For Those about to Rock: Alcatraz Escapes

Escaping from prison isn't easy. It was near impossible from a place like Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay. The prison was notorious not only for its infamous prisoners, but also for its harrowing location amidst choppy waters and hungry sharks. But the human spirit and the desire to be free can't be squelched. Come with us as we escape "The Rock."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Over here.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
How are you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Doing pretty good? It's been waiting for you.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
How you've been running a little late today. I'm good,
I'm good. Listen. You know it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yes, malware, DNA.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Malware DNA yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
So you know, like I like, I like technology, but
I'm not a tech bro. I know a rap name.
But uh, there's this. I'm reading this Wired story. They
they Okay, I don't know. This is wild. Maybe you'll
find this interesting. I find it ridiculous. A group of
researchers from the University of Washington, they created malicious software malware, yeah,

(00:42):
and they put it into physical DNA strands EW so
in a gene sequencer analyzes the DNA, the program gets
read and then it corrupts the gene sequencing software and
it takes control of the computer.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
So you just give your like DNA.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Dn M malware.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
You can put in twenty three and meters rip and
then bring the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Down DNA hijack love in that nuts. I'm gonna just
inject myself of malware, do it. Yeah, that's the ridiculous part.
My idea is I need some malware.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
You'll find me out behind the headquarters building, chewing on
a flash drive, just trying to get that sweet malware
up in me.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
So in that ridiculous It.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Is so ridiculous, love. Do you want to know what
else is ridiculous?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Goodness? Yes, getting off the rock.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
This is a ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and
outrageous capers, heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent
murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous. I asked today
for your indulgence. I think that that is because when
things are tough, everyone has to go to their comfort zone.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yes, that's why I wanted to tell you a story
about Ireland earlier. YEA, something comfortingly nice makes.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
People happy and calm. For me, that's usually like the
garden or cooking, making, hugging on dogs. Oh yeah, what
about you? What's your comfort zone place?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Speed? I don't mean the drug, I mean going fast,
just the act of going fast. I feel so relaxed
when I'm going fast.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, it's not like comfort zone. It's more in the
cool zone.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
But like the world is wild. Yes, as Shanaide saying,
these are dangerous days.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I think Elizabeth you've maybe realized I don't have a comfort.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Zone going fast, I.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Was kind of bing it's it's it's more I just
feel good. I don't really have a comfort zone. I
don't think I seek out enough comfort. You've made me
realized I have a paucity of comfort comfort I need.
I'm going to follow you in Shanade's advice, these.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Are dangerous days. You fill in the rest of the
line in your head if you know it. But the
show almost go on, almost go on. So I have
to tell you a compelling story.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Right please.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
I can't come here and like be like, oh, list
off my tomato seedlings for an hour. I mean I could,
but there's no crime there other than how criminally delicious
those tomatoes are going to be. I have to tell
you an hour's worth of a z any crime. So
for that, I'm going to go to my comfort place
and Zarin that is San Francisco Bay Area history.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Oh hell yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Right with that, I have a question for you. Have
you ever been to Alcatraz aka The Rock?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
No? Actually I've never have.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, me neither. I am a fifth generation Bay Area
residence and I have never been there.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
We should go, We should totally requid a ridiculous crime
episode on the road.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
I kind of had wanted to do this one there,
but like you know, I'm busy. I got it busy
on the go lifestyles.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
You forgot to get the boat tickets.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah. I've been to the other like large free standing
island in the bay Angel Angel Island. Yeah, yeah, a
couple of times. Angel Islands so beautiful.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, that's like to go hiking off. Yeah, it's like
nature preserved Alcatraz. Why would why would you want to
go to a prison? That's a good point, you know
what I mean? Like that was my issue with it. People.
I've been offered to go and I was like, it's
a prison, right, and it's cold. I got it to
be cold for an hour to get there to go.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
It means you have to go to like Peer thirty nine.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, you gotta go hang out all these tourists and
you gotta be wet and cold, and then you go
and hang out with them and they go, look al
Capone wants to spit here.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to put it on my list now.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
I do want to go because I'm hoping they have
like an al Capone banjo jazz band.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
In the event that I ever leave my house to
go somewhere other than here at a headquarters, it'll be Alcatraz.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, call me, let me know that.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
So the island started out as kind of a prison,
oddly enough, because the Oloney people on whose land we
sit to record, they used the island as a place
of exile or punishment.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Really, it was a banishment spot.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Makes sense. Yeah, that's what I That's what I was told.
Whereas Angel Islands pretty big relatively speaking, and has its
own like microclimates, even Alcatraz is small, rocky, yeah, and
it's in like a gnarly part of the bay that
gets hit with a lot of wind and a lot
and weather. The water is almost always choppy and cold. Yes,

(05:25):
And there's the wind, like I said, and it's not
particularly close to the shore.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
No, they got crazy currents right there, and there's sharks.
That's where all the like the wind, the sail borders
and stuff that go by because the winds are so reliable.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah. Yeah. So when the Spanish showed up, they named
the island like Isla Delos Alcatraces, And I'm saying that's
where it gets it, island of the Pelicans. Yeah, and
that's because there were so many Bobcats on the island
no Pelicans.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
So there essentially there was you said, Pelican Island, and
then there's also Pelican Bay, the prison up nor Repelican, California.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
That's the logo, that's the mascot Pelicans. So the name
was later shortened to Alcatraz. It's way jazzier totally. There's
a street in Berkeley called Alcatraz, so so named because
like as you drive down the hill on it toward
the bay, you're looking directly at the island. That's a
fun fact. Enjoy the tours there, thank you. So after that,
it was a US military fort in prison during the

(06:26):
Civil War, that's where they put Confederate sympathizers. Yeah, and
then it was a maximum security federal prison in nineteen
thirty four. That's when they kicked that off totally. And
it was like the most dangerous dude wanted the bad
boy Club. It was known for like super strict discipline,
harsh conditions, near impossible to escape because of like those cold,

(06:49):
treacherous waters. During the time that it was a federal prison,
there were fourteen escape attempts, thirty six men Alcatraz. Yes,
some say there were no successful attempts.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yes, that's what they say.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
Others like me begged to differ. We'll get to that
in a second. Due to high maintenance costs Alcatraz, they
closed it in nineteen sixty three. In nineteen sixty nine,
Native American activists, led by Richard Oaks, they occupied Alcatraz
for nineteen months.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
My friend's father was involved in that exactly, So shout
out Victoria, Hello.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
And they wanted the land return to Indigenous people. It
gained national attention, influenced Native American rights policies. In nineteen
seventy two, the island became part of the Golden Gate
National Recreation Area. Now it's a big tourist attraction. So
here's a fun fact for this virtual tour. Alcatraz had
hot showers, yes, and that was to prevent the prisoners

(07:47):
from getting used to cold water, which would make it
less likely to escape.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Oh, they didn't want them to like basically, you know,
make their body be not bothered by cold because that's
what I would totally do that totally.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
So instead you have to take a hot shower, craze
just hot water coming out of them showers. Isn't that nuts?
You can't temping yourself up? So Alcatraz is like a
mile and a half from the nearest point of land,
which is Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, OK. A mile
and a half in the prison used and developed this
armorer system for surveilling the interior and the San Francisco

(08:22):
Chronicle writer Jay Campbell Bruce he wrote this book in
nineteen sixty three, Escape from Alcatraz quote. The armorer, in
his vault, sealed in the inner side, accessible only from
outside the prison, enjoys virtual omniscience about what is going
on in the cell blocks. Microphones hidden about the prison
relay sounds to him day and night. If a phone

(08:45):
is off a hook for more than fifteen seconds, a
bulb lights up on his board and he dispatches an
officer to investigate. He receives, for the record, twelve official
counts a day of the inmate population. There are some
thirty additional special counts, and if a count reveals a
prisoner missing, he radios the Coastguard and the San Francisco Police.

(09:06):
In the event of a riot, he hits the siren
button to summon off duty personnel and distributes weapons from
an arsenal in his vault. Rifles, pistols, submachine guns, gas grenades, ammunition.
So there's like the one guy who's the brain of
it all. So we had these guys who tried to
escape fourteen attempts thirty six dude.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
So they're basically going up against this mastermind.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah. Yeah, he's just like in the like control tower.
He can do and see everything. Interesting, most of the
people who tried to scoot out, most of those guys
were either recaptured, shot or killed or you know, they
gave up.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Oh really Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
So one of the ones who was recaptured was John
Giles on July thirty first, nineteen forty five. His job
was on the loading dock at the prison. He had
a little job. He went down there though, dressed as
a US Army Tech sergeant and he got on an
army boat that was headed back to the mainlan. So

(10:05):
he had spent the past couple of years working on
the doc putting together a sergeant's uniform. By like when
laundry would come in from this nearby naval base, I'm
thinking Treasure Islander. It was sent to Alcatraz to be clean.
He would just take little bits out, one by one,
like the Johnny Cash song, and one piece of time

(10:27):
made himself a whole uniform. He made fake dog tags,
and he forged a shore pass. And so he gets
down there in his little fake uniform, gets on the
boat like, oh, you know, just getting out of here.
Here's the thing. Officers on the boat quickly noticed they
had too many officers count yeah, and at the prison
the guards were like, we don't have enough prisoners. So

(10:49):
then there's the uniform, right Like, everyone's looking at him
because the uniform doesn't really match up. It's not and
he's got this janky shore pass, it's like wrinkled. So
within twenty minutes the warden has chased him down in
a speedboat and they pull made his boat pull off
an Angel island. He's like, pull over over to the

(11:10):
island island, We're not going on a horse stop. And
then they sent him back to Alcatraz, and for that
he got an additional five years on his ticket. So
two cats who did make it off the island were
Theodore Coal and Ralph Rowe. In nineteen thirty seven, Theodore Cole,
who was twenty three years old, he was serving fifty

(11:31):
years for kidnapping. When he was seventeen. He'd actually been
sentenced to death for participation in an armed robbery of
a doctor pepper bottling plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Did he kills someone?

Speaker 3 (11:43):
I don't know so, but all like these women's clubs,
his own mother. They protested the sentencing, and the state
Court of Appeals later reduced the term to fifteen years.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Okay, wow.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
So nineteen thirty four he was in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
He escaped in a laundry bag in a laundry truck.
Then he hitchhiked, kidnapped a driver, hitchhiked, and forced him
to drive him to Illinois. In early nineteen thirty five,
he gets arrested in Texas, sent back to Oklahoma. Tries
to escape a few more times, once by hiding in

(12:18):
a garbage can. Another time he sawed off his cell bars.
It was like every trope. May thirty five, he pleaded
guilty to kidnapping charges. Sent to Alcatraz, and that's where
you're supposed to do his fifty years. When he arrived,
he apparently said, quote, don't think I'll like it here.
Doubt I'll stay long. Oh, oh okay, Yeah. Ralph Rowe,

(12:41):
he's twenty nine in nineteen thirty seven and he was
at Alcatraz serving ninety nine years for bank robbery years.
He had a long rap sheet, he had all these
crazy robbery charges. He escaped from one prison by hiding
in a crate that was leaving on a truck.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Classic.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
So he and Cole they arrive at Alcatraz around the
same time. And when they're there, other inmates included a
notorious bank robber Harvey Bailey and Alcopol as well as
George machine Gun Kelly and Albert Bates. And those two
were there because they kidnapped oil tycoon and millionaire Charles

(13:19):
Erschall remember Ershall, stepfather of cryptozoologist Tom Slick, He of
the Jimmy Stewart Yetihans.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, we got a bunch of stories of that one.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Oh yeah. So Cole and Roe they both worked in
a model industries building in Alcatraz and that was on
the northwest Ish end of it facing the Golden Gate Bridge.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
That's what gorgeous views.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
So Cole he was a janitor in the blacksmith part
of it, and Roe he worked in the mat shop.
And the mat shop is where car tires were like shredded,
like torn up to make mats for the navy. That's
the name the mat shop.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Huh yeah, car tires turned into matts.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah yeah. So over like you know, maybe like a
month or so, the two men, you know, they started
like filing through a couple of the bars on the
mat shop window, and they covered up their progress using
shoe polish and like grease paint, scraps and putty. They
just have all these little, you know, tools around them.

(14:20):
February sixteenth, nineteen thirty seven, Cole and Roe finally made
their move. So there was like really thick fog that day,
so thick in fact that in the morning the inmates
were told, you have to stay in your cells. FOG's
too thick, we can't see you, yeah, by a fog warning,
fog warning. So by noon the fog had lifted some.

(14:41):
And this is not unusual.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
A lockdown is crazy, though, well crazy, and the fog
is not unusual. But to be a lockdown, it's like
a snow day, but in prison it's a fog exactly.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
So lifts at noon and they're like, okay, you guys
can go to your work site. So one o'clock, the
prison guard did his rounds of the mat. There's row
and coal working away. By the time he came back
around at one point thirty, no row and coal. No
one's working. So they had broken through the bars, removed
three panes of glass. They slipped out of a hole

(15:13):
that was eight and three quarters inches by eighteen inches wide. Whoa, yeah,
they were going lothered. Yeah. They used a wrench that
they took from the machine shop to open a wire fence,
and then that led them to this like twenty foot
cliff over the water, and then they kind of like
scrabbled down the side of it. Those are jagged, very

(15:34):
jagged in the Yeah, it's almost straight up and down.
They go down all these steep rocks to the shore,
and the fog is still thick, and so the guards
in the watch towers couldn't see them as they got
into the water. And according to the news, the fog
was the fog was sick.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
How thick was it?

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, the guards could not even see the Coastguard boards
that were approaching to within a few year yards of
the island in response to calls by radio, So they
call for the coast Guard. The Coastguards like we're here.
They're like, I don't see you.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Honk, I don't see you are outside.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
So later officials they figured that Cole and Roe had
waited for a foggy day, of course, to both hide
them from the guards and also because there would be
fewer ferries in everything.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, it kind of shows down the waterless traffic.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
So by the time the time that they escaped, too,
they also did it at high tide, so it would
be easier to die, like less to go distance.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
To get to the water less of the drop.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
The problem was that on that particular day, the tidal
currents were super strong, eight miles an out.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
You don't realize how fast those currents are.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Like even a strong swimmer would have been pushed out
through the Golden Gate.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
To show up on the other side of the Golden
like the Pacific side.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Doesn't matter though they're escape kicked off. According to the
New York Times at the time, quote the most intensive
manhunt in recent California history. Yeah, so, six Coast Guard boats,
one SFPD boat. They patrolled the coast of Alcatraz Island
and the Bay. Sixteen police cars drove up and down

(17:11):
the waterfront. The team searched Alcatraz Islands, surrounding Rocks, San Francisco,
four nearby counties, nothing They came up empty. On the
same day, two revolvers and two rifles, as well as
six hundred rounds of ammunition, were stolen from a forty
foot sailboat called the Jenny G. Moore at the Saint
Francis Yacht Harbor in San Francisco.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
I was wondering which harbor they would land, So there was.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Much debate as to whether this was connected to the
escape you know, Saint Francis Yacht Club Tony and I
love so I love the idea of the guys swimming
up and like hopping into a small sailboat as they
call it in the news reports. This small sailboat, it's
a forty foot you know.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, that's yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
So they pop in and they find chalk full of
guns and ammo. Like that's crazy anyway, So when when
they there were other news reports of like people getting
lost in the fog while they were duck hunting and
like coming in from the fog and Alameda and the
police thought it was the escape convicts and held them
at Tommy Guns until they Tommy, Yeah, what I'm trying

(18:17):
to say, Zarin, is the fog was thick.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Carl had he was on one that day.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
We get thick fog here in the bay, but nothing
like I have ever experienced in Davis.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
To fog. Yes, they named the fog in San Francisco, Carl.
They don't even name it in Davis because an animates. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
That is the thickest fog ever. It's unreal anyway, so
low and.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
So thick you can't see your hand. You literally can't
put your hand out and cannot see it. It causes
all these car accidents every year.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
It's fantastic. Yeah, so let's take a break. When we
come back, we're going to catch up with these escape convicts.

(19:14):
I'm over here in the fog.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
I was hitting myself in the face, going, who's hitting you?

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Theodore call Ralph Row. They skidaddled out of Alcatraz into
the drink in the heavy fog, the foggy do On
the first day of searching prison Warden was like, you
know what, I think they drowned. You know, he just
looked out the water. He's like, yeah, them boys is going.
But then like a few days later, no bodies have

(19:40):
turned up. He's like, you know what, I'd take it back.
I think that someone picked him up in a boat
and yeah, and others are like, you know what, we
got all these old car tires. I think they use
those as flotation devices. Okay, I mean apparently they were
like littering the side of the island. So whatever, that's
not smart environmentally or escape early. So no one could

(20:05):
speak to their swimming skills. But a sheriff from Oklahoma City,
who you know, he knew who Cole was. He said, quote,
he was lack a greased pig, and I wouldn't be
surprised at anything he could do that mouth. So to
prove that swimming from Alcatraz to shore was actually possible,

(20:29):
the San Francisco Examiner had a teenage girl swim around
the island and back to the mainland. I mean people
do it in like triathlons always do ye, but they
they picked their times right. The Examiner was having a
field day with this, by the way, like full page
spreads articles that looked at every possible angle of the.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Storywings and maps.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Oh yeah, yeah. So they had like the histories of
these guys, the weather, like currents, stories about the various searchs,
like you said, maps, fantastic stuff. They don't do that
like they used to know.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
They did not know when they're trying to sell papers.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, exactly, and it was so informative. It's just fascinating stuff. Okay.
December seventeenth, a journalist reaches out to Cole's parents. They
had moved from Oklahoma to Visalia, California, to be closer
to Alcatraz after he got sent there. I mean it's
like two hundred miles from the Bay Area, but that's
closer than Oklahoma, and.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
It's not that could afford. It's nice.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
There are a lot of Oakies.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
Just by saying south of Frans I bet they were farming.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, agg country. Well, they had a ranch, they got
a ranch. It's also gateway to Sequoia National Park.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Beautiful sun there's that come visit.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
Back to the journalists visiting Cole's family, he let them
know that Theodore had escaped, and they're like, Theodore Cole
kind of looked like Jack White by the way, White
stripes Jack. Yeah. So when you do the screenplay for this,
see if you can get him tied to the product.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Dude, you know, he's one of my favorite people on
the planet.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
Likewise, Okay, so the journalist he tells the mom like CEO,
escape the Rock, didn't know that, And the mom's like, no,
I know he's dead. I know he's dead. That's her quote.
I know he's dead. But then later when the authorities
were like, oh, we don't think he's dead, actually, she
said quote, it would be better I guess if he

(22:22):
were dead. But he's not prepared.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Wow wow thanks mo.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, his stepfathers just said quote, we'll all be damned.
That was his were and they were like deeply, deeply religious.
The reason they didn't know about it. They didn't read
daily papers, they didn't have a radio.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
They didn't have a radio. They weren't listening to your
girl Amy, simple.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
No, sadly no. So they promised the press that they
were going to turn their son over to authorities if
he came to the ranch. Oh like wank wank. Yeah.
There were various unconfirmed but reported sightings, like all around Oklahoma.
In nineteen thirty eight, a taxi driver said that he
got shot by Cole who was trying to rob his car.

(23:06):
Two hitchhikers said they got a ride from a man
they were positive was Ralph Roe. In nineteen forty one,
the San Francisco Chronicle reported the two guys were living
in Peru and Chile, I don't know, simultaneously different like
at whatever, and had quote plenty of money.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
They're kind of like a Butcher Sun Dance move from
South America.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Nineteen fifty eight, the FBI looked into a report that
Cole and Roe were playing the banjo and guitar in
a bar and New Jersey. That that's amazing is the
story that I want to be true. Like, think about
that for a second. So you have two Alcatraz buddies
who defied the law and nature to escape the rock

(23:46):
and his aid capture, only to take up musical instruments
and start new lives playing at a bar in New
Jersey banjo and guitar. That's delicious. Wait, that's a perfect
scene for your movie. You got Jack White just destroying
it on the guitar eighteen fifty eight. I don't know
who would play Ralph Rowe. Let me let me show
you their mugshots and then you can you can tell me.

(24:08):
Scroll down here, okay, so on your left is coal.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Oh okay, and then oh yikes, yeah it is some
real criminals, criminals people back. He does look like Jack
White never had a hot meal?

Speaker 3 (24:29):
Yeah exactly. So, yeah, those are bad boys of rock
and roll. And like, yeah, why do you like?

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Was it the photographs? The food, like the lead and
the milk? Like, what the hell is all of the above?

Speaker 3 (24:40):
All of the above? Okay, So they're in nineteen fifty eight,
they're playing in this bar. You got to figure out
who you're going to cast as Ralph row anyway, nineteen.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Four, that's a tough challenge.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
Seventy four, thirty seven years after they liked it, the
active investigation was stopped.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Oh there, I thought it's gonna be like they were, like,
you know, Roadies were the dead, Like they was spotted
in Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
They were officially listed as missing and presumed dead.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Okay, and I think.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Like successful escape or not, those two are long gone,
Like right now, they'd be in their one hundred teens
or like one hundred twenties.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, they're out there with the Elvis sightings. It's now
like you're dead, bro. Exactly. So do you think they
made it out or not?

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (25:19):
You don't think they become sharp?

Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah? Sure?

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Honestly, do you think.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
They made if the current was that strong, And I
don't think they outside of the gate, you wouldn't ever
find their bodies.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
You would never see anything again. No, so nothing.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
I don't think they did it. And I like, you know,
you have to be a really strong swimmer, and they
hadn't been.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Haven't practicing at all, They haven't been in the water.
And also you cramp up and like you can't make
your body work anymore. It's freezing cold.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
They gets swimmers here.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
There's that as well.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
So hard so Alcatraz the rock. Those dudes made a
break for it. Pretty ridiculous. But I have one that's
even better. This is the best Alcatraz escape ever.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Do they butter themselves before they hit the water?

Speaker 3 (26:03):
They're made of butter, Because.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
I'd be covered completely large, I'd be covered in large.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
I'd i'd be ordering from the commissary like vats of vassel.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Totally, I mean, like various oils and oneons wetsuits.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
So this one happened in nineteen sixty two. It involved
three guys, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin. Oh yeah,
so Frank Morris arrived at Alcatraz January nineteen sixty and,
according to alcatrazistory dot com please quote, by the time
he reached his later teens, Morris's criminal record would include

(26:39):
a multitude of crimes ranging from narcotics possession to armed robbery,
and he had become a professional inhabitant of the correctional system.
He spent his formative years in a boys training school,
and then he graduated to a series of even larger penitentiaries.
So he allegedly had an IQ of one thirty five,
which is considered above average or quote moderately gifted. Okay,

(27:02):
so good for him. I'm sad that he missed out
on being in the gifted and Talented program as a kid.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
This is why I see people talk about, Oh, there
are one thirty on the I know. I see that
online and I'm like, who.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
Cares, I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, anyway, that's coming around. Okay, that's the number.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
Sure you can go a lot higher than that. Oh
I know, honey, lower too.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Yeah, I know, I've been tested.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
So nineteen fifty five, Morris was serving a ten year
sentence for robbery and marijuana possession. When he was he
was in Louisiana State Prison in Angola.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
See, and they say standards don't have ambition.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
He escaped while he was out in the fields, cut
in sugarcane.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Oh that's like something out of the exactly that.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Yeah. So about six months later around Thanksgiving time.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Field outside of Anglia. I mean I can just hear
and feel the heat.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
I'm so glad he escaped.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Oh kind of snakes.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
And so he's out right, he's on the lamb. He
gets he's part of a team that robbed a bank
by boring a hole through a wall and burning open
two vaults. They got six one hundred and sixty five
dollars in coins, but that's like seventy three thousand dollars today.
Yeahs all coins. They're just like doing a burden a

(28:16):
lot of laundry. So he needs to make a phone
call a cup of coffee. So they're caught a few
months later. He got sentenced to fourteen years and you know,
sent to the rock. Then we have the brothers Anglin,
John and Clarence. They had also been in and out
of prison for bank robbery. Clarence had escaped before and

(28:36):
by nineteen sixty both of them were back in Levenworth.
August of nineteen sixty, while in Levenworth, they again tried
to escape. According to that book, Escape from Alcatraz, Clarence
quote cut the top off a big bread box and
the bottom out of another. John sat in won and
Clarence set the other on top, then packed in loaves

(28:58):
of bread. A truck was ready to haul John and
the other boxes out to a prison farm camp when
a supervisor, apparently wondering why the helpers had struggled to
hoist that particular double box into the vehicle, grew suspicious.
He pulled out a few loaves and discovered John inside
with an iron barn and knife. Just hide in the bread.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
I'm like a ten year old. I'm out of here totally.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
That's another thing that's like out of o brother. Anyway, John,
he gets sent to Alcatraz. Clarence shows up there a
few months later. They were signed to adjacent cells, which
does not seem like the wisest choice. I'd separate those two,
I guess, and what would wind up being another bad
choice as they were right by Frank Morris, our gifted criminal.

(29:45):
So you know, when I was in the gifted program,
it wasn't all math geniuses and science kids.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Future spies.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
No, all of us were. Almost all of us were
like weird creatives writing and this is unassigned. Mind you.
Radio shows with vaudevillian musical numbers about leaking diapers, yes,
or one woman shows about Joan of arc orse gits
about the emotional toll of the moon landing. You can
guess which one was mine, and it was only one

(30:12):
of them anyway. So the brother's angling Alcatraz had been
super hardcore for a long time. Like I said, you know,
you got that guy in the box like controlling everything,
but like this is nearing the end of its bid,
you know. And so by this time a lot of
the stricter stuff had loosened up. Okay, So now after

(30:33):
dinner the men had like four hours of free time
in their cells before they had to go to bed.
So from five thirty to nine thirty after dinner they
could just chill out. Coolah. There was a utility core open.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Door cells that they can somebody.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
No, I think they're closed up, I believe.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
So.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, So there's this utility corridor that ran behind their
group of cells. The Anglands and Morris. Around December of
nineteen six, Morris decides, I've got to come up with
an escape plan, so he made a tool. He welded
the handle of a spoon with the file from his
nail clippers, and then he used that to slowly chip

(31:13):
away at the concrete around the bars of his cells
air vent. And like he figured, the wall was like
eight inches thick and the air vent was only six
inches by ten inches, so he couldn't squeeze through it.
But he's pretty sure that if he got it up
to like ten inches by fourteen, you know, he could
make it.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
It so he got to work like he needed help
with the project, though this is not a one man effort.
He also needed people to warn him if the.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Guards were watch.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, so he rolled up to his neighbors, the Anglans,
but also Alan West. West was born in Brooklyn and
he played the accordion and was in Alcatraz. And I
think that's all we need to know about him. It
tells the whole story as far as I'm concerned, Brooklyn, Accordion, Alcatraz.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
I don't know Adion.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Probably I don't know what he was in for, but
I love him. They had to figure unless it was
something horrific, and then I don't love him. They had
to figure out a way to hide their work, and
that's when like Morris went into gifted kid mode. So
he decided they could hide their work on the vents
using painted paper mache.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
That was gonna be an accordian concert.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
I'm like to just wait. So they began cutting ad
pages out of magazines, and like one of the Anglin brothers,
all of a sudden was like, I feel an artistic
urge coming on. I need art supplies. So he orders
tubes of paint from the purchasing officer. I think I'm
going to get into painting. Morris ordered himself an accordion

(32:43):
like his pal West, not for like a dueling accordion session,
but because he realized that the case would perfectly cover
the air vent well.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
So he just puts it there and he's like, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Yeah, exactly. So the men they made these like thick
sheets of cardboard out of paper mache, painted it to
look like it had the vent over it. They also
started collecting the concrete that they chipped from the wall.
One of the Anglin brothers he worked in the brush shop,
and then he started collecting the bristles because it looked
like hair and then they used real human hair gathered

(33:17):
from the barber shop Zarin. They were channeling Willie Sutton.
They made dummies of themselves. Yeah. So by May of
nineteen sixty two, the men had successfully removed the air vents.
Morris and Clarence, who had finished first, they start building
their dummy busts. And they made plaster from the chipped
concrete that they'd collected, and soap and like white glue

(33:39):
that they stole from the brush shop. Then they painted
the plaster to make it look more life like. They
added eyebrows, eyelashes, hair, John and Clarence, the brothers named
their dummy heads Oink and Oscar. Yeah. To test everything out,
Frank Morris and Clarence they put their dummy heads in
their bed and filled the rest of the quote body
with like pillow jacket.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Then they climbed into the corridor behind the vent. Morris
used a string tied to the handle of the accordion
case to pull it back and cover the hole. Really. Yeah,
So the two men they made their way up. They're
climbing this utility pole to the top of the cell block.
And when they were up there, they found this concealed
space that they could use as a storage area. As
their plan progressed, so they started collecting rain jackets so

(34:26):
that they could build life jackets and a raft out.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Oh smart.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, And according to the FBI quote, the seams carefully
stitched together and vulcanized by the hot steam pipes in
the prison. The idea came from magazines that were found
in the prisoner's cells.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
So they're basically rubberizing the jackets. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
Yeah. Morris he built two oars out of some plywood
that he had like lifted from the shop. Then they
were like, okay, we've done all this, how do we
get into the roof? And you know, easy enough. There's
this rain cap on the shaft with cross bars. So
with a piece of pipe that they found in the corridor,
they were able to bend some of the bars, but

(35:06):
they couldn't remove the rivets. So Morris he stole a
fan from the music room, like hiding it in his
accordion case. He goes in with an empty accordion case.
I'm just going to go practice. Just let me get
into a choir room.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Give me a quick mind.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
She shoves a fan in there. He tried to build
a drill with the motor from the fan, but it
wasn't powered. Yeah, so, but he was able to get
some carborundum string from the machine shop because his friend
worked in there. It's what that is is it's a
quote a cord impregnated with an abrasive such as raw
greens of silicon carbide, aluminum oxide or diamond powder and

(35:42):
used for intricate repairs such as fine grooving on the
sewing machines in the glove and tailor.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Shops, basically like diamond floss.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah. Yeah, so that did the trick, and then they
use that in some banjo string, probably borrowed from al
Capone's dead body. Dorris and Clarence they were able to
get through the rivets, so they made fake rivets out
of soap and place those on the vent just in
case someone came by to inspect it. So this whole

(36:11):
process of THEIRS takes six months.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
That's crazy, like shaping rivet heads and.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
Out of soap and then painting it. So by this
time it's early June nineteen sixty two, the Anglan brothers,
they're ready to leave Morris. He he wants to spend
more time learning about Angel Island, which something about.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Sixty two San Francisco, like they're about to show up
in the craziest San Francisco.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Really, Yeah, Yeah, he wants to learn about Angel Island.
It's like a mile and a half away, and the
channel between it and Marin.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
Going, He's like, we're not going into the city, We're
going to Marin.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Yeah, there's the Admiral's Club harbor there right by the
where the Golden Gate touches. On the other side, there's
like an inlet harbor you can you can shelter and
then you can totally get to before even knew you
were there. Yeah. So, and there's an in and out
burger right right right there.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
So they agreed to leave in like ten days. Meanwhile,
the guards had been inspecting cells recently, and West he
gets nervous, not just because he plays the accordion, but
because his paper mache great was like a little wobbly.
It wasn't that great. So he filled in most of
his hole with cement that he'd found left in the corridor,

(37:21):
because like there had been plumbers working in there recently,
so it's not even like, oh, no one ever goes
back there. And so then he stuck the paper machee.
On top of that, he didn't want to get.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
Caught and the other guys.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
Yeah, yeah, the whole thing would tank. So let's pause here.
It is West is a good dude, unless he wasn't
a good dude, and in which case he's not. We
don't like him. Yeah, when we get back, we're going
to catch up with this crafty crew, zaren. Yes, okay,

(38:09):
So we have Frank Morris, gifted Felon and the brother's Anglin,
John and Clarence and then Alan West Brooklyn Accordion man
on the spot. They're making a plan to escape, right,
and it's the artsiest, craftiest plan I've ever heard totally.
So remember they had everything in place and then they
decided that they'd put the plan in action in ten
days and a few nights after they made that decision,

(38:31):
on Monday, June eleventh, nineteen sixty two, the Anglins jumped
the gun. They announced that they wanted to leave that night.
So Morris, I don't know, Morris, he was both gifted
and bullied. Those go hand in hand. He had no
choice but to comply. He's like, all right, fine, fine,
we'll go now. As soon as the nine thirty bed
check was completed. The men they set up their dummy

(38:53):
heads and broke out of their cells for the last time.
Zaren closed your eyes. Oh yeah, I want you to
picture it. Yes, you are a jail bird, a convict.
You're in Alcatraz serving a ten year sentence for public indecency,
practicing both law and medicine without a license, perjury, and

(39:13):
a marijuana possession with intent to sell. It's the scale.
Is there in the scale? Did you in on that one?

Speaker 4 (39:19):
No?

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Anyway, you're nine years into your dime. The finish line
is within view. You just want to get out and
try to do things right this time. You've learned some
trades here, You've got a line on some work. You
just want to earn an honest book, find a nice girl,
and settle down and smoke a lot of weed. That's
all you want. It's Monday, June eleventh, nineteen sixty two,
nine to thirty pm. The guards have just finished their

(39:42):
bed checks. You're on your cot reading to Kill a
Mockingbird by the dimming light from a long summer night.
It came out a couple of years ago. People donate
books to the prison library, and you snag this one.
You've checked it out a number of times, and this
is your fifth read of it. You're almost done with it.
You're in good with the librarian, and he has a
book called Dharma Bums set aside for you. Sound good.

(40:03):
You can hear the footsteps of the guard tap down
along the long corridor, getting fainter and fainter until he's gone.
Then it's nothing but the sound of the light wind
and the waves. In the cell across from you is
a guy named Alan West. He and a dude called
Morris and the Anglan brothers are working on an escape plan.

(40:23):
You think it's stupid. I mean, they say you can't
survive an escape attempt here. Sure those fellas tried in
thirty seven, and you're pretty sure though they didn't make
it out of the water, same will go for this crew.
In your mind, plus, you are so close to getting
out it would be foolish to risk it all right now,
So instead you flip the page on your paperback and
continue your reading. But they're starting to make a little racket.

(40:47):
You get up and you look over at their row
of cells. Each of them are taking down their little
art projects, revealing the holes where they've been scraping. You
can't believe the guards haven't caught on, But you're no snitch.
More power to the these goofs if they can pull
it off. You see that Wes is having trouble getting
through his cement. He was worried the hole would be
discovered and shoved a bunch of stuff in there. But

(41:09):
the air here is wet and the dry bits in
there have hardened into a tough clump. He pulls and
scratches at the cement as you look over and see
the feet of Morris and the Anglans disappear into the
holes in the walls of their cells. West is frantic,
but then he realizes it's too late. He won't make it.
You see Morris's face pop back out through the wall.

(41:30):
He whispers to West, asking him what's the hold up.
West whispers back that he can't get through go on
without him. Without a word, Morris disappears back into the wall.
Wes sits down and sighs. He pushes his accordion with
his foot and lets out a discordant wine. Then it's
just the sound of the wind and the water. An

(41:50):
occasional cough. You flip the page of your book you
look down at the page and whisper aloud to West
the line of text in front of you are always
better in the morning. West looks up at you. You
nodded him in the darkness. Close your book and rest
your head on your pillow. Things are always better in
the morning. So Morris and the brothers Anglin they bust

(42:15):
through the rain cap on the roof. They had their
makeshift life vest and raft with them they'd stored in
a little space. They found they had one of the oars,
but they forgot to grab the other one. H Morris
and the Anglin brothers they shimmeyed down a fifty foot
pipe to the ground. They climbed a barb wire fence,
and once down by the water, they placed some boards

(42:37):
that they took from like leftover pallets in the life
jacket raft to help stiffen it.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Ah, there you go a frame.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
So how in the world were they going to inflate this? Things?

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Erin Oh, I didn't even think of them inflating at us.
I was imagining, like they have made the raincoats really
hard and rubberized, and they're just going to put wood
in and it's going to like kind of just deplay displace.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Those seams, right, And so luckily Morris had taken up
the accordion and he packed that down with them too,
and he used that to inflate.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
The rats, of course, brilliant.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
So the tide it was only moving at two point
five miles an hour, which is better than the eight
something of the nineteen thirty seven escape. So the water, though,
is like between fifty and fifty four degrees. That's pretty
standard for the bay. It'd be colder if it was
in the winter.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
I'm just about to say that's actually not bad.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
Yeah, and June isn't true summer here. You know, you
have to wait till like September October. Anyway, here's a
development for you. West finally made it out of his cell.
He didn't give up, so maybe you read him another
quote from To Kill a Mockingbird. Real courage is when
you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin

(43:50):
anyway and see it through no matter what.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
That's damn right.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
So there's West up on the roof. He's liberated, but
his pals are nowhere to be seen because they'd been
out there around like ten o'clock or so. And now
it's midnight.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Of course, yeah, he missed it.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
According to west Quote, their plan had been to use
their raft to make their way to Angel Island. After resting,
they would then re enter the bay on the opposite
side of the island and swim through a waterway called
Raccoon Straits. Then on into Marin they would steal car,
burglarize a clothing store, and then venture out in their
own separate directions.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Not bad, you're right.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
Plan. There were reports of a car being stolen in
Marin County by three men the night of the escape,
and then later that same car was found run off
the road in the Central Valley. But the FBI, the
US Marshals, they looked into it and it didn't go anywhere.
It was that next morning, Tuesday morning, June twelfth, at
the seven to fifteen am bedcheck, that the guards discovered

(44:48):
the escape. So this huge search on Alcatraz Island, Angel Island,
all throughout the bay night, they had the whole night,
You're right, like just ahead of them, and they're going
like all over all the counties surrounding the bay. So
on Wednesday and or like, the one they'd left behind
was found two hundred yards off Alcatraz, and then on Thursday,

(45:11):
a debris boat in the bay like searching for the debris,
they found a small plastic bag made out of raincoats
and inside and dry. It was like sixty photographs, a
list of names and addresses, and a receipt for a
ten dollars money order made out to Clarence Anglin and
cashed by the Alcatraz mail clerk. So it wasn't immediately

(45:33):
made public at the time, but there was a report
that a raft and a paddle were recovered on Angel
Island and there were footsteps leading away from him. So
a few days after the escape, a reporter called the
director of the Bureau of Prisons to check on progress,
and the director told the reporter this, and somehow the
Bureau of Prisons believed that this was proof that they

(45:56):
had drowned. I would say it was the exact oppositely.
I know, I'm a simple country Lawyer's there, I'm with you,
what do I know? So June eighteenth, it's like a
week out. The reporter filed an article with the information
about the paddle and the footsteps, and then the FBI
wrote quote a release such as appeared in the San
Francisco Chronicle on June eighteenth, nineteen sixty two, makes it

(46:17):
more difficult to conduct the investigation, since if in fact
these prisoners successfully reached the mainland, they obviously would not
contact the persons whose names were known to be in
possession of investigative authorities.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Okay, yeah, thanks, it's true, basically, yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
Yeah, So Friday, June fifteenth, according to the FBI report,
a quote May West life jacket may West. Yeah, identified
it as identical to those made by the escapees washed
up on Cronkite Beach in Marine County. You have you
heard that term a may West test? I hadn't either,
so I looked it up on the Navy's Naval History

(46:56):
and Heritage Command National Naval Aviation Museum website, and they
had a picture of one with a description quote, this
mark one life vest popularly known as a may West
because when inflated, it gave the wearer a book some appearance.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
That's what I was imagining, Yeah, belonged.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
To Marine aviator Elden E. Ballard. He expressed pride in
his service as a flying leatherneck, using his life vest
as a canvas for drawing The SBD Dauntless dive bomber
he flew, and the ubiquitous symbol of the Marine Corps
a bulldog wearing a pilot's helmet. So it's one of
those life vests with like a hole for your head,
ties around the front. You blow it up, gives you
gives you boobies later. And this particular one on the

(47:37):
website had drawings on it like tattoo flash looking you
know what else was on this website?

Speaker 2 (47:42):
What else, Elizabeth?

Speaker 3 (47:44):
A red banner across the top of the page reads quote.
Content on this website has been revised or removed to
align with the President's executive orders and DoD priorities in
accordance with DoD Instruction fifty four zero zero dot seventeen
Official Use of Social Media for public affairs purposes.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Because a woman, it's what's the reason.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
I know we're being escapist here in more senses than one,
but I cannot act like this is normal. No, I'm sorry,
this is not normal to have this banner at the top.
We're just taking stuff out out of a whim to
quote the swing another song, tell them told you so.
This is not how it's supposed to go. It's in
my head a lot these days. Anyway, back to the

(48:31):
life fest, I can't escape anything, just like you can't
escape Alcatraz. I try and do escapist research and then
it's right there.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
It comes right back at you life fest.

Speaker 3 (48:42):
So it's fully intact. But there was like a small
tear at the scene. So that's when they're like, oh,
did they not make it? But I think if it's
tied around you, yeah, you know, even they.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Can use a pair of genes as a life fest.
You have to tie them the legs and you capture
air and you put it underwater. And that's right, So
it's possible. It is. And these guys as inventive as they.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Are, and they had like they had gone full on
to make this life as There was the tube that
you used to blow and and plate it and there's
like a paper clip they would hold it. That was saying, yeah,
and crafts is amazing. Oh they're incredible. The tube had
heavy teeth marks on it trying to hold it. And
June eighteenth, the warden at Alcatraz got a postcard postmark

(49:23):
June sixteenth with the message ha ha we made it,
signed Frank John Clarence.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
I'm taking that as evidence.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
I would say, yeah, they sent it to the FBI
for handwriting analysis. It was inconclusive, but amazing if true.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
I also, I mean, it seems like it'd be before
anyone else knew they had escaped if it was postmarked sixteenth,
since weren't most of the stories coming out after that.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
Yeah, yeah, I love taunting correspondence from criminals. Yes, like,
I'm looking at you, Zodiac killer stuff my thought, I
am so, of course, there were so many suspected sightings.
June fourteenth, someone reported seeing three suspicious men with quote
phony accents in San Rafell, just on the other side

(50:06):
of Angel Island from Alcatraz. The FBI later determined they
were simply quote foreign exchange students from the University of
Washington and were not the escapees.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
So I'm thinking they came from Alden.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
About a month after the escape, a body dressed in
blue clothing similar to the Alcatraz prison uniform, was found
up the coast from San Francisco, but it was too
badly decomposed to be identified. But this didn't mean the end.
One of the Angland's sisters later told the press that
she was positive that both of her brothers had attended
their mother's funeral in nineteen seventy eight, dressed as women. Yes,

(50:47):
I love that. And she also had another incarcerated. She
had another brother who was locked up. He said he
got a letter from Clarence and John when he was
in jail after the escape, which is like, how many
Anglin brothers are there? And are they all in jail?

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Yes, totally.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
The escape made it to the silver screen. Of course,
you know you're too late on this one. It was
the story behind the nineteen seventy nine movie Escape from
Alcatraz during Clint Eastwood. Yeah, Springklin and the FBI closed
the case in nineteen seventy nine, it said, quote, for
the seventeen years we worked on the case, no credible
evidence emerged to suggest the men were still alive, either

(51:28):
in the US or overseas. The three men are officially
listed as missing and presumed drowned.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Well, I'm going to say I think they made it in. Yeah,
good job, gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
The US Marshals, they took it over. They're like, oh,
you're two too weak to keep going.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
For cowboys, we never give up.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Twenty eleven, Supervising Deputy Mike Dyke of the US Marshall
Service told CBS News that he thought that the men
may have survived. Quote, I think probably the brothers lived.
There's no body recovered. I can't close the case. Yeah,
good guys, don't have it in me. However, in twenty
twenty two, he told the press that quote, after working

(52:05):
the case for seventeen years, it's my opinion that they
very likely did not survive the first night of their escape.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Why did anyone come to that conclusion?

Speaker 3 (52:14):
Because has been recovered. You can never say that one
hundred percent, but based on all the evidence, more than
likely all three of them died that night and were
swept out into the ocean.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
I don't see it the first time, yes, second time.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
In twenty thirteen, San Francisco police they got a letter
from a guy claiming to be John Anglin. Yes. The
letter stated, quote, yes we all made it out that night,
but barely. He said he had cancer and quote, if
you announce on TV that I will be promised to
go first to jail for no more than a year
and get medical attention, I'll write back to let you

(52:49):
know exactly where I am. This is no joke. He
wants to go to jail for medical health care.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
So America.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
Another deep breath, everyone, just deep breath. The writer of
the letter said that he spent a ton of years
after the escape living in Seattle, and that he also
lived in North Dakota for eight years and then currently
is in southern California. The guy who wrote the letter
said that Morris had died in two thousand and eight
and his brother Clarence had died in twenty eleven. FBI

(53:19):
analysts they take the letter, they look at fingerprints. DNA
results inconclusive twenty fifteen. So apparently they didn't tell it
on TV and he didn't get to go back.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
And also do they have his fingerprints? I mean, do
they have big handwriting samples enough they can do it before?

Speaker 3 (53:34):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
With the postcards, it's like, what do we think we're
going to find FBI?

Speaker 3 (53:38):
I don't know. Twenty fifteen, new evidence that the men
were possibly alive emerged. Yes, the Anglan's nephews said that
their family had gotten handwritten Christmas cards and photos and
that the brothers were possibly living in Brazil. And there's
a photo that allegedly shows them in Brazil in nineteen
seventy five. Oh and so the family they hired an analyst,

(54:01):
and the analysts confirmed using AI facial recognition that yeah,
that's them in the pictures. The FBI was like, no,
it's inconclusive.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Nothing's conclusive for the help. Yeah, it's just bodies. You
got a body, call me when you got a body.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
In twenty twenty two, the US Marshals they released updated
renderings of what the guys might look like if there's
still a live Updated renders always nineties in their ninety
the hell Okay, so.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Did you see it? Did it seem like you like
men like that? No?

Speaker 3 (54:33):
What's your ridiculous takeaway?

Speaker 2 (54:35):
I don't ever want to go to prison, but I
would love to try to escape. Okay you know what
I mean? Like, if I was there, that's all i'd
be value. So I'm taking notes anytime we do a
prison escape story. Anytime you're you're telling me, I'm like, oh, okay,
that seems like that's a good Noteka, I remember that. Okay,
gotta get the diamond flass. I'm like, all about you.

Speaker 3 (54:53):
Got to practice your like sculpture skills, Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Rafts Hea, Yeah, what about you, Elizabeth?

Speaker 3 (54:59):
I I think that people get that challenge of you
can't escape this place. And you know, I also all
of the people, all the guys in this had done
had tried to escape other facilities. So there are people
like you where it's just they cannot be penned in
and others you know, right right, And I think that's

(55:21):
really interesting, like the mindset of it. And I think
it also goes to not saying that like you don't
have impulse control, because you very much do, but.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
I don't have the ability to have my life dominated
like that. Yeah that's yeah problem.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
And so these guys they have poor ink pulse control,
they don't like their life dominated. They also can't see
down the road. So a lot of times you're just
like you can plan these things to a t, but
then what how how do you go after that?

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Totally? And like also how do you live in America
as a convict? I mean damn? And everybody wants to
find you and everyone wants to turn you in for
a like a reward.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Yeah exactly, And you're a criminal and you're probably just
going to get keep criming and so your risk of
getting re arrested.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
And you're and you're always just a life changing amount
of money to somebody.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
With all that said, Dave, may I have a talk
back please?

Speaker 2 (56:12):
By the way, that was really fun.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
Thank you, O.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
God. I let cheat.

Speaker 4 (56:28):
Hi Aaron producer d This one's mostly for Elizabeth.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
This is Grace.

Speaker 4 (56:33):
I just wanted to let you know that last night
I started watching the first episode of nine to one
one and I was so tickled by how ridiculous that
show is. So thanks for the recommendation. Love the podcast.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
Look, Grace, I am so excited you have joined us.
The journey it gets crazier and campier and sillier, and
then you're really going to get invested in the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
It's fantastic, it really is. You've got me watching.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
I love it. I'm so happy that you're part of
the nine one one family. What's your emergency? That's it
for today. You can find us online at ridiculous crime
dot com. That website is full of.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Malware DNA malware.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
DNA malware, so if you click it, you get the
DNA malware, you grow a tail totally.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
It's awesome and finn Yeah maybe some spots so good.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
Crisper endorsed. We're also at Ridiculous Crime on Blue Sky
and Instagram. You can email us at Ridiculous Crime at
gmail dot com if that's If that's your thing, jamail,
or you can leave a talk back on the iHeart app,
which is our preferred method of communication reach out. Ridiculous

(57:51):
Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced
and edited by Alcatraz Art Room director Dave Cousten, starring
Annals Rutger as Judas. Research is by Unincarceratable Criminal mastermind
Marissa Brown. The theme song is by Plaster Bunk Dummies
Thomas Lee and Travis Duck. Post wardrobe is provided by

(58:12):
Botany five hundred guests here and makeup by Sparkleshot and
mister Andre. Executive producers are Ben Bowleen and Noel Brown,
who escaped from Alcatraz in twenty sixteen via ferry boat
headed for Pure thirty nine and the Curi Delly Chocolate Factory.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Guidus Quime Say.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
It One More Time, Gquious QUI.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more Podcasts
my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.