The history of escaping from the world's most famous prison

• The history of escaping from the world's most famous prison

famous American prison was closed March 21, 1963 for dangerous criminals "Alcatraz", also known as "The Rock."

Located on the eponymous island off the coast of California, she was at one time considered the most protected in the United States. Presumably, for the 29 years of operation, the prison was not committed no successful escape. But you can not say for sure, since the three prisoners who managed to escape from the island in 1962, and has not been found either alive or dead. A number of factors indirectly points to the fact that they survived, crossing the bay.

First of all, imagine how improbable was the idea of ​​escape from this prison. Island Alcatraz is more than one mile from the shore, ice water and strong currents ensure its natural insulation.

Outside, the building was surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire and watchtowers. Three had concluded one overseer, each offender contained in a single chamber.

However, in June 1962 the three men managed to get around all of these obstacles. Sophisticated escape implemented Frank Morris, convicted of a bank robbery, and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, repeatedly convicted of theft and carjacking. The case was also Alan West, but he did not succeed in time to get out of the chamber. All they first attempted to escape, for which he had been transferred to the "Alcatraz".

accomplices held adjacent chambers. Found out that the old system of ventilation of their unit, unlike the others, is not filled with concrete, the prisoners decided to wade through it to the roof of the prison.

For ventilation led a narrow service tunnel, passing just beyond the walls of their cells. In each cell there vent ten to twenty centimeters. Morris became the developer of the project, and three others in the first stage have been busy making the necessary equipment.

They sharpened metal spoon soldered with a stolen motor of the vacuum cleaner was used instead of rosin silver from a dime. The result was an improvised drill, which conspirators almost a year in turn drilled the wall around the ventilation opening. The noise drowned out the music that on a daily basis for an hour playing in the unit. Damage to the walls they hide fake grille, artfully made from sheets of cardboard.

parallel criminals exchanged other prisoners Coats and rubberized raincoats, of which built a raft, two by four meters and lifejackets. Paddles were cut from plywood.

In addition, to their disappearance prematurely have not noticed the guards who performed nightly rounds cameras, men manufactured dolls from papier-mâché and plaster casts of human heads with real hair, gathered in a barbershop.

June 11, 1962 after curfew accomplices doll covered with blankets and climbed into the tunnel through the hole in the wall. Only the West, as it turned out, had not made a hole of sufficient size, and decided to run without it. Straightening grid closes broken fan, the three climbed onto the roof and down to the water drainpipe. There they inflated raft harvested using a small harmonics. Around ten o'clock the fugitives sailed away from the coast.

This traces Morris and Anglin lost. Officially they are still unaccounted for. Two days after the escape was discovered waterproof bag in which there were the phone book, money, and family photographs that belonged to one of the Anglin brothers. Also homemade lifejacket with visible teeth marks in the valve has been detected: probably the clamp was not sealed, and swimmer barely stayed on the surface (the water temperature in those days was no more than ten degrees Celsius).

Until 1978, he engaged in tracing the fugitives FBI, and then a warrant for their arrest was handed over by the US Marshals. Since 2003, the investigation officer of this department is Michael Dick. He believes that the criminals managed to escape, proof of which are almost 250 of circumstantial evidence.

In particular, Anglin mother for several years, receives a gift of flowers from a mysterious anonymous. In addition, it is believed that John and Clarence attended her funeral in 1973, disguised as a woman. A historian Frank Heaney Anglin learned from relatives that they allegedly received a postcard from South America, signed by the two brothers. The fate of Morris does not know anything.

Warrants for the arrest of criminals will be canceled only after they reach a hundred years. In the meantime, a search for escaped prisoners "Alcatraz" continues.