What Happened in the 1962 Alcatraz Escape? Full Story of the Missing Inmates

The Alcatraz escape remains a mystery more than six decades later. In 1962, three inmates managed to break out of the high-security prison, which was widely considered unbreakable. The prison was located on an isolated island, surrounded by the freezing San Francisco Bay, which made it almost impenetrable.

The facility housed a number of dangerous criminals, some of whom made several unsuccessful attempts to escape. That changed on June 12, 1962, when three inmates, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin, were reported missing from their cells.

Frank was the first to arrive at the prison out of the trio. He was convicted of bank robbery, burglary, and multiple other crimes and was sent to Alcatraz in January 1960. He was soon joined by brothers John and Clarence, who arrived at the prison a few months apart. Both had been convicted of armed bank robbery.

The three men were assigned to adjoining cells in the prison. What worked in their favor was that they already knew each other from an earlier time in a different prison. Frank, who had made repeated attempts to escape various jails, once again came up with a plan to break out.

He decided to work with John and Clarence as a team, and also sought help from a fourth prisoner named Allen West. It took them months of preparation to achieve their goal. The group drilled holes in their cell walls using spoons and a drill made from a vacuum cleaner motor.

Through the holes, they climbed to the roof of their cell, where they constructed an inflated raft and life vests using more than 50 raincoats stolen from other inmates. On June 11, 1962, Frank, John, and Clarence placed dummy human heads made of plaster in their beds to fool the night guards.

The three then left their cells, climbed through a ventilation duct onto the roof, and jumped into San Francisco Bay, carrying their homemade raft. However, Allen was left behind as he could not drill a hole in his prison wall.

The following morning, guards realized the trio had escaped from the prison. The facility was placed on lockdown. The FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Coast Guard conducted an extensive investigation to trace the men. However, they were never found.

Investigators could only find fragments of the raft and a bag containing personal belongings of the men on the nearby Angel Island. Whether they were able to make it across the bay or lost their lives by drowning still remains a mystery. For 17 years, the FBI continued the probe and eventually passed it to the US Marshals Service in 1979.

Years later, in 2013, the San Francisco Police Department received a letter that read, “My name is John Anglin. I escaped from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I'm 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes, we all made it that night, but barely!”

The letter was declassified five years later. An FBI laboratory examined its DNA and handwriting, but the analysis did not yield any results. The Marshals Service still treats the case as open.