Posted on 01/28/2018 9:16:04 AM PST by beaversmom
The questions have stymied law enforcement agencies, haunted family members and intrigued the public for more than half a century.
Did the three men who escaped in 1962 from Alcatraz — then known as the world’s most impenetrable island prison, a place for only the most hardened of criminals — survive their brazen attempt?
And if so, are they still alive, nearly 56 years later?
To this day, Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin and John Anglin remain the only people who have escaped Alcatraz and never been found — a disappearance that is one of the country’s most notorious unsolved mysteries.
The prevailing theory is that Morris and the Anglin brothers drowned after leaving Alcatraz Island and attempting to cross the frigid San Francisco Bay.
But in a newly surfaced letter sent to San Francisco police in 2013 and obtained by CBS affiliate KPIX, a man claiming to be one of the escapees said all three of the prisoners survived the attempt — but he was the only one still living.
“My name is John Anglin,” the handwritten letter began. “I escape [sic] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes we all made it that night but barely!”
The letter claimed Morris died in 2008 and that Clarence Anglin died in 2011.
The note continued: “If you announce on TV that I will be promised to first go to jail for no more than a year and get medical attention, I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. This is no joke.”
That was nearly five years ago.
According to KPIX, the FBI examined the letter but said its results were inconclusive. A U.S. Marshals Service representative told The Washington...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
The current issue of Popular Mechanics as a feature article about this escape. Good read.
All you had to do was be accountable.
Maybe you’re right. But I have very little inclination to expect competence from government.
I saw a program a couple weeks ago where a couple of guys claim their father, who was a friend of the brothers, had a couple of photos sent to him and it appeared they were somewhere in S. America..........
I don’t doubt that they could have survived to reach land (mythbusters proved it was possible). What I do doubt that these career criminals could have turned away from crime and never been arrested again.
Have they ever taken a person in perfect shape and health, put him in a shark cage and have him swim from Alcatraz to shore? How long did it take?
I’ve also watched a few shows about that. IMO, Hitler’s body never available for positive ID makes it all very probable. I believe Hitler to have been insane, but far from stupid. I have a feeling he did survive the war.
It was rumored and passed on by a relative that they had slipped to South America and were living and working a ranch down there.
The odds of making it in the bay were very much against them. The current that swept them east to the island have always been dangerous even for experienced ship captains. And even if he did make it, he was asking for medical assistance and at the time of the letter he was 87 years old, now 92 at the time of the 5 years research on the letter. If he was that sick, then he is probably gone by now anyway.
rwood
There used to be an annual ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ triathlon every year that started with the contestants swimming from Alcatraz to San Francisco, then running, then biking over a long course. I think now they start off from a boat in the bay, but it certainly can be done.
There is also an athletic event in those same waters almost where participants swim from the Farallon Islands in the Pacific Ocean (Great White Shark Central) to the Golden Gate Bridge, against the flow of the Sacramento River. A boat escorts the swimmers.
The escapees had makeshift rafts. I don’t know if they made it or not, but it’s not so cold and shark-infested that they couldn’t have.
Not sure what your point is. I just mentioned that Myth buster created the conditions as known, and were able to “escape” to dry land.
Now did these men make it? Could they have made it. Don’t know, but they could have.
My point is even if they made it, how did they avoid capture over all these years?
Now I remember, it was on the History Channel. Supposedly the mother had received several Christmas cards from them over the years......
I don’t see why they wouldn’t indulge him. All they have to ask is, “how?” They will know in 2 minutes if he is telling the truth.
I doubt the letter is true. If he wanted to prove it to be true he could have given more information on the two deceased escapees. Like where they lived and where they are buried. That would just about prove his identity.
Odd this should come up right now. Within the last few weeks, I saw an Antiques Roadshow with a guy who had a ‘head in a box’ that he claimed was the dummy head of Frank Morris. IIRC, it wasn’t determined to be of much value, but it did kind of look like the first dummy head in the pictures here.
“Escape from Alcatraz was a good movie, but its inaccuracies annoyed me. For one thing, it took place in the ‘60’s, but Al Capone, who died in 1947, was portrayed as one of the inmates.
It also claimed that the prisoners were not allowed to hear news of the outside world. However, by the ‘60’s, they were allowed to listen to radios and read newspapers. But since they were not allowed to read or hear news of sex, violence or crime, their listening was restricted, and the only newspaper they were allowed to read was the Christian Science Monitor.
According to one source I read--I believe it was Police Gazette--Hitler made it to Argentina and masterminded the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.