Speaker 1: Welcome to Greatest Escapes, a show bringing you the wildest.
Speaker 2: True escape stories of all time.
Speaker 1: Now today we're going to get into a story of
Speaker 1: three escape artists who broke out of America's most infamous
Speaker 1: supermax prison, Alcatraz.
Speaker 2: I'm Auto Rogastro, and I'm.
Speaker 1: Here with the incredibly charismatic actor and wonderful human being
Speaker 1: and producer and buddy of mine J D.
Speaker 2: Bard.
Speaker 1: WHOA wow, what a great theme song by Ben Chug
Speaker 1: I fucking love it.
Speaker 2: Do you like see oonsns? I see all the time?
Speaker 2: You come here often? Yeah, I've been here for three days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh god, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being here. Brother, anything for you?
Speaker 2: Oh thank you? Brother? Are you two buttons down by
Speaker 2: the way, what are you?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I mean that's just my regular go to.
Speaker 1: I'm like a naturally hairless person. I know, so I've
Speaker 1: been able to like rock that low.
Speaker 3: I've been thinking about getting like hair implants like on
Speaker 3: my chest.
Speaker 2: You know what. I've always loved.
Speaker 3: I've always loved those moments in films, like especially like
Speaker 3: in the seventies and like in the eighties, where like
Speaker 3: the girl is like laying on his chest and she's
Speaker 3: just like playing around with like his chest hair.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: I was just like, Oh my gosh, I was that guy.
Speaker 1: I wonder if there's like a Mrkan for that. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying is that what it's called a
Speaker 1: murcan my overlords producers, the thing that they put for
Speaker 1: pubic hair.
Speaker 2: Pubic hair. Correct. It is a friend time a bitch.
Speaker 2: I'm so good at English. What do you consider to
Speaker 2: be your greatest escape? Yeah, there there was this. Well
Speaker 2: I'll take it.
Speaker 3: I'll take it international since since there's no proof of this,
Speaker 3: and it was really weird, especially with like after I
Speaker 3: saw Hostel and everything like that.
Speaker 2: I was in Milan, yeah, and uh.
Speaker 3: Yeah and well yeah, I actually went to this club
Speaker 3: and I was like three ms after a job that
Speaker 3: I did a modeling gig back in my Zoolander days,
Speaker 3: one of the most Tommy hill Figer weren't you Tommy
Speaker 3: hill Figure campaign?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: And then I did a job for for Gucci in
Speaker 3: Milan and it.
Speaker 2: Was a beautiful to get it. You're Jesus Christ j
Speaker 2: D Yes, I'm hot. I was so hot. So you're Milan?
Speaker 2: I do this thing right?
Speaker 3: And uh, parties there like start like at two am.
Speaker 3: You know, and really late, and I was with a
Speaker 3: couple of guys and we're going back to the apartments
Speaker 3: and this guy just pulled up in a cab. It
Speaker 3: was just like, I'll take you guys back, and we're
Speaker 3: like okay.
Speaker 2: So I'm in the middle. We hop in and we
Speaker 2: start going. Now, did you know these other two guys?
Speaker 2: I knew the other two. I knew him. Uh, and
Speaker 2: we all lived in the same place.
Speaker 3: Okay, now we have been there for a few months now,
Speaker 3: so we know our way around. And we're talking and
Speaker 3: you know, we're kind of wasted, and then all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, one of the guys just.
Speaker 2: Starts freaking out, says, where is he taking us?
Speaker 1: And you're out the windows, just going I just want
Speaker 1: to die the thing what happened?
Speaker 2: Okay, He's like you can sense there's something fucked up?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, you know, like one of the one of
Speaker 3: the guys like starts screaming like Italians. The guy like
Speaker 3: this is not the way, and then the other guy
Speaker 3: on my side like this is not where we're not
Speaker 3: supposed to go, Like where's he taking us? Where's he
Speaker 3: taking us that way? And the guy's like screaming at him.
Speaker 3: And then the driver starts screaming at us. No, He's like,
Speaker 3: where are you guys taking me?
Speaker 2: Well, you're fucking driving.
Speaker 3: The next thing I know, the guy on my left
Speaker 3: bolts out, jumps out of the car.
Speaker 2: Oho.
Speaker 3: The other guy jumps out. The driver slams on the
Speaker 3: brakes and grabs a bat.
Speaker 2: That's right next he goes out to the left. I immediately,
Speaker 2: without thinking, just just jumped.
Speaker 3: Out of the car to my right and he starts
Speaker 3: screaming at me, and I run down in alley.
Speaker 2: Whoa, And I jumped behind.
Speaker 3: Like this dumpster and like this car, and I just
Speaker 3: kind of like in the fetal position. I had no
Speaker 3: idea what was going on, Like this was. It just
Speaker 3: happened so quick, right where our guy called him out
Speaker 3: for taking us somewhere that we weren't supposed to go,
Speaker 3: and they were dude. It still kind of freaks me
Speaker 3: out to this day because I feel like I had
Speaker 3: someone like looking over me and the guy was walking
Speaker 3: through the alley and I could hear it was like
Speaker 3: a moment, dude, what a horror film fucking moment. And
Speaker 3: I'm just like, just don't breathe, just don't breathe, just
Speaker 3: don't breathe. And then he just turned around and went
Speaker 3: the other way and he just started swearing.
Speaker 1: Got in the car, and you know, wow, Well, I'm glad.
Speaker 2: You survived that. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I want to check in on the taxi driver to
Speaker 1: see his side of the story, because I don't.
Speaker 2: They're like, man, I don't know these guys. Just like, now,
Speaker 2: I got your side of the story.
Speaker 1: Let me hear now, our next guest is actually will
Speaker 1: come here. All right, well listen, let's get ready for
Speaker 1: a big old escape.
Speaker 2: How about that. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: So we're headed to California's infamous island prison, Alcatraz.
Speaker 2: Hollywood has loved this place for years.
Speaker 1: Tons of classics like Berman of Alcatraz, A point Blank,
Speaker 1: The Enforcer, and The Rock, The fucking Rock, such a
Speaker 1: cool movie. And we're gonna talk a little bit about why,
Speaker 1: like the fact that Alcatraz was originally made into a
Speaker 1: federal prison as a pr stunt for the government. The
Speaker 1: reputation of Alcatraz was kind of just the point of it,
Speaker 1: you know, So we'll get into that. But some people
Speaker 1: haven't been fans, starting with the prisoners who were locked
Speaker 1: up on the island. Who was the first person you
Speaker 1: think of when I say prohibition.
Speaker 2: I think of like Tom Hardy, Yeah, playing what al Capone?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: So in nineteen thirty splashy stories about mobsters like al
Speaker 1: Capone had been super embarrassing for the government, so President
Speaker 1: Hoover decided that he needed to do something to save
Speaker 1: the government's reputation. His answer to these super criminals was
Speaker 1: to create a super prison. So in nineteen thirty three,
Speaker 1: the New Borough decided to create a superprison to hold
Speaker 1: only the worst of the worst. They selected this military
Speaker 1: prison on Alcatraz Island. They wanted it to be, you know,
Speaker 1: a symbol of a government power to mass organized crime.
Speaker 1: I don't know what accent that is, but I figure
Speaker 1: that's what people in power had a.
Speaker 2: Lot in there. So those good you're covering all your bases.
Speaker 1: It's for all our listeners everywhere in the world. So
Speaker 1: let me give you a little history on the island
Speaker 1: and kind of prison. So Alcatraz itself was originally named
Speaker 1: by Don Juan Manuel de a Yela, so when the
Speaker 1: Spanish were laying claim to California, he called it like
Speaker 1: Islae Lostrass or Island of the Sea Birds. So the
Speaker 1: island was held by the Spanish until Mexican independence.
Speaker 2: Now the USA took.
Speaker 1: It in eighteen forty seven, and the army built a
Speaker 1: fort there right where cannons were put to watch San
Speaker 1: Francisco Bay during the gold Rush, which I'm sure, I
Speaker 1: like that makes sense, right everybody during the gold Rush,
Speaker 1: being like, I'm sure it led to a lot of
Speaker 1: criminality and anxiety all for sure, did absolutely. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I see goal now I fucking go crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then in the American Civil War, Fort Alcatraz was
Speaker 1: packed with soldiers and guns guarding the harbor. Right since
Speaker 1: it was home to like two hundred soldiers. There are
Speaker 1: plenty of buildings, you know, barracks to ladge troops, separate
Speaker 1: housing for the officers, a bakery, a bowling alley.
Speaker 2: Yeah, baby, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love them, being just like, yeah, so listen, guys,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna have to have to shoot some people, right,
Speaker 1: But that does not mean that I can't strike a
Speaker 1: fucking perfect ninety eight Okay, you know, oh for sure,
Speaker 1: so listen. So there were also separate warehouses on this
Speaker 1: island where the Union Army stashed all their guns and
Speaker 1: ammunition to keep the equipment away from Confederate sympathizers on
Speaker 1: the mainline.
Speaker 2: Right, So, over the.
Speaker 1: Years, Alcatraz slowly became a military prison. One historian says
Speaker 1: that after the Civil War it became a holding pen
Speaker 1: for quote, assorted misfits and societal problems, which is what
Speaker 1: they would call us actors back in the day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds like normal. It was just a bunch of actors.
Speaker 1: Really like, these guys problematic.
Speaker 2: Put them in there. So if the army captured someone.
Speaker 1: And didn't want to deal with them, they just dumped
Speaker 1: them on Alcatraz and locked them up in the newly
Speaker 1: constructed jail house on the island.
Speaker 2: Sounds about right.
Speaker 1: That included military deserters, stowaways on American ships, and even
Speaker 1: war protesters during World War One. Now here's a really
Speaker 1: fucked up part. It also included Indigenous men trying to
Speaker 1: keep their children out of US government schools. It's a
Speaker 1: moment worth remembering, and it's actually really important in the
Speaker 1: history of the prison. There's a tribe that's fighting for
Speaker 1: the rights that the island belongs to them, to the state,
Speaker 1: So we hope they went. But how fucked up is
Speaker 1: this bro they like they put you away because you
Speaker 1: don't want your kids being indoctrinated by people that have come.
Speaker 3: To fuck you over. It's very sad, very tragic. I mean, look,
Speaker 3: history is ugly. And I think I told you, I
Speaker 3: think you when we were filming Roadhouse that producing a
Speaker 3: show with FX called Bundito, and it takes place in
Speaker 3: this time in the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 3: And what I was so fascinated to find, and I
Speaker 3: think it did have something to do with Alcatraz, was
Speaker 3: that during the gold Rush, this is where they wanted
Speaker 3: to push out the Indigenous. They wanted to push out
Speaker 3: the Mexican or the dark colored skin, you know, Natives
Speaker 3: who were considered Californio's right because it was separate. But
Speaker 3: during the gold Rush you had you know, people from
Speaker 3: New York, you had Irish, you had Australian, you had
Speaker 3: everybody coming over. And what they ended up doing, if
Speaker 3: I remember correctly, was passing a foreign tax law for gold.
Speaker 2: If you were Indigenous.
Speaker 3: Or Mexican like Native, you were considered a foreigner and
Speaker 3: you had to pay a tax law. And if you
Speaker 3: were caught taking gold without paying your taxes, you were
Speaker 3: thrown in prison. I think it had to do with Alcatraz.
Speaker 3: So the crazy thing to me was like, even then
Speaker 3: there were these laws that they were putting into place, Yeah,
Speaker 3: to man hold people down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, this is great, But thank you for that, dude.
Speaker 1: I did not know most of that. So as the
Speaker 1: army added to the number of people locked up in Alcatraz,
Speaker 1: they eventually decided to clear the center of the island
Speaker 1: and build a huge cell house. The cell house was
Speaker 1: built as a massive space. Towers of cells were stacked
Speaker 1: on top of each other in the middle of the room.
Speaker 1: That was a prison that President Hoover wanted to be
Speaker 1: his main showpiece in the nineteen thirties. They planned to
Speaker 1: use Alcatraz to quote segregate degenerate minds.
Speaker 2: These are his words, by the way, from the rest
Speaker 2: of the inmates in federal custody. That's what we want
Speaker 2: to do. He's ounded like this for some reason in
Speaker 2: my head.
Speaker 1: Now, when the Borough of Prisons picked the island to
Speaker 1: be their new federal super prison, they decided it would
Speaker 1: be a prison for escape.
Speaker 2: Peace right.
Speaker 1: Almost half of the men sent there had tried breaking
Speaker 1: out of other prisons, and some had even succeeded Now,
Speaker 1: the guard station there were very aware of that fact, right,
Speaker 1: One senior officer I was quoted by saying.
Speaker 3: The inmates job is to get out and our job
Speaker 3: is to keep them in.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're like, this is our slogan at Alcatraz. Now,
Speaker 1: the prison was rebuilt to be escape proof, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of always the fucking idea with prisons,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I loved that. They were like this one
Speaker 2: you can't escape from damn it. How did he do that?
Speaker 2: But with Alcatraz the stakes were super high, right.
Speaker 1: The cells were built using toolproof steel and you steal
Speaker 1: bar doors and grates that were installed on every opening
Speaker 1: of the prison. The Rock, as its nickname, was selected
Speaker 1: precisely for the kinds of inmates who wouldn't be scared
Speaker 1: off by a high wall or some barbed wire. So
Speaker 1: when it opened in the nineteen thirties, prisoner was like
Speaker 1: al Capone and George Machine Gun Kelly were held in Alcatraz.
Speaker 2: That was before he made a terrible album just kidding.
Speaker 1: It made the prison the most infamous in the country,
Speaker 1: and the first major escape attempt came in nineteen thirty seven.
Speaker 1: Two prisoners secretly cut through the bars blocking a window
Speaker 1: of the building where they worked inside the prison, now
Speaker 1: carrying heavy tools from the model shop.
Speaker 2: This is a shop where they built people like you, JD.
Speaker 2: The model shop. Wow, what a terrible dad joke.
Speaker 1: So they broke through the lock on the gate, clambered
Speaker 1: down the cliffs and hit the water, where they dove
Speaker 1: in and swam towards a mainland. The men disappeared, but
Speaker 1: given the cold, choppy water that day in December and
Speaker 1: the tide running out to the Pacific Ocean, person officials
Speaker 1: assumed that the men died in an attempt to swim.
Speaker 2: To the bay. How far does that swim?
Speaker 1: By the way, I believe it's a mile overlords, the
Speaker 1: closest sland is a mile and a half mile and a.
Speaker 2: Half, Thank you my lord. God.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, I'm telling you bright, it's the best fucking
Speaker 1: thing in the work God, yes, my son, see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1: So in nineteen forty six there was a super violent
Speaker 1: escape attempt that became known as the Battle of Alcatraz.
Speaker 1: It included a massive shootout between prisoners and marines that
Speaker 1: were called to the island to fight them. After that,
Speaker 1: the prison was no longer seen as a symbol of
Speaker 1: the government's power to win. No, Instead, it became a
Speaker 1: symbol of chaos and violence. Now, this was obviously exactly
Speaker 1: the opposite of what the government wanted. You know, it
Speaker 1: undermined their whole pr project because the Borough of Prisons
Speaker 1: responded by adding so many extra layers of security that
Speaker 1: no escapes were attempted for the next seven years. Eventually, though,
Speaker 1: prisoners would try to escape again. And the jail break
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven is about as different as you
Speaker 1: can get from the battle. That's when three men, Frank
Speaker 1: Morris and John and Clarence Anglin actually made it out.
Speaker 2: Of the Island prison. Let's move on to the escape.
Speaker 1: So Frank, John and Clarence, these three guys weren't mobsters,
Speaker 1: you know, they weren't killers. They were the other kind
Speaker 1: of It made that Alcatraz was built for. They were
Speaker 1: the escape artists right now. Also, why I love that
Speaker 1: they get deemed escape artists.
Speaker 2: I'm an artist.
Speaker 1: It's the best rebranding that escapees have ever done. It's
Speaker 1: better than Mayo turning into aoli that rebranding Chef's kiss.
Speaker 1: So John and Clarence England were farm boys, good farm boys, right.
Speaker 1: Their parents were seasonal farm workers and lived much of
Speaker 1: their lives between farming towns.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: One month they'd be picking tomatoes in Florida, and the
Speaker 1: next they'd be picking cherries in Michigan. They also bring
Speaker 1: along their thirteen children as they move from place to place.
Speaker 3: That's tough, man, because I have two and I'm already
Speaker 3: on man on man defense, you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 3: I feel like one more. I'm heading into the zone
Speaker 3: and some special through the seams.
Speaker 1: Plus the traveling right, like you have to have a
Speaker 1: bus bro Anyway, it was in Lake Michigan that John
Speaker 1: and Clarence learned how to swim, and as the story goes,
Speaker 1: they would even go swimming in the freezing cold when
Speaker 1: the lake was still icy.
Speaker 2: Oh have you ever done a polar plunge? I want to?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want the fad now. I love cold plunging.
Speaker 2: Dude, It's a thing. Many As these guys grew older,
Speaker 2: they grew wilder.
Speaker 1: Right. They hot wied cars, they stole tractor batteries, they
Speaker 1: broke into stores. Clarence even got locked up in a
Speaker 1: Florida juvenile detention center when he was fourteen.
Speaker 2: No yeah, fourteen rough dud muffin.
Speaker 1: So soon enough two of the brothers had four year
Speaker 1: sentences for breaking and entering. But they also started breaking
Speaker 1: out of the various jails where they were held. What
Speaker 1: account says that they broke out of jails in Fort Myers,
Speaker 1: in West Palm Beach, in Pompano Beach, Perry City, and
Speaker 1: Floral City.
Speaker 4: They sound like resorts, so they got on they're all
Speaker 4: inclusive and timeshare and in Floral City and the escape
Speaker 4: from Floria City, Clarence sawt a hole through a wooden
Speaker 4: floor in the jail and was even shot on the
Speaker 4: shoulder as he jumped the prison fence.
Speaker 1: So the Angland's biggest crime was the robbery of a
Speaker 1: bank in Alabama in nineteen fifty eight. John Clarence and
Speaker 1: another Angling brother all worked together and they used a
Speaker 1: toy gun to hold up the employees and got away
Speaker 1: with nineteen thousand dollars. Pretty good for you know, farm
Speaker 1: boys at the time. I mean, this is a fucking
Speaker 1: ton of money in it.
Speaker 2: Nineteen geez, there you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So for five days they went from place to place,
Speaker 1: staying with family, but then someone tipped them off to
Speaker 1: the police and they were caught in Hamilton on Hio,
Speaker 1: probably like a judgmental dea, you know, be like, oh no, listen, that's.
Speaker 2: I would get rid it out so quick, broke My
Speaker 2: family'd be like, what the fuck? Grabbed myself shot.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm just a very I'm like, I can't lie, dude,
Speaker 3: It hard for me to lie.
Speaker 1: They narrowly ducked the death penalty in Alabama, so instead
Speaker 1: they got twenty five years each. That's that's that's a win, right,
Speaker 1: that's a win with even bigger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course I didn't get it. It seems like
Speaker 2: they would. Yeah, like fuck it. I was goodn escape anyway.
Speaker 1: After various unsuccessful attempts from other federal prisons, John arrived
Speaker 1: in Alcatraz in October nineteen sixty and Clarence Anglin followed
Speaker 1: him there in January nineteen sixty one. And once they
Speaker 1: got there together, they struck up a little bromance with
Speaker 1: a man named Frank Morris, and then the three of
Speaker 1: them cooked up a plan that put their jail break
Speaker 1: into the history books. Now thinking that there was no
Speaker 1: risk of them escaping the island, the prison warden put
Speaker 1: John and Clarence inside by side cells. So the cells
Speaker 1: were B block one fifty and B block one fifty two.
Speaker 1: Frank Morris was just a few cells down in one
Speaker 1: three to eight. Now, that wasn't the first time they
Speaker 1: had met Morris, though they had previously made his acquaintance
Speaker 1: at a federal penitentiary and Okay. Throughout his teens, Frank
Speaker 1: committed a series of arm robberies that had him locked
Speaker 1: up many times, but he had escaped custody over and
Speaker 1: over before he was finally shipped to Alcatras.
Speaker 2: The Rock, The Rock, The Rock.
Speaker 1: Now, together with a fourth man, Alan West, Frank and
Speaker 1: the Anglan brothers hatched a plan to break out of Alcatraz. So,
Speaker 1: knowing that you have to escape the island, what are
Speaker 1: some of the things that you would factor in to
Speaker 1: your island escape?
Speaker 2: What do you think you would need? JD. I don't
Speaker 2: even know what I would need, you know? But what's impressive?
Speaker 3: A few of them they were just farmers, right, and
Speaker 3: it's just your imagination.
Speaker 1: It goes to show you that, like, yeah, being assertive
Speaker 1: and being creative is being as certain.
Speaker 3: Being creative, and like looking at the walls around you
Speaker 3: and saying like, no, it's not holding me this.
Speaker 1: Isn't holding me up in that moment of empowerment, looking
Speaker 1: at the walls around you and saying no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you will not catch me here.
Speaker 2: No, I am not going for twenty five years whatever.
Speaker 3: It is, Like, Yeah, that's impressive to me because you
Speaker 3: have to have such imagination about the other side. And
Speaker 3: not only that, like they used each other's minds and
Speaker 3: they read the room and they were aware.
Speaker 2: They read the room.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you how they actually started their escape,
Speaker 1: because it's fucking wild. Okay to me, they started So
Speaker 1: here's the thing, right, get in real close. They started
Speaker 1: their escape with spoons Okay, now almost Yeah, for almost
Speaker 1: a year they used them to scrape the concrete walls
Speaker 1: of their fucking cells.
Speaker 2: Man, why didn't the.
Speaker 1: Vent hole in the back wall until they could get
Speaker 1: in to the utility corridor behind?
Speaker 2: Yep? Okay. The prisoners also had.
Speaker 1: Access to all sorts of tools in the prison shops
Speaker 1: where they worked, right, so they used art supplies and
Speaker 1: putty to build decoy gates that they could put in
Speaker 1: place during the day. So basically they built it to
Speaker 1: make them decoy event cover so that the guards wouldn't
Speaker 1: know that they were actually breaking out. They stole a
Speaker 1: drill bit and a small motor from a broken vacuum.
Speaker 1: The dude and jury rig that shit to help to
Speaker 1: help them drill through the steel boats.
Speaker 2: Like, can you believe I love it? One of them even, yeah,
Speaker 2: one of them.
Speaker 1: Even lifted a flashlight from the pocket of a guard
Speaker 1: so they could work in the dark. Crazy, But listen,
Speaker 1: getting past the walls was only the first thing that
Speaker 1: they needed to do, right, Okay, So they started collecting
Speaker 1: rubber raincoats from all the prisoners.
Speaker 2: In B Block. What do you think they're gonna do
Speaker 2: with raincoats? Build a raft? There you go, there you go.
Speaker 2: You see, I would fucking pick you on my escapee.
Speaker 1: Right, hey man, you got not a stupid model and
Speaker 1: these four walls, I say, no, no, no, no, not
Speaker 1: gonna hold me.
Speaker 2: Okay, So they built a raft.
Speaker 1: Well, they took inspiration from the magazine Popular Mechanics, which
Speaker 1: was a nineteen sixty issue to describe how to use
Speaker 1: resin to seal lampshades. They didn't have resin, but they
Speaker 1: did have liquid plastic from the prison shops. Now, by
Speaker 1: melting the rubber raincoats together and sealing the edges, liquid plastic.
Speaker 1: They were able to make two rafts that they could
Speaker 1: use to float across San Francisco.
Speaker 2: Okay, time out, time out, tomorrow, tomorrow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Where do they store this raft? Probably in their cells? Man,
Speaker 1: probably underneath their beds. I don't they toss cells? No,
Speaker 1: because okay, here's the thing. Since they've already gotten through
Speaker 1: to the other side and they have fake decoy gate things,
Speaker 1: they probably put him on the other side.
Speaker 2: There you go. That's why you need me.
Speaker 3: The So you're saying they had to go out several
Speaker 3: times and like not that we got out of it
Speaker 3: and like let's take off, but they had to like
Speaker 3: repeatedly set things up outside at leastly their cells.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like, okay, so is it today? No? Not?
Speaker 2: No raft day? Got it? Okay tomorrow? No, no, not tomorrow.
Speaker 1: So then they use chair legs to make paddles for
Speaker 1: the rafts, and even cobble together a handpump so they
Speaker 1: could use it to inflate their makeshift rubber pontoon. Dude,
Speaker 1: people in this like in this like crafts. I thought
Speaker 1: they were geniuses, you know, like gosh, they're like pecassa.
Speaker 1: Alan West took the lead on assembling the rafts that
Speaker 1: left him behind schedule when it came to cutting open
Speaker 1: his escapehole, but he planned Yep, he planned to finish
Speaker 1: opening his cell on the night of the escape itself.
Speaker 2: Alan, you're cutting it clothes, buddy, dude, that's that.
Speaker 3: That just made me ancient, buddy, Like what, I don't
Speaker 3: even like showing up to the movie theater late. I know,
Speaker 3: I want to see the trailers, I want my popcorn,
Speaker 3: I want everything.
Speaker 1: Like Yeah, Now, Clarence, who worked in the prison barbershops,
Speaker 1: started collecting human hair.
Speaker 2: What do you think this is for human hair? Are
Speaker 2: they creating like a dummy to lay in the bed? Buddy?
Speaker 2: You got this, you got I have my job here
Speaker 2: is done. Like I said, it's never been proven that
Speaker 2: I've escaped, but that's right.
Speaker 1: So using some men dust, toilet paper, and soap, the
Speaker 1: men sculpted full heads for their pillows.
Speaker 2: They cover them with real human hair.
Speaker 1: Uh huh, and painted on the skin tones with pain
Speaker 1: from the prison art kids.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine like be being like, hey, arto, do
Speaker 3: you think this looks like me? No?
Speaker 2: Too light? Too this light? Bro, You're not been in
Speaker 2: the sun. I've been in the sun all day.
Speaker 1: So on June eleventh, nineteen sixty two, just over a
Speaker 1: year after the Anglans arrived at Alcatraz, they were already
Speaker 1: ready for the air escape. So John Clarence Frank climbed
Speaker 1: out of the vent holes in the back of their
Speaker 1: cells scaled the walls of the utility corridor. So you
Speaker 1: see they'd already cut Yeah, that's right, Dune. They had
Speaker 1: already cut the metal boats holding an air vent close.
Speaker 1: They pushed the vent open, and then boom they were
Speaker 1: out on that prison.
Speaker 2: Who were like, okay, was this during the day or
Speaker 2: at night? God? I believe it was a night. God,
Speaker 2: this was at night.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, okay, good because otherwise, like like the guards
Speaker 1: would be just like, what the fuck.
Speaker 2: Are you guys doing?
Speaker 4: The garden was supposed to be today, You're not supposed
Speaker 4: to So when they got there, they realized that Alan West,
Speaker 4: fucking procrastinator, was not with them, so wonder why.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so one by one they climbed back down and
Speaker 1: try to help him out.
Speaker 2: Oh that's nice, that's really nice.
Speaker 1: And he had not he had not been able to
Speaker 1: finish cutting open the vent hole. So he found that
Speaker 1: there was actual steel reinforcing his.
Speaker 2: Vent, just his look of the draw man.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: Eventually Frank and the Anglins left him behind. They carrying
Speaker 1: their Yeah, I mean you have to write, carrying their raft.
Speaker 1: They slid down a smokestack to the ground.
Speaker 2: Wow, this is crazy.
Speaker 1: They jumped the prison fans and made their way to
Speaker 1: the water, but they did leave behind one raft in
Speaker 1: case Allen was able to cut his way out.
Speaker 3: Hey, in case you get through the steel, I'm gonna leave.
Speaker 2: A raft for you. It's gonna be here, don't worry
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: And then they floated out off the northeast side of
Speaker 1: the island into the night. Yeah, okay, which I wonder
Speaker 1: if the I wonder if these rafts are made to
Speaker 1: just hold to a piece, you know, and like taking
Speaker 1: a third one was yeah, or for the weight purposes?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Like they're going down like chompy water, you know,
Speaker 3: water getting in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So on June twelfth, nineteen sixty two, guards discovered the
Speaker 1: empty cells and the dummy heads. They sent up the
Speaker 1: alarm and began the search. Okay, guess what JD. These
Speaker 1: men were never found. What they were never found? They
Speaker 1: were never found. Prison officials declared that the men had
Speaker 1: drowned in the San Francisco Bay. The emphasized that the
Speaker 1: prison was very definitely inescapable, and that maybe.
Speaker 2: That's why they wanted to come out and say no,
Speaker 2: they drowned and the med not.
Speaker 1: Have escaped, because this is I love, I love that
Speaker 1: press conference.
Speaker 2: Guys, they did not escape. This inescapable. We will not
Speaker 2: be taking any questions at this time.
Speaker 3: Even if you get past the prison, you got to
Speaker 3: get past the water, and that's where they died.
Speaker 2: Guys. You know, water kills people. So let's move on.
Speaker 1: That was the kind of circular logic meant to defend
Speaker 1: the prison's reputation.
Speaker 2: Right, that's trippy man.
Speaker 1: Now, As for the potential getaway, Alan West said the
Speaker 1: three men were planning to break into a clothing store
Speaker 1: in marin so they could change out of their prison clothes,
Speaker 1: but no robbery like that was ever reported. It was
Speaker 1: clear that at the very least the men had escaped
Speaker 1: the prison and gotten out into the bay. When police
Speaker 1: interviewed the England's mother in Florida, she said that at
Speaker 1: least ten of her children turned out to be good.
Speaker 2: I love that number, eleven, twelve, and thirteen. Hey, no, damn.
Speaker 1: She stopped counting after attend to that I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't even know them very well.
Speaker 3: That they were too good tales good, three's good hours, Okay,
Speaker 3: five's good.
Speaker 2: Raise your hand, you're shitty. Yeah. As for John and Clarence,
Speaker 2: she told police that she hoped they got caught. Ooh,
Speaker 2: that's cold, mom. The story made national headlines.
Speaker 1: You know, No matter what the prison officials said, the
Speaker 1: inescapable Alcatraz home to violence and chaos, had been breached. Then,
Speaker 1: later that same year, another man broke out of the
Speaker 1: prison and swam the bay. Y.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the guy fucking swam. I fucking swam. I don't
Speaker 2: need a raft sun. Yeah, that's right. So he reached
Speaker 2: the shore and was immediately caught.
Speaker 1: And if you can believe this ship man, he swam
Speaker 1: naked in December. So this proved that the prison officials
Speaker 1: were wrong. It was definitely possible to get out and
Speaker 1: cross the water. The prison shut down in nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 1: A plan had already been under way since nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: one to close Alcatraz. It just needed extensive repairs, and
Speaker 1: it was already like a public relations disaster. But the
Speaker 1: escape of Morris and the Englands was a final nail
Speaker 1: in the atta'oud, which is spanished for coffin.
Speaker 2: The mystery stayed alive because the story leaves us with
Speaker 2: a question did the escape he survive? And how can
Speaker 2: we know if they did?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: So that inspired the Escape from Alcatraz movie in the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies and it's been an open question ever since.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and three, Here we Go, the show
Speaker 1: MythBusters recreated the escape attempt, even making a rubber raincoat raft.
Speaker 1: They were able to land on the marine headlands and
Speaker 1: judge that the escape was possible.
Speaker 2: Hey, over lords, I need my own er.
Speaker 1: In twenty eleven, a supervising deputy of the US marshal
Speaker 1: who said that he thought that the three men had survived.
Speaker 1: I think probably the brothers lived. There's nobody recovered. I
Speaker 1: can't close the case, he said. This man also spoke
Speaker 1: like Colombo in my head.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: In twenty twelve, the fiftieth anniversary of the escape, the
Speaker 1: England sister Marie said she never doubted that the two
Speaker 1: men had survived the escape. Also, we have to remember
Speaker 1: these guys are fucking incredible swimmers, right and reused to
Speaker 1: swimming in cold ass water right. The same year, the
Speaker 1: US Marshals revealed that an FBI report told them that
Speaker 1: the escapeece empty raft was found on Angel Island. It
Speaker 1: was a likely spot for the tides to deposit junk
Speaker 1: that was washing into the bay from merid Headlands. They
Speaker 1: also found a waterproof pack of photos on Angel Island.
Speaker 1: It held pictures of the Anglands and their loved ones now.
Speaker 1: Their report also included news that a blue Chevy had
Speaker 1: been stolen.
Speaker 2: In Marin that night.
Speaker 1: Alongside that, uh huh, a police reporting in later that
Speaker 1: night from Stockton, California, eighty miles inland. It was a
Speaker 1: sighting of a blue Chevy carrying three men on the
Speaker 1: road that were driving at reckless speed. Who guys more interesting.
Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, the San Francisco Police got a letter
Speaker 1: claiming to be John and offering to turn himself in
Speaker 1: if he would do less than a year in jail.
Speaker 1: Give me twenty fourteen. Oh, give me twenty fourteen. I
Speaker 1: had it said that the other two men were dead. Right,
Speaker 1: So the FBI couldn't tell if the letter was authentic
Speaker 1: or not, but they also couldn't rule it out. Like
Speaker 1: the investigation of the original escape the best they could
Speaker 1: come up.
Speaker 2: With was that it was inconclusive. Now, in twenty.
Speaker 1: Fifteen, a photo circulated the tabloids with a report that
Speaker 1: it was taken in Brazil in nineteen seventy five. The
Speaker 1: two men in the pictures are matched to Clarence and
Speaker 1: John Angling. Buddy, Yeah, everybody, Pashomo.
Speaker 2: Get you, get you, get you get together, at least
Speaker 2: by everyone who wants to believe that they escaped.
Speaker 1: And by face recognition AI used to scan the photo
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, it states that was Clarence and John Angling,
Speaker 1: and I love that they That's how they spent there.
Speaker 2: You know, they're just like can read agen Arab love life?
Speaker 2: Oh for sure.
Speaker 1: The US Marshals has still been working on the case,
Speaker 1: and in June twenty twenty two, they created a new
Speaker 1: age process image of all three men, Frank, Clarence and John.
Speaker 2: They would be in their nineties today. Just fucking let
Speaker 2: them die, guys. Bro At this point, man, they're still.
Speaker 1: Asking for anybody with information about the men to call
Speaker 1: the San Francisco office. But it's like you're getting a
Speaker 1: little cleaner to you, guys, You're getting you're looking a
Speaker 1: little thirsty, thirsty, today Alcatraz is a tourist attraction like
Speaker 1: we spoke about, and a bird sanctuary, so like is
Speaker 1: Los catrass.
Speaker 2: Is once again an isla bird prison. That's right.
Speaker 1: In some ways, this pr campaign by the Bureau of
Speaker 1: Prisons did work. Right, So the legend of Alcatraz became
Speaker 1: so strong that even after the government abandoned the prison
Speaker 1: because it didn't fucking work, we kept making movies about
Speaker 1: it as if it did.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: In fact, great point one of those key moments in
Speaker 1: Alcatraz's history actually came after the prison closed in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty four, Indigenous activists took over the island. They were
Speaker 1: pointing out that under one of the treaties signed by
Speaker 1: the United States government, this is what I was talking about,
Speaker 1: all abandoned federal land was to be returned to the
Speaker 1: indigenous nation. Definitely a story what checking out it was
Speaker 1: a reminder of the way that the prison had been
Speaker 1: used in its earlier days and how power full symbol
Speaker 1: of the prison had become. Okay, JD, We're getting to
Speaker 1: the end of the story, and I want to ask you, Okay,
Speaker 1: after you heard all that, do you think that these
Speaker 1: guys survived?
Speaker 2: I think they made it. Okay, I think they made it.
Speaker 3: But also because I speak in movie terms, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean, Like, I just I love the I
Speaker 3: love the idea that they escaped, that they were in Brazil.
Speaker 2: You know that they were just like, you know, traveling
Speaker 2: around doing this show.
Speaker 1: What I've realized is that that when they fucking escape,
Speaker 1: instead of being like, all right, I'm gonna go lay
Speaker 1: low somewhere, they just commit stupid shit and they're just
Speaker 1: like kind of flashy about it. These guys sound like
Speaker 1: the type that would be like, fuck it, we made
Speaker 1: it through. We're getting the fuck out of here, and
Speaker 1: we're never speaking of this again. And it would make
Speaker 1: sense that as an old man, he would be like
Speaker 1: I got to get this off my chest.
Speaker 2: Just it was me. Just please don't put me in prison,
Speaker 2: and then I'll tell you everything. And you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. They just seemed like more even keeled guys.
Speaker 2: But I don't fucking know them.
Speaker 3: I'm asking myself now, I do believe that they escaped.
Speaker 3: I'm putting myself in those shoes and just wondering if
Speaker 3: I was going to die. What I want people to
Speaker 3: know that I did that I'm legendary. What you know
Speaker 3: what I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 2: You're about to die, You're about to.
Speaker 3: Night. Well I'm probably going to live to like one
Speaker 3: hundred and ten, but I.
Speaker 2: Still have to get scenarios right in this area.
Speaker 1: You're about to die, and you wouldn't tell people to
Speaker 1: the course, I can't forget about it, forget about like
Speaker 1: about to die yet dead.
Speaker 2: So I'm dead.
Speaker 3: I'm with God, and I'm like, just send me, just
Speaker 3: send me back down, so I could just let everybody know.
Speaker 1: What's your what's your takeaway from the story. Do you
Speaker 1: have a takeaway with one part that really stood out
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 2: I just love the creativity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's almost controversial to say these days that you
Speaker 3: have a choice, but I believe in the power of choice,
Speaker 3: you know. And I was raised that way with my
Speaker 3: parents who were immigrants, you know, and came to this country.
Speaker 3: Like they didn't care what was in front of me,
Speaker 3: they didn't care what rules were around me. They didn't
Speaker 3: care that nobody hadn't done it before. Like that's the
Speaker 3: mindset that I had, right, you know, like there was
Speaker 3: always a possibility, there is a way. And what I
Speaker 3: love is that these men had the creativity, and like
Speaker 3: the information was all around them, whether it was popular
Speaker 3: mechanics or you know, whether it was trusting yourself to
Speaker 3: another human being and spitballing with them a little bit,
Speaker 3: you know, like but their mindset was like, eh, I'm
Speaker 3: not going.
Speaker 2: To be here that long.
Speaker 1: Well, to your point, what strikes me is the potential lost.
Speaker 1: You know, if these guys they're so creative, they didn't
Speaker 1: let it bring them down. They read the room, like
Speaker 1: you said, and fuck you. You just like wish that people
Speaker 1: like this could have like had the opportunity to become
Speaker 1: something amazing as opposed to like their biggest feed being escaping.
Speaker 2: From a prison.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: I know, brother, I love fucking talking to you, and
Speaker 1: I just want to ask you if if you have
Speaker 1: anything that we should look out for.
Speaker 3: I'm home now from from Roadhouse Mayans season five.
Speaker 1: People should binge watch the show if they haven't. You
Speaker 1: are incredible in Mayan's It's such a cool exploration of character.
Speaker 1: And also because you're a wonderful human being, dude, And
Speaker 1: it's been a fucking pleasure talking to you anyway.
Speaker 2: For the Model Shops. For the Model Shop, my name
Speaker 2: is Arturo.
Speaker 1: This is j D.
Speaker 2: Yeah bye, guys, Love you guys, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Radi's Escapes is a production of iHeartRadio and Film Nation
Speaker 1: Entertainment in association with Gilded Audio. Our executive producers from
Speaker 1: me or Turo Castro, Alyssa Martino and Milan Popelka from
Speaker 1: Film Nation Entertainment, Andrew Chug and Winning Donaldson from Gilded Audio,
Speaker 1: and Dylan Fagan from iHeartRadio. The show was produced and
Speaker 1: edited by Carl Nellis and Ben Chubb, who are also, respectively,
Speaker 1: our research overlord and music overlord. Our associate producer is
Speaker 1: Tory Smith, who's our other overlord. Nick Dooley is our
Speaker 1: technical director. Additional editing by Whitney Donaldson. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Alison Cohen, Dan Welsh, Ben Riizek, Sarah Joyner, Nikki Stein,
Speaker 1: Olivia Canny and Kelsey Albright. Hey, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening, and if you're enjoying the show, please drop
Speaker 1: a rating or review. My mom will call you each
Speaker 1: personally and thank you, and we'll see you all next week.