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Prison Escapes Involving Food or Food Items

Real-life Escape Cases

• 1804 – William Blewitt (UK) – Food: Gingerbread cake; Method: Several prisoners had saws and files baked into cakes on a prison shipsmithsonianmag.com. Blewitt learned of the plan and told the authorities, so the cakes were seized and he was pardoned (a foiled escape plan)smithsonianmag.com.

• 1899 – Four inmates (Frederick County, Maryland, USA) – Food: Fruit pies; Method: Steel saw blades concealed inside the pies (plus ropes from blankets)cityweekly.net. All four prisoners used the hidden saws and ropes to cut through cell bars and ropes and successfully escapedcityweekly.net.

• 1906 – Charlie Howard (Washington, D.C., USA) – Food: Wedding cake; Method: Steel saws hidden in the cakesmithsonianmag.com. Howard and his new wife served the cake to the guards. When the guards fell asleep, the couple used the concealed saws to cut through their cell bars and walked out undetectedsmithsonianmag.com.

• 1912 – Charles Adams (Maryland, USA) – Food: Pie; Method: Hidden cash ($200) baked insidecityweekly.net. Adams, a trusty inmate, received the pie from an associate, used the money to bribe or facilitate his getaway, and fled the jail successfullycityweekly.net.

• 1914 – C.J. (or J.C.) Wilderman (New Jersey, USA) – Food: Mince pies; Method: The convict’s wife regularly brought pies on visits. She once brought two: one for the warden (to distract him) and a second pie baked with steel saws insidecityweekly.net. With the warden distracted by dessert, Wilderman and two cellmates used the hidden saws to break out, escaping while leaving saws and crumbs behindcityweekly.net.

• 1919 – Éamon de Valera (Lincoln Prison, England) – Food: Cake; Method: After de Valera made a wax impression of the jail master key, his friends molded a duplicate. They hid the duplicate key inside a large cake sent to himsmithsonianmag.com. The first cake’s key didn’t fit, but the second cake did. De Valera used the key to walk through every locked gate and escaped to freedomsmithsonianmag.com. (He later became President of Ireland.)

• 1921 – “Lucky Tommy” O’Connor (Cook County Jail, Chicago, USA) – Food: Loaf of bread and a cake; Method: A revolver and bullets were smuggled inside the baked goodscityweekly.net. Just days before his scheduled execution, O’Connor used the hidden gun to overpower guards and broke out of jailcityweekly.net.

• 1934 – Robert Mais & Walter Legenza (Richmond, Virginia, USA) – Food: Cans of baked chicken; Method: Two pistols were secretly placed inside the factory-sealed chicken cans (the inmate’s mother allegedly did this)cityweekly.net. Mais and Legenza broke out of the jail using the smuggled guns before the plot was discoveredcityweekly.net.

• 1930s – Aubrey Smith & Leland Harvey (Georgia, USA) – Food: Cans of peaches; Method: Harvey’s girlfriend (a cannery worker) had guns and a hacksaw factory-sealed inside multiple cans of peachescityweekly.net. When delivered to the jail, Smith used the weapons to overpower guards and escaped. Harvey’s separate escape attempt failed (he was caught after attacking a guard)cityweekly.net.

• 2015 – Richard Matt & David Sweat (Clinton Correctional, New York, USA) – Food: Frozen hamburger meat; Method: A drill bit and hacksaw blades were hidden inside blocks of frozen hamburgeroxygen.com. A prison tailor smuggled the meat in under the pretense of buying lunch. Matt and Sweat used the blades to cut through the prison walls into a steam pipe and tunneled outoxygen.com. The pair evaded capture until a massive manhunt ended with one (Sweat) caught and the other (Matt) killedoxygen.comoxygen.com. This escape drew comparisons to the film Shawshank Redemption.

Fictional Escape Cases

• The Grand Budapest Hotel (film, 2014) – Food: Courtesan au chocolat (Mendl’s pastries)eater.com; Method: The key to the cell was hidden inside a stack of pastries. In the film’s prison scene, M. Gustave H. smuggles pastries to his cellmates knowing tools can be concealed inside themeater.com. When the guards respect the pastries and fail to inspect them, Gustave and fellow inmates retrieve the hidden key/tools from the cake and escape their cell. (Fictional film scenario.)

• Kaleidoscope (TV series, 2023) – Food: Prison cafeteria meal; Method: The food was spiked with magic mushroomsen.wikipedia.org. In the episode “Green,” two inmates doctor all the meal trays. The resulting chaos distracts the guards, allowing inmate Leo Pap to slip away disguised as a wounded doctor (hidden in the prison doctor’s car) while his cellmate stays behinden.wikipedia.org. (Fictional TV show scenario.)

Each example above involves a food item playing a key role (hiding tools, smuggling keys, inducing distraction, etc.) in a jailbreak. Real cases are cited from historical reports and investigative accountssmithsonianmag.comcityweekly.netoxygen.com, while fictional cases are drawn from films or TV series.

Sources: Historical examples are documented in newspapers and historical accountssmithsonianmag.comcityweekly.netoxygen.com. Fictional scenarios come from the respective film/TV narratives (described in the cited sources above). Each case summary above cites the relevant source for verification.