An Australian prisoner escaped so many times the government had to build a special cell to hold him.
He was Western Australia's best known bushranger, a term which referred to runaway Australian convicts or criminals who had the survival skills to hide from authorities in the Australian bush in the 1800's.
His first charge was for burglary, which earned him a sentence of penal servitude for ten years. For good behavior, he got off after only five years in 1855. In 1861, Joe was put in a lockup overnight for horse theft (branding a horse that wasn't his), but escaped on the same horse he had stolen.
He was caught the next day, but had killed the horse and destroyed the evidence, which meant he only was sentenced to three years in prison for jail-breaking. He left jail in 1864. The next year, he was accused of killing a neighbor's steer, and was put in another ten years of penal servitude.
He professed his innocence, and displeased with the sentence, he escaped. He was on the run for a month, but was ultimately caught and sentenced to twelve years in irons. He escaped again, and he and his gang performed several small robberies until they decided to travel to South Australia.
They were caught on the way there, and Moondyne Joe was given a special escape-proof cell and an additional five years of hard labor. The governor was so confident of the arrangement that he told Joe if he escaped, he would be pardoned. Joe was put to work breaking stone in a corner of the prison yard, but because the broken rock wasn't regularly removed, a pile grew until Joe could hide behind it and start breaking at the wall of the prison.
In 1867, he escaped. Two years later, he was caught stealing wine, but instead of being pardoned like promised, he was put back in jail and had his sentence increased. The new governor heard of this, and reduced his sentence. He was freed in 1871.
