Alcatraz Prison Research Paper

Escaping the Rock Have you heard of the Alcatraz penitentiary also called “The Rock”? It’s one of the most notorious penitentiaries in the United States. On June 11, 1962, three men escaped from their prison cells at Alcatraz penitentiary. The men’s fate has turned into one of the most famous American mysteries ever. Did they actually survive the escape attempt or did they perish in the cold San Francisco Bay water? We may never know exactly what happened on that famous night. It is my theory that John Anglin, Clarence Anglin, and Frank Morris all drowned in the San Francisco Bay while trying to escape from Alcatraz prison in June of 1962. In this research paper, I will provide facts about the actual escape and reasons to

Most of those inmates were caught and returned. Some were shot and killed, while others drowned in the San Francisco Bay. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, only three inmates remain unaccounted for, Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin. These statistics are an indication of just how secure the prison was and how hard it was to escape successfully. John Anglin and Clarence Anglin were brothers. Frank Morris was a longtime acquaintance of the Anglin’s. All men three were sentenced to prison in Georgia for robbing banks and all three had escaped from Georgia prisons multiples times. They were sent to Alcatraz to discourage anymore escape attempts. When John Morris and the Anglin brother arrived on The Rock, they were determined to prove authorities wrong and escape. Their plan to escape from Alcatraz prison took months of planning and they took every detail into account. They carefully planned a way to deal with each of the challenges that stood between them and their freedom just a mile away on the other side of the

However, it is common for people who drowned in the San Francisco Bay waters never to be found. Even on the night of the escape, someone witnessed a man jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge and his body was never recovered. Not recovering a body is not proof that they survived. According to alcatrazhistory.com “The Great Escape from Alcatraz” “at the time of the escape, the Bay water temperatures ranged from fifty to fifty-four degrees. That exposure would have affected body functions after approximately twenty minutes in the water.” Authorities believe it would have taken the men much longer than 20 minutes to reach the mainland, which further supports my theory that the men would not have survived the mile and a half journey. Over a month after the escape, the Ship SS Norefjell reported seeing a body floating 20 miles northwest of Golden Gate Bridge. The report said that the person seen was wearing what appeared to be denim trousers similar to those issued by the prison. I believe this could have been one of the escaped