This was regarded to be one of the most ingenious prison breaks of all time—if it worked.
An uncovered letter by someone claiming to be one of the men who escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary years ago has brought the infamous case back into the national spotlight and under the FBI’s focus.
On June 11, 1962, one of the most daring prison escapes in history was carried out by three men. Frank Morris, along with brothers John and Clarence Anglin, escaped from Alcatraz prison never to be seen again. The FBI closed its case in 1979 after reaching the conclusion that the men drowned and their bodies had been swept out to sea.
The letter begins simply: “My name is John Anglin. I escape [sic] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris,” it reads. “Yes we all made it that night but barely!” But despite its simple beginnings, the letter is extraordinary — because it might shed light on the only successful escape attempt that was ever made from the infamous Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay.
The escape attempt immediately captured the public imagination, turning the trio into folk heroes.
Over the years, 36 prisoners attempted to escape from prison. Until 2013, it was widely known that every single one of those escape attempts has failed.
The men, all serving time for bank robbery, were discovered to be missing from their cells during a morning bed check on June 12, 1962. According to FBI documents, the men left on their pillows dummy heads made of plaster, flesh-toned paint, and human hair that fooled guards long enough for the men to make their daring overnight escape.
They plotted for months and months and finally made it out of the prison through some ventilation ducts in their cells. They used old saw blades, sharpened spoons, and even a drill Macgyvered from an old vacuum cleaner to open up the ducts enough to fit the three men, one at a time. To hide the loud noise of their grinding and picking, Morris picked up the accordion and played loudly, and often.
‘AWM’ gives us more details of this mysterious letter sent to the FBI from a man claiming to be John Anglin:
From there, the story gets really murky. The FBI became involved in the search soon after, but all that was discovered was some remnants of the raft. No other evidence ever turned up, until 2013.
A man claiming to be John Anglin sent a letter to the FBI that year, revealing his identity and the success of their escape. Apparently, the other two had passed in recent years, but all three managed to escape. John included a photo of two of the three escapees enjoying their freedom together to prove it.
John described how he now had cancer and asked for medical treatment in exchange for a prison sentence of, “less than a year.”
The letter was tested for the DNA that was left in the prison cells, but the results were reported as, “inconclusive.” This generally means that the test couldn’t be verified one way or another, meaning that this certainly could be the real John Anglin.
The FBI last reported in 2018 that they did, in fact, receive the letter and had reopened the investigation into the escape. But there has never been any follow-up with the supposed, “John Anglin,” who presumably has passed from his illness in the years since.
Clearly, there is much more to this story, and hopefully, the FBI will release all the information we need to clear up the ending. For now, all we can do is wonder whether these three men managed to pull off the most impossible prison escape of all time.
The letter was just one piece of alleged evidence to turn up in recent years. The History Channel back in 2015 aired a special including a photo that purportedly showed the Anglin brothers together in Brazil 13 years after their escape.
If alive today, John Anglin would be 90 years old, and his brother, 91. Morris would be 94 years old.
Besides the escapees, Alcatraz was once home to some of the most notorious criminals in American history. Its one-time inhabitants include gangsters Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly and the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” Robert Franklin Stroud.
The prison was shuttered in 1963.
Source: AWM