In February 1864, more than 100 Union Army officers broke out of Libby Prison, an infamous Confederate prisoner of war compound in Richmond, Virginia. It was the largest prison break of the Civil War. Libby held more than 1,000 Union officers who were crammed into the former tobacco warehouse. They faced rampant illness, meager rations, and constant abuse fr ... Show More
Sep 2025
Daring Prison Escapes | Fleeing the Rock | 2
Located amid the treacherous waters of the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was designed to hold the most-wanted prisoners in America, and developed a reputation as an unbreakable fortress. But from the moment Frank Lee Morris set foot on the island in 1962, he wa ... Show More
35m 56s
Sep 2025
Daring Prison Escapes | Escape from Leavenworth | 3
In 1909, a young convicted train robber named Frank Grigware began a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Leavenworth was the nation’s first federal penitentiary, touted as a state-of-the-art facility. But in the early 20th century, its prisoner ... Show More
34m 3s
Sep 2025
Daring Prison Escapes | Nazis in the Arizona Desert | 4
During World War II, the United States housed hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers who had been captured as prisoners of war. Camp Papago Park, located in Phoenix, was built to hold captured German U-boat crew members, some of the most well-trained and ardent members of the Ge ... Show More
37 m