Free Escape by Paul Dowswell

with these keys, to torment the prisoners. Whenever he watched a guard lock or unlock his own door he tried to see as much detail as possible of the key that was being used.
    The more they planned how to get out of their seemingly impregnable prison, the more they realized there were some extraordinary lapses in security. During the day, prisoners were allowed open access to several parts of the prison, on routes which passed though several of the 10 doors to the entrance. Amazingly, keys were often left in the locks of these doors, only to be removed when the doors were locked at night. To steal a key would be too obvious, but the three men could certainly look at one, and even make an impression of it in a bar of soap, to be copied later.
    Some locks never did have keys left in them, but as their knowledge of lock mechanisms increased, Jenkin, Lee and Moumbaris were able to unscrew the lock from the door, or open it on the spot, measure the tumblers, and then put everything back in place. Amazingly, they were never spotted.
    One lock that gave them particular trouble was the one on the steel grill that made up the outer door on each of their cells. It could only be locked from the outside. But even this was not an impossible task. Each cell had an open window overlooking the corridor and between them the escapers made an ingenious cranking device from a stolen broom handle, and other parts found in the furniture workshop. The broom key took four painstaking months to perfect, and Moumbaris kept it hidden in several pieces in his cell.
    As their key collection grew they realized that many of the prison locks were very similar. They would find that one key they had would fit another lock, or would need only small adjustments to let it open another door. But the more keys they made, the greater became the problem of hiding them. As with any prison, cells were routinely searched. As far as the guards were concerned Jenkin, Lee and Moumbaris were all model prisoners and none of their cells was searched with any great thoroughness, but the three escapers still had to be very careful. Their keys were hidden in jars of soap powder or sugar, and some were even buried in the prison garden, wrapped in plastic bags, and placed under particular plants so the men would remember where to find them.
    The broom handle key

    Another vital element of the escape was the clothes they would wear. Pretoria Prisoners had a uniform, but the inmates were allowed to order “sportswear”, which the three duly did. They also found perfectly wearable jeans and T-shirts among the rags provided by the prison for the inmates to polish the floors.
    Hiding these clothes was far more difficult than hiding the keys. But in another stroke of luck, workmen came to repair a shower heater on their corridor and left open a cupboard door that was usually locked. The escapers unscrewed the lock, studied it to make a key, then returned it before a guard noticed it was missing. They now had a good place to keep their clothes and other escape equipment. It was especially handy, because if their things were discovered, the guards would not instantly know who they belonged to.
    When they started their escape they thought they had unlimited time to work on their getaway, but it slowly became apparent that this was not the case. When Jenkin first arrived at the prison he had smuggled in some money. They would need this when they escaped, but South Africa’s currency was set to change, and this money would soon be out of date.
    There were still problems to overcome. Near the front entrance of the prison was an electric door which was operated by a button in the night guard’s office. Opening this was going to present special problems. Also, there were two other doors they had not been able to get a look at – one to the corridor on their way to the prison exit, the other, the final outer door to the prison. These they would have to work out on the night of