The Chilling Mystery Behind The Only Inmates To Ever Escape The Infamous Alcatraz Prison

The Decoys

Each member of the audacious quartet bore a distinct role in their meticulously choreographed escape. A cloak of secrecy shrouded their every move as they prepared for the fateful night. The Anglin brothers, masters of disguise, were entrusted with the task of guarding their dummy surrogates, crafted with an uncanny blend of soap wax, pilfered toilet paper, and human hair swiped from the prison barber shop.

Meanwhile, Frank Lee Morris, the mastermind, took charge of inflating the lifelike vests destined for their empty bunks. As the night drew near, the stage was set, the players poised, and their audacious plot to outsmart Alcatraz in motion, one painstaking detail at a time.

The Dig

In the depths of Alcatraz, the ingenious quartet embarked on their most perilous endeavor yet: crafting tools for an audacious escape. With cunning resourcefulness, they pilfered spoons from the prison cafeteria and purloined wood from the workshop, forging makeshift picks and screws. Their nightly ritual, from 5:30 PM until the stroke of 9, saw them toiling away in darkness, meticulously chiseling holes to crawl through.

Vent by vent, room by room, they removed the grates, their homemade implements a testament to their audacity. As the holes slowly expanded, so did their chances of eluding the clutches of Alcatraz, with each strike of their makeshift tools echoing defiance against their captors.

Alcatraz Deteriorating

The quartet had a hidden ally in their quest for freedom: the crumbling, saltwater-soaked fortress of Alcatraz itself. The relentless saltwater invasion seeped through showers and dishwashers, corroding pipes and saturating prison walls. As the saline intruder infiltrated every nook and cranny, it became an unwitting accomplice in their audacious plan.

But that wasn’t all—this unexpected gift brought an unusual warmth. Prisoners accustomed to the chilling waters of the San Francisco Bay were caught off guard by this unanticipated twist. The elements conspired, creating an environment of vulnerability, one that the quartet would exploit in their audacious bid to defy the clutches of Alcatraz.

All The Noise

Amidst the din of Alcatraz’s cacophony, one might assume that the quartet’s relentless chipping and banging would inevitably arouse suspicion. However, they wielded a brilliant ruse. Prison reforms in the early 1960s gifted inmates a coveted music hour, and chaos ensued as instruments filled the air with melodies and discord.

Frank Lee Morris, in a stroke of genius, mastered the accordion, its resonant tones drowning out their covert escapades. Concealed behind their cells, a utility corridor lay unguarded, housing a network of pipes ascending and descending. It was within this labyrinth of noise and pipes that the quartet orchestrated their escape, their secrets hidden in plain earshot amidst the symphony of Alcatraz’s peculiar melodies.

A Jungle Gym

The utility corridor, an unsupervised maze, was their clandestine jungle gym. It held the keys to their ascent through three levels, a daring path to the coveted roof. However, their journey was fraught with surprises. Shockingly, most of the shafts that should have led them to freedom were sealed shut with unforgiving cement.

In a desperate bid, they clung to hope and wielded a simple wrench as their salvation. As it turned out, luck favored the bold. They discovered a lone, unsealed shaft, a narrow portal to the roof. With each twist of the wrench, they inched closer to their destiny, poised on the precipice of an escape that would defy the very essence of Alcatraz’s impenetrability.

The Big Squeeze

In the covert shadow of May 1962, the Anglin brothers and Morris, through painstaking determination, had burrowed their way through the unforgiving cell walls. The holes they carved were narrow, barely enough to accommodate their determined escape. Squeezing their bodies through this arduous passage, they knew it was all that was required to attain freedom.

Resourcefulness became their ally as they meticulously crafted lifeboats and vests from 50 raincoats, defying the treacherous cold waters that awaited them. With each stitch, they wove the fabric of their destiny, their escape plot progressing from the realm of audacity into the impending reality of the San Francisco Bay’s tumultuous waters.