Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

A perfectly masterminded plot leads to the most brazen prison break in American history. With only a handful of clues left behind, the search for the infamous Alcatraz escapees continues to this day. But is it really possible they survived-and if so, where did they go?

june 12, 1962, Alcatraz Island in  san fransisco bay.

so we got  three prisoners. frank morris ,john anglin and his brother claremce anglin

7:oo  am call one day ,they  don’t respond to a guard goes to check on all three of tem.

he sees all three of them lyingin theirbeds so  he walks  over to frank’scell

and taps him on the head with his nightstick …and franl’s head fals off.this guard had the shock of his life heprobably thoughthe had just decapotated the man.

all three prisoners  have vanishedfrom their cells.they three lifelike paper mache heads left behind imediately this create chaos.

these prosnerare gone how could these prisoners have escaped this this super  security  prison ?

they discover that another …

…prisone allen west

also is in possesssion of  a fake head made of paper mache .

west admits gwwas pat ofan escape,but failedto get out of hiscell in time in echange for leniency , he agrees to tell investigators exactly how his fellow inmates did the impossible.

it’s amazing that these three men were ven able to get out  te prison complex itself.

alcatraz had the reputation of being the most secure  prison  in the country.

even if you do get  outtta alcatraz,you still have to contend wit….

six watch towers.

as well 20 foor fence with barbed wire.

and if by some miracle you make it over that as well, you still dealing with the dark water turbulant water of te san  fransiscobay.

frank morris and the angelin brothers came to alcatraz with a long histroy of escape.frank

frank morris is a careeer criminal  ,a very good one too.he’d been in andout of the system since the age of 13,mostly for  robbery charges.he was  suich an accompished escape artist that some people referred to him as the houdini of the prison system because he had successfully esacpedfor so many  facilities before being sent to Alcatraz.

john and clarence anglin,they ere from  florida , georgia area they were caree criminals they had robbeda bank in Ohio with a toy gun but they  get set to alcatraz because they were trying to escape leavenworth prison.

but according to  the testimony allen west gives,west is the  mastermind behind this plot as west tells investigators, they first needed a way out or their cells and into the maintenance corridor behind

 looking inside of a cell on Alcatraz there’s only a few features and one of them  right below  the sink is an an air went.

becaue of the deterioration of the facility and salt water wreaks havoc on concrete they were  able to fashionspoons and be able to just basically scrape away the concrete around this vent.they work at night , standing  guard for  each other and  devise a way  to cover up their handiwork  because these men would be widening their vents.

they couldn’t just leave  holes  in the back of their cells.

west secures green paint from his prison job and he shows the other prisoners that there’s a way to kind kind  of repaint around the vent as they remove it.

it requires a lot of patience   because the guards go around do  hourly  checks.later on, what they do  is they srat to create paper mache vents a sort of a cover  for the holes that they’re creating.

if you looked at from the cell,your’e only a good nin feet away, you just looke at it , it looks  like the regular vent that ws there in the first place.

morris and the anglins finally make their way way to the top of  the cell block through that maintenance hallway by climbing up pipes to take a look  at the vent that west has picke out for the escape. they relize that they have a problem- the vent is bolted into place.

 the escapees will need time out of their  cells over weeks and even months to file  down the bolt securing the roof went.but they  face regular nightly checks by the guardsso  to convinve theguards ther’e  still in their cells the escapees design fake heads for teir prison beds..the dummy heads have been fashioned out of anything that  these three men could  have gotten their hands on.tey’re paper ,mache  but also cement.

 for the finishing touch on those paper mache heads.clarence angelin takes real live human hair clipping from the barber shop and pastes  them to the top of the heads.

the fake heads gave them the time  they need out of their cells tofile down the bolt and gain  access to the roof. but getting outta their builidning is only half the plan .

they  also have to figure out a way to the shore.

the escapees come up with a ningenious plan, to turn prson rain jackets into a inflatable raft and several life preservers.

looking at a” poplar  mechanics magazine they wereable to not only figure out how to make ’em  but also come up with waterproopf glue that would keep it  together in the water.

they also  fashioned paddles out of wood scraps and plywood that they find a round the prison they steal a concertina and a use it as a kind of bellows to inflate this makeshift raft.

sometime around  10:00 pm ,frank morris , john angling and his brother clarence launche their makeshift raft into treacherous waters of the san fransisco bay  never to be seen again .

 the next morning , once it’s discovered these  prsoners are missing , the big question among the prisoners ,the guards and eventually the public is did they make it?

so the FBI iscalled in to launch a search,investigator’s best source is still sitting in a cell on alcatras  island. allen west  is already identified as tthe fourth escapee ,or the would- be escapee  he has the paper mache head and the als front on his vent to prove it .

 after  describing his clever plan  for getting out of thecell block, west divulges the convict’s planned escape route.

instead of travel one mile south to san francisco they ‘ll head two miles north toangel island it may seem a little strange why the inmates woul’ve wanted to go two miles noth to another island, but it kind makes sence because they could have been  recognized or spotted  in their prsion garb if they were in a heavily populated  area. at the time  angel islans is home  to a missil base thatäs being decommissioned and therefore  could hold advantages for the three wanted men .

it’s being taken offline and there are very few people there at any given time,there also might be actual boats there that the me n can use to make it to the mainland 

the mainland in this instance isn’t san fransisco but marin county  which  is only a quarter of a  mile of  north .once thy landed i nmarin ,allen west says the plan ws to steal a car

 while  searching the waters around angel island a few days after the escape,investigators discovers a crucial clue that could line up with the testimony of allen west.

there was a sealed packet made out of the rubber raincoats so obviously none of the water would get in they  were able to confirm that they belonged to the anglins because they had many anglin family members  some pictures of the family members.

 investigators also find another clue off of angel island , a makeshift wooden paddle just the one allen west describbed.

 December 31, 1979

more than 17 years after the  escape, the FBI officially closes the case

the file is handed over to the US marshals in the event any new leads come upthe case remains dormant until 2003.

Us matshal michael dyke decides  to just poke around and see if this famous story , if he might be  able to  add something to it.it isn’t long  before dyke finds compelling evidence in the government documents – michael dyke goes back into the marin county police records and he finds that there is a stolen car report.

that there was a  1855 blue chevy .

which was reported stolen  on the night of the men’s escape. the eyewitness that saw it first said there were three men inside the vehicle

at  the time , that didn’t mean anything because  the escape wasn’t yet public knowledge.

then , dyke finds another police report from stockton ,california, almost 100 miles east of marin countywithin just  a few hours of the reported atuto theft, a man in stockton says that he’s forced off the road by a blue chevy being  driven by three men.

later on  when that blue car is seen again, closer  to stockton with three people insideof it, that raises some eyebrows.

if this evidence is to be trusted, the men may have very well survived the frigid waters and fled to angel island  according to plan.

frank morris and the anglin brothers trully  vould really  could  have gotten away with it.

this is a fun story to think about ,right?

here you have this inescapable fortress- the supermax prison , and here you have these three  guys who figured  a way out they’ve bounced in and out of prsions their whole life,institutions, but they used what they’ve got.their smarts, whatever they can  pick up around the prison. they fight the law and maybe they won.

no bodies  have ever been produced no evidenceof their death has ever been produced.it’s still one of the great mysteries of the 20th century and everybody gloms onto it because they love when  underdog…… wins.