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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 6/11/25: Breakout [1]
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Date: 2025-06-11
63 years ago today three inmates at the Alcatraz prison disappeared into mythology.
Hundreds of leads were pursued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced regarding the fate of the three men. [4] In 1979 the FBI officially concluded, on the basis of circumstantial evidence and a preponderance of expert opinion, that the three men drowned in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay while attempting to reach the mainland. [5] [6] The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active, and Morris and the Anglin brothers remain on its wanted list. [7] Circumstantial and material evidence has continued to surface, stoking new debates on the fate of the three inmates. Numerous theories of widely varying plausibility have been proposed by authorities, reporters, family members, and amateur enthusiasts. [8]
On the night of June 11, 1962, inmates Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary , a maximum-security prison located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay , California , United States . [2] Late on the night of June 11, the three men tucked papier-mâché model heads resembling their own likenesses into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via ventilation ducts and an unguarded utility corridor, and departed the island aboard an improvised inflatable raft to an uncertain fate. [3] A fourth conspirator, Allen West, failed in his escape attempt and remained behind.
The original assessment of their drowning is still inconclusive.
The official investigation by the FBI was aided by another prisoner, Allen West, who also was part of the escapees' group but was left behind. West was unable to fit through his hole so he had to keep chipping to break through. When Morris and the Anglin brothers (John & Clarence) accelerated the schedule, West desperately chipped away at the wall; however, by the time he made it through the wall, his companions were gone. Hundreds of leads and theories have been pursued by the FBI and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced favoring the success or failure of the attempt.[citation needed]
The FBI's investigation from 1962 to December 1979 was finally treated as closed.[19] The official report on the escape concludes that the prisoners drowned in the cold waters of the bay while trying to reach the mainland, it being unlikely that they made it the 1.25 miles to shore due to the strong ocean currents and the cold sea water temperatures ranging between 50–55 degrees Fahrenheit (10–13 degrees Celsius).[6][16]
The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active, however. Morris and the Anglin brothers remain on its wanted list.[20] Circumstantial evidence uncovered in the early-2010s seemed to suggest that the men had survived, and that contrary to the official FBI report of the escapees' raft never being recovered and no car thefts being reported, a raft was discovered on nearby Angel Island with footprints leading away, and a car had been stolen on the night of the escape by three men, who could have been Morris and the Anglins, and that officials then engaged in a cover-up.[21] Relatives of the Anglin brothers presented further circumstantial evidence in the mid-2010s in support of a longstanding rumor that the Anglin brothers had fled to Brazil following the escape; a facial recognition analysis of a photograph purported to be of John and Clarence Anglin in Brazil in 1975, 13 years after their escape, concluded that it was indeed the two men.[22][23][24]
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