![]() To make it look like they were tucked into bed, the men crafted crude dummy heads using plaster, soap, and paints. ![]() The air vents that had been displaced were usually covered with items in their cells, like a suitcase or cardboard. While the utility corridor afforded them a workspace, the men also had to avoid arousing suspicion at night. The idea was to be prepared for the choppy Bay waters en route to freedom in nearby Marin County. Chunks of wood were turned into paddles a concertina, a musical instrument similar to an accordion, was used to force air into the raft. This was accomplished by repurposing raincoats, sewing them together, and using steam pipes to fuse sections. There, the escapees had the privacy to work on the other major part of their plan: constructing a raft and life preservers. (To cover the din of their work, Morris played an accordion.) Behind the vent was an unmanned utility corridor that offered a path to the roof of their cell block. In December 1961, the men began using makeshift tools-like a drill powered by a vacuum cleaner motor-to remove the air vents and a portion of the surrounding wall in their cells. At Alcatraz, they were reunited with Frank Morris, an inmate whom they had met at another prison and who-in addition to purportedly having a high IQ-also had a penchant for escapes: He had broken out of a Louisiana facility where he had been serving time for a bank robbery, and was sent to Alcatraz after he was arrested for burglary in 1960.Īlong with Allen West, the men set in motion an escape plan right out of a movie. That obviously made communication-and plotting their escape-much easier.īut the Anglins had another advantage. Even though authorities at Alcatraz had been cautioned not to house the brothers near each other, they were placed in adjacent cells. None, however, had the same cunning and determination as the Anglins. Most were caught some were shot and killed, while others drowned. Between 19, a total of 36 inmates attempted 14 separate escapes. Coupled with the fact that the prison was said to be surrounded by shark-infested, 50-degree water and was located 1.25 miles away from the mainland, it was easy to see why Alcatraz had a reputation for being inescapable. People were incarcerated on the 22-acre island (which took its name from the Spanish word alcatraces, which is most often translated as "pelican" or “strange bird”), since the 1850s, but it was only transferred to the Department of Justice in 1933, when it got a makeover with more secure cells, guard towers, and protocols that accounted for prisoners multiple times a day. narvikk/iStock via Getty ImagesĪlcatraz Federal Penitentiary was famously one of the most unforgiving prisons of the 20th century. The water surrounding Alcatraz was believed to prevent successful escape. Long before the advent of internet sleuths and true crime specials, the country would be transfixed with their audacious bid for freedom-and whether they had really made it out alive. In just under two years’ time, the Anglins and an accomplice named Frank Morris would put that reputation to the test. So in 1960, prison officials who were wary of their determination to regain freedom decided to send the brothers to the one place in the country that had proven to be completely escape-proof: Alcatraz, a fortified island in San Francisco. Both had also tried to run from chain gangs. The Anglins were caught and arrested just five days later in Ohio, and all three went to prison.Įventually, John and Clarence ended up at Leavenworth, a penitentiary in Kansas, where Clarence attempted to make a break for it by trying to smuggle himself out in two enormous bread boxes John likely assisted him. Not that they had time to do much with the money. For the Anglin brothers, three of 14 children who grew up in poverty-stricken areas of Georgia and Florida, it was a life-changing amount of cash. The men wielded a plastic firearm to scare employees and exited with over $18,000, the equivalent of $174,000 today. On January 17, 1958, the Anglins, along with their older brother Alfred, stormed into Alabama's Bank of Columbia. For brothers John and Clarence Anglin, the story of the most infamous prison escape in modern history began with a toy gun. ![]()
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