- Here's something you
can't escape, this face! (laughs) Okay. Sorry, that was a weird intro, but just before we begin,
I wanted to remind you guys that I started a brand new
brand called Fact Maniac, where I post daily, amazing facts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, so check out the links in the description and go follow Fact Maniac, I
promise you're gonna love it. Now here we go! If you've ever seen a prison
escape movie or TV show, you know they do a pretty good job at depicting how difficult
it really is to escape, but not all escapes are from
jail, well, I mean, some are, but others are people
escaping in real life, whether they're running from the law, persecution or something else, the following are the most
amazing cases ever recorded. Here are the 10 Greatest
Escapes of All Time. (upbeat music) Number 10 is Stalag Luft III. Immortalized by the
film, The Great Escape, prisoners of war held by the
Nazis during World War II carried out one of the most audacious escape plans in history. Imprisoned at the Stalag
Luft III POW Camp, an estimated 600 Allied
soldiers were involved. The compound itself was heavily guarded, surrounded by walls of barbed wire and the German prison guards would shoot anyone, who tried to escape. It was for this reason
that the Allied prisoners dug three complex tunnels
underneath the camp. The tunnel used to escape
was 102 meters in length and of the 220 planned
escapees, only 76 made it out, before the prison guards realized. Oh, 102 meters of tunnel dug by hand? Yeah, that is just way too much effort, I know they're trying
to survive and whatnot, but like I get lazy just
going to the fridge, so I would have died. Number nine is John Gerard. (upbeat music) On October 4th, 1597, a Jesuit priest carried out one of the
greatest escapes in history, his name was John Gerard and
he was secretly practicing as a priest in England at the time, when Catholicism had been all but banned. Captured and tortured in 1594, three years later he made his escape. At that time, he was held in
the notorious Tower of London. Assisted by members of
a secret Catholic group, the priest was able to
climb across the tower moat using a long rope, given
the high strength required and the fact that John Gerard's hands had been mangled during torture, his determination to pull himself across the rope is legendary. Later he continued his work,
until finally escaping England disguised as a footman
for a Spanish ambassador. Okay, that takes real strength,
because let's be honest, how many times have you stubbed your toe and just fallen to the ground being like, "Oh, Mommy, the world's over!" It's just we're a soft generation. Number eight is Alcatraz. (upbeat music) The 1962 escape from
Alcatraz is one of the most hotly debated escape stories of all time. Inmates, Clarence Anglin, John Anglin and Frank Morris took
six months to prepare. Using fake heads, that they
had made out of soap wax, they made it appear as though
they were still in bed. Meanwhile, they squeezed
through a ventilation duct, which they had widened
using improvised tools, camouflaging the hole
with cardboard and paint. Then on the roof, they
had used 50 raincoats to create a makeshift life
raft, stitching them together and sealing them using
steam from a nearby pipe, these guys were like the James
Bonds of the prison world. Oh, but it gets better,
because using an accordion, they inflated the raft and
then on the night of June 11th took to the treacherous
waters surrounding the prison. The only thing is that
no one actually knows what happened to them, so they either drowned or they made it, but either way, they made
it out of the prison. Number seven is El Chapo. (upbeat music) El Chapo was the notorious
Mexican druglord, who has escaped captivity three times. His most audacious escape was in 2015, when he escaped through a
1.6 kilometer long tunnel, which led from his cell to freedom, but this was no ordinary tunnel, it had ventilation, artificial light and had been made form high
quality construction materials. Inside the tunnel, prison
guards discovered a motorbike, which was used either
to aid El Chapo's escape or to bring goods to him
from outside the prison. The escape route proved
to be one of the most well-constructed and elaborate in history. A manhunt soon followed, but El Chapo wasn't captured until 2016, when Mexican police and military
pursued him relentlessly, even chasing him through
another 1.5 kilometer escape tunnel, that he used
to initially evade capture. I know El Chapo was a brilliant
drug kingpin and whatnot, but he apparently was also half mole man, get away from everybody, digging a tunnel. Number six is Colditz. (upbeat music) During World War II,
the Nazi regime declared the prison at Colditz to be escape-proof, but that didn't stop people from trying. Sitting on top of a large
cliff, several Allied soldiers managed to escape from the notorious camp, but it was the story of John William Best, which is the most striking. Best was a British Royal Air Force pilot, who tried several times
to escape from Colditz, even building a huge glider, which he hoped to use to
jump from the cliff side. After being caught several times, Best came up with a novel solution and because of it, he was
referred to as a ghost prisoner, for over one year, he
hid inside the castle, fooling guards into
thinking he had escaped, he hid under floorboards and in closets, but eventually he had to
come out of the closet, hm-mm, to escape, to actually get out, you know what I mean. Although he was caught after a year, he finally walked free in April of 1945, when Colditz was liberated, whoa, that was the ultimate
game of hide and go seek, "Where are you, Best,
we know you're in here. "Adolf, you want to come help? "Okay, let's go." Number five is The Catalpa Rescue. (upbeat music) Between 1865 and 1867, the British Empire arrested anyone supporting
Irish Independence. At that time, 62 of these prisoners were sent to the prisons in Australia, from which they were
likely to never return, but that all changed when
a group of mercenaries used an American whaling
ship called The Catalpa to carry out a daring rescue. They dropped anchor near the prison and headed to the shore in smaller boats, there a group of the Irish prisoners were working outside of the
prison, while most of the guards were watching an annual boat race. "Ah yes, look at these boats on the water, "it's wonderful, it is. "Who's watching the prisoners? "Oh, bollocks." The prisoners leapt
into the Catalpa's boats and made their way back to the ship. After a fierce storm, which
damaged many of the boats, evading the British Navy
and being fired upon, the Catalpa finally made it to New York four months later, four months on the sea? Uh, oh God, I get car sick
and the ocean is even worse, I can't even think about it, moving on. Number four is Frank Abagnale. (upbeat music) If you've seen the film,
Catch Me If You Can, then you already know quite
a bit about Frank Abagnale. After posing as a doctor, a
lawyer and an airline pilot, he spent some time in a French
and then Swedish prison. When being extradited to the United States to face his crimes as a conman, Abagnale escaped his captors, just before their plane took off, Abagnale claims he did this by climbing through the plane's toilet plumbing and then escaping through a
hatch at the landing gear, talk about a crappy escape. Now while there's some debate
as to how plausible this is, he most definitely did
escape a second time from a detention center by
posing as an agent of the prison, bizarrely he made it out and was finally caught for good later. He then assisted the
United States government in investigating scam artists
and later set up a business showing banks how to identify fraudsters. Number three is Choi Gap-Bok. (upbeat music) After being arrested for robbery in 2012, Korean criminal, Choi Gap-Bok successfully escaped
imprisonment using yoga, "Oh yes, slippery like a
snake, can't get to me." As an experienced practitioner of yoga, Choi Gap-Bok noticed
that his detention cell had a fatal flaw, which could be exploited using his physical talents. After just five days in the cell, Gap-Bok greased himself up with ointment and began to squeeze
himself through a small slot at the bottom of the
cell used for food trays, aren't those slots like this big? How skinny was this guy? Stretching his body out,
he was able to escape his cell in just over half a minute, that's 30 seconds for those
of you who can't do math. He then climbed out of
a window and vanished into the nearby mountains,
presumably naked. Although he was eventually caught, he still maintains his innocence, though some say that
claim is quite a stretch. I'm sorry, please don't unsubscribe. Number two is Pascal Payet. (upbeat music) A career thief, Payet
was sentenced to 30 years in a French prison for committing murder during one of his heists in 1997. In 2001, he carried out
his first escape ever. Four masked accomplices
hijacked a helicopter and then flew Payet from prison. After being caught again,
he staged a second escape, this time in 2003, when
another helicopter flew in to rescue him from the roof of the prison, then he was caught
again three weeks later. Following these attempts, he was put under increased
surveillance while in prison. Gee, I wonder why. But despite this, in
2007, he escaped again, masked accomplices again
hijacked another helicopter and then rescued Payet,
then he was caught again, okay, seriously, this is
just getting repetitive like they should just probably
lock this guy in a box and just like open the
cell door a little bit, throw some food in and then just lock it, just, otherwise he's gonna get out. And number one is Alfred Wetzler. (upbeat music) Alfred Wetzler not only
survived the Holocaust, but he also escaped from the
Auschwitz Death Camp itself along with his friend, Rudolf Vrba, Wetzler escaped by hiding
in a pile of wooden planks stacked outside the camp perimeter. They waited there for three
days without food or water, while the SS guards searched for him. When the search was finally called off, the two men escaped into the night. Pursued by a German
patrol up a mountain side, hunted by dogs and soldiers alike, they were helped by strangers
to get to the border and then cross into Slovakia. Finally having escaped, the two of them filed a report on Auschwitz,
this led to Allied bombing, which halted the deportation of thousands of people
to concentration camps. This is absolutely incredible, because it's estimated that their bravery and the information that they provided saved the lives of over 120,000 people and I thought it was impressive, that I got out of bed early this morning, I need to raise my expectations. So those were the the 10
Greatest Escapes of All Time and if you guys enjoyed this, remember to give it a thumbs up and also subscribe to my
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