In the early 1980s, a series of escapes earned Mark DeFriest the nickname Prison Houdini.
In 1979, DeFriest was a 19-year-old mechanic living in a rural area outside of Tallahassee. Then he was arrested for stealing his own tools -- the tools were inherited from his father, but DeFriest took them before his father’s will had gone through probate. His stepmother called the police, and DeFriest fled. That began his decades-long odyssey behind bars.
Since childhood, DeFriest was known as a savant who could build or fix anything, but he wasn't so good with people. Even though a series of psychiatrists found DeFriest to be mentally incompetent, he went to jail and kept coming up with clever ways to get out. Many years were tacked onto his prison sentence, and he would have likely died in prison if the parole commission hadn’t stepped in. His escapes – and impending release -- are chronicled in "The Mind of Mark DeFriest."
The documentary hits theaters in New York and Los Angeles on March 6. It opens in theaters across Florida on March 13. The movie will air on Showtime on March 19.
The film's release comes as Florida lawmakers consider legislation that would provide added protections for inmates, particularly those who suffer from mental illness.
Director Gabriel London spoke with us from New York.
Describe Mark DeFriest for us.
He is, first and foremost, an incredibly intelligent person who, in a way, is interested in pushing the limits of humor. At the age of five and six years old, he was able to rebuild clocks and watches. He was incredibly interested in building new things, and that mechanical mind that he has is the thing that allowed him to become a great escape artist in prison. But there’s also a flip side to his great mechanical mind, which is a real deficit in understanding emotional cues from people.
He had no trouble breaking free from a straightjacket and leg irons. He later turned a toothpaste tube into a zip gun. He wound up in solitary confinement in a tiny cell in total darkness. He had no clothes, no mattress, no sheets, no toiletries, no eating utensils, no running water. How long did that go on?
In the specific case that you mention at Bay County Jail, Mark was held for 11 days in a dungeon cell where he was denied the basics of life. This is well documented.
How many times did he escape over the years?
We document seven successful escapes, and it is said that he made 13 attempts. That’s where you see somebody who was really being punished for the symptoms of his mental illness.
As we were making the documentary, we went back to some of the old characters in Mark’s story. For example, Dr. Berland, who said Mark was faking mental illness and paved the way for his long sentences. In the film, [Berland] comes back and says, "I want to do a new report on Mark, I want to understand how this guy ended up spending so much time in prison." We went through and actually figured out that Mark spent 27 of the last 34 years in solitary confinement.
We had a series of parole hearings, where the commission decided to reduce his parole date by 70 years. What’s complicating about this is that there are still remaining sentences that Mark has that are parole ineligible – one for marijuana possession, one for contraband possession – that will keep him in prison potentially for up to four more years.
I think he very much wants to come back to society and have another shot at it.
