Charles Taylor says U.S. helped him break out of jail

One of the biggest mysteries of former Liberian president Charles Taylor’s career is how, exactly, he managed to escape from a Massachusetts county jail in 1985. With Taylor now on trial for war crimes at the Hague, many hoped that his testimony might shed light on this mystery. Taylor addressed the matter today but his ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

One of the biggest mysteries of former Liberian president Charles Taylor's career is how, exactly, he managed to escape from a Massachusetts county jail in 1985. With Taylor now on trial for war crimes at the Hague, many hoped that his testimony might shed light on this mystery. Taylor addressed the matter today but his recollection of the events may have raised more questions than it answered:

One of the biggest mysteries of former Liberian president Charles Taylor’s career is how, exactly, he managed to escape from a Massachusetts county jail in 1985. With Taylor now on trial for war crimes at the Hague, many hoped that his testimony might shed light on this mystery. Taylor addressed the matter today but his recollection of the events may have raised more questions than it answered:

On the night of Sept. 15, 1985, he recounted Wednesday, a guard unlocked his cell at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility – where he was awaiting extradition to Liberia on embezzlement charges – and escorted him to a less-secure unit of the jail. Taylor then tied sheets together, climbed out an open window, and clambered over a fence before meeting two men he assumed were US agents, who whisked him to New York by car.

“I am calling it my release be cause I didn’t break out,’’ Taylor, 61, told his special war crimes court. “I did not pay any money. I did not know the guys who picked me up. I was not hiding’’ afterward.

The jail guard, he added, “had to be working with someone else.’’ 

The most popular conspiracy theory is that the C.I.A. helped him escape, a charge the agency vehemently denies. Liberian senator (and fellow war criminal) Prince Johnson repeated the theory in an interview with journalist Glenna Gordon for FP.

With Taylor revealing few specifics, it seems like the mystery will continue. 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

Tag: Africa

More from Foreign Policy

A photo collage illustration shows U.S. political figures plotted on a foreign-policy spectrum from most assertive to least. From left: Dick Cheney, Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, George H.W. Bush, Ron Desantis, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Bernie Sanders.
A photo collage illustration shows U.S. political figures plotted on a foreign-policy spectrum from most assertive to least. From left: Dick Cheney, Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, George H.W. Bush, Ron Desantis, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Bernie Sanders.

The Scrambled Spectrum of U.S. Foreign-Policy Thinking

Presidents, officials, and candidates tend to fall into six camps that don’t follow party lines.

A girl touches a photograph of her relative on the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian war in Kyiv.
A girl touches a photograph of her relative on the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian war in Kyiv.

What Does Victory Look Like in Ukraine?

Ukrainians differ on what would keep their nation safe from Russia.

A man is seen in profile standing several yards away from a prison.
A man is seen in profile standing several yards away from a prison.

The Biden Administration Is Dangerously Downplaying the Global Terrorism Threat

Today, there are more terror groups in existence, in more countries around the world, and with more territory under their control than ever before.

Then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez arrives for a closed-door briefing by intelligence officials at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez arrives for a closed-door briefing by intelligence officials at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Blue Hawk Down

Sen. Bob Menendez’s indictment will shape the future of Congress’s foreign policy.