13. John and Clarence Anglin
According to people who knew them, John and Clarence Anglin were inseparable and would not escape from prison if doing so meant leaving the other behind. They were two of 12 siblings, the children of migrant farm workers, and had developed a close bond in early childhood. Notably, they spent many of their childhood summers at Lake Michigan, where they became adept swimmers in the lake’s cold waters and strong currents. There, they could have quickly gained the swimming skills that they would have needed to swim through San Francisco Bay and ultimately find freedom successfully.
Together, the two brothers became career criminals at an early age and developed a rather prodigious RAP (record of arrests and prosecutions) sheet. They preferred to rob banks and stores, usually when closed so that they wouldn’t have to use a weapon. In fact, they only had to use a weapon one time, and that was a toy gun. They spent time in various federal prisons and penitentiaries before ending up at Alcatraz. Like so many other notorious career criminals, it was to be their “final stop.” However, their final stop turned out to be the most famous prison break in all of American history.