The Untold Truth About the Escape From Alcatraz

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36 men have tried and 33 have failed. What happened to the 3 men who made it the farthest? Here’s the untold truth about the Alcatraz escape!
9 - Background on Alcatraz
The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was a maximum-security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, around one and a quarter miles off the coast of San Francisco. Given its high security and the island's location in the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz was believed to be escape-proof and America's strongest prison. Alcatraz was used to hold prisoners who caused trouble at other federal prisons. It housed roughly fifteen hundred federal inmates, including some of America's most infamous criminals. Al Capone and George "Machine Gun" Kelly are some examples. The three-story cellhouse had four main cell blocks, A-block through D-block, right in the center. The warden's office and visitation room were on one end of the building. The dining hall and kitchen areas were on the other side, along with the exercise yard. The prison cells typically measured 9 feet by 5 feet and 7 feet high. Each prisoner had their own cell, but they were primitive and lacked privacy. They were only outfitted with the bare necessities. Prisoners followed a strict daily routine and their whereabouts were known at all times. To give you an idea of how closely they checked on prisoners, a total of 13 official counts were made every 24 hours! Escape seemed almost impossible! Despite the odds, from 1934 until the prison was closed in 1963, 36 men tried 14 separate escapes. Nearly all were caught or didn’t survive the attempt. However, the fate of three particular inmates remains a mystery to this day!
8 - The Escapees
Inmates Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin were the prisoners who attempted the infamous 1962 prison break out of Alcatraz! Frank Lee Morris was orphaned at age 11 and spent most of his childhood in foster homes. He was convicted of his first crime at age 13, and by his late teens he had been arrested for crimes such as armed robbery! However, even with his criminal past, Morris was in the 98th percentile in intelligence. Supposedly he had an IQ of 133. Genius level is considered 140 and above. Escaping from Alcatraz actually wasn’t his first escape! He escaped from the Louisiana State Penitentiary while serving time for bank robbery. He was caught again a year later sent to Alcatraz in January 1960. The Anglin brothers, John and Clarence, were born into a family of thirteen children in Georgia. The brothers began robbing banks and other businesses as a team in the early 1950s. They targeted places that were closed, to ensure that no one got injured. They claimed that they used a weapon only once, during a bank heist, with a toy gun. By the 1960s, both received sentences that brought them to Alcatraz. But how did the brothers and Frank Morris come together? They all had served time together at the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta! After repeated failed attempts to escape from the Atlanta facility, the brothers were transferred to Alcatraz. A fourth guy, Allen West, was also involved although he didn’t leave Alcatraz with the trio. West was serving his second term in Alcatraz. He knew John Anglin from prison time together in Florida. The escape plan started to take shape in December of 1961, beginning with a collection of several old saw blades that West allegedly found in one of the utility corridors while cleaning. And that’s why he was pulled into the escape. In later interviews, West would take credit for masterminding the whole thing!
7 - The Plan
While in Alcatraz, inmate Clarence Carnes became friends with Morris and told him about the access tunnel behind their cells. Morris used this information to develop the overall escape plan. They then all carefully planned the escape for eight months, leaving nothing to coincidence. Over the next six months, the men widened the ventilation ducts beneath their sinks using the saw blades discovered by West. They also used metal spoons smuggled in from the dining hall. Amazingly enough, they also made an electric drill improvised from the motor of a vacuum cleaner! They hid the noise of their work with the louder noise of Morris playing his accordion during music hour. That was in addition to all the noise of instruments during music hour! Yup, that’s right, Alcatraz had a music hour.