Actually, it was Woody Allen in the movie "Take the money and run" which carved a gun out of a bar of soap. The escape attempt was almost successful until they entered the courtyard where it was raining heavily.
Apparently this scene was based on a real escape attempt by one Charles Makley which did indeed carve a gun out of soap and paint it black with shoe polish. He was however gunned down by prison guards, so the attempt was not successful.
If that is true, then I got words for the police officer who gave the lecture. I really hate when people teach me things that turn out to be myths. I've never seen the movie. I doubt I would have transposed the story.
Please read about Kim Peek - that guy read two pages simultanenously while retaining 98% of the content. He had the content of around 12.000 books in his memory and could recite every page after reading it once.
He was the inspiration for the movie. But he wasn't very happy and felt trapped in his brain because no one was able to have meaningful conversations with him. Poor guy.
Reason for his insane memory is that the connection between the left and right hemisphere of his brain is missing. This means that all the information get saved because the filters aren't working properly.
Apparently this scene was based on a real escape attempt by one Charles Makley which did indeed carve a gun out of soap and paint it black with shoe polish. He was however gunned down by prison guards, so the attempt was not successful.