h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Robert Anton Wilson and robert Shea. in the Illuminatus! trilogy, discuss the case of bank robber John Dillinger, who had an uncanny knack for escaping from prisons. This really irritated the FBI, and Wilson/Shea suggest that eventually, rather than arrest Dillinger, the Feds bushwhacked him in the street and executed him out of hand just to make really sure the embarrasment was over.

On one level, Wilson/Shea are making the point that if any individual becomes enough of an intractable problem to government, that government will consider stepping outside its own laws and summarily dealing with the problem, even if it becomes a criminal entity in doing so. The only difference between the USA and the USSR is one of degree, as the USA might do occassionally what the USSR did habitually. But ALL governments can eventually be provoked to murder somebody who is enough of a problem to it.

On a different level, Wilson and Shea suggest that the real reason why Dillinger could get out of even jails boasted as "state of the art" or "escape proof" is that he had mastered the highest degrees of yogic consciousness - ie, trancendental meditation - and could voluntarily put himself into the fourth dimension, just for long enough to be able to pop out of it again in a place of his own choosing where the jail cell wasn't. (It is interesting to note that one "jailbreak" was acocmpanied by a witnessed massive flash of light that was initially taken to be associates blowing a hole in the outside wall. Also that science predicts any transition between dimensions would be associated with masive energy release in the form of light?)

Mental Health Warning: Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea should be read with a great deal of tongue-in-cheek, and with both belief and disbeleif temporarily suspended.