Shawshank Was Almost Real

Check out Michael Miller's article at the Washington Post titled, "‘Shawshank’ prison escape ends 56 years later with cinematic stakeout." 

In 1957 Frank Freshwaters was a 20-year-old Ohio bad boy.  On a July night, he hit and killed a pedestrian while speeding.  He was given 20 years, but the sentence was suspended.  However, he got back behind the wheel of a car, and so he went back to prison in 1959.  He landed in the Ohio State Reformatory.  

Now, track with this: The Prison closed and became the set for the 1994 Stephen King classic, "The Shawshank Redemption."  

Freshwaters secured a transfer to a nearby “honor camp,” and disappeared in 1959.  (See the link for the rest of the story.)