geese teasing. On May 31, 1994, in Montana, in the northwestern United States, Bonnie was “married” with the Mark absent. At the wedding ceremony, the role of the groom was completed by Bonnie’s brother representatives. It was not until five days later that Bonnie went to Florida in the southeast corner of the United States to see her husband for the first time.

Mark plans to move to Oregon in the northwestern United States after he is released from prison to take care of his wife Bonnie. Because Bonnie is 84 years old and has heart disease and severe arthritis, walking is not convenient. Lawyers have detailed plans for their future, including finding jobs, getting insurance, and more. But the most important thing is that the “Jailbreak Master” needs to learn to welcome a new life without jailbreak.

bless them.