Adeptus Ridiculous - Escape From Alcatraz | Detective Ridiculous

Episode Date: July 9, 2023

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousIn June 1962, inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Late on the night of June 11 or early morning of June 12, the three men tucked papier-mâché heads resembling their own likenesses into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via ventilation ducts and an unused utility corridor, and departed the island aboard an improvised inflatable raft to an uncertain fate. A fourth conspirator, Allen West, failed in his escape attempt and remained on the island.New circumstantial and material evidence has continued to surface, stoking new debates on whether the inmates managed to survive.Support the show

Welcome everybody to another episode of Detective Ridiculous, where we talk about the only thing worse than Warhammer real life. Before we start, if you'd like to check out the Patreon over at patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous. You can find all kinds of benefits, including Discord access bloopers, if they occur, HD posters, so on and so forth. So check that out. And if you want to see any kind of great merchandising, merchandising, merchandising, merchandising, spaceballs, the first. Flamethrower. Whoa. Kids love that one.

Well, you can check out Orchidate.com in the description and pick up some fantastic merch from your favorite podcast. Fifth favorite. Who's, what are the four in front of us? Um. Oh, right. We don't want to advertise other podcasts on our thing. Yeah, that's the answer.

That's the answer. We're just, we're being, that's, you know, that's internet editing. We're just being professional. Professional. Right, right, right. Us. Good, good, good, good. Yeah, I'll take being the fifth most listened to podcast in the world.

Hell yeah. That's not what I said, but all right. Oh, well, that's how I took it. And I need a bit of ego stroking, so that's actually what you said. Fair enough. All right. So, yeah, Joe Rogan, we're coming for you. We're coming for you, brother.

And let me point at Joe Rogan podcast. We're the cream. The cream. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. What's macho man, D.K. Diamante's got for me today.

The meanness, yeah. But today on Detective Ridiculous, we're kind of delving into another fairly popular topic that I imagine a lot of people have heard. You've probably heard about this Bricky. But it sounded interesting. to me so we're doing it anyway. It's nothing that's like terribly violent. It doesn't involve cryptids. There's no aliens.

I know. I know. I want to murder. I know there's not going to be a furry poster next week. So sorry, but that's just is the way that it is. The way you said that made me assume that there will be a furry poster next week. You did not sound convincing in the

slightest. Well, I So anyway, this episode is going to fall kind of more into like that DB Cooper range of Detective Ridiculous. So, as not to stall any longer and leave you in suspense, today we're talking about the attempted escape from Alcatraz. Oh, hell yeah, the classic. The classic, the escape from Alcatraz. There is even a movie on it with Clint Eastwood.

And there's even a Cold Duty Zombies map. about it called a mob of the dead. Oh, I don't play cod zombies, but actually that does seem like the perfect setting for like a zombie shooter. It's actually really cool because they change Alcatraz to become like a hell with like demonic rituals in purgatory and it's got a all kinds of like famous mob movie characters. Oh yeah, because Alcatraz did have a lot of famous prisoners. Al Capone was there for a while. Was he really?

Yeah, Al Capone was in Alcatraz for a little bit. I did not know that. Yes. All the people in that zombies map were like famous mob characters, like Chas Palmitiri, Ray Leota. I don't think Ray Leota was ever in Alcatraz, but props to the game for doing it. They just grabbed a whole bunch of famous mob people. Joe Panteliano, Michael Madsen.

It's great. It's great. Nice, good, good. Look at all the things we're learning. You could even get a golden number. Spork. They went the whole nine yards. Love it. Anyway, go ahead. I've actually been to Alcatraz. It's quite a fun... Oh, you've actually been? It's quite a fun tour. I've never taken the Alcatraz tour.

Now that I'm doing the episode, I know a little about it. I kind of want to, though. It's pretty fun. It also teaches you that logistics is a hell of a thing. Oh, yes, indeed. And if you, uh, if you don't have good logistics, you are not, you're not going to survive and having a prison on an island is not great on the money side of things. No, no, it's not. But again, probably something that a lot of people have heard about, maybe seen, like I said, the Clint East would move on it or something like that. But reason I found it interesting is because I had heard of the escape.

I knew the attempt had happened, and that maybe there was like a raft involved or something, but I never knew like the full scope or any of the deep. or any of those like aftermath theories on what happened. So that's what we're doing today. And of course since we're talking about Alcatraz, it would be good to get a little bit of history

on how the rock became the rock. Because for the longest time Alcatraz wasn't even a prison. It was first found in like around 1775 by a Spanish explorer by the name of, and I'm going to butcher this badly, Juan

Manuel de Ayala. When he first charted the San Francisco Bay and those three islands, which is Angel Island, what is it, Lime Point, and Alcatraz. And at first, he declared the island would be called La Ila de los Alcatraz, or island of the Pelicans, for obvious reasons. Though I think modern-day Alcatraz,

Pelicans actually aren't there anymore. Like, there aren't any pelicans on Alcatraz anymore. But when he first found it, if you shot like a pistol or a cannon near that island, this white cloud of pelicans just right up all over the place. Wait, does Alcatraz mean pelican? Everybody was going to always call it La Illa de los Alcatraz. So it just shortened it to Alcatraz. Wait, does Alcatraz mean pelican?

Yes. Well, it's weird. Like some people are like, oh, you know, Alcatraz could mean pelican or some other bird. I think it's a Gannet or something. But there weren't any of those other birds on Alcatraz at the time. So everybody's like, yeah, it just means pelican. But like, does that actually mean, like, is Pelican what Alcatraz means in, was a Spanish? Yeah, it's the island of pelicans.

Oh, huh. Yep, that's what Alcatraz means. Pelicans. And like I said, it didn't even start off as a pretext. prison. For the longest time, they were just like, this island isn't good for a whole lot of anything. There's not really any vegetation on it. It's really rocky and sort of hilly. Even if you wanted to mine resources or something, just look at that thing. It's really difficult to quarry. And honestly, there were only two spots, two or three spots on the island you could dock a ship

anyway. So it wasn't really used for a whole lot until the 18th century. The California gold rush happens, and people are just flocking to San Francisco, and the United States obviously needs some way to protect the San Francisco Bay, because everybody's coming in. So around the time the Mexican-American War previously ends, America actually found themselves in possession of Alcatraz in those little islands, and they have like this perfect little island chain of defenses for San Francisco. San Francisco Bay.

So, they build a fort on Alcatraz, and they gun this thing out. They gun Alcatraz out. It ends up having a fort that has over 100 cannons on it and 200 soldiers stationed there. Okay, so gun it out, you did not mean bomb it to smithereens. You meant guns all over it. Yeah, gun this thing out by putting guns just everywhere. I was like, that's not a very smart idea. Why would they do that?

They want a defense point. Why would they bomb the hell out of their own territory? Shenanigans, I tell you what. Shenanigans. But things changed for Alcatraz around the time of the Civil War. And honestly, it was kind of being used as more of a gun storage depot to sort of keep as many guns out of the hands of Confederate sympathizers as they could. they'd also house prisoners of war of the civil war in the fort. They actually kept them in the basement of the fort.

But the other problem was that Alcatraz as like a defense position was becoming kind of unnecessary. Like with all those cannons that they put on this fort, none of them were ever actually fired in battle a single time. Never used them. What a waste of guns. Canons. I know.

So Alcatraz was essentially just this super heavily fortified POW prison. And even then, with all those cannons, it was the Civil War. You know, weapons were being advanced because it's the war. So, like, even the cannons were becoming kind of obsolete. It's also with noting that the first operational lighthouse on the West Coast was built on Alcatraz.

A hey. Yeah. And in 1909, the U.S. was finally like, you know what, forget this, tear down this stupid fort. We'll keep the foundation. And you know what? We'll just use it for what we've been using it for. We'll use it as a military prison. And so they proceed to make all of their military prisoners build the new Alcatraz military prison from the ground up.

Wait, they had the prisoners build the prison? Yeah, they had the prisoners build it. they made the military prisoners do all the like manual labor and stuff. Hey, I love when the Imperium apes real life. Let's go. I'm like, did no one ever think that maybe the prisoners might get a little cheeky? You know, they're building the prisons so they might create certain faults if they're going to be living there afterwards. I guess that never really came up.

I guess they didn't think it was too much of a concern. Maybe they were being watched so heavily that if any of them tried any shoddy stuff, they'd get the old commissar treatment of getting a gun to the back of the head. I mean, yeah, I guess. I don't know. I feel like, I feel like if I was told like, hey, build the place you're going to stay in and you can't leave, I'm going to be like, I'm going to find a way to build this so I can leave. But it was finally finished in 1911.

And it would be used by the U.S. Army for a while. again, holding POWs, Confederate sympathizers. And I heard there was one source that said they specifically held people that were like vocally in support of the Lincoln assassination. So if you were like, hooray, Lincoln's gone. Ha, serves the bastard right. They were like, oh, really? And they just shipped your ass off to Alcatraz.

Hmm. Wow. And it wasn't until 1933 that the prison island was formally transferred over to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and would be converted into a maximum security prison. All right. Big money. I mean, literally big money.

Literally big money. Big bucks, yep. Because it's very expensive. Oh, yeah, it's very expensive. And as you can imagine, Alcatraz makes a great prison spot. Like, even if you somehow make it out of the prison facility, where are you going to go after that? you are literally surrounded by water and the water in the San Francisco Bay can get really cold

and the currents are actually quite nasty in there. Like the temperatures of the water in that bay can range from like 50 to 55 degrees. So I think experts say like if you like fall into that water on a cold night, you've got maybe like two hours you could survive in that water and then you're just like blet so well it's I mean there's a constant joke

that I remember the the coldest winter I ever had was a summer in San Francisco fair I mean it's which isn't like fully the case but the Bay area is windy as shit

and it can get really cold like it can get really cold the windch is insane surprisingly cold like yeah Yeah, you want to talk sunny, beautiful California. You got to go down to SoCal.

You got to go to SoCal. You got to go to L.A. down to San Diego area, even though granted Los Angeles can also become a miserable burning hellhole at times. Oh, yeah. I was going to say just the people, am I right?

Well, yeah, that too, but still. So even like the currents and the temperature aside, you'd have to swim like a mile and a half, two miles, in order to actually reach land. That's a hefty swim. And that's kind of what we're talking about, right?

We're talking about how could you possibly escape a place like this? So now that we've got the sort of TLDR history of Alcatraz out of the way, let's talk about the four men that tried to do what everyone said was impossible and escape from Alcatraz. Remind, wait one more time. What was the distance from there? to the place? I think if you wanted to make it to the shores of San Francisco,

you would have to swim like one and a half to two nautical miles. That, yeah, and in full, yeah. I mean, that's not on, like, that's not impossible. It's not. But with the water at that temperature, and then also you're also fighting like waves and then just the average, yeah,

it's not like you're in a swimming pool. I remember way back when I was a Boy Scout I did a mile swim at like 7 p.m. At a lake up in the mountain regions of California. That's cold. And it was very cold. And I remember you needed to do 64 laps to do a mile. And it was so cold.

I had to take breaks so often that after an hour in, it was 8 p.m. And I had done like 45 laps. And then the lifeguard was like, bro, it's dark, it's dark. You got to get out. You're done. Get out of here. And so they gave you a little badge if you completed the miles swim.

And they only colored in three quarters of mine because I only got three quarters the way done. I mean, three quarters is still pretty impressive, to be honest. A mile. A mild. Yeah. And that, so you got to do like potentially almost double that if you want to escape Alcatraz. Pretty much. And then you add the waves, and then you add the fact that you're, you know, a prisoner and you probably work backbreaking labor a lot.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So the main four players we're talking about in this escape attempt are Frank Morris, the Anglin brothers, John and Clarence, and Alan West. And we're going to be talking about sort of the ringleader, mastermind of the escape first, whose name was Frank Morris. God damn What time frame was this again? This is like what the 1960s? Oh, this is the 60s?

This is a long time ago. These guys look like 40s dudes crazy. They have every kind of Dude, their jaw lines can cut diamonds. Jesus. Oh yeah, yeah. Frank Morris's jaw line is, yeah.

He's not a bad looking dude. Who's the extremely pissed off looking one. That's the second picture shy posted. That's either John or Clarence Anglin. I think that's John Anglin. He looks like he would cut my jugular in a heartbeat. And not even flinch. Not in the slightest. The first guy looks like he would smile to me and then put a gun in my head. Like he looks like the ringleader. He's got a very calm attitude.

Yes, yes, yes. I believe that's him. Okay. But Frank didn't exactly have the best childhood because he was constantly being shuffled around numerous foster homes after being orphaned at the age of 11. I'm not exactly sure what happened to his biological parents. I saw some form post claiming that his father was a murder suicide case, and I haven't seen anyone that has a ton of information on his birth mother. But anyway, at the ripe old age of 13, he committed his first crime. Strange thing, though, I couldn't find any source that stated what his first crime was, just that he was actually, like, convicted when he was 13 years old.

And throughout the rest of his life, he would track up a nice little resume of further charges, like drug possession and armed robbery. And needless to say, Frank Morris, basically, grew up and spent most of his adult life in and out of the prison system. And sometimes he would spend time out of the prison system without the prison system's permission. So one of the reasons that Frank Morris was like

the perfect ringleader for this Alcatraz escape was, for one thing, he was really smart. Frank Morris had an IQ of 133. Holy shit. Yes. he was apparently in the top two percentage for intelligence among prisoners, which... You said that was the top guy, right?

Yeah. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. Which, I didn't know that the Federal Bureau of Prisons kept track of how smart each prisoner was, but apparently they do. Second thing that made him a great leader for this is that Morris actually had a bit of a knack for escaping prisons and had done it before. Now, the...

Oh. Yes, he is an escape artist. Apparently, and he doesn't die, like the other, like a certain other magician. Yes. Now, the details on his escapes are a little weird because some sources said that Frank

Morris escaped from prison a bunch of times. Like, there's this site on the Alcatraz history that was like, yeah, this guy did it so often that guards referred to his attempts at freedom as shotgun freedom. I guess

because it was like a short burst of freedom like a shotgun blast like really short and phton before he was recaptured. And then other sources are like yeah, he only did it once. But I guess it doesn't matter. The point is he has escaped from prison before and he is very smart and really

that's all that matters. Yeah, no, that makes total sense. I mean, I I mean, IQ tests are one of those things that's Kind of just like a general concept and not like overly indicative, but if he's escaped that many times, he's either just really good at playing people Or maybe he really is that smart.

Maybe he is. I mean, anyway, so while spending time in prison after being arrested, I think he was arrested in Florida for larceny and armed robbery. He would be transferred through the prison systems in Florida. He'd spend time in Georgia. And then when he got to another prison in Louisiana, shotgun freedom, and he escapes from prison again. And you would think at this point, Frank, pretty smart guy,

would have learned his lesson. You know what? I've been caught a few times before. I don't want shotgun freedom. I want sniper rifle freedom. I want this to be long-lasting. But after about a year, he decides, you know what, this it just needs to be scratched

I gotta scratch it and he would try robbing a bank again and he would be caught and arrested but this time the authorities was like no no no no no no no no we've had enough of this shotgun bullshit you're going to the

rock you're not going anywhere Dwayne is waiting for you he is waiting can you smell what the rock is cooking if you're smell yeah yeah so frank morris would be shipped off to alcatraz and be assigned the number a z one four four one next up we have the anglin brothers john and clarence who were both raised in a fairly

normal family environment uh their parents were seasonal farm workers in a place called dolonsonville georgia oh i love i love the south you got some great names uh would Which one's the guy on the right? That's probably his brother, Clarence. I was trying to figure out which name was which. Yeah. So, John is the one that looks like he would just you and not care.

And the other one is just his brother. Who looks fairly normal? I got to be honest. I think Clarence probably laid pipe quite a bit. Clarence is a good-looking dude. He's a very good-looking dude. That's fair. He might have used it to his advantage, because why not?

Listen, man, let me just tell you, without using any words. Oh, of course. Because he's laying, you get it, D.K.? Do you get it? Do you get the joke? I get it. Do you get the joke?

Yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it. All right, continue. Go ahead. Keep going. But John and Clarence had 12 other siblings for a total child count of 14. So the Anglin parents like to get down,

which absolutely blows my mind trying to think of like raising 14 kids in this economy. And, well, this was the 60s. Yeah, they were born in the 30s when times were just a smidge different. So, you know. Yeah, I mean, let's be honest. Like 14 times they were, I promise I won't do it again. I promise I won't do it again.

That is the last one. I don't know if shy had told you guys the news, but we are looking for a new detective ridiculous co-host. send your applications to not real email at gmail.com. 555.5. Go for yourself. 555, 555, 55. Yep. Anyway, the family would move from Georgia to Florida because naturally for a farm worker,

things are going to be a bit more stable, income's going to be a little more reliable in Florida versus Georgia because sunny Florida. And I think they're specifically going up there for tomatoes. I'm going to farm some tomatoes. And apparently, according to a bunch of sources, the family would also regularly migrate up to Michigan in order to harvest cherries, which is notable because it was said that the Anglin brothers were such good swimmers. They would often impress their family by swimming in lakes that had been partially frozen or had big chunks of ice floating in it. Now, the first time that the Anglin brothers, John and Clarence, got in trouble was when they were around the eight.

age of 14. So our Alcatraz criminals started nice and early. And they would get caught trying to rob a service station. And this trend of robbery would continue well into their 20s and their 30s. Now I say robbery, because at no point were the Anglin brothers ever really armed. They would usually go target businesses that were closed because they wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt. So they weren't like complete psychopath of villains that just wanted to go in and like kill people.

They never used weapons and they never hurt people. And according to the Anglin brothers, the only time they ever used a weapon was in one specific bank robbery and it was a toy gun anyway. Hey. Yep, so they pulled the old stick them up.

You know, they had the little toy gun in their pocket. Stick them up. Give me all your money. This is a holdup. I'm a little shocked about that because Because like I said before He looks like he wouldn't murder me He does but all of their robberies They made sure not to hurt anybody They didn't want to hurt anybody

They didn't want to kill anybody They just give me all your cash You know I'm actually So I mean hey you know I guess that's kind of cool But yeah I mean Shott makes a great point

That would help with robberies If you looked apart that's certain Oh true True, true. He is a very intimidating guy, so if you think he's holding a gun, you're going to believe him. I feel like the fourth guy, I know you're about to get to him, but I feel like he should have a rose in his mouth. He just got that like, got that like smoothness to him, you know? Fair. That's fair. That's fair. But any luck the Anglin brothers may have had came crashing to an end when they tried to rob the Bank of Columbia in Columbia, Alabama.

They would be caught, arrested, and they would both be given a 35-year sentence for the attempted bank robbery. Which, I don't know, if that seems a little steep to me. Like, for sure they should get jail time. Don't get me wrong. But 35 years for an attempt with no injuries or anything seems a little steep to me. Was it because of prior infractions? Like, were they arrested? for all their other robberies and therefore it was like,

all right, this is your ninth goddamn robbery. You're going down. Maybe that's it. Maybe, you know, they had a record and maybe there were some things, there were some other charges that were still outstanding on them. So this was just like a compilation of like years of like successful bank robberies leading to, whoops. Sure, that could be.

Anyway, they would serve part of their sentence in a Florida State prison and then they would be transferred to an Atlanta prison. However, the brothers would try to break out of the Atlanta prison. There's a theme here. And after their failed attempt, they were both transferred to Alcatraz. I assume because obviously they showed they were a bit of a flight risk. And again, on Alcatraz, ain't nobody flying anywhere. And they were given the numbers A. Z. 14776 for John and A. Z. 1485 for Clarence. And this would be in October of 1960, if you needed any sort of like timetable or time reference. That's, well, they certainly weren't flying much to begin with, I'm assuming.

Yeah. Well, they were flying out of Alcatraz. Our last guy is named Alan West. And apparently there's just not a ton of background information on old Alan West. It's kind of the same general story. He was born in New York City. It's been arrested a bunch of times. He got put away for a car theft in 1955, was eventually moved to a Florida prison, prison, tried to escape, and then wham! Off to Alcatraz with you. So, now we have all of the main players in place at Alcatraz, and we can finally get into the kind of meat and potatoes of this episode, the actual escape from Al. Now, as you may have noticed, all of these guys had spent time in a prison in Florida.

So they all actually knew each other pretty well, and they all kind of knew that they were all escape artists, or, well, attempted escape artists, because they're all still in Alcatraz, after all. And if I'm not mistaken, originally, the Anglin brothers weren't actually put in cells next to each other. But they would later put in a request to be placed in adjoining cells alongside West and Morris, which was fulfilled, actually.

Okay, wait, so there's two parts of this. Wait, do these, remind me, these guys, did they know each other beforehand? So they were all familiar with each, because all of them had been in a Florida prison at around about the same time. So they were all familiar with each other and they kind of knew each other's background. I don't know if they were good friends, but they were, you know,

they were on familiar terms. But they asked to be next to each other in the prison and the guards said yes? Yes, I felt, I wasn't aware you could just be like, hey, put me in a different cell because my bros aren't around me. But like a few sources said the attitude was kind of like,

well, it's a little bit of, if the prisoners are happy, they won't revolt, they'll do their time, everything will be kooky, and so fine, we'll give you a little bit of comfort, because happy prisoner means happy jail guards. Okay, I get that. It's a bit suss, but I get it. And there's also, I think the prevailing mindset of this Alcatraz, and a lot of stuff that happens here is, dude, we're on Alcatraz.

What are you going to do? You're here for as long as we tell you you're here. You can't escape. Good luck. So, sure, you guys want to be next to each other? Go for it. It makes no difference to me what cell you're in as long as you shut up and do your time, right? So I think there was a little bit of maybe overconfidence on Alcatraz's part too.

I guess that does make sense Well at the same time though I feel like you would be A bit scared of the prisoners From like an impersonal Reasoning Like I would be If I was on Alcatraz

And there was no way they'd escape I'd assume they would take their But okay well we can't escape the prison We can maybe take over the prison And that's where I would be a little bit like Ayo Yeah kind of like the movie The Rock Where they take over Alcatraz Island

Oh I never actually seen that It's a Nick Cage movie. Oh. I think. It's not, or near as good as face off, I'm sure. Oh, well, of course not. That's peak Nick Cage. Yeah, that's the best film ever made.

Ever. Yeah. Ever. Ever. Ever. All right. Now, to successfully escape from Alcatraz, as we've already said, it's one thing to actually escape the prison walls, but it is an entirely different beast to escape the eye.

island of Alcatraz. Again, freezing water on all sides, it's like a mile and a half to two miles to the nearest shore. If they were going to properly do this, they would need plans to not only escape the prison, but somehow get them across the waters and into that San Francisco Bay safely. So, under the guidance of Frank Morris, the men started to slowly kind of chip away at these ventilation ducts underneath the sinks in their cells. And at first it kind of went how you'd figure it would, you know, just like in the cartoon movies where they would just start chipping away at the walls

with like a spoon or a fork or just something a little bit sharp, you know, just to kind of chip away at it. Little, uh, little Shawshank Redemption going on there. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But they get a little more ingenious. I guess on the prison grounds in the workshop or something, I think Moore has actually found like metal sawblades. or metal blades?

And they actually like... And it seemed like... Whenever Morris or the Anglin brothers saw something they could just grab and take, they would grab it and they would somehow turn it into a tool. So obviously with like a metal blade or a metal saw blade, you can fashion that into kind of a nice little chisel

to really scrape away at those walls. There was also a vacuum cleaner that had been broken on the grounds. And Morris was like, oh, hey! I can repair that. I can fix that. And the vacuum cleaner had like two motors in it. And Frank Morris was just like, yoink.

And he took one of the motors out of it. And then I guess he fixed it. And he fixed the vacuum. And he was like, hey, look, I fixed the vacuum while pocketing the other motor. Ah, so he was doing the, you know, here you go, prison guards. Aren't I useful? And they're like, yeah, thanks. And then he keeps his other thing.

He keeps a little, you know. And you might be wondering, what do you need a vacuum cleaner motor for? It's because he literally fashioned a functioning drill out of that vacuum motor so that he and the other men could literally puncture all these holes around the ventilation duct to sort of weaken the foundation. And you can just push the thing in. Wait, this is Frank Moritz. Frank, how's his last name? Morris? Mm-hmm.

Maybe he does have an IQ like that. He might. He does some real smart stuff. What was his previous job? Was he mechanic or anything at any point? Or is this just classic 1960s? I know how to fix things because this is the olden days. I think it might just be that.

I think it might just be he was just straight smart. Yeah, that's right. I didn't realize he learned to build the drill from the popular mechanics magazine, but there's a bunch of stuff later on that he just reads it in a magazine. And he's like, oh, this has a design for like a raft or this has a design for like a life vest. Cool. And then he just does it. And he just makes it.

And it's, he is ridiculously smart. But yeah, he fashions a drill out of, out of a vacuum cleaner motor. I mean, you know, it's pretty cool. Yeah, he's, he's pretty smart. And if you're wondering, well, this sounds like very loud work. How did nobody notice? know, apparently the prisoners had like this one, it was either one or three hours where they were allowed to play a musical instrument if they wanted. I'm not sure if it was like a morale thing

or just one of those little comforts to keep the prisoners content, but they would wait until this sort of comfort music hour and then they would start drilling holes and they would start working away at this thing while Frank Morris actually played, I think it's a, I think it's called a concertina, but it's basically an accordion. So he would just and they would just start drilling away. I got to be honest.

There's a, I hate that I have to say this, but there's like a family guy skit where Peter is in the office and he's trying to hide his farts in the lightning, but he just like always mistimes it so it's like a loud lightning slam and then it's just this loud ass fart.

So I'm imagining, I'm just imagining them doing the same thing, but in a successful manner. Yep, yep. And if you see pictures of their cells, you might be asking yourself, how exactly did they hide that? Like, that's a, that's a big chunk of the wall

that they're going after here. Well, they would, they would do a very obvious solution and they would just kind of stack stuff in front of it. Morris would stack his concertina accordion in front of the vent. They use like these

they would paint a piece of cardboard to look like the wall, and they would just put it up. And some of them were just like, you know what? I'm just going to put my suitcase in front of it. And then they'll never know what I'm doing over here. I'm starting to wonder if the prison guards were the problem and not the prisoners. Very simple, but very effective.

And honestly, I think probably part of it is the guards, because again, there's that overconfidence of who cares what they're doing in there. Like, even if they are hacking away at the wall, big deal. Get outside the walls, what are you going to do? Congratulations. I feel that they should at least be somewhat worried for their own safety, though. Yeah, I guess. And it is the 1960s, so I don't know.

Nah. But you're probably thinking this vent surely has got to lead them to an escape route. Maybe these vents lead outside. And it kind of does. But more specifically, it leads them to this sort of utility passage, that, believe it or not, is mostly left unguarded. It's literally the in-the-walls kind of thing, with all the pipes and stuff.

Yeah, kind of. And I think it's Morris that actually finds this little area while he's on, like, cleaning duty or something. And he notices that in this little passageway, if you kind of climb up a little bit, there's this sort of area that's above the cells that has another vent that leads. to the roof of Alcatraz.

So the reason they want to cut through their vents under the sink is they get out of their cells, they get into this unguarded utility passage, climb up to this spot above their selves, and climb out the roof of Alcatraz. Okay, so I'm, I already talked about the Cod map. I have to do it again. Oh, is there a spot like this on the Cod map? So in the map, as you're fighting through the zombies and stuff, you have to gain five separate pieces to, which like, it's like dirty clothes, some fuel and like planks and stuff to build this

like horrible makeshift prop plane on the roof of Alcatraz and fly away. Well, spoiler alert, they don't make a plane. I know. I know. I know that. But the roof of Alcatraz is a major part of it. And it's like, hey. Hey.

And eventually, they do succeed in getting to this area above their cell. They hack through the little thing, and they all make their way. Well, almost all of them do. Alan West doesn't quite make it up there yet, but we'll talk about that later. But they get there, and actually they turn this area, because there's this sort of vent thing that leads up, and it's really on there, so they really have to work to kind of like grind away at it, chip away. It's another vent that they have to work through. But they turn that area into sort of like their little makeship workshop,

workshop where they can work on the next phase of their plan. I'm trying so hard, man. I'm trying so hard not to do it. You got another cod reference? No, no. Oh, no more pipes. The amount of times you've been saying vent. Oh. We got vent, we got pipes, we got both. It's really hard. You know what? I am so proud of how restrained you've been. I wasn't even thinking about that. for you to not make this many potential

among us jokes is just incredible. Really everybody. I'm not taking the bait. I'm not going to take the bait. Okay. So in this little workshop, they decide they need to make continue. In this little workshop, they decide they need to make rafts, life vests, and dummy heads. They absolutely 100% do make dummy heads and they use

the oldest trick in the book to fool the guards into thinking that they're in their cells. So they made makeshift paper machet out of toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, and just a little bit of cement mix. They would use paint from the maintenance shop and one source said they actually had prisoner art kits that they actually got some paint from and they even, they made it look like real skin to, made it look almost just like them. And they even went as far as to take real human hair from the prison barber shop to make these heads look more believable.

Oh my God. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I think one of the Anglin brothers actually worked the barber shop, so he was just like, oh, this is so easy. I get you all the hair you need, boys. Okay, I don't like I don't like that accent I don't know, I just don't like that

I don't like that, DK Hey, it's someone's fetish I'm sure, hey, I want to get you all the hair you want boys You're gonna be good stuff So anyway They would take these somewhat realistic

Dummy heads Pat their beds up with like You know Extra blankets, towel stuff like that And they made it look Like they were sleeping in bed When really they were spending nights working up in their little workshop area above their cells.

And when they were up in this little workshop, they were using raincoats, 50 raincoats, that they had to kind of steal or get by asking other cellmates for theirs so they could help out. And they would create this sort of makeshift raft. And they were actually really clever about making this raft, because obviously they, you know, you need to sort of, sew it, you need to seal it with like rubber cement, but then you kind of need to like vulcanize it and make sure all of the seams are shut. And the way they did that was there were some steam pipes nearby. And so they would take the raft and hold it up to the steam and use the heat from that to sort of just vulcanize and seal all of the rubber cement and all of the, um, all of the seams.

So it would shut properly. Uh, so they would also fashion a, uh, Life Vests, which, again, they learned how to make after Morris found a design for them in a popular mechanics magazine. And actually, I think he used a bunch of other magazines to determine, like, boon's, boon- buoyancy. Booyancy. I don't know why I can never say that word. Baba boy. Baba boy. But yeah, he, like, and like all of the sort of stuff that he would need to, like, make the raft float, how the current.

would work and all that, he picked up a lot of that from just, like, popular mechanics magazines and just science magazines that were kind of just, like, lying around the library. And Morris is a smart guy. Where were we? So, in this little workshop area, at this point, it's like their own private workshop. I heard a couple sources say that they even had, like, Morris put a sheet up around the area. it was totally enclosed. And he told the guards, he was like, look, I need to put this sheet up.

Because, you know, as we're cleaning this area, you know, a lot of dust and stuff tends to float around and get down to the main area. And I think it would just be better for everyone if I just put up this sheet and, you know, really kept out as much dust as possible. And the guards were like, yeah, sure, whatever, do it. You know, just make sure you clean it. So they literally had like this completely almost enclosed works. shop. Of course, they would still need to have people on lookout duty because even though you couldn't

see through the sheet, you can hear through it. So if they're just banging away at a vent and the wrong person happens to be passing by, they're going to get kind of screwed. It should also be noted that Alan West was primarily given tasks where he wouldn't need to leave his cell. So he was the one in charge of fashioning or out of like repurpose plywood and making a life vest and stuff like that. Genuinely thought you said Adam West. And I'm like, wow. Batman and then Alcatraz.

Incredible career. And then family guy? Oh, oh, Adam West. Also, this will come back to sort of bite him in the butt. because he was always in his cell working on this stuff, Alan West was not as far along in poking holes and working on his vent as everybody else was. Hmm. So he was delaying a little bit.

Mm-hmm. So this whole plan is taking a long time. I know I'm kind of going through it quick and I'm making it sound like it happened over a couple of days. This was like a sixth month period of them just, working away at this vent, of them chipping away at the stuff under the sink and making all of these rafts and these vests and these ores and these dummy heads.

But at this point, they have a six-by-14 raft and life vests made out of raincoats. They've got plywood oars, and they also decide to bring Morris's like concertina accordion thing because they're going to use that to inflate the raft. They're going to hook it up to the raft and just fill it up that way, because I guess it would be easier than trying to just blow it up yourself,

which is kind of a funny picture to imagine, you know, these hardened criminals trying to be as quiet as they can. All right, boys, let's inflate the raft and get the hell out of here. And then just, I don't know, I think that's a funny picture. It is. It sounds like a skit in an old cart. too, whereas crime doesn't pay as they're sinking. Yeah.

Also, I believe they brought it along for the ride just in case the raft started to deflate or something, so they could just repump the thing full of air, keep themselves afloat, stuff like that. So again, to reiterate, the plan is to take this makeshift raft and sail themselves over to Angel Island. They would stop there, get their bearing straight, take a little rest because, boy, this sure is exhausting. And then from Angel Island, they would sail their way to the main shores of San Francisco, where they would steal a car, steal some clothes, and get out of Dodge. I guess it also makes sense to bring the concertina, because once they hit Angel Island, it's like, uh-oh, the raft is a little low. Let's go ahead and refill it a little bit.

Your goddamn sound effects. You know, oh, it's a little... That's what an accordion sounds like, right? Anyway, on the night of June 11th, 1962, it was finally time to put their plan into motion. They had gathered all their stuff in their little pseudo-workshop. The dummy heads were in place,

and we are ready to go. They would all meet in the little workshop, and finally, that vent that led to the roof was just so, and they they finally got it free, and they would finally, they would finally make their escape. Well, almost all of them would finally make their mistake, because unfortunately, Alan West could not make it.

Like we said, he wasn't making great progress on that vent under his sink, because he was always in there just working on like the oars, he was working on the vest, so he got, way behind and unfortunately the vent just would not give way and I think it was in Wikipedia they said he might have seen some crumbling concrete around his vent and he was like whoa I don't want this thing falling away too soon let me kind of re-sement it so it doesn't look quite so suspicious and apparently he did a little too good of a job it hardened too well and he couldn't break it free apparently, I think it was Clarence,

Clarence or John, one of the Anglin brothers, as they were in that back area, they were like, uh-oh, Alan is in trouble, let's try and go help him. And they were literally trying to kick this vent in, and it would not budge. So, okay, so I actually at first thought that they basically just, um, basically just left him.

But it seems that they actually did try to get him. I thought they were like, you know, why isn't he here yet? Screw him. We were out of time. Yep, yep. One of the Angling, I'm pretty sure. I don't remember which one. But yeah, they tried.

They were kicking it and it's just like, well, it doesn't work. Sorry, dude. We got to go. We're on a time crunch here. So, uh, now once they actually got the ventilation duct open, like the one in their workshop, it still wasn't some little hop skip and a jump down to the ground. Like once they got to that duct, it was still. a 30-foot climb until they actually came out on the roof.

And this vent, from the pictures I've seen, it's not big. It is a pretty kind of tiny vent. And, oh, I would get claustrophobia trying to climb through that thing. But they make the climb and they come out on the roof. Stop. Stop. Uh-oh. Oh, Shai's posting memes.

Chai, did you just make that? Did you make that right now? You got... Can I... I'm stealing that and posting on Twitter before you can. Oh, I will... I will not... I will not let you get the power.

Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. God damn it. So, once they're on the roof, they would have to climb down like 50 more feet of pipe alongside like the kitchen and the showers. And then they have to like sneak their way. through like the blind spot of some gun towers before they can finally, finally get to the shore where they presumably inflated the raft and set sail into the San Francisco Bay.

And if I'm not mistaken, they were never seen again. That was the last time anyone ever saw these three men. So, so we have a classic case of did they deflate and die and drown in the, the bay or did they escape and genuinely make it out? Mm-hmm. That is sort of the case that we have. And the dummy heads worked like a charm. No one had noticed these men were missing until the next morning.

It wasn't until one of the guards, I think they were just like, okay, time to get up, everybody. You know, hitting their little baton against the wall. And it's like, hey, why aren't you getting up? Come on, get up. and they went to like go push the body and this dummy head just rolls onto the ground and actually cracks. And this was...

I can't imagine the guard's face. Like he's like, I killed him. Oh my God! Alarms are sounding everywhere. And this was the first time anyone outside of Alan West had discovers that these three men were missing. They, I think they actually, they determined that the men probably

left their cells around 9 p.m. And probably actually were out to shore by around 10, 10.30. Wow. I got to be honest, there's a certain level of like aneptitude coming from the goddamn from the goddamn

guards on this one. Yeah, a little bit. Again, it's just that overconfidence of being on Alcatraz, man. I think it's that sort of hubris that really led to this potential escape from Alcatraz. Just a lot of like, it's Alcatraz, where are they going to go? Just chill out everybody. Who cares?

You know? Well, assumed escape from Alcatraz. Assumed. Yes, indeed. And naturally, they start a bit of an extensive search looking for these three men. And Alan West was fully cooperative, which would actually lead to him facing no further charges for his part in the attempt. Even though he helped them, even though he was trying to bupup, bup up, out of his cell

because he was so cooperative and he told the authorities what the men were planning and how they planned to escape,

they didn't charge him with anything else. How long was he supposed to be in Alcatraz for? Hmm,

that's a great question. Because, like, did he get out a little early? Did they have a reduced sentence? They didn't reduce his sentence.

He just didn't get any further charges. It should also be noted that Eventually that night, Alan West did pull his vent free and make his way to the roof. But by the time he got there, obviously, all the other men were long gone, and he had no choice but to climb all the way back down, slide under the vent, and just sadly go back to sleep. That would be, like, crushing.

Yeah. But the heartbreak there would be so rough. The, oh man, the depression of already being in jail and then just knowing that you missed your window that you've been planning for for like the last six months. Oh. Anyway, after an extensive search of the area, on June 14th, authorities would find the remains of what looked like a little plywood paddle ore. And this was picked up just off the southern shore of Angel Island. in that same area, they would find these tied-off plastic bags made from raincoats that had a bunch of the Anglin Brothers personal effects, stuff like family photos, letters written to them from the outside, and I think it was a list of nine or ten names and phone numbers. People assumed it was a list of names they could call for help once they got out.

And over the next week or so, authorities would find two deflated. life vests and pieces of what they believed were the raft that was made. Where was it found? Same general area around Angel Island, around the shores of Angel Island. The shores of Angel Island. Yeah, kind of around the, I think it was around the southern shores of Angel Island? I guess it doesn't really mean that they, doesn't really mean, it could just washed up there. Yeah, I doesn't really tell you much, does it?

And that was all of the physical evidence that was ever found in the aftermath. I mean, hmm. So the question now becomes, obviously, what happened to them? Did they perish in the cold waters of the San Francisco Bay? Or is there a remote possibility that they made to the shore and somehow lived out the rest of their lives in relative freedom? So, oh, go ahead. Well, I was just curious, because this was, you said, 62, 61? Yeah, this is probably 1962-ish.

So it's interesting. What was the D.B. Cooper thing? Oh, when was D.B. Cooper? That was the first episode. I don't remember what time period. That must have been like 30s, 40s. Okay, because there's obviously a huge lack in surveillance technology going on, especially if you want to if you you you know escape san francisco and maybe you find your

way to be able to go back south down south oh d b cooper was 1971 oh was after oh wow so i was way it makes me wonder because like nowadays it just wouldn't happen we have way too much going on oh yeah well these days it's like everything you take into prison is so heavily examined like there's there's no way you could get away with this level of escape artistry there's no chance

well it's not just that is the fact that you can't escape in general because even if you did you'd be tracked down by helicopters everybody with a cell phone yeah there's a million god damn cameras everywhere but there wasn't back then yeah so

I wonder because what other other options. Like the raft just deflates and they drown. Yeah, that's what some people think is that the raft just maybe it wasn't sealed as properly as it should have been. Deflates, they all sink and they try to make it, but it's just, it's too much and they succumb to hypothermia. What about, what was the, I'm trying to think, like, there's the whole raft part of it and all. But I wonder because Mr. Morris there is... Mr. Morris there are not dumb? No, Morris is not dumb. The Angle brothers were always portrayed as kind of Neanderthals

that were just following in Morris' footsteps and just following all of his leads. But they weren't idiots either, actually. I think in the movie they're portrayed as like just, big thuggish brutes that just kind of follow Clint Eastwood and just do whatever he says. Did Clint Eastwood play Morris? Yeah. But it's also not exactly the most accurate movie that's ever been made because it's a Hollywood movie. The, well, because so with the intellect of this guy and how he was able to rebuild things so

incredibly easily, the possibility of the raft just being kind of crap is a little lower on my list. but there is always the possibility that he just runs into a rock or something. Or the currents are a little heavier than they thought and maybe they just get turned over. But like you can get away and especially because they escaped at like what point late at night, right? Yeah, like I said, I think they left the shores. They assume they left the shores at like 10, 10.30? Oh, 1030 at night. What time were they waking up, like seven?

I don't know what time they wake up, actually. I would assume prison system probably has you up and about, yeah, probably before 8 a.m. And then the raft, I mean, they would probably, a mile and a half, they would probably get to shore in maybe an hour, maybe a little less. Yeah, they could at least get to Angel Island relatively quickly. And then, you know, they stop rest and catch your first. breath, re-inflate the boat. And then from there, you know, probably take another hour to get to the main shore. And then, and then you have like the cops. They find out, let's say it like 7 a.m. And then there's like, alerting everybody. It's like 7.30. And then there's getting the word out.

Like, you could, you could argue. You could argue they had like an eight hour head start. Yeah, they could have been well on their way. If they made it, they could have been right. Well, yeah. And then by then, by the time you mobilize, and I don't think helicopters, like, they existed in the 60s, but they were like the Hueys you would see in Vietnam. I don't know if police helicopters existed yet. They might have, but they might not have been that great. And they probably, you probably still would have a hard time finding them. Right. And you would be able to, it would be mainly like cops on, on cars on cars.

cop cars and stuff. And then there's always the possibility, like the three of those guys are not small guys. The cop finds them. I mean, you never know what might happen. They might run. They might overpower them. I think they've actually got a pretty good chance of actually getting out. Well, officially, officially, the FBI believes that the men never made it to shore and more than likely drowned in the bay.

and one of their biggest reasons for thinking this was specifically because of the tied-off bags that had their personal effects in them. The FBI was like, man, there's no way they would have left these bags behind. No chance. If they had dropped them, they would have gone back for them, especially because they had those contact numbers in them, you know, and so we don't want to leave those behind. And while no human remains were found, that actually wasn't all that unconsolate. common in the waters around the bay. Like we said, DeKuransky is really nasty, and apparently bodies have gone missing there before.

And a couple of sources mentioned this one instance. I forget what the guy's name is, but he was hopeless. He was just, you know, I think he had just, like, lost his family in, like, a nasty divorce or something, and he just kind of, like, spur of the moment, stopped his car on the Golden Gate Bridge. jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and took his own life. And even though

there was a crowd of people that saw him do it, authorities were notified, the Coast Guard gone on it really, really quickly, his body was never found. And if these sources are to be believed, he jumped around the same time

that the three men would try to escape from Alcatraz on their raft. Yeah, I mean, though at the same time, I'm assuming the FBI deemed them dead really early on after the breakout, after the breakout, which I think also doesn't surprise me if they wanted to save face for their most advanced prison in America. Yep, I would say the same thing that they kind of didn't want to admit that their unescapable prison had escapees. They wanted everyone to believe like, oh, yeah, it is like we thought it was. It's inescapable, and if you try any other way, you're just going to die, right? So they save face a little bit, yeah. You are not immune to propaganda.

Yeah, exactly. The other issue they had was when Alan West was cooperating, and he told them the plan, he was like, okay, once we get to the main shore, the plan was, the plan was steal vehicle, steal some clothes, because obviously you can't just be strolling around in your prison uniform. problem is there were literally no thefts reported that night. There were no burglaries, no nothing. Which is a little surprising because the case of Alcatraz became so popular that if there was a burglary that night of any kind, be it for money, be it for clothes, be it for car and transportation, somebody would have said something, somebody would have reported something.

Even if it wasn't, even if they didn't know that these were escapees, it's still a robbery, someone would have reported it. Now, you also might be thinking, well, they had phone numbers and stuff in their bag that they lost. So maybe the help was already waiting for them on the outside. Like maybe there was a car with family or friends waiting to whisk them off to safety. And the FBI kind of investigated that too, and they determined literally none of the three men's families even had the means to, get to San Francisco, let alone have a, have like a car ready, let alone have a chartered boat waiting for them on Angel Island or something. So chances are they didn't have help waiting for them.

As far as the FBI was concerned anyway, also with how heavily restricted communications in and out of Alcatraz was, there's no way you could plan this. So if their family or friends were going to be waiting for them, they'd have to wait there for like, I don't know, months. And chartering and keeping a boat in the San Francisco Bay for months is expensive. And again, they have no money. Did they have any friends in high places? I don't think so.

They were all kind of just, it sounds like they all kind of just came from kind of middle class, or like Morris came from just the foster care system. so they probably really didn't have friends in high places. And there's also the thought that, well, okay, let's say something happens to their raft. Worst case scenario. Oh yeah, I'm going to touch on the sightings too shy. Worst case scenario, right? They're in the raft, and let's say they make it halfway, and then damn it, the boat breaks,

which, you know, is possible. but surely once you're halfway, you could swim the rest of the way, right? We said the Anglins were pretty good swimmers and that in their youth, they would swim some pretty frigid waters in Michigan. Problem is, in Alcatraz, they do one thing very specifically.

They make all of their showers kind of hot. And they do this specifically so that if someone tried to do what these three men tried to do, that chilling water would be a real shock to your system because you just wouldn't be used to it. You've been taking nothing but these nice warm showers ever since you've been in prison

and you are just going to be shocked by it and there's just no way you can make the swim. Can we truly say they're nice warm showers? Temperature-wise. Can we truly... Temperature-wise, it's a nice warm shower. You know, I don't think they scalded them or anything, you know. No, no, no, no.

I think it's the opposite. I don't know how warm they are. Well, not true. But actually, that aside, there was a separate escape attempt made by a man named John Paul Scott on December 16, 1962. All John Paul Scott did was make some water wings, you know, floaties out of some. inflated rubber gloves. That's it. That's all he took.

And would you believe it? He swam from Alcatraz all the way to the southern shores of the Golden Gate Bridge, which is almost three nautical miles away. Granted, though, John Paul Scott was found on the shores

by teenagers, completely exhausted and suffering from hypothermia and was immediately shipped back back to Alcatraz, but if nothing else, it showed that you could potentially swim from Alcatraz to the shores and be okay. And quite literally, modern day right now, there is like this annual triathlon where swimmers make that trek, and they do it all the time. And I think there was actually like a young girl that did it just to show people.

like, yeah, this is totally possible. You just need to train for a little bit, which is another issue people bring up is that, you know, the prisoners don't really have any control over how well built they are for, like, making such a long swim, so there's no way they could be, like, ready for that. And if you're a big fan of Mythbusters, they recreated this scenario pretty closely

and actually found that it is entirely possible that the three men, could have made it to their destination with the tools they had. Like, it is not unheard of with the raft they had that they could have easily made it. Yeah, I don't think the possibility of them making it is the problem. That's really not the question. It's the lack of any evidence post it. That's what they said at the end of the MythBusters episode, too.

It was like, well, yeah, they could have made it, but we also haven't heard from them in, like, what, 30 years? so chances are they probably don't make it. I mean, why would you ever hear about them? Because in the moment you hear about them, then they go back to jail. They do, yep. It should also be noted that around July 17th, 1962, there was this Norwegian freighter called the SS Norjfell that had reported seeing a body floating around the northwest side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Though for some reason, they didn't have. actually report it until October. I don't know if they were, they had already gotten underway, they didn't realize the stuff about Alcatraz, and they only reported it once they came back, but whatever. But when they saw the body, it did appear to be wearing the sort of denim pants that the inmates at Alcatraz wore. Though a lot of people were a little skeptical, because after so long, you know, why is the body still floating? Shouldn't it just kind of, you know, sink but because the currents

experts said it was possible that after all that time body could still be floating whatever but since it took them so long to recover the body and it had started to you know decompose

there was no way to really identify if it was Frank Morris or the brothers so the FBI kind of just chalked it up to well someone wearing denim pants drowned and that's it, I guess.

Whatever. The end. Damn, no one ever wore denim in the 60s. I know, right? They were just like, yeah, just some dude that wore denim pants met a bad end and he drowned. What are you going to do?

Have I heard about blue Chevrolet? I think I passingly saw something about it. But there have been more than a few Oh, I'll read this thing that Shai posted. A 1955 blue Chevrolet, California license plate KPB-076, was reported stolen in Marin County the same day as the escape attempt. A claim corroborated by contemporaneous stories in the Humboldt Times and the San Francisco Examiner. The following day, a motorist in Stockton, California, 80 miles east of San Francisco, reported to the California Highway Patrol that he'd been forced

off the road by three men in a blue Chevrolet. In a 2019 episode of the series Mission Declassified, investigative journalist Christov Putsal quoted various reports mentioning a blue Chevrolet of the same description as the one stolen after the escape spotted in Oklahoma, Indiana, Ohio, and South Carolina where three months after the escape, three men matching the escapee's description attempted to acquire

residents in the woods. I mean, so little, little. It's possible that that was them. It's possible. Little low on feeling too confident on that one. Yeah, but there were a bunch more unconfirmed sightings of the three men in the wild. Specifically, a lot of them surround the Anglin family,

because they kind of think that the brothers have sort of been keeping in touch with them from afar. Like they would receive these unsigned cards, you know, that everyone is doing well. Their mother would actually get flowers every mother's day until the day she died. And they even claimed that they got a Christmas card that was actually signed by John England. And when their mother did die, it was reported by the family that there were two rather large unknown women wearing veils and very heavy makeup that had come to pay. pay their respects. None of the family really knew who they were, and of course the speculation was, that's

the Anglin brothers, you know, trying to cover up and hide who they are so they can pay their final respects to their deceased mother. The flowers every single day is actually a bit more... Well, every mother's day. Every mother's day is... Oh, every mother's day. Maybe. Maybe, maybe.

But the thing is, well, we're... with how well-known the Alcatraz case was and how well-known the escape attempts were, all of these could have just been some really nasty pranks being played on the Anglin family, too. All it takes is one person getting your address, and then, you know, they feel like being a little bit of a jerk and giving you hope and, you know. But one of the more popular theories is that the Anglin brothers have actually been living it up in Brazil. The reason people think this is because at some point in 1990, there was a photo that was given to the family by a man named Fred Brissy.

He was a friend of the family, and, well, he was also a, you know, convicted pilot who regularly smuggled drugs from Latin America to Florida. But that's neither here nor there. However, experts are obviously a little weary of this photo. It's a photo that shows the Anglin brothers wearing shades in Brazil. I think they're just chilling at a bar. But experts are weary of this photo because, okay, first of all, the source is a little suspect. This guy is a con man.

He's a drug dealer. He is just, he is dubious at best. Experts also think that the physical characteristics don't quite match up. Like, they kind of look like the Anglin brothers. but they kind of don't look like the Anglin brothers. So, and they're wearing sunglasses in the photo. So it's really hard to make any sort of concrete guess one way or the other as if it's actually them. I mean, that is a little, I do kind of see how they can look at the similarities.

You know, obviously, Clarence or whatever is on the left and I guess on the right. but I mean, it's a bit much. It does seem like a bit of a stretch, especially with the quality of the photo not being the best because of the time. Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep. Yeah, I think that, I could have sworn I remember they had like a photo of them in a bar or something. But that's fine, too shy. I think, I think that one's the one.

But even still, even though they were like, yeah, I don't, I don't know if I trust this photo. They still sent FBI agents into Brazil looking for the Anglin brothers. and of course they found nothing. There was also a strange deathbed confession that garnered quite a bit of attention. It was basically this old man was telling his nurse that the Anglin brothers and Morris had help from himself and another accomplice in escaping from Alcatraz.

He would go on to state that they planned to be waiting in a white boat that they had just painted a few days ago, and they would help ferry the three men to safety. And while that may sound a little far-fetched, because it's someone's deathbed recollection, right? Recollection of something, so it sounds a little, yeah. But there was quite literally a beat cop that was working that night,

and he remembers seeing a white boat on the bay, said it looked like there was a flashlight or something beaming on it before it just goes completely dark. And apparently, he went to the FBI and he was like, dude, I saw this white boat. I saw this white boat on the bay and I heard about the Alcatraz escape and like, you know, that could have been, that could have been them. And so the FBI just starts grilling him about every little thing.

They even ask him like, well, why didn't you jump in and find out and make sure what is wrong with you? And after all this drilling, the FBI was apparently like, you know what? Forget you saw anything. Don't tell anyone about this. don't tell anyone about us, just forget that you saw it. And the man on his deathbed said that his accomplice and himself took the three all the way up to around Seattle before they betrayed Morris and the Anglins, and they killed the three men and buried their bodies near a highway. Which sounds really weird to me because, like, they don't ever explain why they felt the need to, like, betray. the prisoners and like kill them.

I don't know if they were like promised money or something or whatever, but it seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through just to be like, yeah, now we're going to kill you. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that one.

Yeah, it seems a little, yeah. Oh, that's right. There was AI technology used facial recognition tech that actually did conclude that it was John and Clarence Anglin in that photo.

I don't believe it's 2020 AI Yeah I don't believe AI crap I don't know Yeah nah nah AI does stupid things sometimes It's just another wrinkle in the story I had heard about that shy that AI tech was like Yeah those are the Anglin brothers that's them that's them

Also upon searching that highway where he said he sort of You know buried the bodies No bodies were found They found nothing there no bones, no nothing, and naturally the deathbed confession became completely shrouded in doubt. Though authorities still think it's an important piece of evidence because there are bits of it that were true. Like the white boat thing, that beat cop actually saw it and corroborated it. So there's still some truths to it, but they're not sure exactly how honest the guy was being.

and since it was a deathbed confession, it's not like they can ask him for more details. There was also a letter that was received by the San Francisco police claiming to be from a very much still alive, John Anglin. This would be in 2013, I believe. The letter basically says that all three men did escape and survive, but,

just barely. It also says that Morris died in 2005 and his brother Clarence died in 2008. John said he had been living in Seattle, North Dakota, in recently Southern California since the escape. But the real story of this letter is that John made authorities an offer. He said that if they announced on national television

that John would spend no longer than one year in jail and that he would receive medical treatment, he would tell everyone exactly where he was. Reason being is the letter also says that John was in real bad medical shape. He was 83 years old and he had cancer. And as far as I can tell, the FBI never actually tried to take the bargain. They tested the letter against a handwriting sample they had, because obviously they've got handwriting samples of every prisoner,

and they found that it was inconclusive. They could neither confirm nor deny that that was actually John England's handwriting. So they never followed up on it. Honestly, I feel like even if it's a long shot, do it. Like, sure, whatever. Like, fine, we'll only spend a year in prison and we'll get you some medical care. What's the worst that could happen, even if it turns out that that's not. John Anglin, so what?

Take a risk. It could be because he's just... Do you think he trusts the police? I mean, he sent the letter? Sure. Why not? He's 83 years old. If he sent the letter.

True, true. Which I'm under the assumption that he did not. Yeah, might have just been another bogus thing. Or it could have been someone that legit had cancer, couldn't afford the treatment, and was just like, maybe this will work. It's a nice little carrot to dangle in front of everybody. And to this day, the case is technically still open, and all three of these men are indeed wanted. Like, you can go and see their individual wanted pages, and it has their aged up photographs of how they would look in their late 80s, early 90s. even though, for the most part, the FBI presumes they all drowned in the bay,

there is at least a speck of doubt. There is at least a slim possibility that they made it, that they made it to the shores, and that they're still out there roaming around, enjoying the good life. And that is Alcatraz. And I think like you mentioned earlier, Alcatraz eventually did close down, but it had nothing to do with the fact that these things,

presumably escaped. It was more just, it was getting way too expensive to upkeep Alcatraz. And it was just, it was way more money spent than was worth. Yeah. I mean, I mean, sure, the reputation brought, brought it down. But at the end of the day, it's all the cash. Yeah. Yep, it's all, it's all about the money.

It's all about the Benjamin's baby. It's all about the money, baby. But that's, that's the attempted escape from Alcatraz. I actually think they probably got out. You know, a lot of... I'm normally, uh, I'm normally, uh, I'm normally pretty skeptical, but, uh, yeah, I think there are enough, I think there's enough doubt to believe that they could have made it. There have been so many people that have made the swim, mythbusters literally

recreated and was like, yeah, you could totally do this. Um, that, yeah. And a lot of people want to, want to cheer for them because they weren't horribly violent criminals. Like, they didn't murder any. They didn't, they weren't, you know, sex pests. They didn't, you know, they were armed robbers, sure. They burglarize stuff, sure. But it's not like, it's not like they were vicious criminals that had done something so unforgivable.

So a lot of people want to be like, yeah, they beat the system. They beat the unbeatable alcatraz. They beat the hubris of these prison guards, you know, so. I mean, I feel like if anyone was going to beat, it probably be Morris with his track record. Yeah, probably 133 IQ, and it was an escape artist. Yeah, there were other inmates that knew about the escape attempt. There was, I think his name was Stefan Steven, something like that, who was originally in on the planning of it and actually helped them get some of the supplies.

But I think because of like the odd place that his cell was, they were like, no, no, no, you can't be a part of this anymore. It's just... But yeah. Yep. All right. Alcatraz. Alcatraz.

Alcatraz. Now I know the details. I only knew that they took a raft into the bay and maybe they made it. Maybe they didn't. And now the details. I'd say they probably didn't. I've actually got good feelings that they probably didn't. Yeah.

Sure. Why not? And if they did make it and they're still alive, I mean, I don't remember if it was a buzz feed episode or if it was a stuff you should know episode where they were like you know technically the prison system worked because if they did make it out obviously they haven't committed a crime since then because they've been off the radar so hey reformation does work right yeah like d b cooper they kind of became folk heroes and it's kind of fun yeah so there you go happy there we go happy day escape from the the most secure prison of the world show us

the most secure prison in the world, live your life, eating cocktails in Brazil. Yep, having my tithes in Brazil. Hell yeah. Yep, and I'm sure next time we'll do some crazy cryptid that we can make a big boobed furry wifu out of for all of you. Great, love it. That's where I want to leave. Now, you know what? You said that we weren't doing that, and so now I'm going to do the thing I said I wasn't going to do.