35 years on, Florida's Houdini may be nearing end of 4-year jail term

Mechanically-obsessed Mark DeFriest was left some tools in his dad's will. He lacked the patience to wait for the will to be read though, and helped himself to those tools. His stepmom reported him to the police and eventually (because he fled) he was caught and sentenced to four years in jail.

35 years on, he's still there, in a Florida jail. DeFriest has tried to escape so many times, he's become known as 'Houdini'. Each attempt has resulted in another jail term,and so it's gone on. A filmmaker who made a program about him says he believes DeFriest has autism but is a genius; 'a savant'. He cites an escape attempt where DeFriest managed to make a key to open cells just by glancing at the shape of the key held on a warden's belt.

This week though, Florida's parole commission has bumped his release date from 2085 to March 2015. So next year could finally see the end of the 'everlasting' four-year jail sentence!

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/18/florida-prison-houdini-chance-freedom

I watched a story about this man and a few others on television. I thought it was fiction. I knew it was supposed to be about some unusual cases but when this story was being told I thought it was fiction.
When the documentary "The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest" does come out I will watch it. People with extra-ordinary talents and skills sometimes end up with their abilities working against them and it destroys their lives.