In June of 1962, four inmates attempted the impossible with their Alcatraz escape. by kaseyferg. Yes we all made it that night but barely!. The letter was unreadable in parts, but a special BBC report interpreted the contents and found that Anglin had lived in Seattle for most of my years after the Escape. But it is the next revelation the letter contained what was truly unbelievable! 7th grade. Getting out of the prison was not enough, the gang also had to find a way to get off the island and avoid the guards. When he was 11, Morris became an orphan, after which he was moved from foster home to foster home. Every year when they were children, their family would head North for work picking cherries, sometimes even getting all the way to Michigan. June . However, it took a while for the report to be filed and the body was never recovered. Meanwhile Morris and the Anglin brothers managed to climb down a kitchen ventilator shaft, and then clamber over the perimeter fence. Then they would be ready to move when the right moment arrived. Frank Lee Morris knew that a good prison break cannot be handled alone. Early the next morning, blaring sirens rocked the prison of Alcatraz and woke up all the inmates. In June 1962, just one year before the prison shut down, three inmates- Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin-planned and executed an escape attempt. from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. Assigned to adjoining cells, they began hatching a plan to escape. ? Using crude toolsincluding a homemade drill made from the motor of a broken vacuum cleanerthe plotters each loosened the air vents at the back of their cells by painstakingly drilling closely spaced holes around the cover so the entire section of the wall could be removed. Next a rare look inside the infamous prison. The only way of escaping the Island would have been to have either swam or on a raft. Bodies often surfaced in the waters in that area, but the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is a notorious suicide hotspot, so that makes things even more complicated. Frank Morris : I may have found a way out of here. After months of meticulous planning - on the night of June 11, 1962 - the trio of bank . 0. The water surrounding Alcatraz at the time of the men's escape was between 50 and 54 degrees. The group of four, which also included fellow inmate Allen West, had plenty of personal experience on how to escape or try to escape from various prisons. . Clearly Frank was ensconced in a life of crime and we dont need to run through his entire rap sheet. Frank Morris um condenado que tem vrias tentativas de fugas em seu . It is unclear why the letter didnt come to light for five years, but its contents were both intriguing and shocking. The inmates worked as part of their sentence giving them access to the materials at hand. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Sarah Hapgood and sjhstrangetales.wordpress.com, 2011-2018. Here we see inmates baking bread in the prison kitchen, though the loafs seem slightly burned. All Rights Reserved 2012-2023. Would they be willing to agree to these unbelievable terms? A couple of years later, on November 13th, 1940, he was convicted of theft and sentenced to the National Training School for Boys, a reform school in northeast D.C., where he was taught to repair shoes. Reuters. Three of the men were able to crawl through into an unused servicecorridor behind the wall. He was believed to have been of superior intelligence with an I.Q. This shot also taken before Alcatraz was a federal penitentiary it was used as a military garrison. But now the story will be told. And, as the old saying goes, they were never seen again. This maximum-security prison was designed with the sole purpose of keeping the most dangerous criminals away from normal society. Prison guards back then did not have the same compassion as today, their orders were to shoot on sight and any escape attempt was a deadly gamble. The legend of this escape lives on today, 50 years later. The plan for the escape was quite simple, but the means to pull it off were nearly impossible. Morris was a professional inmate, havinglived a life behind bars for the better part of his life. . The escape of three convicts - John Anglin, Clarence Anglin, and Frank Morris - from Alcatraz including a suspected mystery boat seen on the San Francisco Bay the night of their disappearance is . If all went according to plan, he would never sleep behind bars again. Over the years, the salt wore down the cement and eventually caused it to crumble. In 1962, inmates and bank robbers Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin vanished from Alcatraz, the federal island . Product Information. This sounds quite intimidating, but Morris was planning a big surprise. Ghosts of DC took a little trip to the Bay Area this weekend and wewanted to sprinkle a little San Francisco flavor into this next post.We can think of no better subject than Alcatraz (aka, The Rock). Within two days, a packet of letters sealed in rubber and related to the men was recovered. In 1979, the three were declared legally dead and the FBI closedthe case. The fate of three particular inmates, however, remains a mystery to this day. The four men also had adjoining cells while they were locked up in Alcatraz and a long long time to think up their grand plan of escape. The saltwater that ran through the pipes for showering and washing dishes was slowly destroying the pipes and leaking into the prison walls. As career criminals they would have had no trouble stealing cars, food and clothes to survive, but this would very likely lead to their arrest and capture. Morris was born on September 1st, 1926 at Gallinger Hospital in Washington, D.C. (more recently known as D.C. General Hospital near RFK Stadium and closed in 2001). From what dethb0y said there are accounts of sailors surviving in worse conditions than San Francisco Bay so it's possible the brothers made it out of Alcatraz but the fate of their companion is unclear because it seems like none of his family members ever made claims that they received information from him. Frank Morris : Here. In 1945, he was returned to D.C., as an inmate in the National Training School for Boys. The gang was quite fortunate that the prison was already old and in bad shape with weak crumbly walls. West managed to reach the prison roof before giving up and climbing back down to his cell. Alcatraz was intended to serve as a maximum-security prison during the civil war and shockingly, some of its prisoners are still alive to this day. Escape from Alcatraz Article Review DRAFT. Morris and the Anglin brothers were sent to Alcatraz in 1960 and 1961, and by . After a panicked search, they managed to find an unsealed shaft and used their homemade wrench to pry it open. In 1979, the three were declared legally dead and the FBI closed the case. In 2011, an 89-year-old man named Bud Morris, who said he was a cousin of Frank Morris, claimed that on "eight or nine" occasions before the escape, he delivered envelopes of money to Alcatraz guards, presumably as bribes. And there were a lot of them, because Alcatraz worked for the US military making furniture, clothing and shoes. Then, they shimmied down the bakery smoke stack at the rear of the cell house, climbed over the fence, and snuck to the northeast shore of the island and launched their raft. It was reported that Morris began constructing his escape within a year of his arrival. According to them, the body was in clothes similar to the Alcatraz prison uniforms. I have cancer. These prisoners spend their day weaving cargo nets in 1955. An intensive analysis was done of every aspect of the letter in an attempt to unlock its secrets. Not much of his youth isdocumented, but according to FBI documents, he was orphaned at the ageof 11 and sent to live in foster homes. Clmence Michallon speaks to the man who investigated the case for 17 years, and the nephew who believes . In June 1962, inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The decades old cold case was suddenly brought back to life by intriguing new evidence. This is a shot of the Alcatraz recreation yard. Allen West, who was . Morris was a professional inmate, having lived a life behind bars for the better part of his life. The plan involved the men chiseling through the walls in theircells over the course of a year, until the hole they created was largeenough to crawl through. What is the real story? A brief history of the island it started out as the site for a lighthouse until President Millard Fillmore ordered it to be used as a military base in 1850, following the Mexican-American war. The US Marshals, however, have kept their investigation ongoing. During the riot, two guards, Hubbard, Coy and another inmate lost their lives. Morris also played his accordion as loudly as possible whenever he could, and the racket was enough to conceal any noises made by banging or the chipping of cement. At the same time, they were looking for a way out of the building. But Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin changed that fact. 18 of 26 19 of 26 Replica dummies, like the ones made by the only known escapees of Alcatraz, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, are seen in a cell on Alcatraz Island June 8th, 2012. They concealed their work with cardboard and paint every morning. After the riot, Thompson was held accountable for his part and was sent to solitary confinement to await punishment. Plenty of people have gone to great lengths to prove that the men could have survived, but the question remains: did they? John and Clarence Anglin disappeared from Alcatraz along with inmate Frank Morris in 1962. He needed a team and found them when he got to The Rock, a common nickname for Alcatraz. kaseyferg. It was used primarily as a military prison until, in 1933, the Department of Justice acquired the island for use as a maximum security prison for the worst of the worst felons. Eastwood, who portrayed Frank Morris in the film, conveyed a riveting (but Hollywood style) story that still intrigues all of us more than a half century after the dozen escape artists disappeared . In their beds were cleverly built dummy heads made of plaster, flesh-tone paint, and real human hair that apparently fooled the night guards. In 1962, inmates Frank Morris, John and Clarence Anglin would take part in one of the most famous and spectacular escape attempts in American history. They used more than 50 raincoats for the job. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Records on Ancestry.com show John as well as Clarence and Frank Morris all with a death date of June 11, 1962, the night of the escape. Three of the men were able to crawl through into an unused service corridor behind the wall. The team was made up of Morris, two brothers named John and Clarence Anglin and another convict named Allen West. His criminallife began at the early age of 13. In June 1962, the signal to begin the escape finally arrived but things did not go as planned. But on June 11, 1962, convicted bank robbers Frank Morris, John Anglin and his brother Clarence Anglin waited patiently until shortly after the last bed check at 9 p.m. before they made a daring . The gang was all set and all that was left was to wait for Allen West to finish carving out his escape hole. The case was officially closed by the FBI in 1979, but in 2013 a letter was submitted to the San Franciso Police Department, claiming to be from John Anglin, which asserted that the 3 men had barely made it to the shore on the night of their escape. This is a tale, much like that of D.B. Somehow, they were able to shimmy down a50-foot kitchen pipe affixed to the wall, while the wall wasilluminated sporadically with a search light, yet they remainedundetected (someone in the guard house taking a little snoozer?). The three remaining escapees were finally ready to start their climb. That challenge - attempted by thousands every year - is to try and . Most people believe that these men died in their escape, but a number of people believe they made it. Well after all, no one could escape from Alcatraz could they . With Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau. But that was just the beginning for them During their incarceration at the Atlanta Penitentiary, the Anglin brothers were caught trying to escape on numerous occasions. Frank Morris will forever be known as the man who orchestrated the great escape from Alcatraz. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. An illustrated collection of 42 more of my blog entries, Strange Tales 4: 42 new cases of the Unexplained is now available for Amazons Kindle, price 1.99. Over the years, the US Marshals position has been that it is possible Morris and the Anglin brothers survived the escape. He let the other members of his gang know, but no one could have predicted what would happen next. It was described as the great garbage can of San Francisco, and nicknamed Hellcatraz. There, taking turns keeping watch for the guards in the evening before the last count (see the crude periscope they constructed for the lookouts), they used a variety of stolen and donated materials to build and hide what they needed to escape. Located on a lonely island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, Alcatrazaka The Rockhad held captives since the Civil War. This photo, taken in Clarence Anglins cell, shows how the dummy heads were arranged to fool the guards into thinking the inmates were asleep. In 1945,he was returned to D.C., as an inmate in the National Training Schoolfor Boys. Alcatraz officials and the U.S. Marshall service declared it was impossible . These were a vital part of the plan without which they would most certainly drown in the cold bay waters. They were . This mugshot shows Alcatraz inmate Miran Thompson. They checked for trace DNA evidence, dusted for fingerprints and ran handwriting analysis, using the three escapees' writing samples from when they were locked up. Even though he was left behind, he continued working on enlarging the hole in his cell enough to squeeze through and he finally succeeded. Edit. An illustrated collection of 23 more of my blog entries, Strange Tales 2: more mysterious places and odd people is now available for AmazonsKindle, price 1.15. He was arrested and put away, but this time he was sent to the notorious Alcatraz. The FBI closed its case in 1979 after reaching the conclusion that the men drowned and their bodies had been swept out to sea. Morris was born on September 1st, 1926 at Gallinger Hospital in . Side note: in 1951, Charles Manson was an inmate at theschool. Marshals) By Justin Ray. Morris was sentenced on September 19, 1956 to 14 years custody for a bank burglary in Slidell Louisiana. On June 11, 1962 the trio successfully escaped the maximum security prison after . Theheads were placed in their beds so the guards would think the inmateswere still asleep. The following day, a search party found the remains of the raincoat raft on Angel Island, two miles north of Alcatraz. Transylvanian Sky and other stories is now available for Amazon's Alcatraz was regarded as the last resort of prisons. Also available on other Amazon sites. The men had made their escape soon after 10 PM. Im 83 years old and in bad shape. Since their disappearance in 1962, nobody has known whether or . This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Will the truth ever come out? On 11 June 1962, three prisoners - Frank Morris, along with brothers John and Clarence Anglin - broke out of their cells and escaped from the prison on Alcatraz Island, near San Francisco Bay. The Anglin family brought to light another key piece of evidence, a picture of the two brothers in Brazil shot in 1975. By May 1962, the holes were complete. Inmates at Alcatraz worked long hours full of hard labor. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possibly successful attempt at escaping from one of the most infamous prisons in the world. The men crept through the unused corridor, up a shaft of pipes tothe roof and across the roof, in plain site of the guard tower withtheir makeshift gear in tow. View from catwalk above Cell Block B showing route prisoners took to access the roof of Cell House, Ventilator cover on the roof of the Alcatraz prison through which the inmates made their escape. I did not. Their hearts raced, and adrenaline coursed through their bodies at the very thought of escape. The sentence was originally six years, ninemonths and 18 days, however, he was paroled in less than a year. This prison record from 1963 belongs to Arthur Doc Barker, the son of Ma Barker and a member of the infamous Bloody Barkers gang. Alcatraz. Frank Morris : [to Litmus' mouse] Yeah. The Deputy US Marshal said to NPR in an interview in 2009: Theres an active warrant, and the Marshals Service doesnt give up looking for people. In fact, that was not the last that was heard about the three people who allegedly escaped from Alcatraz. He had three accomplices in theplan: Allen West (#AZ1335) and brothers Clarence (#AZ1485) and JohnAnglin (#AZ1476). An illustrated collection of 40 of my blog entries, Strange Tales: an A-Z of mysterious places and odd people is now available for AmazonsKindle, price 2.32. Ghosts of DC took a little trip to the Bay Area this weekend and we wanted to sprinkle a little San Francisco flavor into this next post. It continued to serve in a military capacity through the Civil War and, in addition, began housing Confederate prisoners of war. Frank Morris and Friends of Alcatraz. JustWatch. The letter ended with a highly unusual deal offered to the authorities. Today, their fates remain unknown. They headed out to sea in their improvised raft at roughly 11:30 PM and fell off the face of the earth. The case was transferred over to the United States Marshals Service and in 1993, it was reopened. By late May 1962, the four had all finished cutting through the walls of their cells, and on June 11th, Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers climbed a ventilation shaft through one of the chimneys and reached the top of the roof. The three others got into the corridor, gathered their gear, climbed up and out through the ventilator, and got on to the prison roof. What would make this attempt any different? Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. Privacy Policy. This stark and simple cell was used for solitary confinement and contained only a sink, toilet and bed. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Alcatraz Prison itself closed down a year later in 1963, largely due to the ruinous costs of keeping it going, and the salt water damage caused to the buildings. Jim Albright, the very last guard to leave Alcatraz prison, was interviewed by ABC 7, a local TV affiliate in San Francisco to commemorate 55 years to the prisons closing in March 2018. On December 31, 1997, 17 years after the escape, the FBI investigation was finally dropped. After a number of successful escape attempts fromother prisons under his belt, he begins to hatch an escape plan fromThe Rock. They kept it in place temporarily by fashioning a fake bolt out of soap. He went on write that Frank Morris had died in 2008, and Clarence had passed away in 2011. Frank Morris was from Washington, DC; a career criminal, he had a high IQ of 133, and was the only person to escape from Alcatraz. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). (U.S. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. On June 13, 1952, he was sentenced to serve 10 years at theLouisiana State Penitentiary for possession of narcotics and armedrobbery. West was sent to the Atlanta Penitentiary (where he first met Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin) and Florida State Prison for hijacking as a car thief. The Anglin family, two parents and 13 children, would go North and pick cherries every June. To conceal their absence from their cells, the men constructed papier mache heads, made realistic by snatching hair from the barber-shop floor. Frank Lee Morris knew that a good prison break cannot be handled alone. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. He worked there during the escape and was asked about his beliefs regarding the mens fate. This is what he had to say: It depends on whether youre talking to me or youre talking to their mother. On 11 June 1962 the great day dawned, and the men plotted their escape. A photograph taken of two bearded men in 1975 hints strongly that they eventually made it to Brazil. A mechanical locking system that allowed guards to open certain cell doors or groups of cell doors remotely, by pulling levers at a control panel, replaced the old system of a single key . He offered to go to prison for a year, if it meant he could get medical treatment. A picture taken in 1956 of a guard operating one of the prisons snitch boxes, as named by the prisoners. Behind the cells was a common, unguarded utility corridor. It was one of the most ingenious prison breaks of all timeif it worked. Frank Lee Morris, John and Clarence Anglin, and Allen West became the best of friends during their time serving in Alcatraz. Mysteries, murders and other tales of the Unexplained from my blog entries, Clarence Anglin, Frank Morris y John Anglin escaparon de Alcatraz en 1962. A warrant still exists for Frank, John and Clarence. Not just the escape itself, but the way the men had managed to work on their plans, completely undetected, for 6 months! He needed a team and found them when he got to "The Rock", a common nickname for Alcatraz. They were shocked to discover that many shafts were sealed off with cement. He is seen here reading a 1946 newspaper about the riot that he and his men helped quell.