The Alcatraz escape is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating and enduring prison mysteries in American history. The story of Clarence and John Anglin, along with their friend Frank Morris, has captured the public imagination for decades…
As you cross the Golden Gate Bridge in California, you can see Alcatraz Prison on the horizon. Almost every American has heard of the legendary island prison, which is notorious for being impenetrable. From its inception until 1963, it served as the safest and most secure prison in the entire United States, therefore housing the most dangerous inmates.
36 prisoners have tried to escape from the prison over the years. By 2013, it was widely believed that all of these escape attempts had failed.
Clarence and John Anglin, along with their comrade Frank Morris, were two of those attempted escapes. They conspired for months and months before breaking out of prison using the ventilation ducts in their cells.
They opened the pipes with rusty saw blades, sharpened spoons, and even a Macgyvered drill from an old vacuum cleaner to fit three men at a time. Morris picked up the accordion and played loud and often to mask the harsh sound of their grinding and plucking.
They eventually break out of their prisons, but encounter another problem: the ocean rising in front of them. They were able to make life jackets and a raft out of raincoats by constantly going in and out of the cages. Their paddles were built from wood they found while exploring, and the plan was quickly put into action.
On the night of their daring escape, they fashioned dummy heads out of real human hair and a crude kind of paper-mâché. They slipped out of the cells through the vents and climbed over the fence just in time.
From then on, the story becomes very hazy. Soon after, the FBI joined the hunt, but all that was uncovered were the remains of the rafts. No further evidence was discovered until 2013.
That year, a person posing as John Anglin wrote to the FBI explaining his identity and the success of their escape. The other two apparently died in recent years, yet all three escaped. To verify this, John supplied a photo of two of the three refugees enjoying their freedom together.
John presented his new cancer diagnosis and asked for medical treatment in exchange for a prison sentence of “less than a year”.
The letter was tested for DNA found in the prison cells, but the results were “inconclusive”. This often means that the test could not be confirmed in any way, meaning that this is most likely the real John Anglin.
In 2018, the FBI announced that they had received the letter and reopened their investigation into the escape. However, there was never any tracking of the alleged “John Anglin”, who presumably died of his condition in the following years.
Obviously, there’s a lot more to this story, and we can only hope that the FBI provides all the material we need to clarify the finale. At this point, we can only speculate as to whether these three individuals managed to pull off the most improbable prison break of all time.
As time passes, one can only hope that new information will emerge that will shed light on the fate of the three brave refugees. Until then, the Alcatraz escape remains a fascinating and unsolved chapter in the annals of American criminal history, leaving us to wonder if these men really did the impossible, or if the truth will forever remain locked within the walls of the infamous island prison.
Do you believe John Anglin wrote that letter? Please leave your opinions in the comments!