2 Flee in 'Shawshank' escape

Disorder · Dec 20, 2007

article and images

Two prisoners have staged a jail-break seemingly inspired by the hit film The Shawshank Redemption.

The American pair, who authorities say are armed and dangerous, are still on the run after digging holes in the walls of their cells and squeezing through.

Just like in the movie starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, they used posters of bikini-clad girls to conceal their escape route.

Exit strategy: Hole dug by the prisoners through which they escaped

Jose Espinosa and Otis Blunt, left a note wishing the authorities "Happy Holidays" and thanking a guard they claimed had helped them.

Espinosa, 20, a member of the Bloods gang, had pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter following a drive-by shooting and was facing a minimum of 17 years when he was due to be sentenced on January 25th. Blunt, 32, was being held on robbery charges.

Partners in crime: Otis Blunt (left) and Jose Espinosa, who were held in a high security area, are still on the run after their escape at the weekend

Both were in the high security area of New Jersey's tough Union County Jail.

The pair used two improvised tools, including a thick metal wire, to remove cinderblocks from the wall in Espinosa's cell, according to US reports.

Cover-up: A hole was dug in the wall (right) and plastered with posters of bikini-clad women to hide it from warders

A 10lb steel water shut-off wheel was then used to crush the cinderblocks so that they could be hidden in the cells. The pair then put pillows under their sheets to make it look as if they were asleep.

After struggling through the holes, they then jumped off a 30ft-high wall and climbed over a barbed-wire fence before getting to rail-tracks and making their escape last Saturday evening.

"It almost sounds like the plot of a Hollywood movie," the Union County prosecutor, Theodore J. Romankow, said. "The difference here is that this is real."

He added: "We want to know when they left their cells and how their bunk could have had the dummies without anyone noticing it."

Crime scene: The rear of Union County Jail, in New Jersey, from which the pair escaped

Both men were only held for a few weeks. Prison authorities are now probing the claim that a warden helped with the escape.

Their note read: "Thank you. You're a pal. Happy holidays." It also featured a hand-drawn smiley face and a hand with an upraised middle finger.

A guard spokesman, Kenneth Burkert, said: "The officer involved is very firm and Espinosa wrote that (note) to be a wiseguy."

Reel deal: In The Shawshank Redemption starring Morgan Freeman (left) and Tim Robbins the character played by Robbins digs a similar hole in his cell. His is hidden by posters of Rita Hayworth and Raquel Welch

In The Shawshank Redemption, a wrongly convicted prisoner played by Tim Robbins digs his way out of his cell, hiding the hole with posters of pin-ups like Raquel Welch and Rita Hayworth.
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