This Is How A Few Men Managed To Escape from Alcatraz

Many people watch movies to see fugitives running from the law and escaping seemingly impenetrable places. However, you don’t think about it occurring in real life. In most cases, this is true, but can happen on rare occasions. One story in particular is quite shocking. Alcatraz was designed to be inescapable, and most people thought there was no way it could happen. It sat on a private island, so there was nowhere for people to go. However, the San Francisco Police Department got a confession letter in 2013, saying that it was from the criminals who reportedly escaped many decades ago. This is how they did it.

The Story of Alcatraz

Roughly one mile from the San Francisco shore sits an island for dangerous criminals. Alcatraz is a famous fortress-style building that housed tough bad guys. While it was referred to as the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, it had been a military base and lighthouse.

An Inescapable Fortress

Developers were keen to create a place where escape was impossible. They needed these bad prisoners to remain inside at all times. Therefore, they didn’t want people roaming free or getting to nearby neighborhoods and causing panic.

It Was Perfect

The island called Alcatraz was surrounded by coldly deep water. Even if the prisoners could get out of the building, they would have to swim across the ocean, and it was highly dangerous. It’s always been remembered as a harsh place, even when it closed in 1963.

Those Who Dared

The stars of our story weren’t the only people who tried to escape. However, they hadn’t been successful. Roughly 23 prisoners tried and were captured and sent back to their cells. Because of their attempt, they were given more consequences to make life behind bars difficult.

Shot Dead

While 23 prisoners attempted to escape and went back to their cells, some suffered a worse fate. Six prisoners were killed trying to get out. The guards couldn’t show mercy because they couldn’t get back to the mainland and cause trouble.

Drowned

Five prisoners actually made it to the shoreline, but they drowned. There were few options, and swimming was pretty much the only one. No one knew if they were poor swimmers or if the water was too cold. However, no one saw them alive again.

The Protagonists

Clarence Anglin, Frank Lee Morris, John Anglin, and Allen West were the four men who attempted to escape. The two brothers, John and Clarence, met up with Frank in a different prison, and Allen’s cell was nearby.

Meet Frank

Frank Morris became a career criminal, heading to Alcatraz because of his list of crimes. As a child, he was in foster care, and he actually received his first conviction at only 13 years old. That simply spiraled into many more.

Roughest Prisons

Frank had been to the toughest prisons in the nation because he had been involved in armed robberies and much more. He seemed to move around the system, though he escaped from a prison in Louisiana, which brought him to Alcatraz to meet the rest of the team.

The Anglin Brothers

While the Anglin brothers were bank robbers and notorious for their crimes, they were not violent. In fact, they only hoped to get tons of money. It took the police a long time to catch them, and then they were sent to an Atlanta prison to meet Frank.

Prior Escapes

After Frank successfully escaped from the Atlanta prison, the Anglin brothers also tried to do this. They didn’t succeed. In fact, they were relentless in their efforts to escape, so the guards had them sent to Alcatraz.

Pairing with Frank

When the Anglin brothers learned they were going to Alcatraz, they were happy. It meant they could pair up with Frank again, which led them to dream about breaking out. However, they needed another person before they could make a plan.

Meet Allen

Allen West had committed grand larceny and robbery and had also tried to escape from various prisons in the past. He was currently serving a life sentence and was violent compared to the others. In fact, the trio left him behind in the end!

Preparing to Escape

The four members of the team weren’t necessarily violent while at Alcatraz, so they had a little more leeway with the guards. This was a good thing because they needed privacy to steal supplies from the factory to plan the escape.

Factory Work

All four men were assigned factory jobs, which was right beside Alcatraz. Therefore, they could get the supplies necessary for their escape. Part of their plan meant taking the items, hiding them, and turning them into special things.

The Decoys

The Anglin brothers were quite crafty, and they used toilet paper and soap to make dummies. Then, they snuck hair out of the barbershop on the island. Overall, the plan was to fool the guards into thinking they were in their beds, though it wouldn’t last very long.

Through the Walls

Alcatraz featured cement walls, and the group found that they could chip away at them with ease. Therefore, they stole cafeteria spoons and created makeshift picks from them. They slowly removed the cement from around the walls.

Effective and Tedious

It took a long time to chip away at all that concrete, but it was highly effective. They required patience and noise to muffle the sounds. However, the guards allowed them to play music at night, and Frank often used his accordion.

Too Easy

Usually, concrete isn’t easy to chip away at, but the walls contained vents, which created a natural hole in which to start. They went into those vents, chipping away from the inside. Likewise, the cement had weakened over time because of the moisture within.

The Plan

The group found a small utility corridor inside the walls. No guards were posted to watch over that area because no one thought prisoners could get in there. Overall, it was the perfect thing for the criminals, and they used it.

To the Roof

When the men went through the utility corridor, they could ultimately get to the prison’s roof. However, these were large men, and those holes were pretty tight, so they had to be careful. In fact, they tested many shafts before they moved on to the next part.

Loose Ends

The escapees were careful to plan each part because they only had a single chance for escape. If they rushed to the roof, what would they do then? They had to prepare for anything, so they built a passageway and then thought of the next step.

More Materials

Before the escape took place, the team realized they needed more materials, stealing them from the factory. They wanted to build a raft that they could use on the water to get to the San Francisco shore. What else did they come up with?

Life Preservers

They’d thought of the raft, but they wanted to add some life preservers to make sure they stayed safe, even if they fell into the water. They’d often heard the stories of attempted escapes and didn’t want to drown in the cold waves.

Time to Go

It took the men months to complete their tunnels, and Allen West was the last one. Then, they coordinated the escape. They wanted to shimmy out of their holes and make it to the roof. From there, they could climb down the walls and escape on the raft. It didn’t happen.

Something Went Wrong

The men began to leave their cells as planned and head into the tunnels they had made. Things went well for a bit, but then Frank and the Anglin brothers realized that something was wrong. Where was Allen?!

Allen’s Gone

Allen wasn’t with them. They went to his tunnel and saw that he was stuck in the wall because the hole wasn’t big enough. They’d have waited until he had enlarged it, but they never knew about it. Now, he was trapped in cement!

Leaving Allen

The team didn’t want to leave Allen alone, so they began tugging on him and trying to widen the hole. However, they now had a choice to make. If they didn’t leave now, they wouldn’t make it, and they may never have another shot.

Don’t Want to Get Caught

The trio had done too much and gone too far to quit. If they pulled Allen out of the hole, they might get caught. West already knew he’d made a mistake, telling them to go without him and succeed. He’d just live vicariously through them.

The Show Goes On

When the trio reached the utility corridor, they headed to the roof and climbed down to the ground. It wasn’t easy because they were shimmying down different pipes, but they made it. Then, they carefully went around the guards!

The Others

The previous men who had tried to escape had reached the shoreline, as well. However, they didn’t make it across the ocean. It was the only thing that separated Frank and the Anglin brothers from freedom, so they began inflating their rafts.

Goodbye to Allen

The trio shoved off from the shore and made it across the ocean water. Interestingly enough, they realized it might have been a good thing they had left Allen behind. His extra weight might have caused problems. What happened to West?!

Wake Up Call

No one even knew about the escape until the following morning. The trio planned everything and performed seamlessly, so the guards had no idea something had happened. Everyone was shocked except Allen!

Allen Is the Key

Frank, Clarence, and John had made it off of Alcatraz island by the morning. The amazing part is that Allen was the only one who knew most of the story. What did he do after they’d left him behind?

Allen’s Side of the Story

Allen eventually told everyone about the events of that night. According to him, the team did leave him behind to get away while they could. However, Allen didn’t stop trying to get through the tunnel hole. After a long time, he did so.

Too Late

Allen ran after his friends, but he was too late. They’d left on the raft, and he had no way of getting off the island. Therefore, he headed back to the cell. When the guards realized the situation, he had many questions to answer!

Searching Cells

When the news got out that someone had escaped, the guards searched the prison from top to bottom. They wanted to ensure that no one else could get out. That’s when they found the holes within the walls and learned that Allen was part of the plan.

What He Knows

Allen cooperated with the police, telling them of his part in the plan. However, he couldn’t be sure of what occurred after they’d left him. The cops investigated to see if they’d got across the ocean.

Investigation

The local police force investigated the escape, but no one ever found any signs of the Anglin brothers or Frank. It was plausible that they had drowned while swimming across the ocean, so that’s the story they used.

Coverup

Roughly 17 years after the escape, the police told the public that the men drowned while attempting to cross the ocean. They wanted to keep their “no escape possible” reputation. However, John Anglin wrote a letter in 2013, addressing it to the police and explaining everything that had happened.