Forty-five years ago today, Charlie Wilson, one of the masterminds of the Great Train Robbery, broke out of prison. He spent the next four years of his life on the run from the law. Most of the stolen money was never recovered.

True crime is a popular genre that offers "reads like a novel" appeal with the added bonus of being non-fiction. What happens to the baddies from those stories after the heroes ride off into the sunset? Enter the prison story.

Sometimes written by the prisoner, sometimes by writers collecting the stories of those incarcerated, the prison tale gives us an insider's view of the "inside."

More interesting, perhaps, are the stories of those who escape. Like Charlie Wilson, the people who manage to break out of prison or otherwise evade the law always fascinate. Stories of daring escapes from Alcatraz or Wild West gunmen prove interesting long after their ferocious protagonists are gone.