Andrew "Andy" Dufresne (born 1916) was an American banker wrongfully convicted of the murder of his wife, Linda, and her lover, Glen Quentin. Though Elmo Blatch was responsible for the murder, Dufresne's circumstancial proximity and initial motive led to his conviction on two life sentences and sent to Shawshank State Prison to serve his time.
There, Dufresne made friends with Ellis Boyd Redding and Brooks Hatlen, as well as a target of the prison gang known as the Sisters, who repeatedly attacked and raped him. He helped prison guard captain Byron Hadley with dodging the IRS, who then brutalized the Sisters leader, Bogs Diamond, and introduced Dufresne's banking expertise to the rest of the guards and warden Samuel Norton.
Dufresne became an accountant for Norton, laundering dirty money for the corrupt warden. He used his advantageous position to open the Brooks Hatlen Memorial Library for the prisoners, which also served as his office to work for Norton and the guard retinue. After discovering actionable evidence of his innocence from robber Tommy Williams, Dufresne told Norton, who organized Williams' death and ensured Dufresne's permanent incarceration.
Dufresne escaped his cell through a hole he was digging in his cell for nearly twenty years, before busting open a sewage pipe during a thunderstorm and escaping to freedom. With stolen clothes and books from Norton, he emptied Norton's accounts and revealed Norton's corruption, ensuring his downfall. Dufresne then fled the US to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, to become a hotelier. His friend Redding eventually joined him after violating his parole, and the two lived peacefully along the Mexican coast.