Quick lift to liberty

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33816, 12 April 1975, Page 10

Quick lift to liberty

The 10 Second Jailbreak. By E. Asinof, W. Hinckle and W. Turner. Michael Joseph. 268 pp. N.Z. price $7.90.

It has taken three authors to compile the almost incredible story of what must be the swiftest gaolbreak in history. The escape is of such complexity that a coherent narrative must have presented some difficulty to gather. Joel Kaplan was a millionaire, who acquired his wealth in some fairly questionable ways, including gunrunning. Until his trial and conviction in Mexico for the murder of his partner Luis Vidal (who, incidentally, was seen alive three days after his unrecognisable body had been found) he had been engaged also on sugar deals with Castro’s Cuba. Kaplan’s activities had made him powerful enemies in the C.1.A., and, more significantly an opponent of his own uncle, Jack Kaplan, a multimillionaire with interests in molasses. Indeed, it is not necessary to look further than the well-laid plans of his uncle for an explanation of the nineyear captivity of the younger Kaplan in Mexican gaols. For three years Joel tried vainly to get his conviction quashed. His thoughts then turned to the possibilities of escape. Aided by a faithful sister who spent in all $250,000 in bribes, Joel spent six more

years in fruitless attempts to secure his freedom, the bribes being accepted but never honoured.

The fact that Vic Stadter (an honest smuggler) was of different stuff from these sordid schemers was eventually to procure Joel’s (modified) freedom. Vic’s plan, made with the connivance of two other almost equallv resourceful young men, was to land a helicopter in the courtyard of Acatitla, a tight-security prison where Joel was imprisoned in 1971, pick him up in a matter of 10 seconds, and whisk him to freedom across tire United States border before the hue and cry could overtake them. The accomplishment of this impossibly daring feat makes by tar the most exciting reading in the book. For the rest it is a picture of a complex world of illicit fortunes in which bribery is the commonplace language of almost any transaction, complicated by cynical doublecrossing, and a total absence of the tenet that there is honour among thieves. Though Joel Kaplan is now back in the United States the danger of extradition still hangs over him. But with powerful friends and a great deal of money at his disposal it seems unlikely that he will have to suffer further for a crime which an abundance of evidence suggests he did not commit.