13. The Anglin brothers went to Alcatraz for bank robbery – and escaped
In January 1958, three brothers brandishing toy pistols robbed the Bank of Columbia in Columbia, Alabama. The men were John, Clarence, and Alfred Anglin, and they did not wear masks. Forcing the employees to lay on the floor and binding the hands of the bank’s president, Walter Oakley, they rifled the drawers and vault and made off with about $19,000 in cash. It was not their first bank heist, but it was the first in which they used the threat of force. Previously they had broken into banks after hours, hoping to avoid any injury to themselves or others. They fled to the north. As the sons of migrant farmworkers, they had often visited Michigan in the spring and early summer as their parents picked fruit. Authorities in four states joined in the search for the fugitives. Five days later they were arrested in Ohio.
The brothers were sentenced on federal charges and later received additional time on state charges. Two of them, John and Clarence, were transferred within the federal prison system after attempting to escape from Atlanta, first to Leavenworth, where they also attempted to escape, and finally to the allegedly escape-proof prison at Alcatraz. Alfred was separated from his brothers and died in custody at Kilby Prison in Alabama. John and Clarence Anglin, along with fellow inmate Frank Morris, escaped from Alcatraz in June 1962. Officially the FBI considered the men dead, drowned in the cold waters off Alcatraz Island, but numerous sightings of the brothers were reported over many years in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. Because no bodies were ever found, the US Marshal service still considers the escape to be an open case.