June 1962 Alcatraz escape

June 1962 Alcatraz escape

After Facts...

John Anglin

Allen West

• Missing since June 11, 1962

• The brother of Clarence Anglin, whom he was convicted with

• Out of 36 failed attempts from other inmates of Alcatraz, they're the only ones to escape and never get caught

• In 1958 he robbed a bank with his two brothers using a toy gun

• Did not escape Alcatraz with Clarence, John, and Frank
• However, he was another important Alcatraz inmate who lived in an adjacent cell, and was important in the escape.
• West carried a reputation as an arrogant criminal, and he personally knew John Anglin from the State Penitentiary in Florida.

• No bodies were ever recovered and no proven sightings of the men have ever been made

• Attempted many escapes with his brother and was sent to Alcatraz

• Security guards brushed off the loud sound of the shaft smashing through the roof as nothing serious. Since nothing more was heard, the issue was left unpursued.

• West took credit for masterminding the escape

The Escape

Frank Morris

• Born in Washington D.C. in 1926

• The escape plan started presumably in December of 1961, a year before the escape, with the collection of several old saw blades that West found in one of the utility closets while cleaning.

• Frank was shuffled around in many foster homes

The Men:

Myth Busters

• Convicted of his first crime at the age 13

Clarence Anglin

Myth Busters proved that the escape is possible

• By the time he reached his later teens, Morris's criminal record included crimes from narcotics possession to armed robbery. He spent his formative years in a boys' training school, and eventually moved up into a series of ever larger penitentiaries, where he met the Anglin brothers

• They used lifelike dummies, made from water, soap, toilet paper and real hair.
• They made water rafts, and life preservers, fabricated from over fifty rain coats that had been acquired from other inmates .
• They would also used a variety of tools used to dig with such as spoons. By May of 1962, Morris and the Anglins and had already dug through the cell's six-by-nine-inch vent holes, and had started work on the vent on top of the cellblock
• .They snuck out through the cells walls which brought them to an unused service hallway. From there, the men climbed through a vent and got onto the roof. They climbed over the fence and were on their way.

• Morris was credited as the keen and brilliant mastermind of the most famous prison escape in history.

• Got sent to jail first in 1958, for bank robbery with his two brothers in Georgia.
• Missing since June 11, 1962
• Had a 15-20 year sentence
• Sent to Alcatraz with his brother John while

trying to escape from a state penitentiary.

• He earned his ticket to Alcatraz by building an impressive resume of escapes from other prisons

Alcatraz

What:

"The Rock" an isolated prison on an island of 12 acres.

All Three...

When:

The escape was June 11, 1963

More on Alcatraz

Where:

...had been incarcerated at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta when they first became and were eventually sent to Alcatraz following a sequence of attempted escapes.

The middle of the freezing San Francisco Bay; 1.5 miles offshore CA

http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/mainpg.htm

Why:

"Escape proof" prison for America's worst criminals