Post by Joanna on Apr 22, 2018 11:21:38 GMT -5
Did 1962 Alcatraz Escapees Survive?
The three inmates who infamously broke out of Alcatraz prison in 1962 may not have gone down in the shark-infested waters of San Francisco Bay after all. (The photo above shows the men’s mug shots with their age-progressed photos below.)
According to a letter allegedly written by one of the three convicts in 2013, they all survived their daring escape:
“My name is John Anglin. I escape from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes we all made it that night but barely!” read the letter obtained by local CBS affiliate KPIX. He then attempts to strike an astonishing deal with the FBI – offering to be locked up again for a year in exchange for medical care.
The feds have reopened the ancient cold case as a result of the shocking piece of evidence, which was sent to San Francisco police. “It’s interesting, I mean it’s obviously a very famous case here in San Francisco,” said Jeff Harp, a security analyst for CBS San Francisco who worked for 21 years with the FBI, though not on the escape.
The three bank robbers gained widespread notoriety and folklore status after escaping the high-security lockup on June 11, 1962, – the only convicts to successfully break out of the island prison, nicknamed “The Rock.”
In 1979’s Escape from Alcatraz, Clint Eastwood portrayed Morris in a dramatization of the trio’s escape. The warden, played by Patrick McGoohan, informed him no inmate had ever made it out alive.
According to federal authorities, the men used a homemade drill devised from a broken vacuum cleaner motor to widen vents and crawl through before clambering up a series of pipes. They eventually made it out through the ventilation system that led them to the prison roof and slid down the smokestack to the ground, where they launched their makeshift raft created by sewing together more than 50 raincoats. They also fashioned life vests and wooden paddles. The following morning, shocked guards found dummy heads made of plaster, papier-mâché, paint and real human hair in their cells.
According to the letter, Morris died in 2008 and Clarence Anglin died three years later.
The writer offers a deal: “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. This is no joke ....”
The US Marshals Service, the sole agency probing the case, said the FBI lab examined the letter for prints and DNA and reported the results were inconclusive. “So that means yes, and it means no, so this leaves everything in limbo,” Harp commented.
The letter-writer said he lives in Southern California after spending many years after his escape in Seattle and North Dakota.
In a statement to CBS, the Marshals Service wrote: “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.”
National Park Service Ranger John Cantwell said: “The Federal Bureau of Prisons say that they drowned once they got off of Alcatraz and their bodies were swept out to the Pacific Ocean – end of story.”
There have been previous tantalizing reports about the escaped prisoners. A 2015 History Channel special featured a photo allegedly showing John and Clarence in Brazil – 13 years after their escape.
If the men are alive today, Morris would be 90-years-old, John Anglin, 86, and Clarence Anglin, 87.
Source: Yaron Steinbuch, The New York Post, January 24, 2018.
