Alcatraz Island

[PrimalJay]

Taken from Wikipedia...

 

During its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary claimed no prisoner had successfully escaped. A total of 36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts, two men trying twice; 23 were caught, six were shot and killed during their escape, two drowned, and five are listed as "missing and presumed drowned".

 

The most violent occurred on May 2, 1946, when a failed escape attempt by six prisoners led to the Battle of Alcatraz.

 

On June 11, 1962, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin carried out one of the most intricate escapes ever devised. Behind the prisoners' cells in Cell Block B (where the escapees were interned) was an unguarded 3-foot (0.91 m) wide utility corridor. The prisoners chiseled away the moisture-damaged concrete from around an air vent leading to this corridor, using tools such as a metal spoon soldered with silver from a dime and an electric drill improvised from a stolen vacuum cleaner motor. The noise was disguised by accordions played during music hour, and the progress was concealed by false walls which, in the dark recesses of the cells, fooled the guards.

 

The escape route led up through a fan vent; the prisoners removed the fan and motor, replacing them with a steel grille and leaving a shaft large enough for a prisoner to enter. Stealing a carborundum abrasive cord from the prison workshop, the prisoners removed the rivets from the grille and substituted dummy rivets made of soap. The escapees also constructed an inflatable raft from several stolen raincoats for the trip to the mainland. Leaving papier-mâché dummies in their cells affixed with stolen human hair from the barbershop, they escaped. It is estimated the prisoners entered San Francisco Bay at 10 p.m.

 

The official investigation by the FBI was aided by another prisoner, Allen West, who was part of the escapees' group but was left behind (West's false wall kept slipping so he held it into place with cement, which set; when Morris and the the Anglins accelerated the schedule, West desperately chipped away at the wall, but by the time he got out, his companions were gone). Articles belonging to the prisoners (including plywood paddles and parts of the raincoat raft) were discovered on nearby Angel Island. The official report on the escape says the prisoners drowned in the cold waters of the bay while trying to reach the mainland.

 

The attempt was the subject of the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz with screenplay by Richard Tuggle, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris, Jack Thibeau as Clarence Anglin, and Fred Ward as John Anglin. The film implied that the three made it. The MythBusters investigated the incident, concluding it is "plausible" that the three survived their intricate escape attempt.

 

The escape was examined in a 2011 National Geographic Channel program entitled Vanished from Alcatraz. According to the newly uncovered official records discussed on the program, a raft was discovered on Angel Island with footprints leading away from it. There was also a report of a car stolen in the area that night, which could have been used by Morris and the other escapees. However, while confirming these facts, which were hidden from the officials for quite some time, the findings of further investigations remain inconclusive. As a result, the U.S. Marshals office is still investigating this case, which will remain open on all three escapees until their 100th birthdays.

 

DOES ANYONE THINK THEY SURVIVED AND WHERE WOULD THEY HAVE RECENTLY LIVED TILL PRESENT DAY?

 

I THINK THEY DID SURVIVE, NOT HOW THIS ARTICLE STATES BUT BY OTHER MEANS, I THINK THEY HAD OUTSIDE HELP FROM THE INMATES GANGSTERS SUCH AS ROBERT STROUD AND AL CAPONE WHO HAD INFLUENCE AM SURE AND THEY MAY HAVE SWUM TO A BOAT AND GOT PICKED UP. NO BODIES WERE FOUND AND THE FBI WILL NEVER ADMIT IT BUT THEY DID SURVIVE, WHO WOULD ADMIT TO HAVING 3 PRISONERS ESCAPE THE MOST SECURE PRISON IN AMERICAN HISTORY IT WAS AN EMBARRASSMENT AND THEY KNOW THAT, EVEN THOUGH THEY WILL HAVE MAYBE PASSED AWAY NOW SOMEONE SOMEWHERE KNOWS WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN BUT KNOWING THAT THESE PRISONERS WOULD NEVER TELL ANYONE WHO THEY WERE, THEY WERE OLD SCHOOL AND KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING.

[Scare]

No I think they drowned, i have seen alot of programs on it and there is just no way they would have got to mainland but then again I thought if you drown you end up floating on top of water or/and your washed back up to mainland.. So why they never found a body I don't know... A letter was sent to the police saying it was from frank and co, gloating that they had got away though police think it was not sent by the 3 men but a practical joker...Anyhow i find it interesting and on one program they had 3 experienced swimmers try this out and they couldn't even get to mainland as there is a current near the mainland then sends you further down away from the mainland...

[Resident]

If it were me then I'd either look to getting out of the country or somewhere very remote like a cabin in a large forest where there's very little footfall by other people.

 

By now, any of the 3 did survive the youngest would be 81.

[Scare]

A guy tried the 3 raincoats made raft and it lasted about 10 seconds until he had to get rid of it

[PrimalJay]

If it were me then I'd either look to getting out of the country or somewhere very remote like a cabin in a large forest where there's very little footfall by other people.

 

By now, any of the 3 did survive the youngest would be 81.

 

I wonder if they changed their identity, imagine having that baggage over your head all your life, imagine how much determination it would take not to say anything to anyone even about your previous identity.

 

Also, I believe that the police investigators back then were obviously dumb and had no clue what they were doing, even the slightest of leads no matter how trivial should have been chased up, there was also apparently a phone call from one of the prisoners to the mainland police who implied to the receptionist that they were in the newspaper that day and hung up, what a scary and interesting mystery eh.

[Scare]

Are you sure they was a car stolen nearby that night? ..I remember them saying on a programme that nothing was broken in to or stolen that night and there also wasent any reports of crime involving something like robberies where frank and co would need to do to get some money.

[PrimalJay]

Are you sure they was a car stolen nearby that night? ..I remember them saying on a programme that nothing was broken in to or stolen that night and there also wasent any reports of crime involving something like robberies where frank and co would need to do to get some money.

 

Mmmm, maybe the insider help from famous gangsters aided on that one, maybe they gave them some cash to get them started in return for some favours, crime can pay very well if you know someone with contacts.

[Scare]

It would have been hard to get outside help as I don't think there was a payphone that you could ring outside but saying that if he did get help from gangsters then I'm sure one or someone would have spilled the beans by now as that's what gangsters do when they get older..

[PrimalJay]

If they feared for their lives then maybe not, but I see your point someone would have wanted to cash in, but I guess that is history now, I would love to have a 100% cast iron lead for the American police imagine the reward I would get?

[Scare]

Looking into him more, they is a mention of a norwegian ship spotting a body which resembled a prisoner but things don't seem to add up there as it was only reported a while after and there is talk of a prisoner saying he knew of the plot and there was men supposed to be waiting nearby with a boat, the authorities think he was lying and had an history of it so I agree there that this man must have been lying as I don't think frank and co would have risked this man knowing what they were planning if he had an history of lying to gain favours.