Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Escaped From Prison 5 Times - The Michel Vaujour story

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

This is the story of Michel Vaujour, the French man who escaped from prison 5 times.

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Yep, on Carvana. Just put in the license plate, answered a few questions, got an offer in minutes. Easier than setting up that new digital picture frame. You don't say? Yeah, they're even picking it up tomorrow. Talk about fast. Wow. Way to go.

So, about that picture frame. Ah, forget about it. Until Carvana makes one, I'm not interested. Car selling made easy. On Carvana. Pick up these may apply. So this French guy, his name's Michel, and Michel has successfully broken out of prison five different times until, well, you'll see.

So Michelle's pretty good at busting himself out of prison. Like once he snuck out by hiding in a delivery truck, another time he scaled the wall with one of those ropes made of bedsheds. Bro is a pro at this. He's like the McGiver of prison breaks. But then one day, it all changes. Because while he's a fugitive on the run, he meets this woman, Nadine. And Nadine, she's a bit of a turd herself. She's got a criminal record too.

And she thinks Michelle is foin't. And they hook up and they fall in love and they live a life where they have to move around the countryside a lot so that Michelle doesn't get caught. But eventually, they run into a big problem. They're out of money. And Michelle can't just go get a regular job. he's a fugitive on the run. So he's like, guess I'll just start robbing places. And so he starts robbing places and people,

and soon enough, police catch up to him and they bust him. So he goes to prison for like the fourth time in his life. And he and Nadine actually get married while he's in prison. And I'm sure it was a beautiful ceremony. But he's not there long before he gets a crazy idea to bust himself out again. And one day he gets a bar of soap and he carves it to look like a pew-poo. And he paints it black with shoe polish. Which, I got to say, carving a believable firearm out of soap, that's actually pretty impressive.

But anyway, then he has to go to court for a hearing. And while he's there, he pulls out his fake soap pew-poo, and he threatens to shoot everyone in the room. And by doing this, he's able to escape prison yet again. And honestly, at this point, I'm like kind of cheering for him. Oh, but it's not over. Because then, Michelle and Nadine, they run off and they hide out in the countryside for about two years. And unfortunately, that's when they run into another big problem. Nadine is pregnant.

And if you know anything about babies, babies aren't cheap. So again, they need money to live and to raise this kid. And Michelle is like, well, guess I got to go rob some more places. Because as clever of a guy as he is, I guess he just doesn't know how to do anything else. So he's got to steal shit. And of all the places he could rob, he chooses a bank, a heavily guarded bank. So he goes to rob this bank. And during this robbery, it's all chaos.

And it all goes wrong. And police show up, and he ends up shooting a police officer. And so he gets caught and he's sent back to prison again. this time with an even longer sentence. Oh, but you know, Michelle, he's not going to stay in prison for long before he tries to escape again. And it takes a few years, but eventually he and Nadine, they come up with a plan to bust him out.

And this plan is wild. In fact, it's probably the craziest prison break story I've ever heard. So first, Nadine goes, and she gets helicopter flying lessons from an instructor. And she takes these lessons, and after a few months of dedication, she passes the exam. and she legitimately gets her helicopter pilot's license. And this is an actual photo of her sitting in a helicopter during a lesson.

And apparently she's a decent student. She actually ends up being pretty good at flying. So then one day she goes to visit Michelle in prison and she low-key slips him a note. This note tells him to meet her on the roof of the prison on the morning of May 26, 10 a.m. And Michelle's like, all right. Now to get on the roof of the prison, Michelle is going to need to create a distraction. So he and his prison buddy, this guy, Pierre, they steal a bunch of nectarines from the prison cafeteria, and they paint them to look like

grenades. Like I said, bro is the MacGyver of prison breaks. But anyway, then the big day finally comes, May 26th, 10 a.m. And just before this, Nadine, with her new pilots license, she goes and she rinse a helicopter. And she and an accomplice, fly about 19 miles to Paris proper and they hover the helicopter over the prison. Meanwhile, inside, Michelle, he hears the approaching helicopter outside. So he and Pierre, they pull out their fake nectarine hand grenades and they're like, we're going to blow this whole place up if you guards don't back off. And to the guards, these look like real grenades.

So they listen and they back away. And Michelle and Pierre, they make their way up to the roof. And then they bust out and they see Nadine's helicopter is hovering there above them and she throws a rope down and Michelle he starts to climb up it and Nadine's accomplice he pulls out a pew-poo to cover Michelle while he climbs up and believe it or not there are actual photos of all of this going down and like you can see Michelle there hanging from the helicopter and all the prisoners down below are cheering him on like yay go Michelle I mean this is all just entertainment to them like one of their fellow inmates is busting out how could they not cheer them on

Anyway, so Michelle gets into the helicopter, and the guards are closing in. And Nadine, she panics, and she pulls away, and she flees. And poor Pierre is still standing there. And he's like, oh, sacri-blue, as the guards tackle him. They left Pierre behind so that they could get away. Imagine being Pierre and doing all that work to orchestrate a prison break. And then that prison break is successful, but your partner's in crime, panic and they accidentally leave you behind that poor guy. So anyway, further away, Nadine lands

the helicopter in a soccer field nearby and the three fugitives, they abandon it and they flee. And so they're out now, which means that once again, Michelle has successfully escaped from lockup. But then, about four months go by and French police, they're able to track Nadine down and bam, they arrest her. And she gets 10 months in prison. Which to me, 10 months seems a little light for the crazy stunt they just pulled, but whatever, they caught her. Meanwhile, Michelle doesn't get caught. He's still hidden, and he goes and he tries to rob yet another bank, and during the robbery, police show up, and there's this whole big shootout, and then, kaboon.

An officer shoots Michelle right in the head. Now, lucky for him, he actually survives, and he's in a coma for a while, and he's paralyzed on a while, and he's paralyzed on, one side of his body, but eventually he recovers. And that's when they send him to a maximum security prison, which is probably where they should have sent him four prison breaks ago. But regardless, over time, he and Nadine end up getting a divorce. And while he's in this prison, this woman on the outside, her name's Jamila, Jamila, she starts riding him. And they become pen pals, and eventually they fall in love. Now, the crazy thing is, she also ends up trying to break him out. And not only does she try to break him out, but she tries to break him out roughly the same way

that Nadine did all those years before with a helicopter. So Jamila hijacks a helicopter by sticking up the pilot, and she has him fly them to Michelle's new prison. But they don't even get close to the prison. The plan fails, and Jamila's arrested, and she gets seven years. Meanwhile, Michelle, he serves his sentence. He spends 17. years locked up, he never successfully escapes from prison again, and he actually got out legally in 2003. So he's out now, and here's what he looked like in... This episode is brought to you by Greenlight. You can't solve every case for your kids, but with Greenlight, they'll have the instincts and money skills to stay out of trouble.

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