2. Alcatraz Escape
On June 11, 1962 one of the most infamous prison escapes in American history occurred. At the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary aka The Rock, a prison on its own island off of the California coast, saw a prison escape that left prison guards, local law enforcement and the FBI dumbfounded. Not only were the fugitives never captured, but the magnitude of which the prisoners planned the escape shocked them all.
Approximately six months before the escape, brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris (all convicted bank robbers), came across some saw blades on the prison floor. Using these blades, the prisoners began to widen the ventilation ducts in their prison cells, (they even made a makeshift drill from a vacuum motor.) Simultaneously, they also acquired fifty raincoats from cellmates to create the raft with which they could maneuver the near-freezing San Francisco Bay. They also created fake heads to throw off the prison guards using paper maché (soap and toilet paper) and human hair from the prison barber shop. On the night of the escape, they placed these false heads in their prison beds and slipped through the holes they had dug. On the roof of Alcatraz, the three prisoners descended the fifty foot wall, inflated their makeshift raft and set off into the water.
Upon discovery of the fake heads the following morning, a search was conducted. Although remnants of the raft, paddles and other personal materials were recovered from the water, the FBI concluded (after 17 years of investigation) that the three men had probably drowned in the waters during the escape. However, in 2012 family members of the Anglin brothers came forward and stated that the brothers survived the escape. They claimed to have received phone calls and even a Christmas card from John Anglin, while a close friend allegedly saw and photographed them in Brazil.
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