ESC ESC ESC doesn't quit debugger

[Per Starback]

In GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i386-redhat-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2002-09-18 on tempus
configured using `configure  i386-redhat-linux --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/usr 
--bindir=/usr/bin --sbindir=/usr/sbin --sysconfdir=/etc --datadir=/usr/share 
--includedir=/usr/include --libdir=/usr/lib --libexecdir=/usr/libexec 
--localstatedir=/var --sharedstatedir=/usr/com --mandir=/usr/share/man 
--infodir=/usr/share/info --with-gcc --with-pop --with-sound'
Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: sv_SE.ISO8859-1
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_US.iso885915
  locale-coding-system: iso-latin-1
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

1. emacs -q
2. f o o C-j
   I am put in *Backtrace* with
   "Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-variable foo)"
3. ESC ESC ESC

Result: I'm still in *Backtrace*, now with 
   Debugger entered--Lisp error: (error "Cannot return from the
   debugger in an error")

Expected result:
I expected keyboard-escape-quit to get me out of the recursive edit.

Additional comment:
If you are a beginner who has entered the debugger by mistake, for
example by typing "C-x C-e" by mistake, then the *Backtrace* buffer
will only make you confused. There is no immediate information in it
how to exit from it.  Hopefully beginners have learned about ESC ESC
ESC to get rid of "strange" stuff, which is why I think it's a problem
that doesn't work here.

Maybe eval-last-sexp should be disabled?

Versions:
This is in 21.2.95 as well.

[this bug report is based on a real story]