A Byte Out of History - Escape From Alcatraz

A Byte Out of History
Escape from Alcatraz

06/08/07

Aerial view of Alcatraz Island, January 1932.

In its heyday, it was the ultimate maximum security prison.

Located on a lonely island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz—aka “The Rock”—had held captives since the Civil War. But it was in 1934, the highpoint of a major war on crime, that Alcatraz was re-fortified into the world’s most secure prison. Its eventual inmates included dangerous public enemies like Al Capone, criminals who had a history of escapes, and the occasional odd character like the infamous “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

In the 1930s, Alcatraz was already a forbidding place, surrounded by the cold, rough waters of the Pacific. The redesign included tougher iron bars, a series of strategically positioned guard towers, and strict rules, including a dozen checks a day of the prisoners. Escape seemed near impossible.

Despite the odds, from 1934 until the prison was closed in 1963, 36 men tried 14 separate escapes. Nearly all were caught or didn’t survive the attempt.

The fate of three particular inmates, however, remains a mystery to this day. Here is their story, which played out 45 years ago this month.

* * * *

Side view of model head found in Frank Morris’s cell.

Missing. On June 12, 1962, the routine early morning bed check turned out to be anything but. Three convicts were not in their cells: John Anglin, his brother Clarence, and Frank Morris. In their beds were cleverly built dummy heads made of plaster, flesh-tone paint, and real human hair that apparently fooled the night guards. The prison went into lock down, and an intensive search began.

John Anglin	Clarence Anglin	Frank Morris

Homemade paddle recovered at prison. A similar one was recovered on Angel Island.

Gathering the Clues. We were notified immediately and asked to help. Our office in San Francisco set leads for offices nationwide to check for any records on the missing prisoners and on their previous escape attempts (all three had made them). We also interviewed relatives of the men and compiled all their identification records and asked boat operators in the Bay to be on the lookout for debris. Within two days, a packet of letters sealed in rubber and related to the men was recovered. Later, some paddle-like pieces of wood and bits of rubber inner tube were found in the water. A homemade life-vest was also discovered washed up on Cronkhite Beach, but extensive searches did not turn up any other items in the area.

Piecing together the plan. As the days went by, the FBI, the Coast Guard, Bureau of Prison authorities, and others began to find more evidence and piece together the ingenious escape plan. We were aided by a fourth plotter who didn’t make it out of his cell in time and began providing us with information. Here’s what we learned.

View from catwalk above Cell Block B showing route prisoners took to access the roof of Cell House	Ventilator cover on roof. Agent points to “bolt” made of soap that disguised that the real bolt had been removed.

The escape. On the evening of June 11, they were ready to go. The prison informant, though, did not have his ventilator grill completely removed and was left behind. The three others got into the corridor, gathered their gear, climbed up and out through the ventilator, and got on to the prison roof. Then, they shimmied down the bakery smoke stack at the rear of the cell house, climbed over the fence, and snuck to the northeast shore of the island and launched their raft.

45’ high bake oven chimney stack used by prisoners to descend from roof of Cell House to lower level.	Lower right corner of picture shows the area from which the prisoners likely entered the water to escape.

What happened next remains a mystery. Did they make it across the Bay, get to Angel Island, and then cross Raccoon Strait into Marin County as planned? Or did the wind and waves get the better of them?

Solving the mystery. Plenty of people have gone to great lengths to prove that the men COULD have survived, but the question remains: did they? Our investigation at the time concluded otherwise, for the following reasons.