Documentary 2016 | The Great Escape from Alcatraz Prison

the spoon proves mightier that's Mars and supposedly escape-proof Alcatraz prison it's one of these myths that go round for decades already that everyone wants to be solved it's the most iconic prison escape in American history on the night of June 11 1962 three Alcatraz inmates set out in a raft made of raincoats into the treacherous waters of San Francisco Bay they were never seen again they disappeared so you couldn't ask for a better ending right to keep it going forever now Dutch scientists all of your hos Rolfe Hut and phaidor barn want to determine what happened to the escaped convicts science and an old mystery over they claim they solve the mystery of how attract don't cos they've come to San Francisco you don't want to have to like Hetal for your life the last bit while your brags out there to test their theory and ride their own raincoat raft to freedom they have one shot at it and it's got to work most people want them to make it people want people to be a hero so where you have a very difficult challenge and you make it that's a hero story secrets of the Dead was made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you thank you in Holland 10 million people live below sea level a precarious setting that's made the Dutch world leaders in flood management so when coastal engineer all of your hose was called to San Francisco to predict how rising sea levels will impact that city in years to come it was just another job dactyl Bay's is Radha shallows just four to five meters deep but in the center it gets much deeper dive 20 to 30 meters deep every time that when the fight is going in air or out there's one big valley of water flowing in and out after time using state-of-the-art hydraulic software Ollivier created one of the most sophisticated flow models of San Francisco Bay ever built so I saw his screen with all the little arrows for the water movement and that alcatraz bang in the middle and i thought this is a story and the research waiting to happen colleague Rob HUD realized if you could use 3d computer modeling to forecast future baking you could also use it to look into the past science is about finding stuff out so this is a historical study normally we study future scenarios what could happen if and that's where we build on our models for science is about using expertise in research that's actually relevant for policymakers and the future but it helps us understand something as cool as the escaped from Alcatraz Alcatraz the rock this civil war fort turned maximum-security prison was said to be unbreakable the men sent here men like Whitey Bulger and Al Capone were just as tough you're talking about 25,000 men in those days in federal prisons and 250 on Alcatraz so they were the most aggressive most assaultive sometimes most mentally ill 1% kill mean Babiak was just 15 the night of the escape her dad was acting warden in 1962 she called Alcatraz Island home [Music] the siren whooping up I was late for school and you know my first thought obviously was that can't be an escape attempt but of course um I knew that in my heart that it was I met my mother on the stairs and she was all kind of pumped up and she said get dressed there's been an escape at sunrise the next morning it became clear that the rock had been broken convicts Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin that used sharpened spoons to dig through their sounds [Music] the left false grills and dummy heads behind his cover climbed up a three-story utility corridor punched through a ceiling ventilation shaft and ran across the cellblock true then they scrambled down a four-story stovepipe evaded guard towers made their way down an embankment and slid into the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay leaving behind a handful of artifacts and one of America's most enduring mysteries if they made it why one hell of an achievement I'll tell you that everybody was rooting for Morris of the Englund and they still are unlike many in Alcatraz Morris and the Anglin weren't violent offenders they were low-end bank robbers sent to the rock after repeated escape attempts at other prisons Morris was an interesting character he'd been in prison almost every day since he was 13 he also had what was listed on the tests as the highest IQ John and Clarence Anglin grew up sharecropping alongside 14 brothers and sisters they robbed their bank using a toy gun Morris kept the englands in line because I think they were boisterous and talky and wanted everybody to know that they were cool [Music] it's the best way to escape but the question is the best place is still to go here because area to tackle the mystery of what happened to Morris and the Anglin 'he's the Dutchman used old tidal charts to build a 3d model that recreates the currents from the night of the escape the tide is taking all the water out they then called in friend and colleague fedor Bart an expert in particle tracking particle sounds really technical but in this case that would just be a raft with three people in it and what would happen given the tides where would it go I took the computer model from ólafur and I put a extra computer model that simulates human behavior and actually adds battling behavior that's the thing that I created the resulting model enabled them to track the paths of 50 virtual rafts launching from Alcatraz on the night of the escape what they discovered is the first scientific proof the men could have survived our study revealed that the timing was crucial but to get two days to de shore on the other side that it actually dependent enormously on when they left to escape and survive the inmates would have had to launch during a narrow window between 11:30 p.m. and 12:00 midnight if they did the findings suggest the inmates could have ridden the outgoing tide to an unexpected place for decades common wisdom said that the escapees headed for the landmass nearest Alcatraz Angel Island but the Dutchmen think this would have been a fatal mistake based on the currents that trajectory would have swept the men out to see the actual finding is that they couldn't use the thighs to leave Alcatraz just in time so that they didn't have to paddle that far so or shoe bay was the most likely destination according to our research and not Angel Island the first morning of their investigation the team is headed to Horseshoe Bay near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge then are hung welcoming America bells half Animoto find days from now the tides and currents will match with the inmates face back in 1962 I see an associate focus on maybe the bath house it's a column easels data for the photo hood phaedra Rolf and Ollivier plan to launch their own homemade raft and put their theory to the ultimate test so they launched over there near the chimney right and the tide would have taken them here into Horseshoe Bay yeah the current should take your right into this Bank yeah but if that but if your time went wrong you get this funnel be sucked out you're being pulled out and you just die of hypothermia over there or sharks I'm actually more concerned about these boats you mean the big the big cargo exactly because if we are in the middle of the shipping lane then we have the right-of-way because we don't have power that sounds worse right uh-huh I'm more concerned about the but actually putting the boat into the water and having it stay afloat for an hour if you look at the same Cisco Bay it's actually quite interesting Bay because it sucks in all this water and spits it out through this narrow channel just below the Golden Gate Bridge a deep underwater Canyon cuts right in front of Horseshoe Bay it creates a narrow 300-foot wide wall of water flowing in and out through the Golden Gate this intense band of current poses the biggest risk to the team it looks more or less like a highway of water that's going in and out every time and and one of the things that we have to take care of is that we have to pass that highway as soon as possible when we left I believe Alcatraz otherwise we will you're taken out of the ocean phaidor believes that even if they hit the wall of water the human urge to survive will generate the power needed to paddle through it we knew that it would be the hardest part of the survival I estimated that people would make a leap of faith yes sir the last hundred meters better really fast but I'm wondering now if it's even possible if you have that urge to suffice to make that last hundred meters if Morris and the Anglin did hit the bay in the Dutch team's timeline would their raft have stayed afloat for the hour the computer model says it would have taken to reach Horseshoe Bay the only way to find out is to build the most historically accurate wrath possible and launch in the same title conditions and at that time the raft needs to be done so that creates a limited time frame to actually build it and let it dry put some tension on the team which may have not been representative of what the inmates had because they had six weeks but it put some tension on the team to get it done on time to build their raft the team has called on Eric Humphries a longtime Nantucket boat builder he's now chief of animatronics for the shop that creates Macy's magical Christmas window displays in New York City I made this other day oh yeah sparks still Eric's first love is the sea my day job currently is I make glittery elves but I've always loved boats have always been you know a sailor since I was a little kid the raft needs to be more than just buoyant they want to build a raft as close to the original as possible it would be nice to see how they made a raft whether they stitch it or not what can I do they use exactly so before they launch into construction Eric and Ollivier need to see the artifacts the escapees left behind so here is photographic documentation from the escape various tools made or stolen for escape there's a whole treasure trove of things after the escape the FBI recovered more than 80 homemade tools and other items the inmates spent months constructing including files spoons to chisel things away Hey look and drill bits man these guys like building stuff have you ever made your own wrench I have made so many things in my life I've never made my own wrench the thing that struck me about those artifacts was the attention to odd details maybe if I was sitting in prison all day contemplating this they would seem normal to me the periscope thought was they stick the periscope out a little hole in the ventilator to see if anyone's looking the periscope is not something you really need if you if you try to escape and they put a lot of effort in making this periscope and the same comes for the other tunes this is one of two paddles one was found on the cell block top group the other one was found floating in the bay the thing that strike me most was that battles had large bolts on the backside I can imagine that in the dark if you do not pay attention and you have the pole sticking out to your raft that you might make a leak in Africa even having left albatross well look if they used as a cutting board I bet yet they cut the raft pieces on that look those are knife marks above all Eric and Oliver want to confirm what the raft was made of and gather clues about how it was constructed they've already found a vintage raincoat based on archival photos the question is will it match the real thing oh here we come Sarah comes oh yeah yeah we I think we nailed it on the raincoats the buttons are the same the sleeves are the same what was that made me a label right a little-little yep that's it how it says the eighteen five six one and our label seems to match look at that let's do this right wrinkles crying now look at that there's your brother baby who for food raincoats like these were common on the rock even on sunny days the joke on Alcatraz was was that the the birds were better shots than the guards so guys would sometimes wear their raincoats out to the yard and it would be a simple matter of wearing your raincoat out and then taking it off and somebody else picking it up oh and inflator that's for as curious about straw look at that you can actually see their teeth marks on incredibly the inmates crafted more than just the raft they also made life vests I'm thinking about getting out of prison I'm just gonna build that raft and go I'm not gonna screw around with a lifejacket so this is a pontoon from the raft that wasn't actually used correct corrects the pontoon remnant had what was clearly hand stitching I don't know I get the feeling like this was like some kind of test so I'm wondering if they just wanted to see what was the best construction technique given the materials they had the ingenuity is kind of goes counter to what you hear about a lot of these guys some of these guys are claimed not to be you know the sharpest pencils in the box and here they are they're making their own tools they're making periscopes they're making you know rafts in prison attics and somehow not getting caught and I don't know if that speaks to these guys being really clever or everyone watching them being released you know not so clever I became so elaborate right a raft and then lifejackets you know paddles and masks it just got bigger and bigger right there's safety in that sophistication and that's often the case the exciting fun part is the inside the prison the bragging rights the ego the fun the hope but once they hit land not so far the visit has offered up interest in clues the inmates may have stitched the raft and used straws or hoses to inflate it but how they glued the raincoats together remains a mystery I'm interested in this glue it's a liquid plastic for book repair I don't know what that means but somebody knows what that means [Music] day 2 of constructing the raft Eric and Oliver have asked adhesives chemist bill beech to come by and help them figure out what kind of glue might have been on Alcatraz in 1962 what they use and would the prisoners have something similar to it I'm going to be dealing with materials that don't absorb water or solvent so it's going to have to be a surface pond it's going to have to bond materials that are likely to stretch a little bit glue that stretches normally serves an industrial purpose it makes sense they'd have access to it because the rock wasn't just a prison it housed Alcatraz industries cranking up furniture shoes and gloves for the US Army my understanding is they had carpentry they have some sort of boot shop for rubber boots and some sort of furniture shop so they may have been fairly bright guys who had connections and somebody would have told them don't go to the furniture Department for your adhesive go to the shoe department there they would have found a waterproof blue perfect for the job yes here we go here we go poly gas is my Salvage poly chloroprene bingo buy solace poly chloroprene otherwise known as contact cement and the contact cement which seems the most likely that they would have because not only do they need lots of it to make a raft they need there needs to be so much of it they can steal this large quantity of it without people going where's all the glue but according to at least one Alcatraz guard stealing glue on the rock might have been easier than it seems they really didn't keep track the other Penitentiary's on that we kept track of the contact cement but at Alcatraz we really didn't my recollection was one gallon cans and they might have get some of that old used glue to those cans with stolen contact cement the inmates would have needed more than 50 brain coats to build their raft [Music] but for Eric and Ollivier vintage raincoats aren't an option we looked at making the raft out of the actual jackets that the prisoners used but one they're kind of you know very difficult to find and Sue the materials seem to be after wasn't fifty years seems to be rotting I think as closest you possibly find it as a modern equivalent it's the same thickness it says it's PVC PVC that's important because that's what it would have been in 1962 sketch I'm with us I'm busy that day we'll get you a little drink umbrella [Music] with glue and materials set they have three days left to craft a historically accurate design and get the job done I think some people are slightly nervous about the timing of it I'm not my job there's always a deadline and it's always something no one's done before and there's always problems but Ananda gets done it's kind of like an all-or-nothing you know gonna be a bear be a grizzly well raincoats raincoat that this is the actual rain guard that I've used I got some documentation yeah right here yeah here okay the conspirators realize that once they had reached the water's hatch it would be no mean feat inflating a fourteen by six foot life raft by mouth that's a really big raft five jackets five jackets two jackets and ten jackets for the floor Sept 22 jackets at least I'm gonna use the sleeve here for a heart test we're gonna make a tiny miniature pontoon out of this she's fuming some I don't know about you buddy but I am feeling them how do you want to seal it after the saws are in there so I kept folded backwards and put it under for example great lever and it's holding air briefly [Music] oh yeah right here this is what I was worried about making the pontoons airtight is turning out to be a challenge there's your leak this seems no problem it's this fold up Caesar had nothing to do with the straw it was leaking for all the seams that is um disappointing and so if you look at how only for you and Eric built around there's a lot of choices you can make to make it better and all these choices latekka mesh tight try to stick to the historical accurate side of them and that makes the ralph less floatable but it makes it much more realistic we have to fear a better way of sealing that although the actual raft was never found the stitched life vests recovered after the escape were surprisingly well built after the escape they found these life vests they wanted to test them so they put weights on them and Flay did the life vests until lifted the weights off the floor and they held air for hours which is kind of amazing Eric now thinks the stitching on the life vests was probably critical to the evolution of the raft itself who knows how many life vests they made that could have been that you know four hundredth life vests and the first one didn't work it looked like our bags that we tried and I assume once they've got that worked out they transferred that knowledge and use it to build a large ocean-going raft and at first everyone is kind of ignored it because you know stitching is kind of a pain in the butt and we're hoping it was like a mistake but it's becoming clear that the stitching is necessary to keep the air in as Eric pushes ahead with building the raft the others are meeting someone deeply interested in their work that gets sucked into this current it's really strong more than 50 years after the escape the US Marshal Service is still hunting Morris and the Anglin Mike dike has been on the case for the past 13 years every piece of evidence that comes up every lead that comes up is evaluated even with something coming up this long after this game could determine whether we need to continue to focus efforts on looking for live people or try to find remains of people who might have washed ashore you know 50 years ago they're excited to share their own findings but they really want to gather details from marshal dike about the time the raft hit the water there's no way to know for sure that's a big variable when they left there was a noise at 10:30 so that's assuming that's what time we assume that that they finally were able to get out the top yeah and then they had to go over the room down that pine over defense anybody had to get the raft over the fence without puncturing it on the barbed wire and then inflating it sorry at least looking at an hour it could have been it could have been that long yeah so then that the 11:30 we know the escape is this time then it actually ends up here I said it's our current scenario we go with the 3d model is really useful because previously there was a couple of cartoon type drawings of it other than that you don't see an actual live view of what the currents were doing that night so this is helpful in understanding what happened that night and hopefully come up with a more viable answer to what I've been doing for the last 13 years so at 10:30 a noise was heard that is what the marshal told us that gives us an anchor point so it's really important that we know what happened step-by-step so we can determine when they enter to water to accurately recreate the timing of the escape the Dutch team is heading back to the rock for expert insight our reasons really focus on recreating the tidal situation that these escapees experienced but to know that we need input from the historians at Alcatraz to know what happened step-by-step so we can determine when possibly they could have entered the water Rolf and Oliver are meeting Alcatraz historian John martini that's where I put Eastwood and the others come down in the movie Escape from Alcatraz who will help them retrace the path of the escape this is the access to the Selma so this was the cell of Alan West who you know some people consider bendlin fellow who came up with the whole concept of all the characters involved Alan West is the least known but arguably the most important West didn't get mentioned in the newspapers because he didn't go you know he got stuck behind unable to punch through his cell in time to join Morris and the Anglin 'he's it was West who told the FBI the details of the plan including the fact that the men intended to paddle to Angel Island there is a misconception that Morris was the mastermind of the whole plan more than likely West at least initiated it he was the most dangerous I mean a prisoner told me Westen walk he slithered that's the hole that they excavated to get out they drilled a great big rectangular perforation in the wall and then once they had weakened the wall then they were able to break out large and relatively rapidly chiseling through a foot of concrete was a tough and potentially noisy job but thanks to the prison reform movement of the early 60s Alcatraz was now offering art classes and music hour the music hour then just became a cacophony of sound and probably when they did a lot of their digging the movin the concrete up here is really bad despite the rocks fearsome reputation for being inescapable by spring 1962 the aging prison was falling apart the toilets in the cell house were plumbed with saltwater so saltwater was coursing through those pipes for over 50 years plumbers would go in there to fix them and they would disintegrate so you were costly having you know flooding saltwater and I would destroy your concrete and your rebar want to go into the quarter quarter yeah sure let's do it [Music] Wow the actual weakest spot in the concrete is close to the to the fence where they got through so water erosion and shoddy construction along the base of the wall meant the convicts were digging through the weakest spot of their cells once they got out here into the utility corridor basically it's like a jungle gym of pipes and supports straight up three stories plus to a flat open area at the top of the cellblock every night for six weeks the inmates climbed three stories through this web of pipes to a hidden law we're standing on the roof of the top tier of cells and then above us is the roof of the actual cell house this is just a void this is where they set up their workshop here they would build the raincoat raft periscope drills life vests and tools that would make theirs the most sophisticated escape in American history West had convinced the guards to let him work unsupervised in the loft during daytime hours part of Allen West's whole cover story for being up here was that he was painting and he indeed was if you look right here at the ceiling this is where Allen West left off painting you can actually see the the brushstrokes West wasn't just looking for a place to build the raft he was looking for a way to get out of the cellblock and onto the roof they've volunteered to do this cleanup up on top of the cells well because they knew that if they could get up there maybe look at those holes in the ceiling that they could maybe water and they were certainly and figure it was old and rusty and it was it was right on target the holes in the ceiling were old ventilation shafts and the one above the loft workspace wasn't just rusty it was the only one not cemented in place they hit on the idea of convincing the guards that they needed to put blankets to close this area off that was one of the things about outit rasmus it was spotlessly clean I mean they polished those floors if you look at pictures of it they were shiny one day West goes up to the top of the block and with a little broom he he you know moved some dust down you know and it didn't take long for the lieutenant to walk over that or for a guard or for a prisoner to complain hey there's dust of myself what's going on up there and so Wes just doubles back and he says you know I got work up there and it's really dusty maybe we can hang some blankets normally would put on guard with about all ties but he said I'll just go and check on him down there not a good idea not with an Alcatraz convict you're there everyone was under the gun 24 hours a day but then there was no guard here watching him now the feeling seems to have been once he was led up here and he was a lock Daniel what could he possibly do where could he possibly go mean there on Alcatraz what could possibly happen as hell could possibly go wrong on the night of June 11 1962 it was go time by 9:30 West was having trouble breaking through the last bits of his cell when Frank Morris appeared asking for water his thirsty wine a glass of water so he handled a glass of water a little hold the back of his cell that he was still working on and that was about 9:30 for it was the last time anyone would see Frank Morris alive there was a giant crash sometime around 10:30 which is apparently when the ventilator cap was pushed off so I 10:30 a noise was heard and everybody goes with story that that is the vent cover that falls onto the roof and this is the footprint of the pipe this is the route down and the FBI photographs the Chilam black footprints running around down here as they were waiting for the other guys come down it's almost like Bugs Bunny or something except this this was yes definitely for real yeah essentially what they were do is they were following their nose towards the water what's your best guess for dem leaping Alka press 11:15 11:30 and that's just a guess that will fit really nice with our model as also then because that is really in the time frame that if they went into water they have the best chance to reach Horseshoe Bay back at the shop time is running out and they haven't even successfully inflated their first pontoon I went shopping black tape like they had all right I got hoses and - it's gonna be like a RAF hookah they know the inmates used stitching [Music] boom taking hardly tell I've never saw before in my life alright first Platoon I think it's gonna hold air unless unless inflate actually it's later good do it the moment of truth if it doesn't hold air they'll never make their tile window if they pass out leave without me man save yourself the stitching it seems was the missing element no no yeah bubbles over here all right I think we built a raft I think it's gonna leak like a freakin sieve and we're gonna spend the entire time pumping it up how you probably blow into it fast enough I have more respect for them after attempting to work myself you know relatively ideal conditions if I need more glue and go get more glue I don't have to sneak it in from the cafeteria no one's gonna shoot me probably so I'm having trouble I don't think we're fitting three people in this side if they are my size it will fit what are you saying staying too much pizza [Music] with the pontoon design set it's a scramble to get the rest of the raft built leaving just one day for the contact cement to dry [Music] across town Rolf and phaidor have one last place to test their theory before facing the bay itself this swimming pool is representing the entire Pacific yeah so this is a large physical model with Sharon Cisco Bay and Delta system the tidal cycle over there is only 15 minutes so what if I go out one hour after low tides and then 15 minutes later you can test what if I go out two hours after low tide it's used in missing-person cases in particular when a body washes up on the shore somewhere the questions often asked where did this person enter the water and so the ability to go through 12-hour tidal cycle in 15 minutes and watch where things go is one of the beauties of this tool hey guys look what I built a little boat little release mechanism some tape some superglue somewhere for supplies but I think the tides going out right now which would be when we sat that they went okay I'm just gonna put it in this is my kind of science five four three two one we just had our floating going with its highs so this would be without pedaling they just let the raft take them where it would take them yeah so this is the tidal slack point that should be slowing down slack tie is the brief window of slowing current that happens between the incoming and outgoing tides you got a really time it around in slack water if it's not slack water everybody goes out the gate yeah I think if they went out the golden gate new is probably history for them on the first attempt without a paddle power the raft is swept out to sea then you see exactly the same thing as animali goes straight into the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge out into Pacific he died what we did in our computer model as we looked at the difference between what if you just go with the flow versus what if you pedal but then of course I cannot put pedaling my soror I think even n set that scale on it so we did a final attempt and in the final attempt fader was holding an office fan that mimics the northwards effect appellant could have yes this is one I think they had a chance because the currents are not that strong how that song the second time fado uses an office fan to simulate the forward motion of men paddling the raft so I'm just gonna get a bit of lore to movement in the last hundred meter I had to turn out the knobs to full speed when the raft approaches the strong band of current blocking it from Horseshoe Bay phaidor cranks up the fan [Music] as if that lost rush of adrenaline and oh my god were gonna die rush afford rambling gave them enough energy to do through a final panel and make it oh nice oh hey there you go there we go that's how you do it it was interesting to see that this flows actually ends up exactly where we predict it okay I want to see you do that in two days for real wait a favor got any kind of speed and the vessel doesn't sink it looks very doable to me would you be able to make it given that the boat holds and then there's no Freight whatever going in between but from just a flow and water movement perspective doable we might live what they've seen here suggests the computer model is right if the escapees were able to get past the invisible current of water blocking Horseshoe Bay they could have survived it also may have solved another mystery after the escape searchers found paddles and other debris near Angel Island which gave rise to the theory the men made landfall there but the Dutch model shows that when the tides reverse items dropped in the surf off horseshoe bay are pushed right back to Angel Island oh here yeah look this is uh this over here now as they wrap up the team gets a text from all of you over at the tech shop so these are the pontoons so the final thing is that the floor is gonna be glued on top like that it's gonna all be inflated and the hose three-man there's gonna be three chambers the stern chamber and two large chambers in front and they'll have their own inflator hose so this way each individual paddler can have their own hose and you blow into it to keep ahead of any leaks that may occur with the raft finally done they've asked marshal dike to come by and take a look that seems well smallish it gets bigger Wow Wow a big now we fit the three of us I have a hundred percent confidence on these zero leaks you know they use a similar type glue the dimensions we believe we're accurate I believe it was a very realistic portrayal of you know how things were to end it up Stephanie do you think you'd get in this thing I don't believe I would ah come on give it a trailing boat and if I was Gasper I would get in it I think if anything's gonna fail on the raft it's gonna be a seam or it's gonna get ripped on some unforseen piece of metal someplace I don't think that's gonna happen there's gonna be some huffing and puffing into those tubes but I'm even I really do think it's gonna make by 7:00 p.m. the next evening they're headed to Alcatraz the window to launch is between 8:00 and 8:30 a rare interval when the bayes complex tidal conditions will match those from the night of the escape usually around sundown when the Inland Valley pulls off this strong onshore breeze you know invades and it gets gets nice this years an El Nino year and the weather is a little bit unusual so the [Music] as a result while we're noting is that the wind is a little bit more south than usual from the south they do they have kicking in the chop is getting long the water is rough winds are blowing at 25 knots the team worries their raft won't stand a chance some pretty big waves like some 60 centimeters through a meter wave swift phone caps on that and that's pretty scary for a little boat like us so we're gonna wait as long as we can within that tidal window hope that the Sun going down temperature difference between seeing the land going down a bit that the wind would ease so that we have collisions that are as near as we can achieve today to what happened back in the day in 62 I think it's a fair test for the concept you know the guys that made the escape originally maybe they were able to pick an pull this off today with all the challenges that our president really is affirmation that yeah absolutely this can be done San Francisco Bay isn't known for calm waters with winds now hitting 30 knots this will be the most realistic attempt ever I think that that's wrong with a lot of recreations as they kind of pick a perfect this is a very typical man and the challenge is a real go realize it's now 10 to 8 but it's still pretty rough out here yeah like 815 whoa we'll probably go into the water you guys start filling up the rap [Music] you guys first into the bow just give us no okay so international okay II type of major medical emergency fist up in there fist appear for me means end of this mission it failed get back into the boat when I saw the raft coming together and being inflated for the first time I grew more confident but just before we launched our little raft all that confident went away when I saw these big waves do these guys is it it's not that we can change anything now to see where we end up Oh so let go we're going like Morris and the Anglin their raft has never been tested will it hold up or disintegrate under the weight of three grown men all three over in the boat [Music] and they're off you're like guys looks like it's holding there and there huffing and puffing but they're going the right direction and faint thinking the hair strike what more could they want according to their mop they will have to hit Horseshoe Bay around 9 p.m. that's when the tidal slack will slow the outgoing current and give them the best chance to paddle through the underwater torrent blocking their way when we were floating in a bay I really felt this is a great thing we're doing putting science 2 into reality we're about what 15 minutes in ten minutes in there.put long ways from Alcatraz probably 20% there there's a little bit of book water in the boat instead and that's only from when they got in I think the things holding up looks like getting out of Alcatraz is easy [Music] I only got one guy paddling home so other two people are inflating the raft constantly to keep up with the leaks that are in it we filled it when the witch said the waves would like this one as darkness sets in the seas don't come they get rougher they're about to hit some pretty good swells biggest we've seen so far I not Sherman's wake from a ship or it's just the current going through this part of the channels but I think they're gonna get a little bit wetter now at 50 minutes in there hitting the wall of current they fear title slack hasn't slowed it nearly as much as they had hoped the Dutchman are at risk of being drawn out to sea 6 0 minutes waves are getting a little stronger and I believe they're starting to get sucked towards the Golden Gate so they want to make land they have to uh and paddle like crazy right now according to the captain if you're gonna make it y'all got a battle that way cuz we're starting to drift towards the bridge if they do get pulled under the bridge this experiment could turn deadly I think they're getting tired Oliveira had us cramp his leg or his arm and a rest for a little bit and you know it's not over yet these guys these guys got a paddle you guys see the boat over there they got their light on and for that line over there that bright want Horseshoe Bay now lies less than two hundred yards ahead so are about an hour and five minutes in according to GPS will make it about two point five not mostly from the current unfortunately that's all towards the bridge and not towards land it looks like they're still trying to keep up the inflation and they just have one guy oliveira paddling i can see their destination very very close [Music] and they have stopped paddling and have just gone to inflating I don't know if that means they're just getting tired or the leak is getting more serious do you think that is too dangerous already or not you're losing Brennan everyone can't paddle I think now throws over all youth bridge we're about an hour and 10 minutes in we just had a chat with them and told them they all needs a paddle we just don't want them too close to the bridge and if they get too close to the bridge it's kind of game over exhausted and accelerating toward the Golden Gate an upheld fist signals it's time to turn back we're gonna go over and pick them up now I think we're coming up we're coming for you guys pull yourself in favors it stuck in the raft oh I hom home it okay great get the rafting hey fuss okay calling it their dead he got him on board everyone sane got the rap Rockwell and wise they could have done it it's just that one guy battling two guys blowing is not enough get the speed to the north you can see that in our model is it like a big big column going in to the north of that current before it went so hero like if you if you just get south of it then gente you're basically do another what science all about you just learn more if you just have one data point one story that's not really science you need to have multiple data points so that you could see what the influence of different factors is so what we just did is given the exact title circumstances our data points as they would have drifted to the gate [Music] we estimated the little islands would take over an hour so that was correct but I thought we we were to have a bit more time to get in here so the things we computed actually happened but I think we're mainly missing this leap of faith Eddie spirits do survived and I think if you're really escaping you have much more adrenaline so nanus comes through this experience I still think they would have been able to make it I saw bit too fortunate but look what we did we managed to do it for 95 percent we were approximately 50 meters from the Golden Gate ninety-five percent is usually scientifically significant right these guys were very capable I think the rap could have theoretically made it but I don't think it did I think they're dead I think they're floating out there or on the bottom for the same reasons everyone else is where are they [Music] [Laughter] for the team it's been a disappointing but insightful night four former prison guards the results reinforce a gut instinct they've had for over half a century based on the smallest of evidence pulled from the bay just days after the escape I was given authority to want to start looking for him and going around and around and around if see these items floating and then they would retrieve it and bring it in and try to dry it out and we got surprising enough what if you course want us that they had maybe with their parents or a loved one things that were very dear to it could be a photograph of their father or mother or a loved one maybe the girlfriend its items that they would really want to keep with him but I think they had to give it up more than 50 years ago three men took a desperate gamble I've talked of many many people and they really hope they made it how do you feel oh hell I well I wouldn't mind I'd be alright I like to know what happened talk but tonight the bay is holding its secrets close and the mystery of Alcatraz could

Channel: Best Documentary

Views: 3,724,047

Rating: 4.7110524 out of 5

Keywords: Top documentary picks, documentaries, documentary, The Great Escape from Alcatraz, Alcatraz, Frank Morris, Clarence, John Anglin, San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz prison, History Documentary, National Geographic, Alcatraz: No Way Out, Watch Alcatraz No Way Ou, Alcatraz Island (Tourist Attraction)

Id: FVtaxYKk74M

Length: 55min 16sec (3316 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 30 2016