How much has Dearborn Heights changed since then? That would make a story in itself I’m sure. A lot of reconstruction in some of the circa 70’s neighborhoods between Ford Road and Michigan Avenue (US 12).
I remember this story from when I was 13. I knew he was a criminal, but didn't realize how daring the escape was. Big news for our little town of Sidney.
I worked with Rich Jackson at the University of Michigan Survival flight. He never mentioned the flight. But others told me about it. I was missing all the details you mentioned in the video. Thank you for the video.
I always look forward to these Sunday morning videos! This is an interesting story. I'm surprised the guards didn't try and shoot to disable the helicopter.
I remember this story well living in Ingham Co. just north of Jackson Co.. As I recall, the escape was such a surprise that it caught the guards completely ‘off guard,’ no pun intended. They weren’t sure what was actually happening. Going off memory, after the escape, cables were placed across the yard to prevent another landing, as well as training protocols instituted. This was a national story but obviously had a tremendous local focus.
My Uncle,Leonard Soltis Jr.,was a guard at Jackson Prison,he just died this month,Oct. 4th 2024. He told me this story, and I read it in the paper (I always read the crime stories then).I was ten years old in 1975.
Any great escape or adventure that ends up in a bar is a good day! As long as you are on the good side of the law that is!!!! Great information, Great video! Thank you for sharing!
Oh man I would have saved you a spot for breakfast had I known you were in town lol.. Great video I drive by there all the time by old school house and the big house
That actually reminds me of an old case on America’s Most Wanted… a female con artist named Anita Raughton. I want to say she was from Michigan as well?
I like the transcript as well as the video. Well done. Both in watching some of the past videos that you’ve done one thing I would say is that you need to play your guitar more. Also, you can tell Poppins has a teachers spirit whenever she speaks. What a team! keep it up.
I didn’t know that prisons had trustees? They must have been short timers incarcerated for minor felonies if they were allowed outside the walls. I thought trustees were only in the jail system.
@@bondpit8750. As kids, we have climbed the orchard trees and picked apples while some trustees were doing the same thing a few trees away. The SMP Trustee program was stopped, ruined by one walking away and committing murder. There's always a few spoiling things for the many.
Seriously you guys produce the most entertaining content around michigan that makes us all hungry for more. Thank you for the video and for sharing your knowledge. I can’t wait till the next one.
I remember hearing part of the story when I was young. However fast forward now I teach in Leslie and have eaten at the Crossroads bar several times and never knew the connection. Thank you for the information.
I started work at Jackson prison in 1976. I am a good shot so a few of us got training on shooting down helicopters. We had high power rifles with armor piercing ammunition. Takes me back. I was also there for the 81 riots. That is a long story.
I was a C.O. in Jackson (Cotton Facility) for a short time in the late 90's. I've never heard of "training for shooting down helicopters". The only time I touched a firearm was in the academy. Our Transport officers had firearms but no-one inside the walls had firearms (no tower officers). My father was a C.O. in Jackson (Central Complex) during the time of Remling's escape and was also there during the 81 riots. I remember him not being able to come home for several days during the riots. I see MDOC named a 2012 graduating class of C.O.'s after Dennis Straub. I'm surprised he was celebrated after what happened to C.O. Josephine Macallum. JMHO
@@BobSchaar During your time working at Jackson there were no CO’s in the towers? I had never heard of what happened to Josephine Macallum in 1987 but I wasn’t living in Michigan at the time. Her rape and death was obviously was a tragedy but illustrates the lunacy of placing female corrections officers inside a male faculty. Or, for that matter on patrol as a law enforcement officer, especially without a male backup. I’ll also extend that to military combat positions. JMHO.
@@bondpit8750 No Sir, no officer in the towers when I working in Jackson. As for Macallum's story, which one do you want to hear? The story that was released to the media, or the story of what really happened? I'll just say that there are two sides to every story, and Ms. Macallum's story is no different. I don't know how some people sleep at night. Somewhere at home I have a copy of the official investigation and it is gruesome.
@@bondpit8750. Exactly. We go to war to Protect our women, not to put them at such risk. The United States is falling in character and paying the price.
Great storytelling from both of you, I enjoyed every part of the video and you captured the feeling of the area so well. I grew up near here and was in the Jackson county jail and their new jail next to this old prison. When I was younger I would always ride my motorcycle through here and I still do. Its amazing to think years ago that guy dale was getting off a helicopter making his way to freedom
I grew up in Webberville where Morris and a few of the others were from. I was 9 and remember all the talk when this took place and some of my family knew those involved in the incident. Hog rustlers! 🤣
My girlfriend and I want to my dad's back acre to load my canoe during the middle of the day. I heard a helicopter hovering low on the other side of a hill, past a wooded area, and mentioned it to her, wondering what someone was doing. Later I learned of the escape, and realized the pilot had been waiting for the right moment to head for the eastern wall. But that story isn't as exciting as the time, about 19 years earlier, when I was 4, when 13 escaped from the same Southern Michigan Prison and entered the house next to ours, tied the family to the couch, and hurriedly left driving our neighbor's car. That was in the early 1950s and within, I believe, 8 hours all had been captured. I believe a movie was made of it. I don't think it is the 'Jacktown' movie tho, which is also about Southern Michigan Prison, 3/8 mile from (then) our house.
I was on my 500 Kawasaki turning the corner at Bunkerhill and Meridian roads, on my way to Dansville to see my girlfriend when the helicopter was landing in the yard of an abandoned house on the corner. I didn't see any vehicles but the helicopter. I wondered what the heck a helicopter was doing there as I kept going north on Meridian rd.
I spent the winter of '74-'75 in Largo, Fl, (near Clearwater). I was 20, and had a good friend on the next block about my age and we hung out and partied, etc. One night, he introduced me to a guy he knew who worked at a local restaurant, and he started hanging out with us. He went by the name of Rogue... My only transportation was a motorcycle, and at some point I mentioned I had to return to Ohio soon, as the weather was getting warmer, this was in May, maybe. When Rogue heard this, he tried to get me to take him north with me, said he absolutely had to get up north, and he would pay me big to do it. I didn't like the idea in the first place, but I was getting a weird vibe on top of that, and I politely declined. Two or three months later I was in Ohio, reading Newsweek magazine, and there he was.....Morris Colosky, the guy who hijacked the helicopter at knifepoint and got caught. I don't know how many years he did for that, but I was grateful for not getting into that deal in any way. It was a great lesson in trusting that inner voice.
Mom was inside the prison visiting one of my brothers Jolin Conn got pulled over and spilled her guts no one had car trouble. They were using rented cars. A few things aren't correct. But that's how it goes. We lived it. And heard the story over and over...
If you're thinking about trying this again, don't. This is now a strict no fly zone. You'd have a better chance of buzzing Air Force One and surviving than flying into a Federal Prison.
My mom planned it. Gertrude was his girlfriend she married him when he was finally released in 1981. He was a scamp he robbed her and took off never seen my step dad again. It's shameful destroying many childrens lives. I know the story.
And earlier it was named Southern Michigan Prison. I've driven by the sign hundreds of times. I remember my dad speaking about the name change from Southern Michigan Prison to the present name. I don't find accurate info online, it is errant. We lived 3/8 mile away as the crow flies and we still live close to that address. It is certain it was Southern Michigan Prison, SMP, until sometime fairly recently, but I can't say when.
Yes ove been there many times I grew up 5 mole north on N .Meridian rd. Pleasant lk. Your story is good, but some of your facts are incorrect. I was 15 at the time. I remember it all very well
These types are all gone now for the most part. If you caught them they were penitent, not impenitent. They knew what they did was wrong but was always, "catch me if you can" and if you did they went down in style with a smile! After being locked up they felt it was fair play to try the fence so to speak. Just being themselves. When caught again they'd give up knowing how futile it would be to carry on verbally or resist physically. The Game was up and they accepted that. I think he's be appalled at the way these criminals act today.... MONSTERS, BEASTS, EVIL AND ROTTEN TO THE CORE
I remember this event. Seeing it on the news. I was 15 living in Dearborn heights
How much has Dearborn Heights changed since then? That would make a story in itself I’m sure. A lot of reconstruction in some of the circa 70’s neighborhoods between Ford Road and Michigan Avenue (US 12).
The true stories you guys find are better than most that are made up.
Thanks for taking us along on your adventure!
Thanks Steve!
I remember this story from when I was 13. I knew he was a criminal, but didn't realize how daring the escape was. Big news for our little town of Sidney.
I worked with Rich Jackson at the University of Michigan Survival flight. He never mentioned the flight. But others told me about it. I was missing all the details you mentioned in the video. Thank you for the video.
I lived in Jackson for a few years. I heard this story a few times, pretty cool to see it covered on your channel.
Reach out next time you’re in Jackson - I’m a few blocks from JXN. 🙂
Never heard this story and I grew up in Montcalm County. Thank you for sharing a most interesting story.
Great coverage of the helicopter escape. Another great presentation by the Restless Viking.
I always look forward to these Sunday morning videos!
This is an interesting story. I'm surprised the guards didn't try and shoot to disable the helicopter.
I remember this story well living in Ingham Co. just north of Jackson Co.. As I recall, the escape was such a surprise that it caught the guards completely ‘off guard,’ no pun intended. They weren’t sure what was actually happening. Going off memory, after the escape, cables were placed across the yard to prevent another landing, as well as training protocols instituted. This was a national story but obviously had a tremendous local focus.
0:37 🙌😅 Rod Sterling would have been proud of that intro!
🚁 And great details on a story I'd nearly forgotten! Hard to believe! 😎✌️
😂😂😄
Serling.
@@Whuffagowie That’s ‘Sy Sperling’ to you sir! Seriously, until I saw your comment and looked it up, I always thought it was ‘Sterling’. 👍🏻
TY Chuck and Poppins, that was a really cool story!
My Uncle,Leonard Soltis Jr.,was a guard at Jackson Prison,he just died this month,Oct. 4th 2024.
He told me this story, and I read it in the paper (I always read the crime stories then).I was ten years old in 1975.
RIP Leonard Soltis Jr.
I absolutely love your channel....the bestest adventures out there!!
Thanks LadyYoop!
You betcha eh!~
@@RestlessViking
I'm from Sydney and I never heard this story
Our shop and studio aren't far from you. After publishing this today, we've heard from a lot of neighbors who remember it.
Ahhh my Sunday is complete! We really look forward to your videos! Great story, thanks Chuck and Poppins!😊
Any great escape or adventure that ends up in a bar is a good day! As long as you are on the good side of the law that is!!!! Great information, Great video! Thank you for sharing!
😂😂 Indeed!
Oh man I would have saved you a spot for breakfast had I known you were in town lol.. Great video I drive by there all the time by old school house and the big house
Great storytelling!
The Helicopter animation was amazing. Great video!!
😂😂Thanks a bunch!
I remember watching the videos of this as a kid 😅 I remember thinking he had to have paid off the gaurds.
Uttering and publishing could describe Remling's bad checks AND the overuse of a thesaurus! Great story!
That actually reminds me of an old case on America’s Most Wanted… a female con artist named Anita Raughton. I want to say she was from Michigan as well?
Great content as always! You two should have way more followers.
Agreed! 🤣😂. We're just lucky we have a little time to do it. And lucky we have any followers. 😁
I like the transcript as well as the video. Well done. Both in watching some of the past videos that you’ve done one thing I would say is that you need to play your guitar more. Also, you can tell Poppins has a teachers spirit whenever she speaks. What a team! keep it up.
Great video!!!!!
Being born and raised in northern Michigan thank you for your uploads. Absolutely love the content. Keep it up.
At one time Jackson was one of the largest prisons in the U.S. My father worked there for years teaching trustees a trade. I was raised in Leslie too!
I think it was the largest walled prison in the world.
@@RestlessViking 57.5 acres inside the walls. I was a yard officer in there for years.
I didn’t know that prisons had trustees? They must have been short timers incarcerated for minor felonies if they were allowed outside the walls. I thought trustees were only in the jail system.
@@RestlessViking.
It was.
@@bondpit8750.
As kids, we have climbed the orchard trees and picked apples while some trustees were doing the same thing a few trees away.
The SMP Trustee program was stopped, ruined by one walking away and committing murder. There's always a few spoiling things for the many.
Seriously you guys produce the most entertaining content around michigan that makes us all hungry for more. Thank you for the video and for sharing your knowledge. I can’t wait till the next one.
Glad you enjoy it! And thanks for hanging around!
Jackson resident here .
Great story from our little prison City 😂 only aircraft escape I ever heard of 👍🏻
Thank you two so very much! I love what you two do and always waiting for the next adventure you all bring us on!
Thanks for watching!
Never stop uploading you two adorable goofs ❤
I remember hearing part of the story when I was young. However fast forward now I teach in Leslie and have eaten at the Crossroads bar several times and never knew the connection. Thank you for the information.
I started work at Jackson prison in 1976. I am a good shot so a few of us got training on shooting down helicopters. We had high power rifles with armor piercing ammunition. Takes me back.
I was also there for the 81 riots. That is a long story.
My brother was inside too
I was a C.O. in Jackson (Cotton Facility) for a short time in the late 90's. I've never heard of "training for shooting down helicopters". The only time I touched a firearm was in the academy. Our Transport officers had firearms but no-one inside the walls had firearms (no tower officers). My father was a C.O. in Jackson (Central Complex) during the time of Remling's escape and was also there during the 81 riots. I remember him not being able to come home for several days during the riots. I see MDOC named a 2012 graduating class of C.O.'s after Dennis Straub. I'm surprised he was celebrated after what happened to C.O. Josephine Macallum. JMHO
@@BobSchaar During your time working at Jackson there were no CO’s in the towers? I had never heard of what happened to Josephine Macallum in 1987 but I wasn’t living in Michigan at the time. Her rape and death was obviously was a tragedy but illustrates the lunacy of placing female corrections officers inside a male faculty. Or, for that matter on patrol as a law enforcement officer, especially without a male backup. I’ll also extend that to military combat positions. JMHO.
@@bondpit8750 No Sir, no officer in the towers when I working in Jackson. As for Macallum's story, which one do you want to hear? The story that was released to the media, or the story of what really happened? I'll just say that there are two sides to every story, and Ms. Macallum's story is no different. I don't know how some people sleep at night. Somewhere at home I have a copy of the official investigation and it is gruesome.
@@bondpit8750.
Exactly. We go to war to Protect our women, not to put them at such risk. The United States is falling in character and paying the price.
I have always heard about this tale. First time I ever heard someone try to recreate it! Good job!
Oh, the hamburgers at Huffy's Bar in Leslie, Michigan. Good times!
Great storytelling from both of you, I enjoyed every part of the video and you captured the feeling of the area so well. I grew up near here and was in the Jackson county jail and their new jail next to this old prison. When I was younger I would always ride my motorcycle through here and I still do. Its amazing to think years ago that guy dale was getting off a helicopter making his way to freedom
Thank you very much!
Should have sent him to MARQUETTE!
What a great story! Thank you for sharing sharing it!
Great story
I grew up in Webberville where Morris and a few of the others were from. I was 9 and remember all the talk when this took place and some of my family knew those involved in the incident. Hog rustlers! 🤣
😂😂
Love the way you guys tell these stories. Merry Christmas to you.
Merry Christmas!
Imagine being another prisoner watching the guards reaction to having just watched all this take place
I had no idea this happened in Michigan.
Nice videos. I would give it 2 cool points.
ONLY TWO?!?!?!?! Hey Todd!😂😂
I was a sophomore in a small, southwestern Michigan town, about one and one half hour’s drive from there. I cannot remember this.
Great Story!
Dale, was my Dad. Get in touch if you want to know more about Him.
No way! Thanks for commenting. I'd love to chat sometime.
Your Dad married my grandmother, Gertrude. I remember meeting him. His Leather artwork was impressive.
Great vid
I’m sorry he got caught.
For out-of-staters, Jackson is our version of Riker's.
If his taste for freedom was so insatiable he should have stayed out of prison.
My girlfriend and I want to my dad's back acre to load my canoe during the middle of the day.
I heard a helicopter hovering low on the other side of a hill, past a wooded area, and mentioned it to her, wondering what someone was doing.
Later I learned of the escape, and realized the pilot had been waiting for the right moment to head for the eastern wall.
But that story isn't as exciting as the time, about 19 years earlier, when I was 4, when 13 escaped from the same Southern Michigan Prison and entered the house next to ours, tied the family to the couch, and hurriedly left driving our neighbor's car.
That was in the early 1950s and within, I believe, 8 hours all had been captured. I believe a movie was made of it. I don't think it is the 'Jacktown' movie tho, which is also about Southern Michigan Prison, 3/8 mile from (then) our house.
My mother worked at this prison then she was a nurse she ran inmates on the dialysis machine
I was on my 500 Kawasaki turning the corner at Bunkerhill and Meridian roads, on my way to Dansville to see my girlfriend when the helicopter was landing in the yard of an abandoned house on the corner. I didn't see any vehicles but the helicopter. I wondered what the heck a helicopter was doing there as I kept going north on Meridian rd.
Cool!
Is this the first or even the only such escape?
I spent the winter of '74-'75 in Largo, Fl, (near Clearwater). I was 20, and had a good friend on the next block about my age and we hung out and partied, etc. One night, he introduced me to a guy he knew who worked at a local restaurant, and he started hanging out with us. He went by the name of Rogue...
My only transportation was a motorcycle, and at some point I mentioned I had to return to Ohio soon, as the weather was getting warmer, this was in May, maybe. When Rogue heard this, he tried to get me to take him north with me, said he absolutely had to get up north, and he would pay me big to do it. I didn't like the idea in the first place, but I was getting a weird vibe on top of that, and I politely declined.
Two or three months later I was in Ohio, reading Newsweek magazine, and there he was.....Morris Colosky, the guy who hijacked the helicopter at knifepoint and got caught. I don't know how many years he did for that, but I was grateful for not getting into that deal in any way.
It was a great lesson in trusting that inner voice.
WOW! Thanks for sharing that!
Luigi Mangione is next!!!!!
Gertrude, my grandmother told me about her part in this not to long ago. She must be the girlfriend that had car trouble 🤣
Mom was inside the prison visiting one of my brothers Jolin Conn got pulled over and spilled her guts no one had car trouble. They were using rented cars. A few things aren't correct. But that's how it goes. We lived it. And heard the story over and over...
I agree. I lived on Meridian rd. In 1975
If you're thinking about trying this again, don't. This is now a strict no fly zone. You'd have a better chance of buzzing Air Force One and surviving than flying into a Federal Prison.
Another addition of #mybrotheriscoolerthanyours
My mom planned it. Gertrude was his girlfriend she married him when he was finally released in 1981. He was a scamp he robbed her and took off never seen my step dad again. It's shameful destroying many childrens lives. I know the story.
Pretty sure our license plates still come from there too.
Just checked, they moved the license plate factory to the Adrian prison.
yes the plates are made in adrian. i worked at the prison there.
Your vocabulary is outstanding. Don't let anyone mock you.
Thank you, sir! Honestly, I rarely hear anyone mock me unless it is in good humor.
Morris kozlowski some of the story is right Gertrude Woodbury was his girlfriend my mother
The correct name of the institution is the State Prison of Southern Michigan... NOT the Jackson prison
there are other prisons in jackson also.
The armory@@bradbradshaw-i4n
And earlier it was named Southern Michigan Prison. I've driven by the sign hundreds of times.
I remember my dad speaking about the name change from Southern Michigan Prison to the present name. I don't find accurate info online, it is errant. We lived 3/8 mile away as the crow flies and we still live close to that address. It is certain it was Southern Michigan Prison, SMP, until sometime fairly recently, but I can't say when.
@@Youkon604. The Armory is within a different prison, long ago abandoned and replaced by Southern Michigan Prison, SMP.
Yes ove been there many times I grew up 5 mole north on N .Meridian rd.
Pleasant lk. Your story is good, but some of your facts are incorrect. I was 15 at the time. I remember it all very well
so for want of a more reliable girlfriend, he could'a been a successful politician---------------
😂😂
These types are all gone now for the most part. If you caught them they were penitent, not impenitent. They knew what they did was wrong but was always, "catch me if you can" and if you did they went down in style with a smile! After being locked up they felt it was fair play to try the fence so to speak. Just being themselves. When caught again they'd give up knowing how futile it would be to carry on verbally or resist physically. The Game was up and they accepted that. I think he's be appalled at the way these criminals act today.... MONSTERS, BEASTS, EVIL AND ROTTEN TO THE CORE