一周后，特努托（Tenuto）安排他的一个兄弟来探望他，这样他就可以告诉他，我们需要一辆小车离开这。
在1947年2月10号的早晨，开始下雪了。一整天，雪下得非常大，我们都决定晚上尝试越狱。我们都已经割断了栏杆，并且用油灰和油漆恢复了原状。（囚室守卫，格林伍德，不是个坏家伙。因此被解雇了。根据守则的要求，他的职责是每天用锤子敲打栏杆进行检查。不管怎么说，这就是当时使用锤子的原因。自从我们进来他从来没有这么做过。这又是对他们保安系统的过分自信。）
凌晨一点钟，警卫从中心区域走进来，每半小时检查一次，拿着手电筒上下走动，然后又回到中心区域。
这是我们起床穿衣服的信号，在下一个检查时间前5分钟，我们拔出栏杆爬到钢门前。我把手枪给特努托。我们蹲下并等待着。我们穿着黑色的监狱的裤子，蓝色衬衫和薄薄的风雪衣。我还戴着一个棒球帽，在我玩手球的时候，一个隔离区的囚犯给我用于保护我的眼睛避免被阳光照射。
在晚上的那个时候，牢房和中心区域的灯光都有些昏暗。我们可以听到钥匙插入的声音。当门打开的时候，我们冲了过去。按照计划，我和斯宾斯在第一次袭击时压制两位守卫，这样特努托就可以通过缝隙冲出来，在5位狱警和副巡长行动前控制他们。整个过程近乎完美。其中一个守卫试图抓住门的一侧并关上门，但这纯粹是条件反射的行为。特努托成功地用自己的一只手指卡住，穿过并离开。
中心区域里六个守卫中有5个围绕在桌子周围，看着特努托冲过来，特努托挥舞着手枪，完全把他们吓呆了。我也会被吓呆的。即使没有枪，特努托也是个足够骇人的家伙。随即，他命令副巡长站起来和其他人排成一队。斯宾斯和我已经将那两个家伙完全控制住。他们完全吓坏了，根本不知道我们是否有枪。我冲他们大叫，好像我有枪一样，他们的反应看起来是相信了我的话。
当我们将他们全部控制后，我们命令他们在圆形大厅的正中心排成一队，远离其他所有物体。当他们排队时，从医院区域传来了敲门声。是吉米麦基（ Jimmy McGee），他的出现完全是意外。他对那天晚上我们正在进行的事情一无所知。为了保护他，我们威胁他如果不照我们说的去做，会有各种悲惨结果，然后命令他和其他狱警呆在一起。
特努托靠近桌子后做的第一件事就是从墙上拿那一圈钥匙。现在所有的事情都在控制之下，他吧手枪给我，然后去D区把克莱尼和艾肯斯（ Kliney and Aikens ）放出来。副巡长看上去非常不舒服，我很容易就猜出了原因。他因为带违禁品给囚犯而从东区（监狱）调到这里，你可以看到，他正在想谁会是那个带进那只枪的最大嫌疑犯。
关于我们要如何处理吉米麦基的问题得到了干净利落的解决。为了要去动力房，我们必须穿过B区，我们就把他锁在路上的一个空房子里。
就和麦基说的一样，两个梯子靠在地下室的墙上。每个大约21英尺长。就和他告诉我的一样，一卷铜线，就在工作台的抽屉里，钩子和绳子也在里面。
在我们出去前，我挑出体型和我最接近的守卫，命令他脱下外套和帽子。特努托和沃德龙照葫芦画瓢。这三个人和另外两个，然后被锁在小公用室里。还剩下两个守卫和副巡长。我告诉他们要带领我们出去到院子里。"我会给你指令，"我说，"你最好仔细听。如果事情出了差错，我们会把你们当做人质。如果发生枪击，你们会是首先爬上梯子的人。"除非是绝对必须，我不想把他们带在一起。离开他们，我们爬梯子的时候，我不想他们感到轻松，相比担心我们的逃跑，他们更愿意看到我们消失。
按照我的指令，他们将梯子扛到院子里；两个守卫走在前面，副巡长扶着后面。我们三个穿着制服紧紧跟在副巡长后面。克莱尼和艾肯斯（ Kliney and Aikens ）在加入我们前还要在地下室呆一分钟。
原文
211-212页
After a week, Tenuto arranged to have one of his brothers visit him so that he could explain to him that we needed a car to get out of there.
On the morning of February 10, 1947, it began to snow. It snowed very hard through the day and we all decided we were going to make the attempt that night. We had already cut our bars and put them back in place with putty and paint. (The cell guard, Greenwood, who wasn’t a bad guy, got fired over that. According to the book, it was his duty to check the bars daily by running a hammer over them. That was the excuse that was used, anyway. He had never done it once from the day we got there. The overconfidence in their security again.)
At 1:00 A.M., the guard came in from the hub for his semihourly check, went up and down with his flashlight, and then went back to the hub.
That was our signal to get up and get dressed. Five minutes before the next check was due, we pulled out the bars and crept up to the steel door. I gave the pistol to Tenuto. We crouched down and waited. We were wearing our black prison pants and blue shirts, and thin blue windbreakers. I was also wearing a baseball cap which one of the other inmates on isolation had given me to keep the sun out of my eyes while I was playing handball.
Both the cellblock and the hub were kept dimly lit at that time of night. We could hear the two guards coming down from the hub. We could hear the key grate in the lock. As the door swung open we flung ourselves through. The plan was for Spence and me to bull both guards back with our first charge so that Tenuto could shoot through the gap and cover the five officers and the captain in the hub before they could make a move. It worked very nearly to perfection. One of the guards did manage to grab the side of the door and try to slam it shut, but it was purely a reflex action. Tenuto was already through and gone. All he succeeded in doing was jamming one of his own fingers very badly.
Five of the six guards in the hub were grouped around the desk, and the sight of Tenuto charging down at them, waving a gun, completely immobilized them. It would have immobilized me, too. Tenuto was a menacing enough figure even without a gun. Immediately, he ordered the captain to stand up and get in line with the others. Spence and I already had our two guys well under control. Stunned as they were, they had no idea whether we had a gun or not. I barked at them as if I had one, and they acted as if they were taking my word for it.
When we had them all together, we ordered them to line up in the exact center of the rotunda, away from everything. While they were obeying, there was a tapping on the door from the hospital block. It was Jimmy McGee, and he was there by sheer accident. He didn’t have the slightest idea we were going that night. In order to protect him, we threatened him with all kinds of unpleasant things if he didn’t do exactly as he was told and then ordered him to join the others.
The first thing Tenuto had done upon reaching the desk was grabbed the ring of keys from the wall. Now that everything was under control, he handed me the gun and went down to D block to get Kliney and Aikens. The captain looked positively sick and I could very easily guess why. He had been transferred from Eastern for bringing contraband in to a few of the inmates, and you could see him thinking who was going to be picked out as the prime suspect for bringing in that gun.
The question of what we were going to do about Jimmy McGee was resolved quite neatly. To get to the powerhouse we had to go through the B block, and we locked him in one of the empty cells along the way.
Lying against the wall of the cellar, just as McGee had said, were the two ladders. Each of them about twenty-one feet in length. A spool of copper wire was in the bench drawer, just where he had told me. So were the hook and the rope.
Before we went out, I picked out the guard who was closest to me in size and ordered him to take off his coat and hat. Tenuto and Waldron did the same. Those three, plus two of the others, were then locked inside the little utility room. That left two guards and the captain. I told them that they were going to lead us out into the yard. “I’m going to give you your instructions,” I said, “and you had better listen very carefully. If anything goes wrong we’re taking you with us as hostages. If any shooting starts, you’re going to be the first ones up the ladder.” I didn’t want to take them with us unless it was absolutely essential. I did want them to feel so relieved when we started up the ladder without them that they’d be more pleased about seeing us disappear than worried about our getting away.
Following my instructions, they carried the ladders out into the yard; the two guards out in front, the captain holding up the rear. The three of us in uniform walked directly behind the captain. Kliney and Aikens were to remain in the cellar for one minute before joining us.