OCTAVIUS

The Plan  The FBI were aided by Allan West, who didn't make it out of his cell and began providing them the details. The men concealed their absence while working outside their cells—and after the escape itself—by sculpting dummy heads from a hand-made paper mixture of soap, toothpaste, concrete dust, and toilet paper, and giving them a realistic appearance with paint from the maintenance shop and hair from the barbershop floor. With towels and clothing piled under the blankets in their bunks and the dummy heads positioned on the pillows, they appeared to be sleeping.  They also assembled a six-by-fourteen-foot rubber raft, the seams carefully stitched by hand and sealed with heat from nearby steam pipes. Paddles were improvised from scrap wood and screws. The Escape   On the night of June 11, 1962, after all the preparations were made, the men began planning. West found that the cement used to reinforce the collapsing concrete around the vent had hardened, narrowed the op