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Jackson Hopper

November 22, 2020

Professor Clarke

On June 12, 1962, three men became legends of folklore by attempting the impossible.

On this date Frank Morris, John Anglin, and his brother Clarence Anglin escaped from the

famously ‘inescapable’ San Francisco prison known as Alcatraz. The escape attempt was not

detected until the next morning, where the prisoner’s beds were found to be empty. The three

men were never seen or heard from again, which neither confirms nor denies the success of the

escape attempt. Many factors contribute to the legendary status of this mystery. Three of these

reasons include the perceived inescapability of the prison, the complexity of the escape plan, and

the lack of evidence regarding the success or failure of the escape attempt.

The prison escape attempt involved four men, although only three escaped from the

prison. The four men involved were Frank Morris, John Anglin, Clarence Anglin, and Allen

West (“Alcatraz Escape”). Frank Morris was convicted for bank robbery and sentenced to 10

years in Louisiana State Penitentiary. He escaped Louisiana State Penitentiary before his

sentence was served; although he was later captured and sent to Alcatraz. Morris was reported of

having an IQ of 133, and is commonly depicted as the brains of the escape attempt. The Anglin

brothers, John and Clarence, were bank robbers as well. They were from a family of fifteen, all

of whom worked as seasonal farmhands. The brothers served time in Atlanta Penitentiary, and

were both transferred to Alcatraz after multiple failed escape attempts. Allen West was the final

conspirator involved, although he never physically escaped the prison. West was incarcerated for

car theft in Atlanta Penitentiary, but was later moved to a Florida facility where he would

execute an unsuccessful escape attempt and later be transferred to Alcatraz because of it. During
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the Alcatraz escape attempt, West was not able to escape from his cell in time and was

abandoned by the other three men. West cooperated with investigators in exchange for no

additional prison time, and illuminated many aspects of the plan (Savage and Hyneman).

Alcatraz is nicknamed ‘The Rock’ because of its geography. The prison is located on an

island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, and was designed to be inescapable. Alcatraz was

intended for prisoners who caused trouble at other prisons through behavior, severity of crime,

and escape attempts. All of the men involved in the escape had previously attempted escape at

other prisons, causing them to be sent to Alcatraz. What made Alcatraz seem so inescapable was

the island itself. The surrounding waters of the San Francisco Bay are frigid and rough, with

strong currents pushing water away from the mainland and out to sea (Savage and Hyneman).

Despite all of this, Alcatraz was a prison of routine. In an article entitled “The Rock,” the Federal

Bureau of Prisons states the purpose of the prison: “If a man did not behave at another

institution, he could be sent to Alcatraz, where the highly structured, monotonous daily routine

was designed to teach an inmate to follow rules and regulations.” This monotonous routine was a

massive asset to the escape attempt because it allowed for predictability of events like guard

patrols, shift changes, and other routine practices. Because the escapees could predict every

event that could possibly threaten the escape, they could create a detailed escape plan with a

potentially high success rate.

The plan started with each prisoner escaping his own cell, this involved drilling small

holes very close to each other around an air vent until a piece of the wall large enough to crawl

through could be removed. The prisoners used makeshift tools including saw blades, spoons, and

even a homage drill made from a vacuum cleaner motor. The prisoners would hide their progress

from the guards by placing cardboard in front of the holes. Allen West, however, was not able to
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remove his air vent before the escape and was abandoned by the others. Behind the wall was a

corridor which led to a floor above the cell block, still inside the building. The men began

building a raft in this area made from raincoats, contact cement, and various other scavenged

materials. Once the raft and paddles were assembled, the men climbed onto the roof of the cell

house through a ventilation shaft. From there the three men— excluding Allen West— climbed

down to the ground using the bakery smoke stack, walked to the northeast side of the island near

the quartermaster building, and launched the raft (BOP, “Alcatraz Escape”). Allen West reported

in an interview that the men were headed for Angel Island, an island close to the mainland, but

the island was searched and no substantial evidence was found.

The men were never seen or heard from again. Three possible scenarios exist; either the

men successfully made it to Angel Island and crossed to mainland, drowned in the bay, or

utilized the currents to make direct landfall at the Golden Gate Bridge. A single paddle was

discovered on the shore of Angel Island one day after the escape. It is theorized that the paddle

was simply carried by the tide. There is no other evidence proving the inmates presence on

Angel Island. The second theory is that the men drowned in the bay; although the only body was

recovered several weeks later, and could not be identified. The body was wearing blue, which

was the same color as the prison uniforms. No other evidence proves the men drowned in the

bay. A third theory is the idea that the prisoners spread false information about their destination

of Angel Island to have authorities searching the wrong area. The theory examines the possibility

that the brothers used the tides flowing out to sea to make landfall at the base of the Golden Gate

Bridge. The plausibility of this was tested by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman using a small

scale model of the bay area built by environmental scientists in the mid-50’s for the purpose of

testing the environmental impacts of several bay developments. The model was made to
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accurately map tides, and is still used for research purposes. The model showed that a raft

launched from northeast Alcatraz would end up making landfall under the Golden Gate Bridge.

This theory has the most amount of evidence behind it, and is very much possible.

There is a strong possibility that this mystery will never be solved. While the case

remains open, no new evidence has been uncovered for years. If the men had survived, they

would be well into old age. “Clarence Anglin would be 79, his brother John would be 80, and

Morris would be 84,” says Supervising Deputy Mike Dyke in an interview with CBS News. The

Deputy ends the interview by saying: “You can’t rule out the fact that they died. But you can’t

rule out the fact that they lived.” This is what makes the mystery so legendary: the inability to

prove the men died, combined with the inability to prove them alive. Either way, 1962 Anglin

and Morris escape from Alcatraz is the most famous prison escape attempt in modern history.
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Works Cited

Associated Press. “3 Prisoners Are Missing from ‘Rock’ .” The Spokesman-Review, 13 June

1963, pp. 1–1.

CBS San Francisco. “Investigator Says 1962 Alcatraz Escapees Likely Survived.” CBS San

Francisco, CBS San Francisco, 8 Feb. 2011,

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/02/08/investigator-says-1962-alcatraz-escapees-likely-

survived/.

“Alcatraz Escape.” FBI, FBI, 8 Aug. 2016, www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/alcatraz-escape.

“The Rock.” BOP, Federal Bureau of Prisons, www.bop.gov/about/history/alcatraz.jsp.

Savage, Adam, and Jamie Hyneman. “Alcatraz Escape.” Mythbusters, season 1, episode 11,

Discovery, 12 Dec. 2003.