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The Rock, Uncle Sam’s Devil’s Island or Hellcatrraz - so as you might’ve already guessed

today we’re going to plunge into the world of the island that’s been mysterious since it was discovered and first inhabited back in the 19th century the story of Alcatraz has numerous references in pop culture with illustrious Clint Eastwood starring in the film eponymous film Escape from Alcatraz on top of this list. ****

From 1934 - to 1963 the Rock housed bank-robbers, gangsters, kidnappers, and killers, reputedly some of the toughest and most incorrigible federal convicts of America!

So the island’s roster of felons included: Al “Scarface” Capone; George “Mashine Gun” Kelly the murderous Joe Cretzer, and Robert Stroud but better known as The bird-man of Alcatraz

The story I am going to tell you is about a fascinating escape, at least to me, the story of three but actually 4 escapees that managed to get away from from reportedly the top-security penitentiary Alcatraz!  But First of, let’s look through the words I’ve got for you today

Escape from Alcatraz

On the night of 11th June 1962, three hardened convicts broke out of the maximum-security prison on Alcatraz Island and escaped in a boat they’d made from stolen raincoats. Officially, they were never seen or heard from again. However, many people, including the families of the three escapees, believe that they did get away that night and have lived for decades on the run.

The ringleader was seasoned criminal Frank Morris. Frank had been abandoned by his parents at the age of 11; by the age of 13, he’d already racked up his first criminal conviction. Throughout his teens, he was arrested and charged on multiple occasions for armed robbery and drugs offences. In and out of correctional facilities throughout his youth, Frank was serving a 10-year sentence for a bank robbery at the time of the escape.

Frank’s accomplices were the Anglin brothers, John and Clarence, and Allen West. The Anglins came from a large family of seasonal agricultural workers who travelled up and down the country picking fruit and vegetables. Dirt poor, the two brothers turned to crime at an early age, first being caught for breaking into a service station at just 14. They started robbing banks and other businesses after their first brush with the law. They were both sentenced to 35 years after being convicted of robbing the Columbia Savings Bank in Columbia, Alabama. After repeated escape attempts from Atlanta Penitentiary, the pair were transferred to Alcatraz in 1960.

Allen West made up the last member of the escape party. A serial offender, Allen had been arrested over 20 times before finally being imprisoned for car theft in 1955. Transferred from Atlanta Penitentiary to Florida State Prison, Allen made an unsuccessful escape attempt and wound up in Alcatraz in 1957 as a result.

By the time they were all incarcerated in Alcatraz, the four men knew each other well, having all served time with each other on several occasions in other prisons. After they were all placed in adjoining cells where they could talk at night, they hatched a plan to escape.

Under the leadership of Morris, the four men planned to tunnel through the walls of their cells, build a raft and escape the island by sea. After collecting discarded saw blades from the prison workshops and metal spoons from the dining hall, they crafted a drill from a vacuum cleaner motor. They used their improvised tools to begin widening the holes around the ventilation ducts under the sinks in each of their cells, concealing their handiwork from the guards with painted strips of cardboard.

To hide the noise they made drilling through into the unguarded utility corridor behind their cells, Morris would play his accordion during music hour in the prison.

Once they could fit through the holes, the men set up a makeshift workshop in the empty top level of their cellblock. Here they made the raft they would use to escape, as well as a set of life jackets. The raft and the jackets were made from stolen and donated raincoats, carefully stitched together and sealed by melting the rubber on the hot pipes in their workshop.

When it came to covering up their absence when they were in their workshop, the men ingeniously constructed papier-mache versions of their heads from soap, dust, toilet paper, and toothpaste. The heads were made to look realistic with paint from the maintenance workshop and real human hair collected from the floor of the prison barbershop. They were placed on the prisoners’ pillows while clothes and towels were stuffed under their blankets in the shape of their bodies. Any guard looking in would see them sound asleep in their beds, when in fact they were up on the top level building a 6x14 foot rubber raft and paddles