Picking a Prison Lock
Picking a Prison Lock: Basic Instructions by Ian McColl. ISBN 0-9581319-3-7.
Picking a Prison Lock (PAPL) is a ground breaking manuscript by Ian McColl, “The Jimmy Collins of the modern day escapologist.”
Until now the closest thing we’ve had to the realm of legitimate prison escape was David De-Val’s, “Jail Escape: The Real Secret,” which was 80% David’s history trying to figure out Houdini’s method with the remainder a lackluster overview on “how to.”
This manuscript is nothing but technical information on the how’s, why’s and what happens as a result.
To begin this is not aimed at beginners (the second manuscript in the series is) you truly have to know what a prison lock looks like inside and out and be able to recreate the picture in your head. Next you need to have the fundamentals of picking a lock down to a near science.
Ian helps the first part of the process with pictures and definitions of the cell lock both inside and out. The rest, while well written, gets bogged down in locksmith lingo and the reader can become easily lost in all of the information. I have a background in locksmithing and still had to read the manuscript four times before I could grasp what was what and why.
NOTE: I have had the opportunity to get to know Ian a little and he is an advocate of using proper terminology. I give him credit for not allowing a term change or being shortened. This is the reason for the vast amount of terms that we may otherwise know as something else which may, as I said, seem to bog the reader down if not familiar whit the terms provided.
That being said this is NOT for the beginner as I can see you giving up before you even start to grasp the beauty of this escape. So if you have the knowledge needed but have no idea where to go from there, this manuscript is for you.
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