The Escape from the most guarded prison of the world – The Alcatraz

By the year of 1962, there had been 12 escape attempts from the America’s most secured prison, The Alcatraz ! All of the 12 attempts had failed, so the government concluded that they had finally made a prison that no one can ever escape !

The Alcatraz prison was constructed on an island away from San Francisco. If someone tried to escape he would have to cross high concrete walls, armed guards and finally, they would have to swim across ice chilling water against the waves to get to the land and still it would take more than 10 hours. This last barrier made it impossible for the prisoners to ever think of escaping it.

But then in 1962, knowing that no one has ever escaped, 4 men still tried to escape from this prison. Did they make it? Were they able to cross the walls of concrete and swim all the way across the waters to land?

Year, 1962

Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, Allen west and Frank Morris were given adjacent cells in the prison. After being locked up, Morris started to plan an escape from the very first day. He took in Clarence, john and Allen into his plan and started formulating a way out of prison. Finally this mastermind came up with a master plan of escape.

Clarence Anglin and John Anglin

Clarence Anglin and John Anglin were two brothers that had a criminal background. They robbed banks to steal money. Both of these brothers were good swimmers.

Frank Morris

Frank Morris on the other hand was a mastermind, he had a high IQ level of 133.

The Escape

So Morris was the planner of the escape. Over period of 6 months they devised the plan. The plan was to widen the ventilation ducts present in their cells. The ventilation ducts were too small for them to pass through. So with the help of spoons, saw blades and a drill that was made from the fan of vacuum cleaner, they started to put their plan into practical.

This was a noisy work, so Morris covered it up with the voice of his accordion that he used to play in nights. When the hole widened, it looked like a mess and was easily noticeable. So Frank solved this problem by covering the hole with the cardboard colored to match the paint of wall. They knew they would reach the utility tunnel through the duct.

The next thing was to make sure that they could survive the water waves. Over period of months, They made a raft with 50 raincoats that they had stolen. They also made lifejackets from Raincoats.
Another most interesting thing they used was Dummy heads made from cement, painted them with skin color, and used human hairs for heads.

The Day Of Escape

So after 6 months, they day of escape came, june 11, 1962. When they had to go through the duct, Allen west wasn’t able to get the card board aside as the cement stuck it hardly with the wall. He was left behind.
Remaining three went into the ventilation tunnel, from where they proceeded to the roof. Roof was being looked out by the Tower Lights. A mistake would have cost them their lives.

Then they came down through kitchen ventilation pipe which was 50 ft. High. The next barrier was that of the walls. They jumped two fences 12 ft high which were covered with barbed wire. At last, they were in the blind spot. A place where no light reached and no one was able to see them.

This was the last chance, if they were caught, they would have to spend rest of their lives in prison.
At that point, they inflated the rafts, and the life jackets, and threw them into the water. The police found the Dummy heads in the prison next day and started search operation. Nothing was found except a paddle and a tattered rain coat near the beach.

Did they really make it?

The search operations and investigations that were carried out lead to nothing as no evidence regarding their death or being alive was found. After many years of investigations, in 1979, the investigations came to an end. The FBI wrote in their papers that they died even though no evidence of their death was ever revealed.

Repeated sightings of the prisoners were reported in Brazil, but FBI didn’t find any of the prisoners.

The Letter From The prisoner

It was in 2013, when FBI received a letter. The letter was from John Anglin, one of the 3 prisoners who escaped Alcatraz. In this letter, he told that his name is John Anglin and that he and his brother clarence anglin along with the man Frank Morris were able to made it out to the land. He further wrote that he is 83 years old and he has cancer. He also wrote that he was living in USA.
FBI didn’t take it much seriously, and thought that it was a scam.

So, Did the prisoners really make it? What do u think?