Survival Of Alcatraz Escapees: John And Clarence Anglin

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Survival of Alcatraz Escapees The night of June 11th, 1962 changed the history of Alcatraz, a prison that housed the toughest criminals (Pruitt 1). Alcatraz held the title of the inescapable prison. But Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin changed that fact. Alcatraz officials and the U.S. Marshall service declared it was impossible for the boys to survive the San Francisco Bay. With new evidence, brought forth from the nephews of John and Clarence Anglin, it is possible that at least two of the escapees, John and Clarence, survived the night of June 11th. John and Clarence Anglin survived the escape from Alcatraz with their brilliant escape plan and the proof is in Christmas cards, a DNA testing, and a picture proving their existence …show more content…

Because of a series of prison escapes, John and Clarence were sent to Alcatraz in 1961 (Pruitt 5). Alfred remained in Alabama penitentiary (Alcatraz). While in Alcatraz, the brothers met up with a fellow inmate, Frank Morris, who they first met while at a prison in Atlanta. The brothers, Morris and a fourth man, Allen West, devised a plan to escape from the inescapable. The plan consisted of digging through the air vents in their cells, lifelike dummy heads, and a raft and life jackets made out of raincoats. To achieve the goal of digging through the air vents, the brothers and the other accomplices stole spoons from the prison cafeteria and sharpened them to use like little saws. The dummy heads were made out of paper, soap, and human hair (Pruitt 5). The human hair was obtained by Clarence Anglin, who took a job in the barbershop. He would let the hair drop into his pants and would literally walk it backed to his cell. In the documentary, Alcatraz: Search for the Truth, David Widner, a nephew of John and Clarence, tells how the brothers began painting as a hobby. They even painted their girlfriends’ portraits. Now at first this may seem irrelevant, but they needed flesh colored paint for the dummy heads. The raft and life jackets were made out of fifty-two