Escaping The Truth

Moment of Truth: Snow in the South

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FBI investigators concluded that while it was theoretically possible for the inmates to have reached Angel Island, the frigid water temperature and strong currents within the bay made it unlikely. West was the only conspirator who did not participate in the actual escape; he was left behind when a stuck ventilator grill initially prevented him from leaving his cell. He cooperated fully with the escape investigation and was not charged for his role in the attempt.

After serving his sentence, followed by two additional sentences in Georgia and Florida , he was released in , only to be arrested again in Florida the following year on charges of grand larceny. At Florida State Prison, he fatally stabbed another prisoner in October , in what may have been a racially motivated incident. He was serving multiple sentences, including life imprisonment on the murder conviction, when he died of acute peritonitis in On December 16, , inmate John Paul Scott , successfully swam a distance of 2.

He was found by teenagers, suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion. Today, multitudes of athletes swim the same Alcatraz—Fort Point route as part of one of two annual triathlon events. Kennedy ordered the penitentiary closed on March 21, The FBI closed its file on December 31, , after a year investigation. They believe the remnants of the raft and the wallet wrapped in plastic containing personal effects of the Anglins, was indicative that the raft had broken up and sank after being launched from Alcatraz, and that the three convicts had tried to swim for it, before succumbing to hypothermia, and their bodies were swept out to sea by the strong current in San Francisco Bay.

Marshals Service investigation remains open, however. Since the escape, there have been many reported sightings of the three men over the years as well as leads to their whereabouts. Some of these sightings were discounted but others were taken seriously. Marshals office, When MacGowan refused, the caller terminated the phone call. It was considered so significant that agents were dispatched to South America to find him. A male tipster called the Bureau in claiming to have been at school with Morris and having known him for 30 years.

He said he had bumped into him in Maryland and described him as having 'a small beard and moustache', but refused to give further details. Family members of the Anglin brothers occasionally received many unsigned postcards and messages over the years. Once a card came signed "Jerry" and another "Jerry and Joe," [5] [6] The family also produced a Christmas card, purportedly received in the family mailbox in , saying, "To Mother, from John.

Robert also said that in , when the father of the Anglin brothers died, two strangers in beards showed up at the funeral home. In , a woman who only identified herself as "Cathy" called Unsolved Mysteries tip line to report that she recognized a photo of Clarence Anglin, as a man who lived on a farm near Marianna, Fla. The brothers also were linked to the area by a woman, who recognized a photo of Clarence Anglin and said he lived near Marianna. She correctly identified his eye color, height and other physical features.

Another witness identified a sketch of Frank Morris, saying it bore a striking resemblance to a man she had seen in the area. The US Marshals went down to Brazil and got a confirmation from a local bartender that one of the brothers was there. The escape was investigated in a segment by Robert Stack in on Unsolved Mysteries. Two theories were tested, one by having a triathlete swim from Alcatraz to the mainland and the other having three experienced kayakers paddle the same route in a replica of the makeshift raft used by the Anglins and Morris.

While the rafters failed due to their raft being unseaworthy and had to be rescued by a motorboat that was shadowing their progress, the swimmer succeeded at making it to shore. The show concluded that the odds were likely the three fugitives survived. In , a former Alcatraz inmate named Thomas Kent told the television program America's Most Wanted that he had helped plan the escape, and claimed to have provided "significant new leads" to investigators. He declined to participate in the actual escape, he said, because he could not swim.

Modern experimental and computer-simulated evidence has suggested that the ultimate outcome of the attempt may have depended on the exact time of the men's departure aboard the raft, and on whether they were sitting on top of the raft, using their paddles or partially submerged in the water, clinging to the raft and using their legs as the primary propelling force.

A MythBusters episode [54] on the Discovery Channel tested the feasibility of an escape from the island aboard a raft constructed with the same materials and tools available to the inmates, and determined that it was possible. The makeshift raft crafted and crewed by the MythBusters team successfully made it across the bay and made it to the Marin Headlands. A portion of the scale tests cut for time but later shown in MythBusters Outtakes also show that debris found in the bay afterwards could have been released by the prisoners and float to where they were found through strategic use of the bay's tides to throw the authorities off their trail.

The mythbusters explored the idea, that the paddle that was found, floated back into the bay in the direction of Angel Island after the prisoners made it to the Marin Headlands as a way to throw the FBI off the convicts' trail. Using a scale model of the San Francisco Bay area, the tide could have washed the paddle in the direction of Angel Island if released from the Marin Headlands, but as with their theory of the how the escape could have succeeded, no concrete evidence existed to prove or disprove the theory. Michael Dyke, the Deputy U.

Marshal, discovered in the newly uncovered official records, it was reported that, contrary to the official FBI report of the escapee's raft never being recovered, a raft was discovered on Angel Island on June 12, , the day after the escape, along with footprints leading away from the raft. Furthermore, the reports also claimed, that contrary to the official FBI report of no car thefts being reported, a car, a blue Chevrolet, had been reported stolen in the vicinity on the night of the escape.

It was also reported that at The DNA did not match and so the bones were not Morris's. That same year, an year-old man named Bud Morris, who said he was a cousin of Frank Morris, claimed that on "eight or nine" occasions prior to the escape he delivered envelopes of money to Alcatraz guards, presumably as bribes. He further claimed to have met his cousin face to face in a San Diego park shortly after the escape. His daughter, who was "eight or nine" years old at the time, said she was present at the meeting with "Dad's friend, Frank", but "had no idea [about the escape]".

Marshal, conceded that he "still [receives] leads once in a while regarding the case and there are still active warrants". A study of the ocean currents by scientists at Delft University and the research institute Deltares indicates that if the prisoners left Alcatraz at A History Channel documentary presented further circumstantial evidence gathered over the years by the Anglin family. Christmas cards containing the Anglins' handwriting, and allegedly received by family members for three years after the escape, were displayed.

While the handwriting was verified as the Anglins', none of the envelopes contained a postmarked stamp, so experts could not determine when they had been delivered. They produced photographs taken, they said, by Brizzi who died in , including one showing two men resembling John and Clarence Anglin and the farm near Rio where they were purportedly living. A coroner did not find any significant trauma to Alfred, confirming his cause of death was most likely electrocution, but Alfred's DNA was compared with a sample from "John Bones Doe"; It was not a match and so the bones did not belong to either Anglin brother.

Art Roderick, a retired Deputy U. Marshal working with the Anglin family, called Brizzi's photograph of the two men "absolutely the best actionable lead we've had," but added, "it could still all be a nice story which isn't true"; or the photograph could be a misdirection, aimed at steering the investigation away from the Anglins' actual whereabouts. An expert working for the U. Marshals Service compared measurements of the photo subjects' physical features to those of the Anglin brothers' arrest photos, believed it most likely is a picture of John and Clarence Anglin; although the age and condition of the photo, and the fact that both men were wearing sunglasses, hindered efforts to make a definitive determination.

Other circumstantial evidence included the deathbed confession of Robert Anglin, who is said to have told family members in that he had been in contact with John and Clarence from until approximately Creating handmade replicas of the raft and paddles, they tried for Horseshoe Bay, which they considered a more realistic landing site. While the rafters failed due to their raft being unseaworthy and had to be rescued by a motorboat that was shadowing their progress, they made it so close, they concluded it was possible.

In , the FBI confirmed that the existence of a letter, allegedly written by one of the escapees, John Anglin, had forced them to reopen the investigation into the case. The author of the letter, received by the San Francisco Police Department in , claims that Frank Morris died in , and Clarence Anglin died in Marshal's office is still investigating this case, which will remain open on all three escapees until their th birthdays. West fictionalized as a character named Charley Butts was played by Larry Hankin.

Terror on Alcatraz starring Aldo Ray as Morris, returning decades later to the scene of his escape from Alcatraz, scours his old prison cell for a map to a safety deposit box key. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article contains weasel words: Such statements should be clarified or removed. List of Alcatraz escape attempts. Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved 6 September Retrieved 7 September Retrieved 1 February Retrieved 2 April Escape from Alcatraz — Casefile: Alcatraz escapees might have survived.

Retrieved October 13, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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Archived from the original on Retrieved 24 January The New York Times. Native — Ghosts of DC". Ocean View Publishing Company. Retrieved July 23, Retrieved June 10, The first compound East Compound of the camp was completed and opened on 21 March Each compound consisted of fifteen single-story huts. Eventually the camp grew to approximately 24 hectares 60 acres in size and housed about 2, Royal Air Force officers, about 7, U.

Army Air Forces, and about officers from other Allied air forces, for a total of 10, inmates, including some support officers. The prison camp had a number of design features that made escape extremely difficult. The digging of escape tunnels , in particular, was discouraged by several factors: The loose, collapsible sand meant the structural integrity of any tunnel would be very poor. A third defence against tunnelling was the placement of seismograph microphones around the perimeter of the camp, which were expected to detect any sounds of digging.

A substantial library with schooling facilities was available, where many POWs earned degrees such as languages, engineering or law. The prisoners also built a theatre and put on high-quality bi-weekly performances featuring all the current West End shows. POWs operated a system whereby newcomers to the camp were vetted, to prevent German agents from infiltrating their ranks. Any POW who could not be vouched for by two POWs who knew the prisoner by sight was severely interrogated and afterwards escorted continually by other prisoners, until such time as he was deemed to be a genuine Allied POW.

Several infiltrators were discovered by this method and none is known to have escaped detection in Luft III. The guards' movements were then carefully recorded in a logbook kept by a rota of officers. Unable to stop what the prisoners called the "Duty Pilot" system, the Germans allowed it to continue and on one occasion the book was used by Kommandant von Lindeiner to bring charges against two guards who had slunk away from duty several hours early.

The camp's Luftwaffe guards were either too old for combat duty or young men convalescing after long tours of duty or from wounds. Because the guards were Luftwaffe personnel, the prisoners were accorded far better treatment than that granted to other POWs in Germany. Transferred to Sagan in early , he proved sympathetic to allied airmen. Food was an ongoing matter of concern for the POWs. The recommended dietary intake for a normal healthy inactive adult male is 2, kilocalories 9, kilojoules.

The camp also had an official internal bartering system called a Foodacco — POWs marketed surplus goods for "points" that could be "spent" on other items. Every three months, weak beer was made available in the canteen for sale. As NCOs did not receive any "pay" it was the usual practice in camps for the officers to provide one-third for their use but at Luft III all lagergeld was pooled for communal purchases.

As British government policy was to deduct camp pay from the prisoners' military pay, the communal pool avoided the practice in other camps whereby American officers contributed to British canteen purchases. Each compound had athletic fields and volleyball courts. The prisoners participated in basketball, softball, boxing, touch football, volleyball, table tennis and fencing, with leagues organised for most. The first escape occurred in October in the East Compound.

Conjuring up a modern Trojan Horse , kriegies prisoners constructed a gymnastic vaulting horse largely from plywood from Red Cross parcels. The horse was designed to conceal men, tools and containers of soil. Each day the horse was carried out to the same spot near the perimeter fence and while prisoners conducted gymnastic exercises above, a tunnel was dug. At the end of each working day, a wooden board was placed over the tunnel entrance and covered with surface soil.

The gymnastics disguised the real purpose of the vaulting horse and kept the sound of the digging from being detected by the microphones.

Alcatraz: Search for the Truth

No shoring was used except near the entrance. On the evening of 19 October , Codner, Williams and Philpot made their escape. There had been escape attempts one of which inspired the film The Wooden Horse and many tunnels had been started and discovered before completion. Falling back on his legal background to represent his scheme, Bushell called a meeting of the Escape Committee to advocate for his plan.

By rights we should all be dead! The only reason that God allowed us this extra ration of life is so we can make life hell for the Hun In North Compound we are concentrating our efforts on completing and escaping through one master tunnel. No private-enterprise tunnels allowed. Three bloody deep, bloody long tunnels will be dug — Tom, Dick and Harry. Herbert Massey , as senior British officer, authorised the escape attempt which would have good chance of success; in fact, the simultaneous digging of three tunnels would become an advantage if any one of them was discovered, because the guards would scarcely imagine that another two were well underway.

While previous attempts had involved up to 20 men, in this case Bushell was proposing to get over out, all wearing civilian clothes and some with forged papers and escape equipment. As this escape attempt was unprecedented in size, it would require unparalleled organisation; as the mastermind of the Great Escape, Roger Bushell inherited the codename of "Big X".

Three tunnels, Tom , Dick , and Harry were dug for the escape. The operation was so secretive that everyone was to refer to each tunnel by its name. Bushell took this so seriously that he threatened to court-martial anyone who even uttered the word "tunnel". Tom began in a darkened corner next to a stove chimney in hut and extended west into the forest. It was found by the Germans and dynamited. Dick' s entrance was hidden in a drain sump in the washroom of hut and had the most secure trap door.

It was to go in the same direction as Tom and the prisoners decided that the hut would not be a suspected tunnel site as it was further from the wire than the others. Dick was abandoned for escape purposes because the area where it would have surfaced was cleared for camp expansion. Dick was used to store soil and supplies and as a workshop. Harry , which began in hut , went under the Vorlager which contained the German administration area , sick hut and the isolation cells to emerge at the woods on the northern edge of the camp.

Ultimately used for the escape, it was discovered as the escape was in progress with only seventy-six of the planned two hundred twenty prisoners free. The Germans filled it with sewage and sand and sealed with cement. After the escape, the prisoners started digging another tunnel called George , but this was abandoned when the camp was evacuated. They were very small, only 0.

The sandy walls were shored up with pieces of wood scavenged from all over the camp, much from the prisoners' beds of the twenty or so boards originally supporting each mattress, only about eight were left on each bed. Other wooden furniture was also scavenged. Other materials were also scavenged, such as Klim cans; tin cans that had originally held powdered milk supplied by the Red Cross for the prisoners. The metal in the cans could be fashioned into various tools and items, for example scoops and lamps, fuelled by fat skimmed off soup served at the camp and collected in tiny tin vessels, with wicks made from old and worn clothing.

As the tunnels grew longer, a number of technical innovations made the job easier and safer. A pump was built to push fresh air along the ducting, invented by Squadron Leader Bob Nelson of 37 Squadron. The pumps were built of odd items including pieces from the beds, hockey sticks and knapsacks , as well as the Klim tins.

The usual method of disposing of sand from all the digging was to scatter it discreetly on the surface. Small pouches made of towels or long underpants were attached inside the prisoners' trousers; as they walked around, the sand could be scattered. Sometimes, they would dump sand into the small gardens they were allowed to tend. As one prisoner turned the soil, another would release sand while they both appeared to be in conversation. In sunny months, sand could be carried outside and scattered in blankets used for sun bathing; more than were used to make an estimated 25, trips.

Of those, only six had been involved with tunnel construction. One of these, a Canadian called Wally Floody , was actually originally in charge of digging and camouflage before his transfer. Eventually the prisoners felt they could no longer dump sand above ground because the Germans became too efficient at catching them doing it. After "Dick's" planned exit point was covered by a new camp expansion, the decision was made to start filling it up.

As the tunnel's entrance was very well-hidden, "Dick" was also used as a storage room for items such as maps, postage stamps, forged travel permits, compasses and clothing. Some genuine civilian clothes were obtained by bribing German staff with cigarettes, coffee or chocolate. These were used by escaping prisoners to travel from the camp more easily, especially by train. The prisoners ran out of places to hide sand and snow cover then made it impractical to scatter it undetected. Internal "legal advice" was taken and the SBOs decided that the completed building did not fall under the parole system.

A seat in the back row was hinged and the sand dispersal problem solved. German prison camps began to receive larger numbers of American prisoners. To allow as many people to escape as possible, including the Americans, efforts on the remaining two tunnels increased. This drew attention from guards and in September the entrance to "Tom" became the 98th tunnel to be discovered in the camp [ citation needed ] ; guards in the woods had seen sand being removed from the hut where it was located.

Work on "Harry" ceased and did not resume until January By then the Americans, some of whom had worked on "Tom", had been moved away; despite its portrayal in the Hollywood film, no American participated in the "Great Escape". Previously, the attempt had been planned for the summer for its good weather, but in early the Gestapo visited the camp and ordered increased effort to detect escapes.

Rather than risk waiting and having their tunnel discovered, Bushell ordered the attempt be made as soon as it was ready. In their plan, of the who had worked on the tunnels only would be able to escape. The prisoners were separated into two groups. The first group of , called "serial offenders," were guaranteed a place and included 30 who spoke German well or had a history of escapes, and an additional 70 considered to have put in the most work on the tunnels.

The second group, considered to have much less chance of success, was chosen by drawing lots; called "hard-arsers", they would have to travel by night as they spoke little or no German and were only equipped with the most basic fake papers and equipment.

The prisoners waited about a week for a moonless night, and on Friday 24 March the escape attempt began. As night fell, those allocated a place moved to Hut Unfortunately for the prisoners, the exit trap door of Harry was frozen solid and freeing it delayed the escape for an hour and a half. Then it was discovered that the tunnel had come up short of the nearby forest; at According to Alan Burgess , in his book The Longest Tunnel, the tunnel reached the forest, as planned, but the first few trees were too sparse to provide adequate cover.

As the temperature was below freezing and there was snow on the ground, a dark trail would be created by crawling to cover. To avoid being seen by the sentries, the escapes were reduced to about ten per hour, rather than the one every minute that had been planned. Word was eventually sent back that no-one issued with a number above would be able to get away before daylight.

As they would be shot if caught trying to return to their own barracks, these men changed back into their own uniforms and got some sleep. An air raid then caused the camp's and the tunnel's electric lighting to be shut down, slowing the escape even more. At around 1 a. Despite these problems, 76 men crawled through to freedom, until at 4: The guards had no idea where the tunnel entrance was, so they began searching the huts, giving men time to burn their fake papers.

Hut was one of the last to be searched, and despite using dogs the guards were unable to find the entrance. Finally, German guard Charlie Pilz crawled back through the tunnel but found himself trapped at the camp end; he began calling for help and the prisoners opened the entrance to let him out, finally revealing its location.

An early problem for the escapees was that most were unable to find the way into the railway station, until daylight revealed it was in a recess of the side wall to an underground pedestrian tunnel.

Stalag Luft III

Consequently, many of them missed their night time trains, and decided either to walk across country or wait on the platform in daylight. Another unanticipated problem was that this was the coldest March for thirty years, with snow up to five feet deep, so the escapees had no option but to leave the cover of woods and fields and stay on the roads. Following the escape, the Germans made an inventory of the camp and uncovered how extensive the operation had been.

Of 76 escapees, 73 were captured. Adolf Hitler initially wanted them to be shot as an example to other prisoners, along with Commandant von Lindeiner, the architect who designed the camp, the camp's security officer and all the guards on duty at the time. Hitler eventually ordered SS head Himmler to execute more than half of the escapees.

Himmler passed the selection on to General Arthur Nebe , and fifty were executed singly or in pairs. His friend Dick Churchill was probably spared because of his surname, shared with the British Prime Minister. The Gestapo investigated the escape and, whilst this uncovered no significant new information, the camp Kommandant, von Lindeiner-Wildau , was removed and threatened with court martial.

Having feigned mental illness to avoid imprisonment, he was later wounded by Soviet troops advancing toward Berlin, while acting as second in command of an infantry unit. He surrendered to British forces as the war ended, and was a prisoner of war for two years at the prisoner of war camp known as the " London Cage ". He had followed the Geneva Accords concerning the treatment of POWs and had won the respect of the senior prisoners.

On April 6, the new camp Kommandant Oberstleutnant Erich Cordes informed Massey that he had received official communication from the German High Command that 41 of the escapees had been shot while resisting arrest. Massey was himself repatriated on health grounds a few days later. Over subsequent days, prisoners collated the names of 47 prisoners they considered to be unaccounted for.

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