generalspeaking

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Crime Scene Do Not Enter

A rope dangles from a window on the back side of the Metropolitan Correctional Center Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, in Chicago. Two convicted bank robbers used a knotted rope or bed sheets to escape from the federal prison window high above downtown Chicago early Tuesday, a week after one of them made a courtroom vow of retribution, to federal judge. The escape occurred sometime between 5 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. when the inmates were discovered missing, Chicago Police Sgt. Mark Lazarro said. Hours later, what appeared to be a rope, knotted at six-foot intervals, could be seen dangling into an alley from a window of the Metropolitan Correctional Center approximately 20 stories above the ground.

AP Photo/M. Spencer Green A rope dangles from a window on the back side of the Metropolitan Correctional Center Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, in Chicago.

There is now an advertised $50,000 reward for information leading to the return of two American bank robbers. Skilled escape artists, no less, scaling the walls of a forbidding, smooth-walled federal penitentiary located in Chicago. A high rise no less, built in downtown Chicago. Two convicted bank robbers who made their escape from a facility housing 700 inmates, a skyscraper prison.

They must be fearless of heights. They must be in awfully good physical condition. They appear, from the evidence, to have descended from a narrow window aperture, a bare half-foot wide on the flat south side of the prison. To reach the alley below. They are thought to have used bed sheets as a knotted rope to escape from that window.

A thought: that is some terrific height to rappel down. Where in the world would two inmates be able to gather all those sheets from in their bid for release from prison? The sheets, transformed into a rope, knotted at six-foot intervals was dangling from a window of the Metropolitan Correctional Center about 20 stories above the ground.

That's a long way up, it's a long way down, they would have needed a whole whack of linen to transform into a rope long enough, sturdy enough to take their weight for the prolonged period it would have taken for them to make their way down and to freedom. Crowds gathered after the escape, marvelling in disbelief that anyone could have made such an escape.

The prison is located a block or two from key federal court and office buildings. Very convenient for law enforcement and judicial arraignment. Not so convenient for escape considering the realities of methodology and the incorrigible fact that the prison is located in the heart of a heavily populated city where notice and apprehension might be considered to be of high potential.

Labels: Crime, Misadventure, Natural Resources, Social-Cultural Deviations, United States