5 Months To Escape. 1 Second To Fall

In July 2003, inside the notorious Elmira Correctional Facility—known to inmates as "Hellmira"—two convicted murderers, Timothy Vail and Timothy Morgan, were executing one of the most audacious prison escapes in American history. Instead of digging a tunnel or sawing through bars, the pair spent five grueling months hacking their way up through a steel-reinforced concrete ceiling using smuggled tools and sheer desperation. They hid their progress in plain sight with ingenious disguises, including painted cardboard to cover the hole and lifelike dummy heads made of plaster and real human hair to fool the guards during nightly headcounts, creating a plan that seemed destined for Hollywood.

But while their ascent was a masterpiece of manipulation and engineering, their descent would prove to be a catastrophic failure. After finally breaching the roof and tasting the night air for the first time in years, the duo faced a terrifying four-story drop that hadn't been fully accounted for in their meticulous planning. This is the unbelievable true story of a real-life Shawshank redemption attempt where a brilliant scheme collided with a brutal reality, leaving investigators stunned by how they pulled it off—and shocked by the disastrous twist that ultimately decided their fate just outside the prison walls.





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