More on the Kaplan Caper

Fans of Mission: Impossible or The Great Escape could best appreciate the precision planning and bold execution of the Joel Kaplan caper (TIME, Aug. 30). Consider the facts: an American serving a murder sentence in Mexico was plucked from behind the walls of a heavily guarded prison, transferred to a light plane, then flown across the U.S. border to the safety of an unknown hideout. Amazing, just amazing. Even more amazing, if one can believe Kaplan's Mexican lawyer, is that his brilliantly engineered escape from Santa Marta Acatitla prison last month was all done quite legally.

Unquestionably, the plot was carried out with punctilious regard for legal niceties. Kaplan was whisked away by helicopter while all but a handful of prison guards were watching a movie. Not a shot was fired, or a paving stone displaced, when the whirlybird swooped into Santa Marta Acatitla. In addition, the helicopter used in the escape was bought (for more than $25,000) rather than leased. The purchase was apparently a precaution against being accused of theft by the leasing company when the helicopter was taken over the border into Mexico. The single-engine Cessna used to complete the break was also purchased--and paid for in full with a cashier's check. Both planes carried the proper identifying numbers required by the Federal Aviation Administration.

After the jail break, the Cessna landed at Brownsville, Texas, to check in with U.S. Customs. Pilot Victor E. Stadter and Kaplan gave their correct names to customs officials, thus avoiding a charge of having entered the country under assumed identities. Proper flight plans were put on record with airport authorities, and Kaplan flew off toward California. He has not been heard from since.

Feeling Better. Despite recurring rumors that Kaplan was an employee of the CIA (the agency denies it), his escape reveals a fine legal mind at work as surely as it does the hand of a swashbuckler. One plausible reason given for his escape was that Kaplan had to be returned to the U.S. in order to draw on a multimillion-dollar trust fund. As it happens, the celebrated and ingenious San Francisco lawyer Melvin Belli now has power of attorney over Kaplan's one-third share of the trust fund. Kaplan's sister is a friend of a lawyer in Belli's firm; she' is believed to have been instrumental in making this arrangement.

Kaplan remained out of touch reportedly somewhere in California--under treatment for illnesses contracted during his nearly ten years in prison. According to his Mexican lawyer, Kaplan has reason to feel better. His escape, the lawyer claims, was perfectly legal since jail breaks are a crime in Mexico only if violence is used against prison personnel or property or if prison inmates or officials aid the escape. Mexican authorities disagree, insisting that the use of accomplices--the pilots, in Kaplan's case--makes the escape illegal. However, Mexican officials have not yet initiated extradition proceedings against Kaplan or his partners, who seemed to have pulled off a practically noncriminal crime.

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