The Most Interesting Prison Breaks
John Gerard is the only person ever known to have escaped from the notorious Tower of London. A Jesuit priest, Gerard was imprisoned for continuing to preach his Catholic beliefs when the church was under heavy persecution from Elizabethan England. During his imprisonment, he endured several interrogations, often being tortured for information. He never broke but was eventually sentenced to death for his “crimes”. Desperate to escape, Gerard, communicated with allies on the outside via smuggled notes written in invisible ink made from orange juice. These allies rowed a boat into the Tower’s moat and Gerard was able to escape by using a rope thrown up to him. Cheating death after almost falling because of his tortured hands, Gerard managed to climb down to the boat, flee England and live the rest of his life in Rome.