However, the Marshals Service has continued to investigate leads and said it will do so until the men are proven deceased, or until they turn 99.Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.
“For the 17 years we worked on the case, no credible evidence emerged to suggest the men were still alive, either in the U.S.
The FBI officially closed its case on the Alcatraz escapees in 1979. The unsolved case has spawned everything from television specials to interactive modeling of current conditions the night of the escape.Īlcatraz itself closed as a prison in March 1963, less than a year after the infamous escape, but the island facility remains one of San Francisco Bay area’s best-known tourist attractions – and the starting point for the grueling “Escape from Alcatraz” triathlon. The agency used interviews with him to glean most of the details about the plans leading up to the escape – but evidence after the escape remained scant, save for pieces of homemade paddles and a life vest that washed ashore nearby.įor decades, questions have persisted: Did the men successfully make it north toward Angel Island, either in their makeshift raft or by swimming? Or were they overcome by the bay’s rough waters, their bodies long lost to the Pacific Ocean? They were able to trick night guards into thinking they were still sleeping by tucking dummy heads into their beds before they left.Īccording to the FBI, Allen West, one of the four men originally in on the plan, wasn’t ready in time and was left behind. They kept it in place temporarily by fashioning a fake bolt out of soap.Īt last, sometime between the evening of June 11 and the morning of June 12 in 1962, Morris and the Anglin brothers made their escape, slipping out through the air vents in their cells one last time, grabbing the equipment from their secret workshop and climbing up to the ventilator onto the prison roof. The ceiling was a good 30 feet high, but using a network of pipes they climbed up and eventually pried open the ventilator at the top of the shaft. “At the same time, they were looking for a way out of the building. “They also built wooden paddles and converted a musical instrument into a tool to inflate the raft. “More than 50 raincoats that they stole or gathered were turned into makeshift life preservers and a 6×14 foot rubber raft, the seams carefully stitched together and ‘vulcanized’ by the hot steam pipes in the prison (the idea came from magazines that were found in the prisoners’ cells),” according to the FBI’s website. Slowly, each of the men drilled tiny holes around the air vents in the back of their cells, then punched out a portion of the wall large enough to wiggle through.įor weeks, the FBI stated, the prisoners used the air vents to access an empty corridor they used as a “secret workshop” to build their escape equipment, one that belied the men’s ingenuity.
#ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ MOVIE#
Whatever the fate of the escapees, the bold prison break from a maximum-security facility nicknamed “The Rock” has become the stuff of legend, immortalized in the 1979 movie “Escape from Alcatraz,” which starred Clint Eastwood.Īccording to the FBI, this much is known: About six months before the escape attempt, four Alcatraz prisoners began plotting their jailbreak, using found and stolen materials (including a broken vacuum cleaner motor) to fashion a makeshift drill. FBI officials did not immediately respond to requests for additional details Wednesday morning. It’s unclear why it took nearly five years for the letter to surface. “There is absolutely no reason to believe that any of them would have changed their lifestyle and became completely law abiding citizens after this escape,” the Marshals Service said in a statement to KPIX. Marshals Service representative told The Washington Post the agency believes the letter is without merit, based on handwriting analysis and other factors, but could not immediately provide further comment. This is no joke.”Īccording to KPIX, the FBI examined the letter but said its results were inconclusive.
#ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ TV#
The note continued: “If you announce on TV that I will be promised to first go to jail for no more than a year and get medical attention, I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. The letter claimed Morris died in 2008 and that Clarence Anglin died in 2011.
0 kommentar(er)
