The Incredible Alcatraz Prison Break

- This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved, we cover the exciting escape from the famous Alcatraz

prison

. The inmates who achieved it did so by executing an ingenious and daring plan. And who doesn't love a good

prison

break

, right? - Yes. Will there be tunnels? - You could say there was a tunnel. I guess if you were sitting in a cell for a long time, you could think of cool things to escape from. - Yes. - That being said, I was impressed with the things they came up with. - Yes. - But I'm easily impressed. - Well, I guess it tells your story. - Formerly a military base, Alcatraz Island opened as a maximum security federal prison in 1934.

The prison was nicknamed The Rock, due to the fact that the prison sits on a 22-acre island approximately one and a quarter miles away. away from the city of San Francisco. Because of this, the prison earned a reputation for being inescapable, with the water surrounding it ranging between 48 and 54 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, along with formidable currents that pull strongly out to sea and cause low tide. - San Francisco is very cold. - It is very cold. And I have very delicate Southern California skin. - "The coldest winter of my life" was a summer in San Francisco. - Okay.

I thought you were going into the typical Midwest. People know winter and the cold. - People in the Midwest do. know. I'll tell you. - Oh, Jesus Christ. - I'll tell you. - Okay, we don't have to go into that. - I'm so happy for you, what a feather in all your caps. If necessary - Great. As time went on, the prison would deteriorate and the budget to fix things would become a major factor in the escape of the inmates. First, we have the Anglin brothers, John William Anglin and his younger brother, Clarence Anglin, both in their early 30s at the time of the escape.

The brothers were serving time for robbing a bank together. cell with my brother. - Yes, the thing is that being in prison is obviously not ideal. - Yes - But you have your brother there with you. - And they were actually next to each other. - This is very funny. - This is very funny. - Yes. - That's a great bonding moment. - I wonder if any of them got the letter, like, ooh, where are you going? And the other one said: I'm going to Alcatraz. And he said: Me too! - And they just jump up and down.

As if they were accepted into college together. Then we have Frank Morris, about 30 years old at the time of the escape, who had been abandoned as a small child, placed in foster care and on the run, and then been in and out of prison since he was only 13 years old. . . He was also serving time for bank robbery. The last member of the crew is Allen West, 33 years old at the time of the escape. West began serving time at the age of 14 and served time in several federal prisons. Our group of fugitives is established, let's jump to the start of the escape.

West is said to have first approached Morris with a plan to escape in the early 1960s. West apparently knew of a fan cover over cell block B that might not be sealed with concrete, as some of the cells had been. other vents. If true, this could provide them with a way to reach the prison roof from the inside. West also began working with the cell's maintenance team, which gave him insight into the building's structure, layout, and weaknesses. In September 1961, the Anglin brothers, Morris and West had requested transfers to cells close to each other in cell block B, directly under the unsecured ventilation cover.

All cell movements were approved. - This goes back to me thinking that prison, maybe back then or maybe in this particular prison, didn't seem so bad. Did you just make a request? And they say, oh, do you want to move? Do you want to be with your friends? Yes, sure. - I mean, the thought is like: they should have just asked to leave. - I think this is perhaps a lesson in humility for this prison, the guards and the prison director. - Yes. - Evidently this prison has been thought of as this security fortress. It is considered unavoidable.

It is surrounded by water. - Oh, so there is an element of arrogance here. - What is the worst thing they are going to do? Do what you want. It doesn't matter because you will never escape from here. As for who planned what, the details are a bit fuzzy. But one thing is for sure. The plan that the four men would execute was undoubtedly bold and ingenious. That being said, let's

break

down the plan, starting with phase one, the deception. With Alcatraz, it wasn't just about escaping the prison walls, but also getting back to the mainland and avoiding capture in the process.

To avoid this, the men knew they needed an advantage. To accomplish this, the men created painted doll heads made from a plaster-like mixture of soap, concrete, and other materials. And complete with human hair. They placed the headboards on their beds to fool the guards. Sure enough, on June 12, the morning after the escape, when the 7:00 a.m. bell rang. m. To wake the prisoners, the guards discovered that the escapees appeared to be still asleep in their beds. It wasn't until a guard entered Morris' cell and pushed his head, only for it to roll and hit the floor, that the guards realized something was wrong.

To this day, the head of the mannequin that fell to the ground still retains the damage resulting from this fall. It is unknown who came up with the idea of ​​creating simulated heads. However, Clarence worked as a barber and had access to human hair cuts. Either way, phase one of the deception is a success. - If I were that guard and I put my hand in that bed, oh, wake up sir, you are missing. You know, his head turns outward. First I would scream, I would say, ah! - I don't know my own strength, I just decapitated a man. -And then he would stand there and say: They did it! - Very good. - Very good. - Very good. - I would be upset if the craftsmanship wasn't so good. - Is very good. - But if I lift it up and see the human hair, I think, well, they really went all out here.

I'm not a fool. - This brings us to phase two, escape. After putting the dolls into their beds, the men got to work getting out of their cells. The men's four cells had five-by-nine-and-a-half-inch vents in the back of their cells. Perhaps because of his time in maintenance, West may have known that the wall surrounding the grate was less than six inches thick, allowing each man to expand the hole in his cell to pass through. For months, each of the escapees had drilled small, closely spaced holes around the cover of the vents. To do this, they used crude handmade tools, such as spoons stolen from the kitchen and a drill made from a vacuum cleaner motor.

These holes allowed them to remove the entire small section of wall around the air vents, which they then kept covered with their musical instruments and fake cardboard covers. I'm not that handy either, so retrofitting, you know, a vacuum cleaner motor, turning it into a drill, I don't know if I'd be able to think about that. - I do not know i do not know. Basically, they're just drilling it. - Yes, they are simply preparing it by making small holes, weakening the wall a little to be able to pass through it. - And this is out of sight of the guards? - So it's not out of sight, but this prison allowed an hour called, I think it was called happy hour, where the inmates went - Does everyone eat margaritas? - Nobody likes daisies.

But inmates who played musical instruments were allowed to play their instruments during this hour. - What is this prison? Everybody talks, ooh, The Rock, you don't want to go to The Rock. - That's true. - Oh, happy hour at The Rock is only three times a day. - Sounds like Paddington II prison. - Don't forget your loot. - Yeah, under the cover of all this shitty music playing, they probably got to do some exercises. These holes allowed them to crawl into a utility corridor located directly behind their cells that was normally unguarded. From there they were able to climb to a hidden landing zone just above their cell block, where they had been secretly working for several months.

Some or all of the escapees had been given permission, at some point, to perform maintenance work at this landing zone. In fact, to this day, you can still see where West completed some of the paint work. Apparently, West had even convinced the guards to allow him to hang blankets that hid his work, because he sent dust cascading down to ground level. In reality, he was using blankets to hide the work that was actually being done up there. This hidden landing zone became the secret workshop of the fugitives. They even built and used a primitive periscope to take turns as lookouts.

In the workshop, they were able to build the aforementioned mannequins, tools, and other items they had used to escape. It is worth noting that, on the night of the escape, West never made it to this landing site, because he was unable to break through the last part of the wall around his vent. Consequently, West was left behind. From the landing, the roof was about 30 feet directly above his head, and the men were able to climb onto the roof through the pipes and reach a vent that they had previously removed in preparation for their escape. Experts believe a sound heard around 10:30 p.m. m.

It was the roof vent cover being pushed. And this marks the approximate time that the fugitives would have reached the roof. They then climbed down from the roof through a pipe next to the back of their cell block, climbed the 15-foot fence and headed to the north shore of the island. Which brings us to the next phase, phase three, escaping the island. In their workshop, inmates had built life preservers and a six-by-14-foot rubber raft, all made from prison raincoats. They had gathered more than 50 raincoats for the job, possibly sewing them using sewing machines at clothing or glove stores.

They even vulcanized rubber raincoats, keeping the seams in the heat of steam pipes, an idea they had gotten from a popular edition of Mechanics. The raft was inflated using a converted musical instrument, a concertina commissioned by Morris in April. - Do you think that every day for 50 days they went ahead and lost my raincoat again? - I mean there was a lot - 49th time in a row, can you believe it? - There were many raincoats. - I guess so. - And I guess they weren't taking an inventory of them. I guess they had a good amount of poop on them, they said, okay, throw it in the trash, and they just walked by, carrying it away.

Oh, I guess in the workshop. - You know what I find with government employees, they are always happy to waste money. You know, they say, hey, that's on the government's money. So if you're a prisoner and you say, "I lost a raincoat," they'll probably say, yeah, hey, have more, I don't care, it's not mine. That's coming from Uncle Sam's pocket, buddy. - You will not take raincoats from the guard's personal stash. But collecting 50 seems like an excessive amount. - Wow, they vulcanized them. In a steam, the smoking pipes! - Outside of a popular Mechanics topic. - I love it. - The plan was to sail across San Francisco Bay on his raft to Angel Island, about two miles north of Alcatraz Island.

From there they would sail again, this time through the approximately half-mile wide Raccoon Strait, which would then take them to the mainland. There they would steal a car and also clothes, according to West, who would later inform the FBI about much of the plan. Once the men were discovered missing, Alcatraz was locked down and the search began. The guards quickly found the secret workshop, the hole in the ceiling, and the footprints on the ceiling and at the bottom of the pipe they came down. The FBI joined the case, as did the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Corrections, in what would be a large-scale search.

However, the fugitives and their raft were never seen again. Although we know that the three men made it off Alcatraz Island, what happened to the three men afterwards remains a mystery. That being said, let's get into the theories, of which there are only two. That the men escaped and survived, or that they perished on the journey to the mainland. Let's start with the latter. The waters of the bay are known to be cold and there is a strong current that could have worked against the fugitives. Experts note that the trio's goal of taking the raft north to Angel Island would have been extremely difficult at the time, especially since they had oars but no rudder.

Additionally, the results of a recreation of the escape by Dutch scientists in an article for PBS, in which they built a raft similar to the one used by the escapees, found that two of the men would have to work to keep the raft inflated. leaving only one to row. The weather would have been about 47 degrees Fahrenheit when the men left the prison. It is said that theWater was 54 degrees Fahrenheit. If the raft had sunk or the men had fallen overboard, they probably would have only lasted two hours before they began to lose consciousness, according to author Jolene Babyak. - I'll tell you what, have you ever looked at the waters of that bay? - I have looked at the waters at night, the ocean, it is scary. - But that bay in particular, I don't like the way it looks. - The ocean is scary during the day. - It's scary enough, but that bay?

Scarier than the ocean. - I can not talk about that. - It's rocky and cold. - The only time I have looked at that bay has been in a very funny context. She was watching a group of seals fighting each other. - Oh, that's fun. -It was very funny, they were slapping each other and one of them fell. - But imagine that, if you are trying to escape and a seal jumps into your boat and starts slapping you. - Yeah! - That's not ideal. - I don't think it's ideal, it would be nice, but it would be like, come on man, I have to escape, very fun, see you on the shore, we'll do this again sometime.

On June 12, pieces of wood that looked like a handmade oar were found in the water near Angel Island. The pieces were identified as belonging to the fugitives. On June 14, bags made from raincoats were found halfway between Alcatraz and Angel Island. These bags contained irrefutable evidence that they had belonged to the fugitives, photographs of the Anglins and their family, nine sheets of paper with a list of people to contact abroad, and a letter written to Clarence Anglin. Many point to these personal items as evidence that the trip was unfortunate, as they would not have been items that would have been easily abandoned.

On June 15, a homemade life jacket was found floating near Cronkite Beach. A second life jacket was discovered on June 22 no more than 100 meters off the east coast of Alcatraz Island. Their ties were still knotted. The three men would have left with very little money, so the fact that the hordes of authorities in charge of the case never found a shred of evidence of robberies or holdups related to Morris or the Anglins for food, clothing or transportation made it seem unlikely to have reached the continent alive. The FBI says it never found any credible evidence, either in the United States or abroad, that the men were alive.

In mid-July 1962, about six weeks after the escape, a Norwegian freighter, the S.S. Norefjell, saw a body in the ocean about 20 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. However, they did not report the sighting and did not report it until the fall, when they returned to San Francisco, and the body was never recovered. - Look, he's a dead guy. - Oh good. - I guess if it's a freighter, I mean, one, you should report it, but if it's a freighter, I can't imagine they'd really be able to stop it. Plus, you know, time is money. - Of course, I can't stop.

But a little phone call. - Call it. -Hey, I think I saw a dead body. And since the body was never recovered, we cannot say if it is one of these three men. - Yes. - So, you know, things happen at sea, I guess. However, our second theory, that the fugitives survived, has much credence. Morris and the Anglin brothers had a raft to help them navigate the waters, which many people have been able to swim successfully before without the benefit of a raft or life jackets. A triathlon is held each year in which participants swim a mile and a half in the same waters at approximately the same time of year that the leak occurred.

Participants say current, rough water and wind are important factors to contend with. But according to Jeff Harp, a CBS San Francisco security analyst who worked with the FBI for more than 20 years and goes swimming in the San Francisco Bay, he doesn't know of any triathlon competitor who hasn't been able to complete the swim. Furthermore, most of the bodies of those who drown in the bay will float after a few days, but despite exhaustive searches, the bodies of the fugitives were never found. U.S. Marshal Michael Dyke ran a simulation with the help of the Coast Guard that determined the escapees could have survived in the water for at least two and a half hours if the raft plan failed.

The same Dutch scientists who recreated the leak also created a computer model, which they presented in 2014, that could recreate the conditions in the water on the night of the leak. The model found that there was a very narrow window between 11:30 p.m. m. and midnight during which the trio would have needed to launch their raft to have a chance of reaching land. And since the inmates may have reached the roof as early as 10:30 p.m. m., this window seems possible. Although, even then, they would have had to let the currents carry them to Horseshoe Bay, northeast of the Golden Gate Bridge, instead of trying to reach Angel Island.

The model also suggested that items abandoned on the shore near Horseshoe Bay would return to Angel Island, where some of the fugitives' items were recovered once the tides reversed. And although the Dutch scientists' real-life recreation of the escape didn't work, as they couldn't resist the currents and bring the raft to land, they still got pretty close to the Golden Gate Bridge in just over an hour aboard the raft One of the scientists admitted. He still believes the escapees could have made it given the adrenaline rush and need to survive. Also, one thing I'm going to point out here is that I don't know how accurate this test is if there are scientists rowing the boat themselves. - Oh, those damn pointers? - I just like it, I mean, I feel like maybe it has some guys that are a little closer to the guys that were escaping. - Yes. - I guess I'm generalizing that scientists are meek individuals, but I'm just saying that if they're inmates, hardened criminals trying to survive, I don't know if they're the best people for the job. - Scientists could go to the gym, right? - I guess. - Chris Pratt in the movie Jurassic World. -He is not a scientist. -I thought he was. -He is also a fictional character. -His name is Owen Grady.

Wow, Blue. - Oh Jesus Christ. -Everyone loves Blue, a great character. - David Widner, nephew of the Anglin brothers, has said that his uncle Robert, one of John and Clarence's older brothers, confessed on his deathbed to his sisters, quote, "that they didn't have to worry about their brothers." Widner added that her grandmother, who would have been the mother of John and Clarence Anglin, sometimes received roses with her children's signatures on the card after the escape of 1962. Several members of John and Clarence Anglin's family have claimed over the years at family funerals that they have noticed mysterious women wearing veils and/or heavy makeup, who could have been the undercover Anglin brothers who came to pay their respects in 2015.

The channel's program claimed that a photograph taken of two men in Brazil 13 years after the escape showed brothers John and Clarence Anglin alive. The photograph came from Fred Brizzi, a childhood friend of theirs. the Anglin brothers, who gave it to the family sometime in the 1990s. Brizzi's story is that he was traveling in Brazil when he met John and Clarence in a bar. Since then, Brizzi has passed away. Members of the Anglin family have clung to the belief that John and Clarence survived the escape. They also believe the photo shows John and Clarence. An expert associated with the History Channel show concluded that the photo showed the Anglin brothers.

The United States Marshal's Office investigated the claim. Their experts do not believe the photo shows John and Clarence. However, they acknowledge that a solid determination cannot be made given the age and wear of the photograph and the fact that the subjects are wearing sunglasses. - Their execution of this plan was so impressive that I know it's not technically legal to do this, but give them a pass. - Also, let's say they survived the escape. The fact that they didn't get into trouble for the next 50 years means that prison worked for them. - The jail worked. - They received penance.

They stuck to the plan, they had a lot of conviction and, you know what, they deserve to be free at that moment. - I mean, prison, really, should be about reforming a man's soul. - And these people, all they did was drink caipirinhas in Brazil. As for the aftermath of the escape, Allen West, the inmate left behind, cooperated with officials in the search, finished serving his sentence in three different prisons after Alcatraz, and was released in 1967. But he remained free only for a year before landing. himself sentenced to concurrent sentences of five years, one to three years, and life in prison for grand larceny and robbery.

He died in 1978. Alcatraz closed in March 1963, less than a year after the Anglin-Morris escape. The FBI officially closed its case into the 1962 Alcatraz breakout on December 31, 1979, more than 15 years after it began its investigation. However, they add and quote: "It is a mystery that we would all like to solve." End of quote. The case is expected to remain open before federal marshals until the fugitives are arrested, evidence of their deaths is found or the fugitives turn 99 years old. In the end, no one really knows whether the enterprising group of Alcatraz fugitives completed their journey or whether their midnight journey was an ill-fated one.

For now, the case remains unsolved. - I'll tell you what, on my 99th birthday, I would walk into the US Marshal's office and just say, "Fuck you guys." - Your grandson takes you in a wheelchair and you alone, with sunglasses on, simply - Fuck the police. - It's me, I drank caipirinhas for the last 30 years. Suck it coppers. And then you die in your wheelchair.