11. Atlanta Federal Penitentiary
While he was serving time at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Frank Morris happened to meet two brothers, Clarence and John Anglin. All three were career criminals, and they decided to stick together. Putting career criminals together, and moving them all to the same maximum-security prison – especially when one is a Houdini of prison breaks – is probably a bad idea. They were all sent to Alcatraz. But together, they had what they needed to get off of the Rock: Morris had the brains to mastermind an escape, and the Anglin brothers had the brawn actually to pull the thing off.
The trio was sent there, Morris for his repeated prison escapes, and the Anglin brothers for an all-around lack of respect for authority. Alcatraz was a veritable island fortress: if you got there, you weren’t getting off. It was surrounded by the turgid waters of the San Francisco Bay, whose waters remain in the thirties and forties. Anyone who might get through its impenetrable walls would face almost certain death. The Rock was considered to be escape-proof. Such a claim might have come across as a challenge to the likes of Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers, especially when faced with the prospect of spending the rest of their lives there.