Bourke had smuggled a walkie-talkie to Blake to communicate with him while in jail. On 22 October 1966, Blake broke a window at the end of the corridor where his cell was located. Then between 6 and 7 p.m., while most of the other inmates and guards were at the weekly film showing, Blake climbed through the window, slid down a porch and made his way to the perimeter wall. There, Bourke, who had been released from the jail earlier, threw a rope ladder over the wall. Blake then used it to climb over the wall and they drove off to a safe house. During the escape, Blake fractured his wrist jumping from the perimeter wall, but apart from that it all went according to plan.