On the night of June 11, 1962, 3 men escaped from Alcatraz island (The Rock), a maximum security prison in San Francisco.
Frank Morris, John and Clarence Anglin (brothers) and more people involved spent 6 months preparing this plan to escape from this fortress. They used clever tricks like fake dummy heads, played music instruments to dilute their work noise, created tools to unlock their evasion path and more...
December 31, 1979, the FBI closed its file and concluded based on expert opinion that the 3 inmates likely drowned in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay while escaping.
But"The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active, and Morris and the Anglin brothers will remain on its wanted list until September 2026."
Here are some interesting theories about their post-escape-evasion:
- All three drowned
- They reached Angel Island
- They survived, but were dragged to another part of Marin near the Golden Gate
- The raft failed, but the three of them finished swimming
- One or two survived, the others drowned (Anglin brothers were very good swimmers)
- An accomplice was waiting for them with a boat (A cop reported that he saw a fishing boat in the bay near Alcatraz on the night of the escape)
- They would have been towed by a ferry or boat leaving Alcatraz (electrical cord reported missing from the dock on the night of the escape)
- They went to Mexico and then Brazil
- They survived but remained in the United States under fake identities
- They survived Alcatraz but died shortly afterwards
- The debris was allegedly deliberately left behind to make it look like they had drowned
- They were taken in and then killed or betrayed by their accomplices
- ...
Of course in this era of the AI bubble, a picture taken in Brazil in 1975 and "analyzed" by AI reported a match at 99% that it was the Anglin brothers...
I visited Alcatraz a couple of times and I already posted some images in a previous blog post about that: California II. I think it's a must if you visit San Francisco and they provide headphones in multiple languages during the tour in english, spanish, french, ...
Movies and Documentaries
A movie with Clint Eastwood called Escape from Alcatraz is based on this event.
The movie is good but a little bit old (1979) and it doesn't contain the "recent" findings or new theories (e.g. brazil picture).
