WEBVTT - Season 8 Episode 38: Between a Rock and a Hard Place 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.400 Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.800 we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.280 be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November, 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.600 joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.800 world of true crime and the paranormal four Nights in 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.960 the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left, 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:24.400 Scared to Death and many more live shows, Meet and greets, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.960 Creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too, 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.960 but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:36.600 Crimewavetsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your fan 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.600 coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to see 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:53.599 you on board. It was a freezing cold morning in 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.360 January of nineteen sixty off the coast of San Francisco. 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.040 The bay was engulfed in a lair of thick fog, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:05.000 so dense that the passengers of the boat couldn't see 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.040 the water around them, nor the lights of the city 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.959 a mile away. But that didn't stop Frank Morris trying. 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:16.560 As he sat in chains alongside nine other prisoners, he 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.240 turned his head and squinted as hard as he could 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.680 into the darkness until he could just make out the 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:26.560 distant shape of the city. Even though his wrists and 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.080 ankles were shackled, he refused to let himself feel like 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.080 a prisoner. This was all temporary, he said to himself, 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.280 and he'd be back on the mainland soon enough. At 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:42.920 thirty eight, Frank had been fending for himself his entire life, 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.880 and often by eleven. He committed his first crime at thirteen. 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.280 Since then, he'd been in and out of prison ever 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:56.640 since for various nonviolent offenses, most recently bank robbery. You 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:59.240 must really like the big house, one of the cops 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.600 had said to him during his most recent arrest. But 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:07.080 that was just it. Frank didn't like prison. He hated 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.400 feeling trapped more than anything in the world, and he 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.520 had a long history of escape attempts, which is how 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.440 he'd found himself here on this boat heading to the 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.880 most infamous prison in America. During his trial for the 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.480 bank robbery, the judge had labeled him an escape artist, 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.200 and then, with a sneer in his voice, he sentenced 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:33.360 him to fourteen years at Alcatraz. As the boat began 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:37.320 to slow down, Frank looked up at the imposing concrete 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:42.959 form of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. It loomed over him through 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:47.560 the fog like it was trying to intimidate him. He 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:51.280 knew that life on Alcatraz was no picnic. He'd heard 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:56.800 the stories prisoners dying by suicide or maiming themselves, unable 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.720 to cope with the brutal conditions and the isolation. But 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.959 that wasn't going to be him, because Frank had a plan. 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:11.440 You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard mc lean smith. 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:23.400 Alcatraz was a prison within a prison, formerly a military fort. 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:27.720 The building itself was highly secure, made out of reinforced 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:32.440 concrete and surrounded by strategically placed watch towers staffed by 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:37.760 guards twenty four seven. But the most effective security measure 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.640 was the island itself. Even if a prisoner did somehow 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.520 make it out of the building, they'd find themselves on 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:50.040 a rugged, unforgiving strip of land, surrounded by freezing cold 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:54.240 water with vicious currents that could effortlessly drag you out 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.960 to sea. With the mainland more than a mile away, 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.400 it would be suicide even at et it That double 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:06.560 layer of security made Alcatraz ideal for housing the most 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:12.160 hardened and slippery criminals. It was a fortress known ominously 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.400 as the Rock. Day to day life on the Rock 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:21.159 was tough. The building was cold, beset by constant wind 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:25.400 that howled and echoed around the windows, and prisoners had 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.920 very few privileges. With visits limited to one per month, 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.599 their contact with the world beyond the island was minimal, 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:39.080 so despite the impossibility of escape, some prisoners got desperate 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:43.960 enough to try. There had been more than ten escape attempts. 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:48.440 In almost every case, the prisoners had been caught or 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:52.440 had died as they tried to flee. But Frank Morris 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.960 wasn't just any prisoner. With the reported IQ of one 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.679 hundred and thirty three, he was intelligent, had the self 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.479 confidence to match. Sure, he'd tried and failed to break 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.000 out of other prisons in the past, but he'd learned 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.159 a lot from those failures. He wasn't going to rush 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:14.880 into anything. He would bide his time years if necessary, 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:20.000 and more importantly, he would have help. In the autumn 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.840 of nineteen sixty nine, months after Frank began his sentence, 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.800 thirty year old John Anglin arrived on the island. Frank 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.159 and John knew each other from a previous stint behind 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:37.320 bars in Louisiana. Now Here they were again both in 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.039 prison for bank robbery, and the two men had more 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:45.080 in common than their crimes. Like Frank, John had also 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.600 made attempts to escape in the past, and the two 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.200 men still shared a deep belief in their own ability 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.640 to beat the odds. As luck would have it, John 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:59.400 was assigned to a cell adjoining Frank's, making it easy 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.520 for the pair to catch up and compare notes on 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:07.359 their previous prison break attempts. And then a few weeks later, 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:12.680 John's brother, Clarence, arrived at Alcatraz two. The two brothers 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.800 were both in prison for the same crime, a nineteen 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:20.760 fifty eight bank robbery in Alabama. Clarence's transfer to Alcatraz 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:25.080 had just taken longer to be processed. Clarence made a 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.120 request to the prison authorities to be placed in an 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.800 adjoining cell with its brother, despite their criminal history together. 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:38.960 It was granted. After all, given the facilities tight security protocols, 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.360 what harm could it do. This was the first of 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:47.440 several mistakes made by the powers that be at Alcatraz. 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.599 During the day, the prisoner's movements and communications were closely 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:57.520 monitored but at night, once the cell doors were locked, Frank, 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.400 John and Clarence were free to plot to their heart's content. 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.400 Throughout the winter of nineteen sixty one into sixty two, 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:20.000 the trio's plan began to take shape. The first thing 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.840 they needed was tools. Since there was no hope of 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:28.000 getting hold of real ones, they'd have to improvise. They 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:32.320 also had to avoid drawing any attention to themselves as 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:36.960 new arrivals. Frank, John and Clarence were being watched closely 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:42.640 by the guards. Enter their fourth co conspirator, Alan West, 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:47.440 who'd been at Alcatraz for five years. Although he'd never 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.400 made a break for it himself, he'd witnessed more than 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:55.240 one failed attempt during that time. Of course, the details 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.520 of attempts were always kept under wraps by the guards, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.760 but were traveled far asked among the inmates. So Frank 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.680 and the Angling brothers welcomed Allan into the group, not 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.400 least because his time spent at the prison made him useful. 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.600 Unlike the others, Allan had been there for long enough 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:19.800 that the guards trusted him. Although prisoner's movements were heavily restricted, 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:24.320 good behavior would eventually be rewarded with a plumb work assignment, 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:29.440 which in turn came with more freedom of movement. Allan 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.640 worked on the prison painting crew, which meant that he 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:36.160 could be posted just about anywhere within the building on 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.000 a given day, and one day, when he was assigned 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.920 to repaint the prison barber shop, he noticed a pair 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.640 of electric clippers had been left unattended. After checking that 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:52.520 nobody was watching, he grabbed the clippers and slipped them 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:57.559 into the sleeve of his uniform. During another shift, Allan 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.720 saw a broken vacuum cleaner lying in the corner of 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.679 the barber shop, waiting to be taken out to the trash. 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.679 He crouched down beside it and examined its dusty form. 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.120 When a guard asked him what he was doing, Alan replied, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:15.960 I'm pretty sure I could fix this. Do you mind 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.160 if I give it a try. The guard shrugged and 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.200 told him to do whatever he wanted with it. Back 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:27.040 in his cell. That evening, Alan dismantled the vacuum cleaner 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.440 and took out the motor from inside, and after a 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:34.959 little tingering, he was able to get it working again. Excited, 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.240 he told the others about his hall the following day 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:41.800 they could use the motors from the vacuum cleaner and 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:46.040 the electric clippers. He told them to make two electric drills, 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.320 and armed with these tools, they could finally put into 0:09:50.360 --> 0:10:02.280 motion Frank's ambitious escape plan. The evenings at Alcatrats followed 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.680 a predictable rhythm. After completing their work assignments for the day, 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.480 the inmates would sit down in the dining hall for 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.640 an early dinner. They would then return to their cells 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.079 at four fifty p m. With the doors closed and locked. 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.680 At five, They then had four and a half hours 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:24.800 until lights out at nine thirty. For most inmates, those 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:29.240 hours were pretty uneventful. They could read books, listen to 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:33.120 approved broadcasts on the radio, or write letters back home. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:38.200 But for Frank, Morris, John and Clarence Anglin, and Alan West, 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:43.319 those evening hours were precious. Each night, in the privacy 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.720 of their cells, they began to chisel away at the 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.960 concrete wall. They focused their efforts on the air vent 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:55.400 underneath their sinks, where the concrete was already in poor condition. 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.679 By drilling holes in the concrete surrounding the vent, they 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.920 were eventually able to remove the grill covering it. Then 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:09.160 they each began gradually widening the holes they worked slowly, 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.440 monitoring the levels of noise around them to know what 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.560 tools to use. One hour out of each day was 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.960 designated as Music Hour, during which classical music was played 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:25.440 to the inmates through a loudspeaker. During this time, the 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:29.319 men could use their homemade electric drills, using the music 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:34.120 to mask the noise. Inmates were also permitted to play 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:37.760 their own music, and since Frank had an accordion with him, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:42.160 he'd play it as John and Clarence drilled. When they 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:44.800 couldn't risk the noise of the drill, they switched to 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:49.000 more basic tools, metal spoons from the dining hall or 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.680 the discarded saw blades that Allan had managed to steal 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:57.000 from the woodwork shop. Over a period of several months, 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.200 the men widened the holes just enough to be able 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.479 to climb through them. On the other side, they discovered 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:08.599 a barely used utility corridor where no guards were stationed. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.280 The first night they found the corridor, they didn't actually 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:16.600 cross into it, not wanting to push their luck too far. 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:22.240 The guards at Alcatrats also patrolled the hallways after lights 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:25.760 out and periodically glanced into the cells to check on 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.680 the prisoners. So they needed to find a way to 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:33.080 cover the gaps in their cell walls. They made sheets 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:38.000 of fake concrete using papier mache, then using a mixture 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:42.560 of toilet paper, toothpaste, and soap, they also made papier 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:47.520 mache heads. Onto those, they stuck handfuls of hair that 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.920 Allan had collected from the barber shop. In broad daylight, 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:55.840 they wouldn't fool anyone, but they weren't operating in daylight. 0:12:56.600 --> 0:13:00.559 Tucked against the pillow, half buried underneath the blankets, they 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.040 were sure they were good enough to pass muster with 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:14.360 the guards. At least they hoped they were. Throughout the 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:19.080 spring of nineteen sixty two, Frank, John, Clarence, and Alan 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.200 began venturing out of their cells almost every night, leaving 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:27.360 their dummy heads behind in their beds. At first, they 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.559 were nervous, but as the nights passed, they soon realized 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:36.559 that nobody suspected a thing. The decoys were working perfectly. 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.200 They followed the utility corridor behind their cells to a 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.360 stairway which led up to an empty top level of 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:48.720 their cell block. Covered in dust. The area had clearly 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.840 never been used, the perfect location to set up a 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:58.480 secret workshop. So far, they'd got away with constructing their 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:02.120 makeshift tools in their own but the final stage of 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:06.640 preparation required a lot more space. The part of the 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:11.439 escape that worried Frank the most was the water. If 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.120 they were caught before they left the island, he thought, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.800 so be it. But once they actually cast off from 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.720 the rocky shores of Alcatraz, that's when things would get 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:26.240 truly dangerous. Since he'd been worrying over this part of 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.120 the plan from the start, he'd also come up with 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.440 a solution. Over the past few months. The four men 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:39.040 had been systematically stealing prison issue raincoats. It was easy 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:43.200 to do. The raincoats were issued to inmates during yard 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:48.040 time on rainy days, then cast aside and forgotten. Nobody 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.360 kept track of them, so nobody noticed that more than 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:56.080 fifty had gone missing since the beginning of nineteen sixty two, 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.480 and so armed with their piles of raincoats, the men 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:05.200 began constructing a huge life raft that would be large 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.480 and sturdy enough to carry all four of them across 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:13.920 the dangerous waters of San Francisco Bay. Using hot steam 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.320 from the prisons pipes, they melted the edges of the coats, 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:21.600 then fused them together into a six by fourteen foot raft. 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:27.560 Frank's accordion came in handy once again. Having taken it apart, 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:32.120 they converted the concertina inside it into a pump, which 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.960 they could then use to inflate the raft. By the 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.440 early summer, they dissembled everything they needed to make their getaway, 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.280 but they still had to find a way out of 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:47.960 the building. Their secret passageway onto the top floor had 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.880 remained completely undetected, and they knew getting out onto the 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.760 roof was their best shot at freedom. The only problem 0:15:56.040 --> 0:16:00.920 was that the ceiling was more than thirty feet high. Eventually, 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.800 using the network of pipes that lined the walls of 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.200 the room, they were able to climb up to the 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.680 ceiling and prize off the cover of a ventilation shaft. 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.960 From there, they crawled through on to the prison roof. 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.000 Frank Morris felt the cold night air on his face 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:23.640 and could almost taste freedom. After six long months of 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:28.160 careful planning and preparation, they'd quite literally dug their way 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.440 out of the most impenetrable prison in the United States. 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.120 Now they just had to summon the courage to pull 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:49.440 it off for real. The night of June eleventh, nineteen 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:53.840 sixty two was just like any other At Alcatratz. The 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.760 lights went out at nine thirty p m on the dot, 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:01.760 and silence descended over the cell block. Half an hour later, 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:06.000 the guards completed their first round of cell checks. Not 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.760 a single one of them noticed that four of the 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:13.640 inmate's beds were occupied by flimsy dummy heads made out 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:19.639 of soap, toothpaste and discarded hair. By that time, Frank 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.560 Morris and John and Clarence Angling had already made it 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.919 safely into the utility corridor behind their cells, but Alan 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:32.800 West wasn't so lucky. The men had used various methods 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.440 to disguise the holes in the back of their cells. 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.480 Allan had used a small amount of cement to reattach 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.479 the grille covering the vent. He thought it would be 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.520 easy enough to prise it back off when the time came, 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.400 but the cement had hardened and all of the group's 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.560 tools were hidden inside the workshop on the top floor. 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.840 Using only his bare hands, Allan frantically tried to chip 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.280 away at the cement that had now sealed him back 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:06.439 into his cell. Meanwhile, Allan's co conspirators had made it 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.440 all the way to the roof. They had no idea 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.320 why he hadn't showed up at the agreed time, and 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.080 they felt bad for him, but none of them were 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.679 about to put their own freedom at risk. They'd worked 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.880 too hard for this moment, and they had more pressing 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.560 worries to deal with, namely making it down onto the 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:30.240 ground without being spotted. The rooftop was in clear sight 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.760 of the guard tower, and there was nothing they could 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:37.080 do to avoid it. Carrying the heavy, folded up raft 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:41.159 between them, Frank, John and Clarence took a deep breath 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.160 and sprinted as fast as they could across the roof. 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.720 They shimmered down a drain pipe that ran the whole 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:52.160 length of the building, then continued sprinting across the prison yard, 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.680 keeping to the shadows as much as they could. Having 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:59.800 reached the barbed wire fence, the trio took a moment 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.680 pause for breath. Frank glanced back at the hulking form 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.280 of the prison behind them, bracing himself for the sound 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:12.960 of an alarm, but there was nothing. They scaled the 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.800 twelve foot barbed wire fence, taking great care not to 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.600 snag their life raft. Just one hole would render it 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:24.960 completely useless. Having made it down to the ground on 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.800 the other side, they scrambled down a steep embankment toward 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:33.280 the water. After finally making it to the northeast shore 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:38.080 of the island, they inflated the raft using Frank's repurposed accordion. 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:41.960 They placed the raft in the calm, black waters and 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:44.439 took a moment to make sure it wasn't taking on 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:48.800 water before jumping on board and pushing off into the night. 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.359 Unlike the morning Frank had arrived at Alcatraz, that night 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:59.119 was a clear one with perfect visibility. As he looked 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.840 out across the black water, the lights of San Francisco 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:15.199 beckoned them forward. They were almost free. Shortly after sunrise 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:19.720 on June twelfth, nineteen sixty two, the morning whistle sounded 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:24.320 at Alcatraz. As the inmates sleepily filed out of their 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.960 cells and towards the dining hall for breakfast, one of 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:31.840 the guards noticed that Frank, John, and Clarence were missing. 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.800 He went to investigate and saw that the doors to 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:40.760 the men's adjoining cells were still closed. Frowning, he rapped 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.200 hard on one of the doors with his night stick, 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.280 then swung it open, but first it looked like the 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.359 three men were all still in bed, but no matter 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:54.359 how loudly he yelled their names, none of them moved. 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.439 That's when the guards stepped further into the cell and 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:03.040 walked right up to Frank Morris's bedside. As he reached 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:06.080 out to shake his shoulder, he jerked his hand back. 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:11.439 The color of Morris's skin was deathly pale, too pale 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:15.440 to be alive. But once the initial shock had faded, 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.359 the guard realized that, in fact, whatever he was looking 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:22.760 at was actually too pale to be human at all. 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.280 He yanked back the blankets, and the crude dummy head 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.720 rolled out of the bed, onto the floor and broke 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:36.679 in half at his feet. The guard frantically radioed for help, 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.280 and within a minute the prison central alert system had 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:45.080 been activated, triggering a deafening alarm that echoed throughout all 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:50.560 the cells. Acting warden of Alcatraz, Art Dollison, had been 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:53.320 in his role for less than a year. It was 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:57.439 supposed to be a temporary assignment, but nonetheless, once it 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.040 became clear that three inmates had escaped, it was up 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:05.600 to him to lead the response. Under Art's direction, the 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:09.720 entire prison went into lockdown, with inmates confined to their 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:14.200 cells until further notice. He called in extra prison staff 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:20.000 and mounted a huge search, combing every inch of the island. Meanwhile, 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.520 Alan West was doing everything he could to lay low. 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:28.200 Around one a m. He'd finally managed to prize away 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:30.840 the vent cover in his cell and escape on to 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:34.560 the roof, but just as he'd feared, the others were 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:39.600 long gone. In shock and sadness, he'd clambered back down 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:44.119 the ventilation shaft and lain awake in his cell until daybreak. 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:49.160 Even worse, he'd been too exhausted and dejected to put 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:52.520 much effort into disguising the whole in his cell wall, 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.040 although he did what he could to make up for it. 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:59.240 Once the alarm sounded, it didn't take long for the 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:05.240 guards noticed that the shaft had been tampered with. Outside Alcatratz, 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:10.320 the search was rapidly expanding. The FBI and the Coastguard 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:13.760 began a manhunt to cross San Francisco Bay and the 0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:18.439 surrounding area. When they brought Alan in for questioning, he 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:24.240 confessed without much hesitation. Since his co conspirators hadn't showed 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:27.600 him much loyalty when they left him behind, he had 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:39.000 little problem sharing what information he had in exchange for immunity. 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:43.480 Thanks to the extensive details that Alan West provided, the 0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:46.760 authorities were able to form a solid picture of the 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:50.480 escapees plan. The main idea was to make it to 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:54.639 the mainland, steel clothes and a car, and then head east. 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:58.439 It was two days after the escape when a member 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:02.240 of the coast Guard spotted unusual looking piece of plywood 0:24:02.359 --> 0:24:05.879 floating in the bay. It had been fashioned into the 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:09.840 shape of a paddle. A week later, what was left 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:14.080 of the raft washed up close to the Golden Gate Bridge. 0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:19.119 The authorities also found John Anglin's wallet wrapped in plastic 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:24.120 floating nearby, but there was no trace of the men themselves, 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:31.280 despite months upon months of further searching. According to the authorities, however, 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:35.800 there was no mystery. Based on their assessment of the 0:24:35.920 --> 0:24:38.680 raft and the strength of the currents on the night 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:42.439 of June eleventh, they concluded that the men hadn't stood 0:24:42.440 --> 0:24:47.160 a chance. The diy raft had likely broken apart at 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:51.040 some point during the crossing, and they'd simply drowned too 0:24:51.080 --> 0:24:54.360 far from the shore for their bodies to ever be found. 0:24:55.600 --> 0:24:59.439 And yet, as many have pointed out, the remnants of 0:24:59.480 --> 0:25:03.359 the raft were found close enough to San Francisco that 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:08.600 it's certainly not impossible that the escapees did survive the journey, 0:25:09.160 --> 0:25:12.440 and the FBI was certainly not convinced that the men 0:25:12.480 --> 0:25:17.000 were dead. In fact, their case remained officially open for 0:25:17.119 --> 0:25:21.040 seventeen years before finally being closed at the end of 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:25.840 nineteen seventy nine. The Anglin family, for one, claimed they 0:25:26.000 --> 0:25:30.639 received multiple unsigned postcards over the years, along with phone 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:33.800 calls from a line where the other party was silent. 0:25:34.600 --> 0:25:37.960 This led them to believe that either John, Clarence or 0:25:38.080 --> 0:25:42.240 both was still out there, desperate to make contact but 0:25:42.359 --> 0:25:46.840 too afraid to blow their cover. Then, in twenty thirteen, 0:25:47.359 --> 0:25:51.800 the San Francisco Police received a strange and haunting letter. 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:56.439 It appeared to have been written by John Anglin. The 0:25:56.520 --> 0:26:00.399 letter claimed that all three men had survived the escape gape, 0:26:00.800 --> 0:26:04.600 but only just. They'd gone on to live the rest 0:26:04.640 --> 0:26:08.359 of their lives on the run, constantly afraid of being caught. 0:26:09.359 --> 0:26:12.560 Frank and Clarence had died in two thousand and five 0:26:12.680 --> 0:26:16.120 and two thousand and eight, and John himself was now 0:26:16.240 --> 0:26:21.240 sick with cancer. He wanted to negotiate his surrender in 0:26:21.359 --> 0:26:25.919 exchange for medical treatment. The FBI tested the letter for 0:26:26.000 --> 0:26:30.240 finger prints and DNA evidence, but the results were inconclusive 0:26:31.400 --> 0:26:34.600 and they were unable to make contact with the letter's author. 0:26:36.600 --> 0:26:40.320 To this day, the fate of the escape ease remains 0:26:40.359 --> 0:26:44.960 an unsolved mystery, but the fate of Alcatraz itself was 0:26:45.000 --> 0:26:49.080 sealed by the escape. The prison closed less than a 0:26:49.160 --> 0:26:53.480 year later, Although the official reason was high operating costs, 0:26:54.080 --> 0:26:57.680 the high profile humiliation of the prison break had been 0:26:57.760 --> 0:27:02.440 the final nail in the coffin. Nobody would ever take 0:27:02.520 --> 0:27:09.080 Alcatraz seriously as a maximum security facility. Again. Shortly before 0:27:09.080 --> 0:27:13.080 the prison closed, the new acting Warden Richard Willard, gave 0:27:13.119 --> 0:27:16.679 an interview to the BBC, during which he was asked 0:27:16.880 --> 0:27:20.639 why he was so sure that the men hadn't survived. 0:27:21.240 --> 0:27:24.880 Standing on the shores of Alcatraz at the time, Willard 0:27:25.119 --> 0:27:29.919 gazed out toward the bay and replied, you hear the wind, 0:27:30.040 --> 0:27:34.000 don't you? And you see the water do you think 0:27:34.080 --> 0:27:44.840 you could make it? This episode was written by Emma 0:27:44.840 --> 0:27:49.520 Dibden and produced by Richard mclin smith. Thank you as 0:27:49.560 --> 0:27:53.280 ever for listening. Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast 0:27:53.480 --> 0:27:57.600 created by Richard mclin Smith. All other elements of the podcast, 0:27:57.640 --> 0:28:03.200 including the music, are also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. 0:28:03.240 --> 0:28:06.800 The book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. 0:28:07.320 --> 0:28:11.080 You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and 0:28:11.200 --> 0:28:15.080 other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever 0:28:15.119 --> 0:28:17.720 you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in 0:28:17.800 --> 0:28:20.960 touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've 0:28:21.000 --> 0:28:23.960 heard on the show. 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