3. Believed by many to have been the only successful escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, the June 1962 attempt made by three inmates was one of the most intricate and ingenious escapes ever conceived
Carried out on June 11, 1962, three inmates – Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin – housed in Cell Block B executed their carefully planned escape. Using improvised tools, including a modified spoon soldered with silver from a coin, the trio had chiseled moisture-damaged concrete from air vents in their cells, exposing a utility corridor behind. Concealing their nightly departures across a six-month period with a false wall, in addition to leaving papier-mâché dummies made from human hair in their beds, the trio gradually assembled a makeshift raft constructed from fifty stolen raincoats in a secret workshop on top of the cell block.
Climbing through a ventilation shaft onto the roof, the trio carried their gear down a 50-foot kitchen pipe and over two 12-foot barbed wire fences to the shoreline. Identifying a blind spot in the searchlights, the inmates departed Alcatraz and set sail for Angel Island two miles to the north. Although the FBI determined the trio never made it, likely drowning in the Bay, no conclusive evidence has been found either way. Recent evidence has indicated a cover-up to protect the integrity of the prison, with a raft discovered on Angel Island, followed by the report of a car theft, and the men remain on the FBI’s wanted list despite the insistence of their demise.