The Crime Book

83

ashore. He was found by the Golden

Gate Bridge unconscious and

suffering from hypothermia,

and was immediately recaptured.

In total, 36 inmates tried to

break out of Alcatraz in 14 separate

attempts. Of those, 23 were caught,

six were shot dead, and two

drowned. Five are listed as

“presumed drowned”: the Anglin

brothers, Morris, Theodore Cole,

and Ralph Roe. Cole and Roe made

it to the water on 16 December 1937

after filing through flat iron window

bars, but they did so on a stormy

night when the currents were

particularly treacherous, reducing

the likelihood that they reached the

shore alive.

Exploiting a weakness

In December 1961, the Anglins,

Morris, and West found themselves

in adjacent cells and became

friends. According to West, that

same month he began to devise an

escape plan after finding discarded

saw blades in a corridor. Searching

for a weak point in the rear wall of

their cells, they discovered that the

ventilation duct openings under the

sinks could be loosened.

The quartet painstakingly

chiselled away, taking turns to act

as a lookout by using a periscope

they had fashioned to spy on the

guards. They used a variety of

crude tools, including sharpened

spoons and an improvised drill

constructed from the motor of a

See also: The Great Train Robbery 30–35 ■ D.B. Cooper 38–43

CON ARTISTS

The mugshots taken of Clarence

Anglin (right), his brother John Anglin

(centre), and Frank Lee Morris (far

right) upon their separate arrivals to

Alcatraz in 1960 and 1961.

The escapees

John and Clarence Anglin began

robbing banks together in the

1950s. In 1956, they were

arrested and sentenced to 15–20

years in federal prison. After

failed escape attempts at

different penitentiaries, they

were transferred to Alcatraz:

John arrived in late 1960, and

Clarence in early 1961.

The brothers were housed on

the same cellblock as convicted

bank robber Frank Lee Morris.

An orphan who was raised in

foster homes, Morris began his

life of crime at 13 and by his late

teens had a long criminal record

that included convictions for

armed robbery.

While serving 10 years in

the Louisiana State Penitentiary

for bank robbery, Morris

escaped. He was recaptured

a year later in the act of

committing a burglary, and

was sent to Alcatraz in 1960.

He possessed an exceptionally

high IQ, and is often credited

as the mastermind behind the

escape – despite Allen West’s

claim to be the instigator of the

audacious plan.

broken vacuum cleaner to remove

an entire section of each of their

cell walls. They also made the most

of the daily “music hour”, the time

prisoners were allowed to play

instruments, which conveniently

concealed the noise the four men

made digging their tunnels.

The tunnels opened up into an

unguarded utility corridor behind

the cell tier. There they climbed up

a shaft of steam pipes and ducts to

the building’s roof, where they cut

away the ventilation fan. Hidden

on the roof, the four men built a

makeshift workshop for the next

phase of the plot – escaping from

the island.

Collecting for the cause

To conceal their nocturnal

activities and continue unhindered,

they sculpted dummy heads, using

a cement powder mixture. These

were decorated with flesh-coloured

paint from art kits and human

hair collected from the prison

barbershop floor.

The four men positioned the

dummies on their pillows and

stuffed clothing and towels under

the bed covers to give the

appearance of a body to avoid

discovery during bed checks. ❯❯

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