12. Frank Morris
Frank Morris was orphaned in Washington, DC when he was 11 years old. Soon after that, he turned to a life of crime and went to prison for the first time at the tender age of 13. By the time he was only 20 years old, he was considered to be a career criminal. Unlike the typical career criminal stereotype, though, Morris was far from a blockhead. He had an IQ of 133, which put him in the top 2% of the entire population. Morris used that remarkable intelligence to help facilitate his life of crime, as well as repeated escape attempts. Alcatraz was not the first prison he escaped from, but it may have been the last.
During his multiple incarcerations, Morris used his prodigious mental faculties to plot ways to escape. After serving time in Georgia and Florida, he escaped from the Louisiana State Penitentiary. When he was arrested a year later, he was sent to Alcatraz because the authorities deemed it to be escape-proof. Morris’ prison escapes were so formidable and notorious that he was the figure played by Clint Eastwood in the Hollywood blockbuster, Escape from Alcatraz. In fact, Morris was the one who masterminded the escape.