Alcatraz Island: Encyclopedia II - Alcatraz Island - Escape attempts

Alcatraz Island - Escape attempts

During its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary never logged any officially successful escapes. In all attempts escapees were either shot dead or believed to be drowned in the frigid San Francisco Bay. Thirty-six prisoners were involved in attempts; seven were shot and killed, two drowned, five unaccounted for, the rest recaptured. Two prisoners made it off the island but were returned, one, in 1945 and one in 1962. Three escapees, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, disappeared from their cells on June 11, 1962. This attempt, popularized in the motion picture Escape from Alcatraz, was among the most intricate ever devised. Though only some evidence was found that they died in their attempt, they are officially listed as "missing and presumed drowned." Plywood paddles and parts of a raft made from raincoats were found on Angel Island by the FBI. It is very likely that they did die in their attempt as, after all these years, no one has surfaced claiming to be or even to have seen the escapees.

In 2003, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, the co-hosts of the television series MythBusters, sought to prove whether the escapees could have survived. Using similar materials to those used by the three convicts, they constructed an inflatable raft from a large quantity of rubber raincoats and made plywood paddles. Hyneman and Savage selected a date when the tide direction and rate matched that of the escape attempt. With another crew member, Will Abbot, standing in for the third prisoner, they were able to paddle with the outgoing tide to the Marin Headlands, near the North tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Both Hyneman and Savage agreed that the escape could have succeeded, though the actual fate of the prisoners is of course unknown.

Conversely, tests using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scale model of San Francisco Bay indicated that paddles or other debris thrown into the water from the landing location would be carried by the returning tide to Angel Island. This proved that escape was possible with the resources available to the escapees and provided an explanation for the location of the escape debris found by the FBI.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Escape attempts", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki