Great Escape From Alcatraz: The Real-Life Story

Published on June 3, 2018
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Great Escape From Alcatraz The Real Life Story

Great Escape From Alcatraz The Real Life Story


The great escape from Alcatraz prison is a story that has puzzled police and the public for more than four decades. The published statement by police at the time was that all three men drowned in the freezing waters while swimming from the island during the night. But what really happened? Did the FBI cover up the most notorious prison escape in American history?

From 1828, Alcatraz served as a military prison. Its location, just off the coast of San Francisco was perfect both for holding prisoners and for the guards that guarded them. In later years, between 1934 and 1963, the facility was used as a federal prison, but not without being used again in 1969. Its use in 1969 was somewhat controversial when Native Americans took to the island as a form of Native activism. Today the island is an interesting tourist destination which is run by the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

The kinds of people who made it onto Alcatraz Island were not all the murdering kind, although they made up a significant part of the population there. Bank robbers and other “troublemakers” from different prisons were brought there to serve out their sentences. The first prisoners made their way to Alcatraz in 1934, and they were transported under the watchful eyes of more than 60 FBI special agents, U.S. Marshals and railway security officials.

Over its years of operation, Alcatraz gained some interesting claims to fame. One of them was that the island was completely impossible to escape from. There were even some brave souls who tried to test that theory themselves, and while some of them found their way back behind bars with their egos deflated and their hopes of getting out moving farther away from them, others ended their lives while trying to escape. The notorious Al Capone was actually an inmate on the island too, but his life took a turn upon arriving at Alcatraz.

This story only came to light in 2015, and the details are still being unraveled in 2018. The FBI and the U.S. Marshalls have two very different stories about the alleged escapees from Alcatraz prison. This might be the breakthrough that nobody thought possible. Someone may have successfully escaped from “The Rock”.

A Random Letter

It seemed like a regular day at the San Francisco Police Department in 2013, but then a mysterious letter turned up. The letter read, “My name is John Anglin. I escaped from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris.”

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A Random Letter

A Random Letter