10 Most Insane Prison Breaks Of All Time

9. John Dillinger And His Fake Gun

The Great Escape
By FBI [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In the early 1930s, John Dillinger was America's public enemy number one, wanted for a series of robberies at banks and police stations and the deaths of 10 men.

When the crime kingpin was finally arrested in Tuscon, Arizona in January 1934, the authorities hauled him off to an escape-proof prison and were determined to throw away the key, but just two months later, he had broken out.

Teaming up with another inmate, Dillinger is said to have fashioned a fake gun out of wood and blackened it with shoe polish. Brandishing this faux weapon, he forced his way out of the facility and fled in the sheriff's brand-new V-8 Ford.

The country sheriff vowed to shoot the audacious bank robber dead if he ever saw him again, but he never got the chance. Dillinger was gunned down by FBI agents in Chicago later that year.

His story inspired the 2009 Johnny Depp movie Public Enemies, which was partially filmed at the jail he busted out of.

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