6 ms·

A man who broke into jail

130 points by fortran77 8mo ago

https://archive.ph/zt15Q https://archive.ph/zt15Q

deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
jbd123 8mo ago
Jail is a unique place. If you break in, they’ll gladly let you stay or at least welcome you back at a later date. They may even insist on it. It is a deeper more interesting story, but that is the first thing that came to mind.
amenghra 8mo ago
TL;DR: "while a new jail in Nashville was still under construction, staff discovered missing keys and other anomalies. Surveillance footage eventually revealed that someone had repeatedly disguised themselves as a construction worker and entered the building many times. Inside, they hid weapons, tools, and escape items in walls and rooms around the facility."
- NoSalt 8mo ago
  Reminds me of the US Embassy in Russia that was built, by Russians, who embedded thousands of spying devices within the building itself. It took 27 years to build, then debug the building.
  - csh0 8mo ago
    It’s all part of the game it seems. The US bugged the “toilet partitions” of the Russian embassy in D.C. during its construction[0] and the FBI built a tunnel under it for espionage purposes in the 80s[1]. [0] https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/CIA-RDP90-00965R000403370001-7 https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/CIA-RDP90-00965R000... [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20100514112651/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1985-09-24/news/0330170179_1_soviet-embassy-mount-alto-new-soviet https://web.archive.org/web/20100514112651/http://articles.o...
- peddling-brink 8mo ago
  And it was the person both least, and most suspected.
  - IAmBroom 8mo ago
    It's always someone you either do or do not suspect!
xvxvx 8mo ago
Leaving keys etc. I could understand as a political statement, but loaded guns? Madman!
- pavel_lishin 8mo ago
  He gives a reason for doing so, although the article points out that his reason is suspect.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 8mo ago
    More like the sheriff is butthurt at the explanation, even were it proven true he wouldn't be able to accept it as such. Though, Friedman also does have a touch of the narcissim thing going on, in that he enjoys it that Hall says "he can't be understood".
pavel_lishin 8mo ago
> Friedmann’s infatuation with the game had continued after he moved to Nashville, becoming so intense that his psychologist stipulated in the terms of his parole that, along with being kept from weapons, he be prevented from playing fantasy games such as D. & D. Now that's ... that's weird.
- brendanfinan 8mo ago
  cruel and unusual
  - OJFord 8mo ago
    Or fitting and flexible? I don't think we can really say without being experts in psychology and the case ourselves, but as a general principle I think I like it for not being a heavy stamp with the usual mould, there was undeniably consideration of the particulars even if someone else would reach a different conclusion.
- Verdex 8mo ago
  "Its not a fantasy game, it's far future dystopian post apocalyptic implied hyper technical ethereal augmentation science fiction." "Very clever sir. But Im aware of what dark sun is. You'll have to come with me."
- RyanOD 8mo ago
  Should have banned him from playing Top Secret.
- scottLobster 8mo ago
  To be fair, he sounds a little more intense than your average player: "A psychologist concluded that Friedmann suffered from dysthymia, today known as persistent depressive disorder, and schizoid personality disorder, writing that he showed “indifference to social relationships and a restricted range of emotional experience and expression.” He also had a tendency to “blur fantasy with reality.” Friedmann was convicted of armed robbery and attempted murder"
- 8mo ago
hollywood_court 8mo ago
I thought this was going to be about someone that wanted to go to jail in order to receive meals and/or healthcare. But this article was far more interesting.
- butterbomb 8mo ago
  > I thought this was going to be about someone that wanted to go to jail in order to receive meals and/or healthcare. Tbf, there’s probably an easier way to achieve that goal that involves much less serious charges than breaking into the jail lol.
  - hollywood_court 8mo ago
    I'm sure there are. One of my mother's husbands — she had four, all cops — loved to tell the story about arresting a man outside of a Zippy Mart on Virginia Loop Road in Montgomery, AL. The cashier called 911 and told them that a man had robbed the store. When he pulled up he found the man sitting on the curb just waiting for him. He had pulled a knife and stolen one pack of Big Red chewing gum from the store. All because it was getting cold outside and he needed a place to sleep. And he also had a toothache that had been bothering him for weeks. So he hoped to see a doctor while he was in county jail.
    - qingcharles 8mo ago
      Out of all the places to be incarcerated, county jails in the USA have a pretty poor record on healthcare. They are run by the counties, not the states, and therefore it is open season on how they provide the services. Most [1] just contract to the lowest bidder private provider. These providers' jobs are to dispense the lowest amount of healthcare to the lowest amount of patients in order to maximize profits. Mostly providing only emergency care to those who are in immediate risk of death. Many also require the prisoners to use the funds provided by their family (for phone calls, letters, clothing, food etc) to pay to even put a medical request into the system in the first place. In terms of dental, most county jails will only do tooth pulls, not any other type of dental work. They will not try to save teeth at all. [1] some larger areas like Cook County have their own healthcare systems and can be somewhat more sophisticated and less constrained by monetary concerns
assimpleaspossi 8mo ago
One of the Peter Sellers films (Pink Panther?), he goes to prison to visit an inmate only to have the inmate take his identity, fake beard, moustache and clothes, and walks out of jail. This happens several times. In the very last scene, he's walking out of the jail, a smirk on his face, and tries to pull off his fake beard and moustache but it doesn't come off. "Good heavens! The wrong man has escaped!!"
- TYPE_FASTER 8mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_the_Fox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_the_Fox I didn't know about about this film. Thank you!
  - dylan604 8mo ago
    Aw man, I'm kind of jealous of you. To be able to go back and see Peter Sellers movies for the first time again would be amazing. My dad absolutely loved him, and I can still hear him cackling at his movies growing up. As a kid, they weren't very funny, but as an adult I now get it.
    - TYPE_FASTER 8mo ago
      I watched the Pink Pather movies with my dad growing up, and re-watched them with my son a year or two ago. Watching them with him was kinda like watching for the first time. He was so funny. I need to watch some of his other films.
      - js2 8mo ago
        If you've never seen Being There, put it at the top of your list.
        MrFots 8mo ago
        Chauncey Gardiner
- 8mo ago
bstsb 8mo ago
fascinating article. while i certainly sympathise somewhat with Alex - it is clear his actions are at least in part a consequence of mental conditions - i can't help but feel like being caught wasn't his plan as the article seems to suggest, and he wanted chaos upon the prison's opening, as some kind of strange payback or revenge
- pluralmonad 8mo ago
  I like to think all of my actions are a consequence of my mental conditions.
  - bot403 8mo ago
    Not a chance, all of our actions are disconnected from our mental conditions and have been pre-decided for us.
- lukan 8mo ago
  Partly agree, the hiding of his "escape kits" with weapons do not make sense if he wanted to be cought doing it. Because then they are removed (he knew of the camerss) and he would not get power from them, but be helpless again in prison (to be raped again etc.) So maybe there was a subconscious plan to get in prison after he prepared everything. Or maybe just a "insurance". Or maybe indeed a bigger plan, mass breakout, .. or having all those options. Being in prison shaped him. He tried to control it (one of his quotes are "placing the kits was therapeutic"). Or he was indeed just really insane and orchestrated a plot/game setting like in D&D. Might be a mix.
jareklupinski 8mo ago
> reëlection > reënacted whats with the ree-s in the article...
- enmyj 8mo ago
  that's the New Yorker signature style
  - jareklupinski 8mo ago
    i thought jaywalking was the new yorker signature style :P
- nerevarthelame 8mo ago
  It's a diacritic marker that indicates how the word is supposed to be pronounced, with a syllable break on the marked letters - as though readers might get confused and think the word is pronounced "reel-ection" as opposed to "re-election." It's a pretty archaic practice, but The New Yorker persists. They have a lot of unusual stylistic preferences, like preferring the spelling "vender" over "vendor," which also occurs in this article. A more common example of the diaeresis would be the name "Zoë" - the "ë" indicates the pronunciation is "zoe-y" (2 syllables) not "zoe" (1 syllable). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)#English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)#English
  - jareklupinski 8mo ago
    til, thank you! i guess it's important for them we all coöperate on pröper spek :P thought i was seeing this because some ebooks also have missing/poorly substituted ligatures for me
  - irdc 8mo ago
    As a Dutch person, what’s interesting to me is how this exact rule applies to Dutch. Maybe that’s why I didn’t notice it while reading the article…
- retrac 8mo ago
dogtimeimmortal 8mo ago
interesting article, though i probably would have skipped if not for a hand injury i'm dealing with. mentioned in the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_People_Play_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_People_Play_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Berne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Berne all i can think is the guy is nuts. why sabotage the new jail where you have a personal relationship with with the new sheriff and are supposedly making progress fixing all the problems with the old system? i don't know what i was expecting...
- qingcharles 8mo ago
  I don't know. I've communicated with Alex a few times over the last decade or so and he's always seemed one of the most rational, smart and pragmatic jail reformers I've ever know. He has always followed the legal path through the courts, even though it is often broken, trying to make it less broken for those coming behind. You can't see inside anyone's mind. What caused him to commit his original offense that got him locked up for a decade? It wasn't a crime of necessity, I'm sure. Most crimes aren't. A lot of people commit crimes because some untreated mental health issue which lowers their self control. Then followed by ten years he was locked up, who knows what damage that did to his psyche which lay undiscovered? edit: I've now read the rest of the article, and I knew nothing of the extensive mental health issues Alex suffers from
twohaibei 8mo ago
I recommend reading on "Witold Pilecki" - old story, but pretty fascinating.
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
mcswell 8mo ago
Otis Campbell was known for locking himself into the Mayberry jail.
runnr_az 8mo ago
Fascinating story... This was covered on the GoneSouth podcast as well: Part 1: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/274-gone-south-88714714/episode/s4e20-breaking-into-prison-part-269016410 https://www.iheart.com/podcast/274-gone-south-88714714/episo... Part 2: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/274-gone-south-88714714/episode/s4e21-breaking-into-prison-part-269520123 https://www.iheart.com/podcast/274-gone-south-88714714/episo... I assume this is following the podcast -> (new yorker / atlantic) article -> netflix doc pipeline. In a good way.
fmajid 8mo ago
Nowhere near as amazing a story as that of Witold Pileski, who broke into Auschwitz and back out, to reveal to the world the horrors that went on there. And ended up murdered by the Communist regime after the end of the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki

130 points by fortran77 8mo ago

https://archive.ph/zt15Q https://archive.ph/zt15Q

deleted 8mo ago

[deleted]

jbd123 8mo ago

Jail is a unique place. If you break in, they’ll gladly let you stay or at least welcome you back at a later date. They may even insist on it. It is a deeper more interesting story, but that is the first thing that came to mind.

amenghra 8mo ago

TL;DR: "while a new jail in Nashville was still under construction, staff discovered missing keys and other anomalies. Surveillance footage eventually revealed that someone had repeatedly disguised themselves as a construction worker and entered the building many times. Inside, they hid weapons, tools, and escape items in walls and rooms around the facility."

NoSalt 8mo ago
Reminds me of the US Embassy in Russia that was built, by Russians, who embedded thousands of spying devices within the building itself. It took 27 years to build, then debug the building.
- csh0 8mo ago
  It’s all part of the game it seems. The US bugged the “toilet partitions” of the Russian embassy in D.C. during its construction[0] and the FBI built a tunnel under it for espionage purposes in the 80s[1]. [0] https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/CIA-RDP90-00965R000403370001-7 https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/CIA-RDP90-00965R000... [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20100514112651/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1985-09-24/news/0330170179_1_soviet-embassy-mount-alto-new-soviet https://web.archive.org/web/20100514112651/http://articles.o...
peddling-brink 8mo ago
And it was the person both least, and most suspected.
- IAmBroom 8mo ago
  It's always someone you either do or do not suspect!

xvxvx 8mo ago

Leaving keys etc. I could understand as a political statement, but loaded guns? Madman!

pavel_lishin 8mo ago
He gives a reason for doing so, although the article points out that his reason is suspect.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 8mo ago
  More like the sheriff is butthurt at the explanation, even were it proven true he wouldn't be able to accept it as such. Though, Friedman also does have a touch of the narcissim thing going on, in that he enjoys it that Hall says "he can't be understood".

pavel_lishin 8mo ago

> Friedmann’s infatuation with the game had continued after he moved to Nashville, becoming so intense that his psychologist stipulated in the terms of his parole that, along with being kept from weapons, he be prevented from playing fantasy games such as D. & D. Now that's ... that's weird.

brendanfinan 8mo ago
cruel and unusual
- OJFord 8mo ago
  Or fitting and flexible? I don't think we can really say without being experts in psychology and the case ourselves, but as a general principle I think I like it for not being a heavy stamp with the usual mould, there was undeniably consideration of the particulars even if someone else would reach a different conclusion.
Verdex 8mo ago
"Its not a fantasy game, it's far future dystopian post apocalyptic implied hyper technical ethereal augmentation science fiction." "Very clever sir. But Im aware of what dark sun is. You'll have to come with me."
RyanOD 8mo ago
Should have banned him from playing Top Secret.
scottLobster 8mo ago
To be fair, he sounds a little more intense than your average player: "A psychologist concluded that Friedmann suffered from dysthymia, today known as persistent depressive disorder, and schizoid personality disorder, writing that he showed “indifference to social relationships and a restricted range of emotional experience and expression.” He also had a tendency to “blur fantasy with reality.” Friedmann was convicted of armed robbery and attempted murder"
8mo ago

hollywood_court 8mo ago

I thought this was going to be about someone that wanted to go to jail in order to receive meals and/or healthcare. But this article was far more interesting.

butterbomb 8mo ago
> I thought this was going to be about someone that wanted to go to jail in order to receive meals and/or healthcare. Tbf, there’s probably an easier way to achieve that goal that involves much less serious charges than breaking into the jail lol.
- hollywood_court 8mo ago
  I'm sure there are. One of my mother's husbands — she had four, all cops — loved to tell the story about arresting a man outside of a Zippy Mart on Virginia Loop Road in Montgomery, AL. The cashier called 911 and told them that a man had robbed the store. When he pulled up he found the man sitting on the curb just waiting for him. He had pulled a knife and stolen one pack of Big Red chewing gum from the store. All because it was getting cold outside and he needed a place to sleep. And he also had a toothache that had been bothering him for weeks. So he hoped to see a doctor while he was in county jail.
  - qingcharles 8mo ago
    Out of all the places to be incarcerated, county jails in the USA have a pretty poor record on healthcare. They are run by the counties, not the states, and therefore it is open season on how they provide the services. Most [1] just contract to the lowest bidder private provider. These providers' jobs are to dispense the lowest amount of healthcare to the lowest amount of patients in order to maximize profits. Mostly providing only emergency care to those who are in immediate risk of death. Many also require the prisoners to use the funds provided by their family (for phone calls, letters, clothing, food etc) to pay to even put a medical request into the system in the first place. In terms of dental, most county jails will only do tooth pulls, not any other type of dental work. They will not try to save teeth at all. [1] some larger areas like Cook County have their own healthcare systems and can be somewhat more sophisticated and less constrained by monetary concerns

assimpleaspossi 8mo ago

One of the Peter Sellers films (Pink Panther?), he goes to prison to visit an inmate only to have the inmate take his identity, fake beard, moustache and clothes, and walks out of jail. This happens several times. In the very last scene, he's walking out of the jail, a smirk on his face, and tries to pull off his fake beard and moustache but it doesn't come off. "Good heavens! The wrong man has escaped!!"

TYPE_FASTER 8mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_the_Fox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_the_Fox I didn't know about about this film. Thank you!
- dylan604 8mo ago
  Aw man, I'm kind of jealous of you. To be able to go back and see Peter Sellers movies for the first time again would be amazing. My dad absolutely loved him, and I can still hear him cackling at his movies growing up. As a kid, they weren't very funny, but as an adult I now get it.
  - TYPE_FASTER 8mo ago
    I watched the Pink Pather movies with my dad growing up, and re-watched them with my son a year or two ago. Watching them with him was kinda like watching for the first time. He was so funny. I need to watch some of his other films.
    - js2 8mo ago
      If you've never seen Being There, put it at the top of your list.
      - MrFots 8mo ago
        Chauncey Gardiner
8mo ago

bstsb 8mo ago

fascinating article. while i certainly sympathise somewhat with Alex - it is clear his actions are at least in part a consequence of mental conditions - i can't help but feel like being caught wasn't his plan as the article seems to suggest, and he wanted chaos upon the prison's opening, as some kind of strange payback or revenge

pluralmonad 8mo ago
I like to think all of my actions are a consequence of my mental conditions.
- bot403 8mo ago
  Not a chance, all of our actions are disconnected from our mental conditions and have been pre-decided for us.
lukan 8mo ago
Partly agree, the hiding of his "escape kits" with weapons do not make sense if he wanted to be cought doing it. Because then they are removed (he knew of the camerss) and he would not get power from them, but be helpless again in prison (to be raped again etc.) So maybe there was a subconscious plan to get in prison after he prepared everything. Or maybe just a "insurance". Or maybe indeed a bigger plan, mass breakout, .. or having all those options. Being in prison shaped him. He tried to control it (one of his quotes are "placing the kits was therapeutic"). Or he was indeed just really insane and orchestrated a plot/game setting like in D&D. Might be a mix.

jareklupinski 8mo ago

> reëlection > reënacted whats with the ree-s in the article...

enmyj 8mo ago
that's the New Yorker signature style
- jareklupinski 8mo ago
  i thought jaywalking was the new yorker signature style :P
nerevarthelame 8mo ago
It's a diacritic marker that indicates how the word is supposed to be pronounced, with a syllable break on the marked letters - as though readers might get confused and think the word is pronounced "reel-ection" as opposed to "re-election." It's a pretty archaic practice, but The New Yorker persists. They have a lot of unusual stylistic preferences, like preferring the spelling "vender" over "vendor," which also occurs in this article. A more common example of the diaeresis would be the name "Zoë" - the "ë" indicates the pronunciation is "zoe-y" (2 syllables) not "zoe" (1 syllable). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)#English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)#English
- jareklupinski 8mo ago
  til, thank you! i guess it's important for them we all coöperate on pröper spek :P thought i was seeing this because some ebooks also have missing/poorly substituted ligatures for me
- irdc 8mo ago
  As a Dutch person, what’s interesting to me is how this exact rule applies to Dutch. Maybe that’s why I didn’t notice it while reading the article…
retrac 8mo ago

dogtimeimmortal 8mo ago

interesting article, though i probably would have skipped if not for a hand injury i'm dealing with. mentioned in the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_People_Play_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_People_Play_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Berne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Berne all i can think is the guy is nuts. why sabotage the new jail where you have a personal relationship with with the new sheriff and are supposedly making progress fixing all the problems with the old system? i don't know what i was expecting...

qingcharles 8mo ago
I don't know. I've communicated with Alex a few times over the last decade or so and he's always seemed one of the most rational, smart and pragmatic jail reformers I've ever know. He has always followed the legal path through the courts, even though it is often broken, trying to make it less broken for those coming behind. You can't see inside anyone's mind. What caused him to commit his original offense that got him locked up for a decade? It wasn't a crime of necessity, I'm sure. Most crimes aren't. A lot of people commit crimes because some untreated mental health issue which lowers their self control. Then followed by ten years he was locked up, who knows what damage that did to his psyche which lay undiscovered? edit: I've now read the rest of the article, and I knew nothing of the extensive mental health issues Alex suffers from

twohaibei 8mo ago

I recommend reading on "Witold Pilecki" - old story, but pretty fascinating.

deleted 8mo ago

[deleted]

mcswell 8mo ago

Otis Campbell was known for locking himself into the Mayberry jail.

runnr_az 8mo ago

Fascinating story... This was covered on the GoneSouth podcast as well: Part 1: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/274-gone-south-88714714/episode/s4e20-breaking-into-prison-part-269016410 https://www.iheart.com/podcast/274-gone-south-88714714/episo... Part 2: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/274-gone-south-88714714/episode/s4e21-breaking-into-prison-part-269520123 https://www.iheart.com/podcast/274-gone-south-88714714/episo... I assume this is following the podcast -> (new yorker / atlantic) article -> netflix doc pipeline. In a good way.

fmajid 8mo ago

Nowhere near as amazing a story as that of Witold Pileski, who broke into Auschwitz and back out, to reveal to the world the horrors that went on there. And ended up murdered by the Communist regime after the end of the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki