Escape
The true story of the only Westerner ever to escape from Thailand's Bangkok Hilton
by David McMillan
Klong Prem prison, Thailand. The “Bangkok Hilton”, where 600 foreigners among the 12,000 inmates of
this walled prison city also wait and rot. Among the tragic, ruthless and forgotten, one man resolves to do what no
other has done: escape. This is the true story of drug smuggler David McMillan's perilous break-out from Asia's most
notorious prison.
From his arrest at Don Muang airport, to awaiting trial inside Klong Prem, he provides
an insight into the lives of the British, Australian, American and other Western prisoners as they are destroyed by
disease, neglect and despair. Death is their only way out. Two weeks before a near-certain death sentence McMillan
escaped, never to be seen in Thailand again.
David McMillan was once one of Australia's most notorious drug
traffickers. He began his drug-smuggling career following a trip to India in his twenties; it was a vocation that would see him
mastermind a heroin-smuggling syndicate worth millions of dollars and plan numerous escape attempts from prisons around the world.
He was ruined in the 1980s by a major arrest, the death of his wife and a long prison sentence. While on remand he was charged with
attempting to escape by helicopter using SAS personnel. Following his arrest in Thailand and subsequent infamous escape from Klong
Prem maximum security prison, David continued to undertake risky adventures until retiring to London in the late 1990s, where he now lives.
“Once McMillan puts his daring plan into place, the action rips along like a thriller . . . breathtaking stuff” News of the World, UK
“Gripping” Zoo Weekly, UK
“This is one of the world’s most notorious—and remarkable—heroin traffickers: Melbourne man David McMillan. Despite still being on the run, McMillan has written a book, Escape, about … his amazing breakout in Bangkok” The Australian
“The jailbreak was straight out of a movie” The Age, Australia
“The book is exceptionally well written … Escape begs to be made into a movie” Pattaya Mail, Thailand
“Reads better than any thriller” Stephen Leather, bestselling author of Private Dancer, Soft Target and Cold Kill
“Drug trafficker David McMillan … spent two years plotting his escape from a Bangkok jail” BBC
“Inmates at HMP Erlestoke near Devizes, Wilts [UK], can borrow books from a catalogue including Escape by David McMillan, which describes how he broke out of Thailand’s ‘Bangkok Hilton’ prison” The Telegraph, UK
“In the style of Howard Marks—the international drug dealer who became a best-selling author—McMillan is touting a book about his prison escapades. The book, entitled Escape, is selling well in Asia” London Evening Standard, UK
“David McMIllan is better known as ‘the only Westerner to have escaped the notorious Bangkok Hilton’ … his story, Escape, has been selling well throughout Southeast Asia” The Nation, Thailand
