It’s a true story with blockbuster action movie written all over it, so it’s no surprise the story of a daring 1971 Mexican prison escape became a feature film — with some Hollywood embellishment — starring Charles Bronson.
The tag line in the trailer for the 1975 action film “Breakout” says it all: “Sentenced to 28 years for a murder he never committed, only two things could help him escape — a lot of money, and Charles Bronson.”
The plot involves an East Coast wealthy heir with alleged ties to the CIA who was wrongly convicted of murder and had been languishing in a Mexico City prison for years. A helicopter brazenly broke him out.
The origins of that chopper involve a paper bag filled with cash delivered to Casper, Wyoming.
Local businessman and former state Rep. Joe MacGuire was a 12-year-old standing next to his dad at the Casper/Natrona International Airport hangar he used in 1971. He saw the paper bag.
“It’s always been a fun story,” MacGuire said about the larger-than-life adventure. “Dad sold a helicopter. It’s not like any of us did anything special or anything.”
The Bell 47G2 helicopter with a supercharged Franklin engine and stretched bubble top to allow for more passengers was formerly owned by his dad, John MacGuire.
The elder MacGuire had become an accomplished pilot. He had served as a tail gunner on a B-29 in World War II, and by the late 1960s and early 1970s owned and operated a successful business that specialized in staking mineral claims.
The Bell 47G2 helicopter with an extended bubble and supercharged engine on the ground when it was owned by Natrona Services Inc. (Courtesy Joe MacGuire) 
The Bell 47G2 when owned by Natrona Services Inc. in the air. (Courtesy Joe MacGuire) 
The Bell 47G2 helicopter after it crashed during an attempt to bring supplies to Natrona Services Inc. workers in the Pinedale area. (Courtesy Joe MacGuire) 
Joe MacGuire’s parents, John and Mary MacGuire pose next to their airplane. (Courtesy Joe MacGuire) 
When Charles Bronson got ready to do production on the film “Breakout,” he called John MacGuire to talk. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Interest In Helicopters
His dad also wanted to learn how to fly helicopters, which would aid him in his business.
So, he bought the Bell 47G2 and had a pilot nicknamed “Chopper Chuck” Miller, who had flown helicopters for MASH units in the Korean War, teach him how to handle it.
Just as he was learning, his company had a project in Pinedale and two of the crew were using his parents’ horses as part of their work in a remote area. The two got caught in a freak snowstorm and the horses had no food and were stranded.
Knowing he wasn’t proficient to fly the helicopter yet, John MacGuire tried to reach “Chopper Chuck,” but he was unavailable. He recruited a backup pilot who had flown Huey helicopters in Vietnam.
They loaded the Bell with horse feed, hay and other supplies and flew from Casper to Pinedale.
As they were setting down, Joe MacGuire said the pilot landed into the wind as he was supposed to do, but at the last second swung the tail around — like he might have done showing off in a Huey.
But the Bell couldn’t handle the maneuver, and the helicopter tipped over, crashing the machine. His dad suffered a big cut on his face but was otherwise unhurt.
After being rescued and later hauling the helicopter back to Casper on a trailer, John MacGuire had the chopper fixed. Meanwhile, he bought a better helicopter and put the Bell 47G2 up for sale in the national Trade-A-Plane magazine.
During the summer of 1971, Joe MacGuire said his dad got a call from a guy in south Texas who asked him if the helicopter would stop and hover at an elevation of 8,000 feet and maintain altitude.
“Dad said, ‘On paper yes. We have the mountain (Casper Mountain) right here, you are welcome to come and test fly it,’” he said.
During that conversation they agreed on a price, but Joe MacGuire said he can’t remember what it was. Today, similar Bell helicopters can be bought for $170,000. An inflation calculator to 1971 would put the price likely in the $25,000 to $35,000 range.
Cash In A Bag
At an agreed-on date, the man showed up at the airport, and “Chopper Chuck” took the helicopter on a test flight to the top of Casper Mountain and back.
Back at the hangar, the man went into his dad’s office with a paper bag full of money.
MacGuire said he later learned the guy tried to haggle with his dad — which he noted was a very bad tactic. The man apparently pulled out more cash from his jacket to add to what was in the paper bag to provide the full price.
“So now dad’s in a very bad mood,” MacGuire said.
His father ordered his company’s foreman to keep an eye on the “Texan” while he and Joe went to then First National Bank with the cash to see if it was for real.
Joe MacGuire said his dad entered the office of Lloyd Fordyce, who served as vice president in 1971, told a quick story to Fordyce and asked him if the cash was counterfeit.
“He’s like, ‘Well, I’ve never seen a counterfeit dollar,’” Joe MacGuire said.
After he and some tellers examined the money, they told the senior MacGuire it looked to be real.
His dad told Fordyce that if the bank accepted the money, it was on them if anything turned up counterfeit.
Father and son returned to the airport and went to the FAA office as part of the process to get a bill of sale to legally show the chopper was sold.
The senior MacGuire tipped off the FAA official about the sale, told him the guy was paying cash and that he “might do something with this helicopter.”
“I’m sure in his mind, he (his dad) figured he was going to run drugs or something,” Joe MacGuire said. “That’s when the whole drug thing was really firing up.”
Joe MacGuire remembers the FAA official as being “dismissive.”
So, his dad returned to the hangar and told the Texan that the helicopter was his.
The man got into the helicopter, had a shaky takeoff, and headed south.
The Miami Herald on Aug. 30, 1971, speculated on Joel David Kaplan as being connected with the CIA. (Courtesy Newspapers.com) 
The Miami Herald published an extensive article about the prison break in its March 19, 1972 edition. (Courtesy Newspapers.com) 
The New York Times had a page 3 story on Sept. 6, 1971 about the jail escape. (Courtesy New York Times)
The News
When Aug. 18 arrived, John MacGuire was in Arizona on a job, and Joe MacGuire remembers he was in Rock Springs.
Their former helicopter was 50 miles from Mexico City in a region that had an elevation of 7,350 feet above sea level and landing in the courtyard of the Santa Martha Acatitla Prison, allegedly one of the most secure in the county.
The Bell 47G2 had been repainted in Mexico’s colors, but the registration number was the same as the day it left their Natrona Services Inc. hangar. The pilot wore a Mexican uniform.
Jumping onboard was an American named Joel David Kaplan, 42, along with his cellmate, Carlos Antonio Contreras Castro, a reported Venezuelan counterfeiter.
A page three New York Times story on Aug. 21, 1971, about the prison break reported that someone named Roger Guy Herschner of Glendora, California, piloted the helicopter.
“The helicopter was rented in Casper, Wyoming,” the newspaper reported.
The New York Times story said the helicopter was flown to a hidden airfield about 100 miles north of Mexico City where a small plane piloted by an Orville Dale of Brownsville, Texas, flew to Brownsville before Kaplan boarded another small plane and headed for Sausalito, California.
MacGuire said his memory of the pilot who showed up in Casper was someone “nondescript” who would be hard to identify.
A Conversation
Shortly after the helicopter escape, MacGuire said his mother received a telephone call from an FBI agent.
“So, this FBI guy calls up and kind of cops a little attitude with her. And she was big in the Republican Party,” he said. The agent asked to talk with her husband and she told him he was in Arizona on a job.
MacGuire said the agent said something like: “Yeah, we know he’s on a job, he’s breaking people out of a prison in Mexico.”
His mother set the FBI agent straight about her husband who was a decorated veteran and successful businessman and hung up the phone. She then made a phone call.
“I don’t know who she called,” MacGuire said. “But like an hour later the head of the FBI (from Washington) calls her, saying, ‘I’d like to apologize for my agent’s demeanor, but we would like to talk to your husband.’”
J. Edgar Hoover was the FBI director at the time.
When the FBI spoke with John MacGuire, his son said his dad laughed and told the agent that he had given the FAA representative a heads up about the transaction and that “I knew he was going to do something with that helicopter.”
Following the prison break, newspapers nationally dug into the story on Kaplan and his alleged ties to the CIA, as well as speculated about who masterminded the escape.
A UPI story published in the Panama City, Florida News Herald on April 18, 1973, quoted Kaplan as saying that his sister financed the operation for $200,000. He was interviewed as part of the promotion of a book about the incident titled “The Ten Second Escape.”
“It was my sister, and not the CIA that was responsible for the escape,” he said. Kaplan described the rescue as being set for 6:30 p.m. and the helicopter came in over the rooftop of a dormitory and landed.
“I jumped aboard and Castro right after me,” Kaplan was quoted. “The pilot introduced himself and we introduced ourselves and then we left.”
They flew a few miles to the awaiting Cessna 210 which took him to the U.S. border, where they landed. No charges were filed in the U.S. because no laws were broken.
A Movie
In 1975, Hollywood took the story, revised it to create more plot twists and drama and created the movie “Breakout.”
Charles Bronson was recruited to play a Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot named Nick Colton as its action hero. He was brought in to rescue a wrongly-convicted man played by Robert Duvall.
For the MacGuires, the movie added a new element to their story. As production of the film was launching, Bronson called John MacGuire. They ended up talking about their war experiences.
“It turns out that Charles Bronson was a B-29 gunner, just like my dad,” Joe MacGuire said. “He was on Guam, and I think my dad was on Saipan, but they flew a lot of the same missions and stuff.
“Dad was shot down on his 25th mission. Charles Bronson made all 25 and he was the real deal. … They struck up a little telephone friendship.”
When the movie “Breakout” was released, MacGuire said his parents wouldn’t let their kids see it because it was rated PG and not a Disney movie. He thinks his dad went.
The 1971 incident remains something that comes up in family gatherings from time to time. MacGuire said it is just a “coattail” connection, but the incident represented an historic “first.”
“It was the first time a helicopter had been used to break somebody out of prison,” he said. “There have been copycats since then.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
