Man erupted from Alcatraz with a spoon

On June 12, 1962, three men fled Alcatraz, but were never seen again. The ultimate fate of the Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers remains a mystery, but their bold inspiration and determination to escape – their resolve from America’s safest prisons remains fascinating. Two years later, the BBC returned to the crime scene.

In May 1964, BBC Panorama’s Michael Charlton made a “most feared journey in the crime world” across the stirring waters of San Francisco Bay to see the infamous prison Alcatraz Island. Called “the rocks,” federal prisons held some of the most dangerous criminals in the United States. It was considered an impregnable fortress. However, early on June 12, 1962, the three men achieved what seemed impossible. They ran away.

Alcatraz was originally a naval defense fort to protect the entrance to the bay. During the US civil war, Confederate prisoners were captured due to the island’s isolation, steep cliffs and the quick, cold currents surrounding it. It was rebuilt as a military prison in the early 20th century. In the 1930s, the Department of Justice took over as the US tried to deal with ramp-prolonged organized crime that flourished during the ban. Soon, the most frightening prisoners began to arrive from the federal prison system. Among the more famous prisoners were the infamous gangsters Al Capone, Mickey Cohen, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and convicted murderer Robert Stroud. “Men are troublesome to be held in a normal prison that is so vicious and troublesome,” said Charlton of the BBC.

Four years before Panorama traveled there, Frank Lee Morris arrived on the island. Orphan at the age of 11 and convicted of his first crime by the age of 13, Morris spent most of his life inside and outside of various correctional facilities. He was considered very intelligent, an experienced criminal, with a charging sheet ranging from possession of drugs to armed robbery and perhaps a notable prison break. He was sent to the Rock in January 1960 after his escape from a Louisiana prison. As soon as he arrived at Alcatraz, he began to think about how he would leave. He was joined to his cellblock by brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Allen West, who raised the convicted bank who had been prisoners of Alcatraz since 1957.

When BBC’s Charlton visited the site a year after its closure, he was well aware of the prison’s horrific reputation for merciless security guards, harsh conditions, and the punished sea breeze that prisoners had to endure. “The merciless winds that seem to stop, sprint and echo across the bar,” he said. “Built on the rambling corridors of an old fort… the foundations of Alcatraz today are corrupted and disbanded.”

With Morris led the four prisoners began to create elaborate and bold plans to escape. For months, the man cleaned up with salt-damaged concrete around the air under the sink. Using a metal spoon filled from the dining hall, we dug up an unprotected utility corridor with a drill made from a vacuum cleaner motor and a discarded saw blade. To overturn the noise of the drill, Morris plays his accordion every day when the music is played by the prisoners. Once they made a hole big enough to climb into the hallway, they climbed to the top level of the empty cell block and set up a secret workshop. To hide the hole in the cell wall, they created the fake Papier-Mâché Grill from a prison library magazine. After attending the workshop, I set out to build a 6×14-foot rubber raft and life-saving protection made from over 50 stolen raincoats. To seal the rubber, they used a prison hot steam pipe to melt it. I then converted the concert into a tool and inflated the raft and fashion paddles from plywood.

However, while they were working, they had to hide their absence from the security guards who regularly performed night checks. So they carved paper-mat versions of soap, toothpaste and toilet paper heads. To make them look more realistic, they used real hair from the prison barbershop floor and painted it in meat tones using stolen art supplies. They were placed in the bed, and bundles of blankets and towels were placed under the blanket in their body shape to make them look like they were sleeping. They were working on makeshift escape gear, so they were looking for an exit again. Using the piping pipes as a staircase, we climbed 30 feet (9.1m) and flaunted a ventilator on the top of the shaft. They made a fake bolt out of soap and kept it in place.

Finally, on the night of June 11, 1962, they were ready to move their original plans. Leaving the dummy’s head in the bed, tricking the guards, Morris and the two Anglin brothers ran through the hole in Cell’s wall. West’s escape was sc when he couldn’t get out of his phone in time, so the others left without him. They climbed onto the roof of the Cellhouse and ran across it – witnessing the Guard Tower, carrying makeshift boats – pushing down the outdoor drains, crossing the prison yard, reducing two consecutive 12 feet (3.7m) barbed wire fences, scrambled steep levees to the island’s northeast coast. At the edge of the water, they inflated the boat and disappeared at night. The alarm was not raised until the morning after the decoy’s head was discovered.

The island also housed a family of security guards who worked in prisons. Jolene Babyk’s father, who was acting for Alcatraz at the time, raised an alarm. “When I woke up, the sirens were still going. It was very sharp, very loud, it was horrifying, it was pretty scary.” She told BBC Witness History in 2013. “I was shocked that you know, and my first thought was that it wasn’t an attempt to escape, and of course it was.”

The prison was immediately closed in a concentrated search of all buildings, including prison officer accommodation. Meanwhile, Jolene’s father has launched a massive manhunt where hundreds of law enforcement agencies have been searching the surrounding area for several days. On June 14th, the Coast Guard found one of the prisoner’s paddles. On the same day, the workers found a packet of Anglin’s personal belongings, sealed with rubber. Seven days later, the remains of the raft were washed away near the Golden Gate Bridge, and the next day one of the homemade life vests was discovered. However, the three fugitives were never seen again.

The prisoners fled the prison, but authorities concluded that they must have died in dangerous waters trying to leave the island. That was certainly the view of prison guard Richard Willard when the BBC interviewed him in 1964. “Why are you so sure? You can’t hear the wind, right? And you don’t see the water? Do you think you can make it?”

The Alcatraz Prison was closed in 1963, a year after the man’s escape. In part, this was due to the deterioration of its structure and the costs of operating it, but the harsh prison administration has long been the subject of controversy. As early as 1939, US Attorney General Frank Murphy tried to shut it down by saying it would “foster the psychology of building ominous and vicious attitudes among prisoners.”

For many years, prisoners have killed or hurt themselves, unable to face merciless situations. As the 1960s progressed, the US turned its attention to inmate rehabilitation rather than punishment.

Regarding the three escapes, they were declared legally dead in 1979, despite the fact that no bodies had been found in the bay. The FBI ended the lawsuit and took over the responsibility of the former US S-Service.

But speculation about their fate never faded. The same year they were declared dead, the film’s escape from Alcatraz was released along with Clint Eastwood, who portrayed Frank Morris. And from the moment of their escape in 1962 there were alleged sightings of men and reports of messages from them.

In 2018, San Francisco police revealed they had been sent Mysterious letter Five years ago, someone who claimed that John Anglin. The letter stated, “We ran away from Alcatraz in June 1962. Yes, we all made it that night, but most of it!” The letter allegedly lived the man in secret. Frank Morris Died in October 2005 Clarence Anglin 2008. The letter’s author said he would like to negotiate a surrender in exchange for cancer treatment. The FBI evaluated the letter but was unable to confirm whether it was authentic.

This case is still published for the US Former S service. Recently in 2022, three missing Alcatraz prisoners have been suing information about them in the hopes that they will eventually be able to put the mystery to bed, releasing updated photos of what may look like now.

This article was originally published on June 10th, 2024 and was republished.

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