FBI Finally Solve The Great Alcatraz Prison Break

welcome to Alcatraz the most notorious prison on the entire planet and home to one of America's greatest unsolved criminal mysteries the fascinating escape of Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers until recently the FBI considered their survival impossible and the case was closed after years of murky investigations some new evidence however a letter could prove that the authorities were wrong and that the criminals have been living under our noses the entire time hold on criminals escaped from minimum and maximum security prisons every year so what makes this Alcatraz tale so special well sitting on a remote island in the San Francisco Bay Alcatraz federal penitentiary was the prison of all prisons the place that troublemaking criminals were sent to when the regular system could no longer handle their attempted escapes and attacks on guards and fellow inmates headlining the list of detainees was none other than Scarface himself Al Capone so you can get an idea of the type of people that slept behind Alcatraz's rocky walls up until recently the only successful attempt to evade the guards and escape has baffled investigators remaining an unsolved mystery the men escaped that we know but they were never found either dead or alive for a number of years authorities stood firm on the opinion that anyone who actually managed to escape the prison walls and make it down to the water had met their eternal fate at the hands of the hypothermia inducing violent waters the three men as per the FBI were officially declared missing and presumed to have drowned but that might no longer be the case new evidence has come to light that could prove that the FBI was wrong the entire time what kind of evidence exactly a letter that's what let's rewind for a second shall we before we dive into the recent revelations let's talk about the breakout itself what went down on that bitter winter night who actually escaped and how come nobody had successfully fled beforehand okay so escaping Alcatraz wasn't as simple as jumping over a barbed wire fence keep in mind this place which welcomed its first felon back in 1934 was open to house criminals that were deemed too dangerous for the regular prison system this was not a Paradise Island by any means even the threat of ending up there cause prisoners across the country to improve their behavior inside the prison walls stood remote-controlled tear gas dispensers remote-controlled machine guns metal detectors and of course menacing armed guards patrolling each floor non-stop the locks and doors were checked daily to make sure there was no funny business and the prisoners were counted and absurd 13 times per day so as you can see making it out of the prison walls would have been near impossible without getting caught or worse and if you somehow made it out onto the islands Shores you'd be greeted with razor-sharp rocks spine-chilling frigid waters rough choppy currents and supposedly a handful of hungry great white sharks all combined that's why Alcatraz's reputation has stood the test of time and why the story of the escaped prisoners remains one of the country's greatest mysteries the date was June 11 1962 the day that those three notorious inmates escaped never to be seen again or at least so thought the FBI while this escape attempt is certainly the most famous it isn't the only one not by a long way in fact before this trio made it into the Bay's waters there had already been 13 escape attempts in total 36 prisoners tried to flee 23 of them were caught six were taken down two fell victim to the water and the rest were missing and presumed drowned that's a pretty significant presumption considering that no concrete evidence was ever found don't you think so how did they actually escape after deciding it was time to get out of the hellhole for men plan the ultimate escape we'll talk about who they were in a second but first how did they get out well in each cell there was a vent duct but there was no way a human was squeezing through there so over the course of six months the men chipped away at it and expanded its size how with metal spoons taken from the dining area discarded saw blades and amazingly a homemade electric drill fashioned out of a vacuum cleaner motor when the holes became big enough to climb through at night they'd sneak into the utility corridor behind the cell walls and use it as a hidden spot to store raincoats and other materials that would end up being used to make life jackets and then when the 11th of June rolled around slid down a vent pipe before climbing not one but two barbed wire fences you might be thinking how on earth did they do this without getting noticed to avoid their progress being seen they covered up the hole with painted cardboard and to mute the noise Frank Morris would play his accordion and when they actually escaped homemade paper mache heads lay on their pillows as a decoy hmm pretty genius isn't it so who was Frank Morris and who were the other cunning escapees Frank Morris was the brains of the operation with an IQ of 133 it's not hard to see why either and this wasn't his first attempt at escaping he actually managed to break out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary years earlier in which he was supposed to be serving ten years for bank robbery he was also previously locked up in a prison in Atlanta then you had the Anglin boys older brother John and younger brother Clarence these dudes were the Brawn while we won't dive too much into their lives and career as criminals there's a couple of things worth noting first of all they shared the cell that was directly adjacent to Morris long before Alcatraz they were locked in Atlanta as well so it already built up trust with Frank Morris the brothers tried to escape from Atlanta on multiple occasions although without much success nevertheless the guards were getting fed up with their shenanigans so sent them off to Alcatraz in 1960 and 1961 respectively also worth noting is that while growing up John and Clarence Agnon were actually fantastic swimmers who are said to have enjoyed swimming across Lake Michigan during the winter sifting through ice and bitterly cold waters is it possible this experience would have made the nippy San Francisco Bay look like child's play to the two brothers could they actually have swam safely away from Alcatraz finally the fourth and often forgotten man was a mr. Allen West while West didn't actually get the chance to escape himself he was heavily involved in the planning and preparation despite trying he couldn't remove his ventilator grill fast enough and by the time he did and made it outside the prison walls the other three had already left so we know who they and we know how they made it off the island but what happened after that has always been a big looming unsolved mystery authorities did discover a paddle and parts of a raincoat on the nearby Angel Island about two and a half miles away from Alcatraz but never found the men themselves with the help of local police and prison staff the FBI tried to figure out what had actually happened but despite all the questions they were asking they weren't getting any answers the case remained a mystery for 17 years until the FBI officially gave up closing the investigation in 1979 and declaring that the strong currents were the reason why the prisoners never made it do you think they survived don't answer that just yet because there's more to the story after the case was closed several people came forward claiming that they either had been in contact with the escapees or that they were actually one of the three men themselves family members of the Anglin brothers even approached police claiming that Clarence and John had been in contact with them truth or just a wild goose chase all of this didn't mean much to authorities until revolutionary new evidence came to light in January of 2013 the FBI got a letter in the mail that may have contained information that could change the entire story what exactly did the letter say word for word here it is my name is John Anglin it read 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 went on to claim that he was the last surviving member of the trio and that Clarence had died in 2005 and Frank back in 2008 he went on to say he would give up even more info if the FBI was willing to cooperate saying I will write back to let you know exactly where I am this is no joke all the author wanted in return was a one-year prison sentence during which he could get treatment for his illness and a widespread TV announcement would you have accepted the deal if it was your call to make the FBI didn't give that option a second thought they did run a DNA test on the letter and found nothing conclusive so with proof that it was in fact John behind the pen it could have very well been another wild goose chase an official case reopening would have taken up valuable resources but that being said they couldn't prove it was not John actually writing the letter either the letter isn't the only piece of evidence that has been raising eyebrows in recent years back in 2015 the History Channel showed a photograph of what was thought to have been John and Clarence Anglin the photo was taken in Brazil some 13 years after the infamous escape a member of the Anglin family claims that the Anglin brothers grandmother received roses four years after the escape and that they firmly believe it was either John or Clarence who was sending them that's all the time we have to convince you that the three criminals actually made it out of Alcatraz alive do you believe they did it where do you think they've been hiding this whole time let us know in the comments make sure to like this video subscribe to the richest and join our notification squad thank you for watching and we'll see you next time

Channel: TheRichest

Views: 2,018,262

Rating: 4.4370708 out of 5

Keywords: alcatraz, prison break, prison escape, jail, survive, san francisco, prisoners, unsolved mysteries, crime, american crime, jail break, escape, alcatraz escape, alcatraz famous, frank morris, john anglin, clarence anglin, anglin brothers, alcatraz evidence, alcatraz FBI, alcatraz story, alcatraz amazing, new evidence, survived afterwards, alcatraz drowning, amazing escapes, true crime, FBI, The Richest, Richest

Id: f6sWv0RfgAs

Length: 10min 5sec (605 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 21 2019