All language subtitles for Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman S02E01 1080p WEB h264-EDITH

A brilliant mind...

He's detail-oriented.

He's a very smart guy.

Trapped in a supermax prison...

Stabbings occurred
almost every night.

The worst of the worst.

He just can't take it anymore.

He discovers its one weakness...

The only way out is
gonna be this window.

But can he outsmart everything

the prison throws at him...

The tower guard has the
authority to shoot to kill.

Survive the sweltering
Mississippi Delta...

The mosquitoes would
eat you up in a day.

And outrun a dangerous
cross-country manhunt

that could turn
deadly at any moment?

I said, "If you move
again, I will shoot you.

Do you understand me?"

Some of the greatest
stories ever told

start behind bars.

Locked up in the most
notorious prisons

in the world,

spied on by guards
and fellow prisoners,

it takes a devious
mind to find a way out.

It could lead you to freedom,

or it could cost you your life.

But wouldn't you try

when you have
nothing left to lose?

The Mississippi
Delta, north to south,

runs 200 miles

and is 87 miles at its widest.

Some call the Delta

the most Southern
place on Earth.

It's also the site

of the infamous Mississippi
State Penitentiary,

Parchman.

MSP is the oldest
prison in the state.

In 1901, the state bought
the former plantation

known as Parchman Farm,

the informal name
for the prison today.

Prisoners helped
build the prison,

nearly all of them Black men

in an exploitative work program.

Parchman quickly became
a horrifying place,

housing one of the first
gas chambers in the country.

Today it's notorious
for prisoner murders,

suicides, and wretched
living conditions...

rusted pipes, sewage leaks,
rodents, and insects.

There's more than one
reason to want to escape,

but the prison's unique layout
makes that a fool's errand.

Parchman is spread out over
a jaw-dropping 18,000 acres

of former farmland.

It's known as the
prison without walls

because there's no fencing
around the widest perimeter,

only around the
secure prisoner units.

You would think that
this would make it easier

for some of the 2,500
inmates to escape,

but the Delta is
its own deterrent.

The prison sits on
a marshy floodplain

with unbearable heat,

mud so thick it'll stop
you in your tracks,

and mosquitoes so big

they could practically
carry you away.

It's a very difficult
thing to escape from there

because the land is very flat.

It's very easy to get caught.

Most never get
the chance to run.

The prisoner units are secured

by layers by razor-wire fencing

and armed guard towers

wielding deadly
automatic firepower

24 hours a day.

The most infamous
is Supermax Unit 32.

If you're one of the
unfortunate souls

sent to 32, your
life is nothing less

than a relentless
assault on decency...

an unhygienic, violent,

and diseased hellhole that
Dante couldn't make up.

Unit 32 is the
worst of the worst.

Rapes occur. Stabbings occur.

Almost every night,
someone would get stabbed

or shanked.

There are people who have
psychological problems.

That creates an almost
intolerable situation.

Unit 32 houses murderers,

psychopaths, and
high-threat escape risks,

all side by side.

They're the reason
supermax exists.

Unit 32 is surrounded
by a double-fenced area

known as the kill zone.

Guard towers surround it
with shoot-to-kill orders,

and an armed patrol circles
the fence day and night.

The walls of the cell blocks
are made of precast concrete

and half a million pounds
of reinforced steel.

This means Unit 32 is a place
you don't dare try to escape,

but Roy Harper likes a dare.

If any prisoner at
Parchman has what it takes

to break out, it's Harper.

His story reads like a
Southern Gothic novel,

which is fitting, since
he manages to write

and publish two books
while behind bars.

Good writing requires
a detailed, keen mind,

a person who can
communicate and persuade.

Roy Harper possesses
all these traits.

But above all, Roy
Harper is a thinker.

He's a genius.

He's detail-oriented, and
he's a very smart guy.

In 1981, Roy Harper breaks
out of an Arizona prison.

When he's arrested for
armed robbery in 1982,

Harper gets the equivalent
of a death sentence,

88 years without parole.

He spends eight years in
regular maximum security,

but when supermax opens in 1990,

he's one of the first thrown in

because of his high
level of escape risk.

In a telephone interview,

Harper describes his
impressions of Unit 32.

Escape is at the top
of Roy Harper's mind

from the moment
he enters Unit 32.

In 1993, he tries
cutting his way out

with a hacksaw blade,
but he's caught.

He can't get through
the window covering.

To prevent Harper from escaping,

the system moves him
around the unit often.

Frustrated, he petitions
the court to stop it.

Knowing he would not be moved,

Harper can begin planning
a more effective escape.

To have a real
chance at freedom,

Roy knows he has to not
only break out of prison,

but also get out of the
Delta and out of Mississippi.

First things first.

If this supermax
window stops him again,

nothing else matters.

Now, a thinker like Roy
learns from his mistakes,

so he comes up with a clever way

to get through the window
and not get caught.

He just can't take it anymore,

and so he decides to escape.

The only way out is
gonna be this window.

This is no ordinary window.

The walls around it are run
through with steel bars.

A bolted-on, cut-proof grate
covers the entire window.

Behind that, a steel
frame secures six panels

of tempered glass,
each reinforced

by galvanized metal wire.

Harper's got his
work cut out for him.

With constant observation
by the guards,

Harper knows he's
going to need money

to get things moving.

In a place like Parchman,

it doesn't take much
to smuggle in cash

through the mail or the guards.

In fact, the corrupt guards

are something Parchman
is famous for.

Corruption was a constant
problem at Parchman.

You could just about get
anything inside Parchman

you wanted to get.

Guards aren't really paid much,

so they're really
more susceptible

to the offer of money.

He pays a guard 40 bucks apiece
for these hacksaw blades.

Harper's got hacksaw blades
and thinks he should be able

to cut through the window frame.

But before he can start,

he needs to get the
window cover off

that stopped him before.

To remove the
screw-headed bolts,

he smuggles in a screw
bit from the guards.

The bit fits, but
it needs a handle

or some way to get
leverage and torque

to turn the bolt head,

while at the same time
making sure the guard,

who's 20 feet away
watching his every move,

doesn't see him.

Even Harper can't
smuggle enough money in

to make the guards turn away
from a full-blown escape,

so he has to improvise.

With cover from the guards,

he can really get to work.

He looks at the
light fixture above.

A light bulb goes
off in his head.

He breaks two pieces
of angled iron

from the light fixture,
which is made of soft steel.

He bends them into the shape
of an elongated handle.

He's able to use
pencil sharpener blades

that he found to
cut this soft metal

so he could create a handle,

whereby he can
unscrew, essentially,

the window covering.

Harper's in business.

He's makeshift
bolt remover works.

He's finally figured out how
to get the window cover off

and can now proceed
to the next step:

cutting through the frame.

But suddenly, a wrench
is thrown into the works.

Roy has a new neighbor,

a convicted murderer
and escape artist,

John "JW" Woolard.

This newcomer to Unit 32

is the kind of problem
that can't easily be solved

by MacGyvering a screwdriver

or hiding behind a sheet.

With Woolard taking up
residence next door,

all of Harper's plans

and his contraband
tools might be thrown...

well, out the window.

The disciplined,
exacting man with a plan

is just dealt a wild card.

Will he fold,

or will the thinker
figure out a way

to keep his escape
plan on track?

Roy Harper is all set
to break out of Unit 32.

He's got his hacksaw blades

and a way to get the
window cover off.

He's developed a cunning
system to shield himself

from the guard so he can work
on the window infrastructure.

But there's an unexpected
wrinkle in his plans.

Convicted murder John Woolard,
who's serving a life sentence,

is his new neighbor.

John Woolard arrived in Unit 32,

literally in the cell
next to Roy Harper.

Woolard had his own reputation

as a person who had escaped
custody in the past.

He was serving a life
sentence without parole

for murder and kidnapping.

Harper knows
Woolard's reputation.

He's dangerous and unpredictable

and has an even worse
escape habit than Harper.

In a twist of fate,
Woolard recently tried

to break out of Parchman,
but they caught him.

If Woolard tries to
escape again before Harper

and the guards get wise to it,

they'll shake down
the whole tier,

including Harper's cell.

Roy Harper was already
plotting an escape,

but now, all of a sudden,

this is gonna interfere
with all that.

The last thing he
wanted was a shakedown,

because he already
had these items

that were contraband.

Harper,

the persuasive
thinker that he is,

decides to do something shrewd:

recruit Woolard.

He can talk more
freely with Woolard

when the prisoners are allowed
one hour of yard time a day.

In the case of inmates in 32,

they were outside of their
cells only one hour a day,

and that was for
an exercise yard

or for a shower.

It is possible to
converse during yard time.

Even though a two-man team

increases the chance
of getting caught,

it's better than
a unit shakedown.

And if they do make it outside,

an accomplice might
come in handy.

The thinker has a collaborator.

They meet in the yard every day

and lay out their plan.

Stage 1 is getting
through the window.

Stage 2 is getting
across the prison yard

and through the outer fence.

Stage 3 will be to
make it off the Delta

and out of Mississippi.

Each of these stages

will require
preparation and luck,

especially making
it across the yard.

Once they get through
their windows,

which, by luck, are
on the first floor,

the plan is to crawl
along a narrow strip

of shadow that
runs along C-block.

Next they face 50
feet of wide-open yard

monitored by guard
towers and floodlights.

If they're lucky enough
to not be spotted,

they are running
to the kill zone,

a double razor-wire fence
they'll have to cut through

with hacksaws.

If they make it
through the fences,

they have to just pray

one of the perimeter patrol
vehicles doesn't drive by.

Roy Harper, who had masterminded

and broken out of
prisons before,

took a lot of time
to find a weakness

where he could breach and
get out of his facility.

It took some planning,
and it took some time.

Harper knows what he and
Woolard are attempting

is incredibly risky,
but he's not stupid.

He knows to have any chance,

they're going to need supplies.

They smuggle in two red
death-row jumpsuits,

much darker than
the white-striped

Unit 32 uniform.

There's a color-coding system

used by Mississippi to
identify the custody level.

Solid red death-row inmate pants

cut down on the white reflection

that their red and white
uniforms may have made.

To cover their faces,
Harper makes a dark cream

by burning paper and mixing
the ash with Vaseline.

Both will increase the chance

of slipping through
the yard undetected.

Harper's also smart enough

to realize once they
get past the fences,

they face the
inhospitable Delta,

where pesticides
leach into the water,

making it undrinkable.

They throw bottles
of clean water

into makeshift backpacks
made out of prison jackets.

With their supplies gathered,

Harper and Woolard
turn their attention

back to the window.

Woolard has his
own hacksaw blades,

but Harper lets him borrow
his makeshift wrench.

Harper is trying
to cut his window

when suddenly he
hears a disturbance

outside his cell followed
by a booming voice

that echoes through Unit 32,

a voice he isn't quite keen on.

It's the warden
making his rounds.

With the window cover
sitting against the wall

and Harper holding a hacksaw,

he's about to be
caught red-handed.

Roy Harper and John
Woolard are several weeks

into planning their escape from
Parchman's notorious Unit 32.

Their only way out is through
a window in their cells.

While Harper is trying to
saw through the window frame,

the voice of the warden
stops him in his tracks.

He's working on the window,

and he already has the
window covering down

when the warden comes by.

This is one of those times

when good fortune
really comes in handy.

He gets up in the warden's face.

He smiles brightly.

And he's hoping and praying

that the warden will
keep his focus on him

rather than spot the window
covering is missing already.

Sometimes fortune
favors the bold,

because the warden
becomes distracted

by other raucous inmates...

And simply moves on.

The next day, Harper and
Woolard are back at it,

but they run into an
unexpected problem.

Harper realizes not
only the window frame,

but the mechanism holding
the window louvers in place,

are made of reinforced
cut-proof steel.

The hacksaws aren't
making a dent.

After overcoming
numerous challenges,

this new obstacle knocks
the wind out of him.

How could the great thinker
have overlooked this?

But Harper and men like him
have a ruthless determination.

It's built into their psyches.

Harper looks for another
detail he can exploit,

another way through.

He notices that the
seam of the window box

in the wall looks different.

This window has
reinforced steel,

and so they begin to experiment.

He hacksawed into this metal box

below the window.

Harper tries the hacksaw

and is able to saw the
seam of the window box

made of softer metal.

Lifting the top of the box,

he's able to access
a control box

that releases the
window louvers,

then puts the top back down.

With the mechanism released,

Roy can remove the
louvers from the window

without having to get
through the cut-proof frame.

They're back in business.

Stage 1 is complete.

They've conquered
the supermax window,

but they can't just crawl
out in the middle of the day.

To hide the cut marks until
they can make their break,

the thinker comes up with
his own brand of spackle.

It's a hot summer night in May.

Harper and Woolard are ready,

but they need to be
out of their cells

at exactly the same time
for their plan to work.

They plotted out for
the appropriate time

when they're gonna escape,

which was in the middle
of the night, obviously.

They wait until the last
cell checks at midnight.

To synchronize their progress,

they signal to each other
once it's time to move

to the next step.

Step one, they hang
sheets over their cells,

then uncover the window.

Step two, they change into
their death-row jumpsuits

and prepare a dummy
in their beds.

They figure they'll
have till sunup,

but stuffing old clothes
with newspaper and magazines

would buy them more time

and keep the guards
from noticing.

Finally, step three,
they throw their supplies

and strings attached
to their sheets

out the window.

With all steps complete
and the pair in sync,

it's go time.

On the outside, the
first thing they do

is try to cover up their tracks.

They darken their faces

with the concoction
that Harper cooked up.

Things are going
according to plan,

but the greatest test is
on the prison grounds,

where cameras, patrols,
and a gun tower

could, in one quick
moment, seal their fate.

They begin crawling along
the narrow bit of shadow

that hugs cell block
C and into the yard,

hoping the tower
guards don't notice.

Between the interior
fence and the outer fence

is a "kill zone,"
as it's called.

If they're discovered
in that area,

that tower guard
has the authority

to shoot to kill.

If you get beyond
the first fence,

they're gonna shoot first
and ask questions later.

Harper and Woolard start
to saw the chain-link.

The guard tower
does not spot them.

Harper and Woolard
move through fence one

into the kill zone.

They start cutting
the second fence

when suddenly a
bright light shines

through the circular razor wire,

blinding them.

They're literally caught
in the headlights.

Unit 32's perimeter patrol

could spell "doom" for
Harper and Woolard.

Is the perimeter
patrol about to end

the carefully
detailed escape plans

of Roy Harper and
John "JW" Woolard?

They cross the kill
zone unscathed,

cut through the second fence,

only to be met by an
armed patrol vehicle.

They start hacksawing
through the second fence,

and a patrol happened to come by

at that exact same moment.

Amazingly, they get
another stroke of luck,

and the vehicle passes them by.

This is it, but somehow
the patrol goes by.

Harper and Woolard
have cleared Unit 32,

but their escape is
not yet complete.

They enter stage
3 of their plan:

get out of the Delta and get
as far away from Mississippi

as they can.

They know they'll have until
a few hours after sunup

to disappear, so they
run off into the night.

At daybreak, Harper and
Woolard have been on foot

traversing the hot, humid
Mississippi Delta for hours.

They're an easy target,

since much of the
Delta is flat land.

Sure that a search party
will be soon on their tail,

they've got to get to cover.

If they can make
it to nightfall,

they stand a better chance
of not getting caught

in the Delta.

The sun comes out, and
you're gonna be seen

if you're moving around,
so they hide in a thicket.

It turns out, they had more time

than they thought.

The dummies do their job,

and the guards don't
notice they're gone

until hours after sunrise,

giving Harper and Woolard
a 12-hour head start.

So hours later, they noticed
that Harper didn't eat his meal

and thought,
"Well, that's odd."

There was a inmate
delivering food

that actually informed the staff

that something was wrong.

The sergeant called
for a takedown team.

A group of riot guards
burst into Harper's cell,

where they meet the dummy Harper

and his breakout window.

Once that discovery is made,

the prison itself
goes on lockdown.

Harper and Woolard have
gotten a head start,

making it much harder
for law enforcement

to apprehend them.

The first 24 hours
in a prison escape

is absolutely critical

because it is when
the vast majority

of people who've escaped
from prison get caught.

You are trying to
contain an inmate

within certain boundaries,

so learning as much as you
can as quickly as you can

helps facilitate their capture.

At the FBI office,
we were notified

two individuals had
escaped from Parchman.

We sent out what's
called an "EC,"

or an electronic communication,

to all FBI offices all
throughout the United States.

Even with a head start,

Harper and Woolard
are not in the clear.

Sleep-deprived,
they're bogged down

in a humid, muddy Delta,
waiting for night.

It was 100 degrees,
mosquitoes everywhere.

They're huge, and
they will smother you.

They tried to stay
as still as possible.

Over the din of the mosquitoes,

they hear voices.

A search party is
in the vicinity.

Come on!

Eventually, the sounds fade.

They've avoided capture.

For a week, they hide

and make their way
across the Delta,

surviving on the meager
amount of clean water and food

they've carried
in the backpacks.

They'd gone to a little town
called Webb, Mississippi,

found a house,
hunkered down outside,

watching this house.

Again, very methodical.

Sunday, church time,

and this old couple
apparently walked outside

to get into their car.

Harper and Woolard
decide they need that car

if they're gonna make
it out of Mississippi

and complete the final
stage of their escape.

While they wait for the
couple to return from church,

they help themselves
to the house.

Dying from hunger,

they storm the
fridge, cupboards,

and stuff themselves to
their hearts' content.

They change into stolen clothes.

Then they notice
something incredible.

An arsenal of firepower

in the pantry.

Pistols, shotguns, ammo.

For Harper and Woolard,

it's Christmas morning in June.

When they hear the car
of the elderly couple

pull into the driveway,

they stake out
positions in the house.

The elderly couple walks
towards the kitchen door.

Let's hope they said
their morning prayers.

Woolard and Harper have
eluded the authorities

for nearly a week.

Now they've broken into the home

of an elderly couple,

where they've found
food and weapons.

The elderly couple is just
returning home from church.

Woolard and Harper,
shotguns at the ready,

await their arrival.

They're in for the
surprise of their lives.

Harper conveys instructions.

He won't hurt them. He
just wants their car.

They comply and
hand over the keys.

They tie the couple
up and part ways.

Harper and Woolard now
have their getaway vehicle.

They have a car.

They have clothing.

They're hitting the
road, and they're free.

They've done what
the vast majority

of people who escape from prison

aren't able to do,
which is essentially

made it beyond that first day.

They hightail it
out of Mississippi.

Harper and Woolard have done it.

They made it out of Unit
32, out of the Delta,

and Mississippi is in
their rearview mirror.

They just have to disappear.

Unfortunately for them,

an interstate manhunt
is just heating up,

a hunt that's just changed
from on foot to in vehicle.

What could possibly go wrong?

For starters,

when police rescue
the elderly couple

a few hours later,

they learn exactly what car
they should be looking for.

The question becomes
"Okay, what direction?

Where did they go
with this car?"

Again, we put out another

BOLO, or "Be On the Lookout,"

for this vehicle and this tag.

The fugitives make their
way north through Arkansas

and head towards West Virginia.

With law enforcement
in multiple states

now tracking a Chevy Caprice,

Harper soon realizes they've
got to change vehicles.

In a motel parking lot,
they attack and steal a van

from an unsuspecting patron.

Thinking one step ahead,

Harper and Woolard
paint the brown van blue

and put different plates on it

to make it look like
a whole other vehicle.

They head west into Indiana,

but this is where
Woolard's brashness

starts to become a liability.

They get caught speeding.

You know, we just
wait for people

to make stupid mistakes
once they're out,

and that certainly occurred
here with John Woolard

speeding down the road,
and he gets stopped.

Officer Raymond Coleman
approaches the van cautiously.

Woolard fires at the officer,

but the shot misses,

and the discharge
blows him backward.

A high-speed chase begins.

Harper begins to
fire from the van.

It's the worst of the worst.

They're convicted violent felons

and have engaged law enforcement

in a gun battle.

Officer Jim Poling
joins the pursuit

as the outlaws head into
Crown Point, Indiana,

recording the chase
on his dash cam.

So I immediately
jumped in my squad car.

It's the major leagues,

and you gotta step
up to the plate.

The stress... it... it's a mess.

I probably had my squad
car well over 100,

just trying to catch up to 'em.

With the help of a spike-filled

tire-deflation device,

officers pop the van's tires...

Causing sparks,

forcing the van
off the interstate

into a truck stop.

Harper and Woolard are cornered.

I'm figuring that
this is gonna end

somewhere in the truck stop,

but we're not gonna
let 'em escape.

Rapid fire exchanges

between Harper and
Woolard and the officers,

but their shots aren't
having much effect.

The thinker once
again thinks ahead.

We managed to
discover they had put

some clothing and luggage

on the side of that
van inside of it,

and it was like a fortress.

Our pistol rounds were
basically doing nothing.

Harper and Woolard
make a break for it.

Amidst the chaos of
sirens and gunfire,

they miraculously get away.

They're on the run
again and back on foot

into the Indiana night.

With nearby towns on high alert,

Harper and Woolard hide

and sneak around rural
Indiana for two days.

Badly in need of water and food,

they head out of the woods.

But that's exactly when
they run into the law again.

I drove around

and saw the two individuals
come out of the woods,

and then they were
walking right toward me.

That's when I confirmed

that this was the
two individuals

that we were looking for.

Officer Turturillo had
never fired a weapon

in all of his years on
the St. John police force,

and now he's face to face

with two of the most dangerous,

cunning criminals
he will ever meet.

I stayed in the cover of my car.

I was standing
with the door open,

and when they got
about five feet

from the front of my car,

that's when I took my gun out

and I drew down on them.

Woolard put his hands
on the front of the car.

Harper put his hands

on the left front
fender of the car.

And I'm getting ready to
get them on the ground

so we can wait for backup

so we can get them handcuffed,

and Woolard looked
right in Harper's eyes,

and he said...

As soon as he started running,

Harper's right hand came off

the left front
fender of the car.

And as soon as I saw
him move his hand,

I kept my sights
on him, and I said,

"If you move again,
I will take it

"as an act of aggression,
and I will shoot you.

Do you understand me?"

And he said, "Yes, sir."

Two hours later,

Woolard crashes a van
on the interstate...

another van he stole at gunpoint

from a nearby car wash.

He's cuffed and
arrested moments later.

Harper's story doesn't end

after he's sent
back to Parchman.

Appalled by the conditions,

he becomes part of a
prison reform movement

that finally succeeds
in closing Unit 32

due to the violations
of basic human rights.

That was in 2010.

Six years later,

his first novel is published.

In it, he writes,

"A man should have a
personal code of conduct,

"a code of laws to live by

"which you feel in
your heart are right.

"Then never deviate from them,

even when it hurts."

"Live life by your own rules"

is a philosophy Harper
still believes in.

But today, and for
many years to come,

he's in Colorado,

serving a life
sentence in a supermax

and living by
someone else's rules.