ALCATRAZ Prison ESCAPES... The 1962 Papier-Mache Ruse!! DID THEY SURVIVE??? Photographic PROOF!!!
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| The first man to attempt an escape from Alcatraz, Joseph Bowers |
The first man to make such an attempt was Joseph Bowers, who was serving a 25-year sentence for stealing about 16 dollars from the Postal Service. In April of 1936, Bowers was feeding birds next to a chain link fence when he suddenly began climbing it in attempt to scale it. He ignored the guards who yelled at him to stop until they finally shot at him, resulting in him falling 50 feet. He died from the injuries sustained in the fall.
The second attempt turned out very differently and this was the first time inmates left the island and were never found. Theodore Cole and Ralph Poe were a pair of convicted bank robbers who had attempted prison escapes before, causing them to be transferred to the maximum security Alcatraz in 1936. On December 16th, 1937, as a thick fog swept through the bay area, they made their move. They used tools from their prison job converting old tires into rubber mats to cut the iron bars of a window and force open the gate, escaping to the beach and into the waters.
They were never found but officials quickly presumed them dead due to the ebb tides which were around 7-9 knots, strong enough to sweep even a professional swimmer out into the Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, the water was at a near freezing temperature and the dense fog made it impossible to even see what direction they were swimming. They almost certainly drowned and other than few tips and rumors that led to nothing, there was never an indication that the two had escaped Alcatraz with their lives. However, they were the first to make it off the island and never be found.
Since Cole and Poe, 33 more prisoners made the attempt to escape the dreaded island. On May 23rd, 1938, three inmates killed a prison guard with a claw hammer and ended up on the roof of the prison, where two were shot – one fatally - and the other forced to surrender.
The next year, a group of 5 prisoners made it all the way to the shore and were working on a makeshift raft when a prison guard spotted them and opened fire, killing one and forcing the rest to surrender. Henri Young and Rufus McCain were among the 5 prisoners and were sent to solitary confinement. Eleven days after their release, Young murdered McCain, possibly because he blamed him for the failed escape. During Young’s trial, many of the brutal and inhumane techniques used in Alcatraz came to light.
The escape attempts continued and in 1941, a man named John Richard Bayless actually made it to the water, but quickly gave up the attempt when he realized he would never make it to the city. In 1946, an all-out battle took place when six prisoners including Bernard Coy, who planned the operation, overpowered the guards and took over the weapons room. They released a dozen more prisoners from their cells, locked up some of the guards, and took others as hostages as they attempted to make it to the shore in order to take a boat that arrived daily around 2:30 in the afternoon to San Francisco. Unfortunately for the prisoners, the key to the yard gate failed because the lock was jammed from trying the wrong key too many times. Some prisoners went back to their cells, but others including Coy were not going to give up and decided to shoot it out. The battle lasted 3 days as the prisoners took a nearly impregnable position on top of a cell block. The Marines had to assist the guards, using tactics they learned in WW2, in order to drive the remaining 3 inmates into a corner where they were eventually killed by repeated gunfire. 14 Guards were wounded and 2 were killed.
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| Bernard Coy |
While the Battle of Alcatraz was certainly the most violent escape attempt, the most fascinating and mysterious might be the one that was most likely to have been successful, the June 1962 Alcatraz Escape Attempt, an extremely well-planned and intricate attempt by four prisoners – Frank Morris, John Anglin, Clarence Anglin, and Allen West. Frank Morris was an extremely intelligent career criminal who had earlier escaped from the Louisiana State Penitentiary and enjoyed a year of freedom before being recaptured during a burglary attempt. John and Clarence Anglin were brothers who were experienced at swimming in cold waters, growing up near Lake Michigan. They were arrested, along with a third brother, Alfred, in 1958 during a bank heist. All three were sent to the Atlanta Penitentiary but after repeated escape attempts, John and Clarence were sent to Alcatraz. The fourth prisoner involved in the escape was Allen West, another career criminal who had been arrested over 20 times. He was sent to Alcatraz after attempting to escape Florida State Prison, where he was doing time for grand theft auto.
The four men were locked up in adjacent cells and, with Frank Morris as the leader, began to plan their escape about 6 months before the actual attempt. The planning was meticulous. They were able to fabricate an electric drill out of a vacuum cleaner motor along with a special housing to mute the noise. They sharpened spoon handles to help penetrate cell walls and widen the ventilation ducts, created a flashlight out of penlights, and used any objects they could get their hands on to assist in the escape. They also concealed the noise by working during “music hour,” as Morris played his accordion. In order to prepare for the escape, they had to spend more time out of their beds than was allowed. This was done by sculpting paper-mache hand made dummy heads with a mixture of soap, toothpaste, concrete dust and toilet paper. These heads were placed on their pillows with towels and clothing piled up under the blankets to represent their bodies, and the heads would not only allow them to prepare for the escape, digging a tunnel out of their cells during the evening, but would also give them much needed time during the actual escape as no one even realize they were gone until hours afterwards. To conceal the excavation work, they placed painted paper mache boards over the top. The guards were none the wiser.
The decoy heads were created with the most important touch of all – real human hair. They used real hair, threading it carefully and gluing it to the dummy heads to create heads just realistic enough to fool the guards as they performed the count during the night. A typical guard wouldn’t take more than a quick glance as they counted the heads of over 200 prisoners multiple times throughout the night. Every evening, the four inmates placed the decoy heads in their beds in a months-long effort to tunnel their way out their cells. Once successful, they made their way to top level of the cellblock, where they continued to prepare, not rushing the escape. They built life preservers, based on information Morris read in Popular Mechanics. The magazine also helped them build a 14-foot rubber raft, stitching it carefully by hand and sealing it with liquid plastic from the prison shops. They also constructed paddles. Morris constantly studied whatever magazines and literature he could get to aid them in the attempt. They even built a periscope in order for one of them to keep guard during the night for incoming guards.
On June 11th, 1962, all preparations were in place and it was time to execute the escape plan. For one of the four inmates, Allen West, the escape was an instant failure. He had used cement to help stabilize crumbling concrete around the hole and this cement had hardened, narrowing his exit to a point that he couldn’t fit through. By the time he was able to make it through, the others had left without him. West returned to his cell and did not participate further in the escape. Meanwhile, Morris and the Anglin Brothers were on their way to freedom. They successfully left their cells and traversed through a utility corridor and up the back wall of the cell block, eventually making it to the roof of the prison. From there, they used a large exterior kitchen vent pipe to slide down to the outside ground, and cut through the barbed wire of the fencing in an area deemed to be a blind spot to the guards by Morris, the clear mastermind of the operation. They inflated their raft, using a concertina and launched their way to freedom towards Angel Island, just two miles to the north. During this entire escape, the guards continued to perform the prison count, and the 3 paper mache heads were accounted for. There was no knowledge outside the 4 men, one of whom was back in his cell sleeping, that anything was out of the ordinary. It wasn’t until the following morning when the three prisoners apparently refused to get out of bed when the guards realized that they were not in the beds. Imagine the shock of the guard when he went to nudge a prisoner awake only to find a fake paper mache head.
A full-scale hunt immediately ensued with the military and local police forces taking part, searching land, air and sea. A paddle was found just 200 yards off the shore of their destination Angel Island. Fragments of the raft and other equipment they used for the escape were also found near the island. From Angel Island, the men intended to swim to Marin County – information that was obtained by interviewing West, the one participant who failed to escape the island. They planned to steal clothes from a local retail store and then a car. There were no reports of any stolen clothing but a day after the escape, a blue 1955 Chevrolet was stolen in Marin County, just north of Angel Island. Experienced thieves like these three likely could’ve stolen clothes from a Sears undetected, entering the store one by one. They would’ve had time to make the trip all the way to Mexico before the guards even knew they were gone. Another key item that was found that indicated they may have not survived the escape, however, was a wallet wrapped in plastic that had the names and addresses of friends and relatives of the Anglin Brothers – an item they certainly would not have intentionally left behind.
FBI agents quickly surmised the men had drowned, admitting that while it was possibly they reached Angel Island, it would have been extremely difficult to avoid any detection and even more difficult to survive the currents and frigid waters of the bay. If they did successfully make it to Angel Island, what type of condition would they have been in? A clue to the answer occurred 6 months later when inmate John Paul Scott made the final escape attempt in the history of Alcatraz and became the first confirmed escapee to swim across the bay and make it to land. He reached Fort Point beneath the Golden Gate Bridge but was found suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion. The 2.7 mile swim put him in a condition that required hospitalization. Upon recovery, he was sent back to Alcatraz. His experience does create more doubt in the case of Morris and the Anglins. Their planning and execution was brilliant but the odds that they survived, made it to land, and lived out the rest of their days completely under the radar seems unlikely. Six months after the escape, some human bones washed up onto San Francisco bay.
In the ensuing years, several reports came in even from family members indicating that the prisoners had survived and had been spotted. Nothing could be verified, however, and the FBI closed the case in 1979, making the final conclusion that the men had drowned in the bay.
“For the 17 years we worked on the case, no credible evidence emerged to suggest the men were still alive, either in the U.S. or overseas,” the FBI stated.
However, there have been several reports and speculation since then that the three men indeed survived. In an effort to find out conclusively if the Anglins had drowned, the body of their brother Alfred, who accidentally electrocuted himself in 1964 while attempting to escape from Kilby State Prison in Alabama, was exhumed in 2015 in order to compare his DNA to that of the washed up bones. It turned out the bones conclusively did not belong to the Anglin brothers.
Also, a photograph emerged in 1992 provided by a family member of the Anglins which shows two men who resemble John and Clarence Anglin, except clearly older than they were during the escape. The story goes that a family friend named Fred Brizzi ran into them in Brazil and took the photo. Forensic experts at the time confirmed the photo is real and was taken around 1975, but are these two men really the Anglin brothers? Due to the glasses and condition of the photo, this was inconclusive. However, it couldn’t be proven that they were not the Anglin brothers. More recent technology should be able to conclusively tell us whether these two men are the Anglin brothers or not. In early 2020, two tech companies worked together to use cutting edge methods to find out once and for all if the men in this photograph are the Anglin brothers. They determined the photo to be a match, proving that the Anglins had successfully escaped Alcatraz. However, oddly enough, no official law enforcement agencies have confirmed such a match or done their own comparison with modern technology, at least not that has been made public.
Some of the stories told about their possible survival feels made up or far-fetched – such as their mother receiving flowers anonymously every Mother’s Day and two tall unknown women showing up at her funeral. Would these brothers dress up as women, come out of hiding and risk their freedom in order to attend their mother’s funeral? In 2018, the FBI received a letter allegedly written by John Anglin, saying that he was in poor health and the other two men had already passed away. He said he would turn himself in in exchange for medical treatment but was never heard from again. The FBI considered this lead likely phony.
There are reasons to believe the three men survived and many to believe they did not. If they did survive, would it make sense all three career criminals remained undetected for the rest of their lives? Of course, that would’ve been the plan – no one escapes prison with a plan to get caught again. However, most eventually are re-captured. Is it possible to make the swim and survive? Well, John Paul Scott proved it is and nowadays strong swimmers are able to make the swim routinely, but they are trained athletes who are completely prepared and aware of the conditions before making the attempt. In the final analysis, it is still unknown whether or not the men made it to freedom. While it is tempting to assume the three men likely drowned – it does feel like the most likely scenario – the details of this case – such as the 1975 photo, the stolen blue car, and the pure genius of the ringleader, who surely wanted the FBI to assume they drowned, keep the mystery alive. The plan was so meticulous and methodical – all their bases were covered, which means they surely discussed what to do with the rest of their lives and how to remain at large. They were a step ahead of the guards and police the entire time, so why not assume they remained a step ahead even after the escape? Well, the one thing they may have not been able to defeat was the San Francisco Bay, but maybe they did. This case is so fascinating as no body has ever been found, dead or alive. None of the three bodies washed up on the beach. Who are these men in this photograph? If not the Anglin brothers, then who? Why haven’t more official agencies confirmed with new technology one way or the other?
Did these men escape Alcatraz successfully, steal a car and make it south of the border? Or did were they swept away into the ocean, where they drowned, never to be found or seen again. I personally tend to lean towards them drowning that day, just because it seems unlikely that all three men stayed off the radar, avoiding recapture for the rest of their lives. However, I’m still fascinated by the possibility that all three made it and succeeded in pulling off the greatest prison escape in the history of the United States.
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