Hello!
Welcome back to another episode of diagnosing a killer.
The mental breakdown.
I'm Kena.
The mental breakdown.
I'm Koelle.
She was not finished singing and I just totally started.
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So usually I say the topic and then I get the content warning.
So you still don't know.
I'm really excited about this one.
It's not necessarily, I mean, it is definitely a true crime related.
Not so much psychology, but definitely kind of like, I like to use mental breakdowns sometimes.
It's like a loophole to talk about something I think is super interesting.
Right.
So that I did this week.
Okay.
And today we are going to be talking about Alcatraz escapees.
Yeah.
Oh my God, I'm so excited for this.
So I'm going to first go into the history of Alcatraz.
Of course, if you are not familiar with it, I will let you know it is a small island off
the coast of California, San Francisco, which is the east coast, I'm sorry, west coast of
the United States.
Wow, I'm already botched.
I know, way to piss off Snoop Dogg.
But we will be talking about a little bit of history so that if you're not familiar with
it, you can get familiar before we start talking about the people that attempted to escape.
Okay.
I'm excited.
Alcatraz Island is a small island about 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco, California
and the United States.
The first European to document the island's existence was Spanish naval officer and explorer
Juan Manuel de Ayala during the Spanish rule of California in 1775.
Okay.
Wow.
He would name the island La Isla de los Alcatraz, which translates to the island of the Gannets,
which is the type of seabird.
Okay.
Although this is the official translation, it's commonly believed that La Isla de los
Alcatraz actually translates to the island of the Pelicans.
Okay.
Even though the modern Spanish translation of pelican is pelicano, however, the archaic
Spanish word alcatraz directly translates to pelican.
Yeah.
So it's kind of like, it's just like a, because it's been so long and then like translation,
you know, a loss in translation kind of thing.
Well an alcatraz is also a type of bird.
Yes.
I think so.
It's also now known that there were no Gannets native to the Pacific coast, making the older
Spanish word translation, or translation most likely, so pelican.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
Especially if that's the only word that he used to describe that type of bird, right?
Well, yeah.
It might have been like, I don't know the word for this, so I'm going to say this because
they're really similar, right?
Because the Gannet, I actually looked it up, it's more similarly related to like a blue
footed booby.
Okay.
So the Gannet is a word that's used in the English language, or the English language
is a short word, like the really big ones.
Right.
So over the years, the name alcatraz became popular and is now widely used.
In August of 1827, French captain Augusta Bernard de Hautselie wrote, quote, running
past Alcatraz's island covered with a countless number of these birds, a gun fired over the
feathered lesions causing them to fly up in a great cloud with a noise like a hurricane,
end quote.
Gosh, so they just like popularized this island like really quickly and massively.
Yes, exactly.
But this makes me also think that they were pelicans because Gannets are again much smaller
birds compared to pelicans.
And pelicans wings are so big that it would make a lot of noise if they all took flight
at the same time.
Yeah.
The California brown pelican is not known to inhabit the island today as Spanish explorers
built several small buildings on the island following the discovery of it, kind of like
making them want to go elsewhere.
In June of 1846, Mexican governor Pio Pico was known to have given Julian workmen the
rights to the island with the understanding that he would build a lighthouse on it.
Julian was the co-owner of Rancho La Puente and a personal friend of Governor Pico.
Later that year, military governor of California, John C. Fremont would buy the island for $5,000
US dollars, which would be the equivalent to almost $200,000 today.
Whoa.
And put it in the name of the United States government.
In 1850, President Millard Fillmore ordered that Alcatraz Island be set aside specifically
as a US military reservation for military purposes following the Mexican-American war.
Okay.
John Fremont had expected a large compensation for his initiative in purchasing originally
and securing Alcatraz Island as a US government-owned land, but the government later invalidated
the sale and Fremont gained nothing monetarily.
They were just like in Tsar's Now.
Exactly.
Snooze you lose.
Right.
And his heirs eventually sued for compensation in a battle that would go on for nearly 40
years, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
So like his children, his children's children, and his children's children's children were
like, hey, not really that far.
I was going to say it was only 40 years.
But still they were like, yeah, sorry.
He was just old at that point.
Yeah.
Sucks to suck.
Yeah.
That's awful.
And again, how big is it?
Because you're saying that it's for military barracks, right?
Or originally it was supposed to be its purpose.
So pretending like I just know this off the top of my head.
It was about, what did I say, 22 acres, which equals about 16 American football fields,
and about 89,000 meters for our listeners outside of America.
That sounds like so many meters.
Is there nothing bigger than a meter?
I'm sure there is, but we don't go by the metric system.
Wait, let's pause and look it up again.
Okay.
LOL, the word meters is in kilometers.
89 kilometers.
Thank you.
And we say kilometers, not kilometers.
Kilometers.
Yeah.
I like aluminium.
I also like urinal.
Do you see that?
Is it a urinal?
Oh, man.
I've heard Lisa Vanderpump say urinal.
Urinal.
It sounds so nice when she says it.
Sounds pretty.
Urinal.
So going back just one year in 1849, the US Army began studying the suitability of Alcatraz
Island for the positioning of coastal barriers to protect the approaches to San Francisco
Bay by enemies following the Treaty of Guadalupe Heldago, which ended the Mexican-American War.
But they were still like, fuck, we got to prepare ourselves.
It already had a lighthouse too at this point, right?
No, not yet.
Oh, okay.
I think this is that guy who built a lighthouse.
He was supposed to.
Oh, okay.
I'm pretty sure.
And I don't think he either he did.
I'm sorry.
There's a lighthouse that comes in later.
So I'm pretty sure he was planning on it and it just didn't get around to it.
At some point there's a lighthouse.
There's a lighthouse at some point, yes.
But I think following the Mexican-American War ending, they were still like, okay, we're
going to use this land to protect our military arsenal essentially and we just need protection
around the coast.
Right.
It makes sense because if it's further from the coast, they're able to see enemies coming
in and alert the shore.
Yes, okay.
In 1853, under the direction of Zellis B. Tower, the US Army Corps of Engineers began
fortifying the island, which would continue until 1858 when the initial version of Fort
Alcatraz was completed.
So they made a fourth there as well.
About 200 soldiers would arrive there later that year to set up a protection location.
When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, the island mounted 85 cannons around its
perimeter and the island also served as a San Francisco arsenal for storage of firearms
to prevent them from falling into the hands of enemies.
Alcatraz, built as a, quote, heavily fortified military site on the west coast, end quote,
was to form a, quote, triangle of defense, end quote, with fort point and lime point.
But the contemplated work on lime point was never built, paving the way for a lighthouse
to be built on Alcatraz.
I see.
Because they don't have vision of all three now.
They only have two.
So they're like, we need something to show us what's going on out there.
During the war, fort Alcatraz was used to imprison Confederate sympathizers and privateers
on the west coast.
But the guns on the island were never fired at enemies.
It was just as like a warning, like you said.
And as an incarceration unit.
Starting in 1863, the military also held private citizens accused of treason and hundreds of
troops were trained on the island with more than 350 military personnel in place by April
of 1861.
So now it's like a base.
Yeah.
It's kind of incredible though, because even if they were holding, you know, prisoners
of war, that they would have to boat their asses out there.
And then, you know, I mean, I guess you just get left there, but then you're stuck on
an island with prisoners of war.
And I'll get into how unsafe it would be to try to leave that island, even if you could
get to the shore.
As new enlistees were assigned to units, new troops reported back for training.
And early by 1865, the number of soldiers on the island reached about 433.
During the Civil War, modernization efforts, including a plan to level the entire island
and construct shell-proof underground magazines and tunnels were being talked about.
What?
Like, dope, right?
That's insane!
That's so much!
I know.
However, this would not be completed ever, and instead, the army switched back its focus
for Alcatraz to be for detention rather than for defense.
Okay.
Because it's like banished them.
I mean, like, obviously.
Yeah, seriously.
I mean, it's Australia all over again.
Just really diming.
In 1867, a brick jailhouse was built, and in 1868, Alcatraz was officially designated
as a long-term detention facility for military prisoners.
Although the people incarcerated at Alcatraz were Confederates caught on the West Coast
and some Native American men in the 1870s who refused orders to send their children away
from their families to, quote, Indian boarding schools, which are pretty much like they sound
they were utilized to convert Native children into a more white way of living, quote unquote,
which is terrible.
Of course, families would not comply, and then they would be taken prisoner, which is
fucked up.
In 1989, due to the Spanish-American War, the prison population rose from 26 to over
450.
From 1905 to 1907, the prison was commanded by US Army General George W. McLeiver, and
after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, civilian prisoners were transferred to Alcatraz for
safe confinement.
Because the prison got fucked on the mainland.
Yeah.
So they were like, just ship them over there.
Just ship them over there.
Put them on a boat.
On March 21, 1907, Alcatraz was officially designated as the Western US Military Prison,
later Pacific Branch, US Disciplinary Barracks, 1915.
In 1909, construction began on the huge concrete main cell block, designed by Major Rubin Turner,
which remains the island's dominant feature.
Still?
Yes.
It was completed in 1912, and to accommodate the new cell block, the three-story barracks
was demolished down to the first floor.
They actually had a basement level as well, which was considered the first floor.
In the island?
Yes.
That's so strange.
It's not weird.
Because you don't just dig into the ocean.
It's just like an iceberg, right?
Yeah.
Like, this is as much as you see on top, but underneath there's land.
A lot more.
And the building had been constructed in an excavated pit, creating a defensive dry moat
also.
So even harder to get off if you needed to leave.
In 1934, the island was converted into a federal prison called Alcatraz, a federal
penitentiary.
So 1934 is the beginning of what we now know to be Alcatraz.
Alcatraz today.
Okay.
Well, not really, but yes.
The strong currents and ice cold water surrounding the island made it the perfect spot for a continuing
prison, as it was nearly impossible to escape.
Due to this, the prison quickly became one of the most notorious in American history.
I say ice cold water, but the seasonal temperature in the San Francisco Bay is around 53 degrees
Fahrenheit.
Okay.
So not like ice cold, but not hot, you know, pretty cold.
It would be livable, but hypothermia would set it at some point, right?
For sure, yeah.
And the current can exceed six knots of force, excuse me.
With these barriers and the fact that there were many razor sharp rocks and great white
sharks spotted surrounding the prison, prison officers would highly discourage escape attempts
by prisoners.
Like, yeah, you probably don't want to do that, like I'm not saying this as your correctional
officer.
I'm saying this as your friend, as a person.
Don't do that.
You're going to.
Don't do that.
The first ever attempt to escape the prison was made on April 27th, 1936, just two years
after Alcatraz became Alcatraz.
By prisoner AZ210, Joseph Bowers, who was assigned the duty of burning trash at the
incinerator.
He was working burning garbage at the incinerator during duty hours when he suddenly ran and
began scaling a chain link fence at the edge of the island.
It's like I'm out of here.
Attempting to make it to shore.
Well, at this point, like you said, the prison's only two years old.
He's probably like these dumbasses.
Yeah.
They put it like right on some water.
I could just swim.
Fucking hell.
It's a dumb machine.
It's just a dumb machine.
It's a dumb island.
When he was caught in the act of running, Joseph would refuse orders of the CEO yelling at
him from the tower due to him ignoring the commands of the CEO.
Joseph would be shot seriously injured and fell from the top of the fence where he was.
Oh my God.
He would ultimately die from his wounds.
I fucking bet.
Yeah.
And they're probably not, I mean, you're on a fucking island.
I guess they have an informatory.
Kick him into the water.
I'm sorry.
It's not funny.
Of course, nobody saw that.
But can I start making a kicking motion?
Get out of here.
No, that's terrible.
But yeah, of course, they would have an informatory, but if you needed like real help, a boat is
forever away.
The way for the boat to get there.
Well, it's a dad farm.
It's like a mile, not even a mile and a half.
Yeah, but this is 1936.
It might as well be 1836.
You got to wait for quotes to where Columbus can pick your ass up.
So this incident termed Bowers quote, desperate escape, end quote, was deemed by inmates
to have either been an actual escaped attempt, escape attempt, a deliberate suicide, an attempt
to climb up and grab garbage wedged in the fence, or an attempt to climb the fence to
feed a seagull.
The last one doesn't seem very feasible.
Feeding an alcatraz or whatever that thing was called.
Some inmates believe that this was an attempted suicide due to the fact that Joseph had previously
made multiple attempts and was deemed by other prisoners to be criminally insane.
So he was probably like, but like, okay, so if I make it over this fence, I'm at least
throwing myself into this frigid water or, you know, presumed frigid water, or I'm going
to get shot before I reach there.
Exactly.
Whatever the intention was by Bowers, it was indisputable that he ignored the commands
of the correction officer and kept climbing the fence even after warning shots were fired.
Oh my gosh.
So even if his mindset when he was leaving was I'm going to grab some trash.
Yeah, like it's like they told him to stop and he didn't.
So that makes sense as to why he would fall in so far because he was really high up the
fence when they shot him.
On December 16th, 1937, prisoners Az 258 and Az 260, Theodore Cole and Ralph Rowe had
gradually filed through iron bars in the prison's mat shop and escaped on a very foggy day.
Damn, that's so boss though.
I love like Andy Dufresne.
Yeah, that's a hero story.
It's terrible.
Because it was so foggy this prevented the two men from being seen by guards in the watch
towers.
The two jumped off the island and into the water and were never seen again.
Never seen again.
The treacherous waters and severe weather at the time led people to believe that the two
had drowned in the bay and their bodies were swept out to sea.
However, they were subsequently listed as number one and number two on the FBI's most
wanted list because of this.
Never found them at all.
So it's either them or another case that you're probably going to touch on that there's a
possibility that they actually escaped.
So yes, I will talk about that.
That's towards the end.
So I will say just spoiler alert, no one has ever been officially labeled escaped from
Alcatraz.
Wow.
There's no evidence that anyone escaped successfully from Alcatraz ever.
On May 23rd, 1938, prisoners Az263 and Az335 and Az224, Rufus Franklin, Thomas R. Limerick,
and James C. Lucas attacked and killed a guard named Royal Klein with a claw hammer in the
woodwork shop.
Oh, that's fucked up.
Terrible.
Also, this is like one every year, like one attempt every year.
Yeah, and it seems like they're like kind of learning from like past failed attempts,
which is awful.
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The three proceeded to the roof where an armed guard shot Rufus Franklin and Thomas Limerick,
who both ultimately died.
James Lucas was eventually cornered by guards and would surrender.
A few years prior to this escape attempt on June 23rd, 1936, James Lucas was also known
to have attacked Al Capone in the prison's laundry room.
What?
So this guy was not fucking around?
No, he wasn't.
I don't know any more details about that.
Oh.
I just thought that was interesting.
That is interesting.
On January 13th, 1939, Arthur or Doc Barker, William Martin, Rufus McCain, Henry Young,
I guess that was Henry Young that made that noise.
That was crazy.
I had to stop because I heard something.
I was like, what the hell?
And then he opened up the door, like the bedroom door, and we checked on no one who was there.
Nope.
Kenan was even like, but where you at?
And then nothing happened.
Nothing.
Cute.
Okay.
So I'm going to repeat those names.
Arthur, Doc Barker, William Martin, Rufus McCain, Henry Young, and Dale Stamp Hill, who
were inmates of the prison's more secure unit, the D Block, they all escaped the cellhouse
and reached the Alcatraz Shore.
So they got all the way to the end.
As they were putting a makeshift raft together, they were spotted by a guard and fired upon
immediately.
Doc Barker was killed on site while Dale Stamp Hill was wounded, and the others were
captured and sent to solitary confinement.
Why am I rooting for these guys?
Oh, damn, they got caught.
Oh, no, he was shot.
I mean, they're here because they're like really bad people.
So true.
On May 21st, 1941, Joe Kretzer, Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle, and Lloyd Barkdahl were working
in the industry's area when they ambushed the guards on duty and attempted to saw through
window bars to reach the shore.
The bars were tool-proof, however, and their attempt at escaping became foiled when they
realized this.
So it's like, did they replace all the bars after those other two files down the bars?
That's interesting.
So it's Alcatraz is learning as well.
Exactly.
Both Joe Kretzer and Sam Shockley would attempt to escape again later in the Battle of Alcatraz.
And we'll talk about this in a minute.
The Battle of Alcatraz?
On September 15th, 1941, John Richard Bayless was working in the garbage detail on Alcatraz
and managed to elude the guards reaching the shore.
He would jump into the water and try swimming to San Francisco, but would ultimately give
up and return to shore.
He's like, you know what, it's not going to work.
Can you just give me back inside please?
Never mind, I'm cold.
I'm hungry.
On April 14th, 1943, James Borman, Harold Martin-Brest, Floyd Garland Hamilton, and
Fred John Hunter managed to cut window bars in the industry's mat shop without being noticed.
That's four of them?
Yes.
That's one too many, in my opinion.
I feel like three is pushing it, but a group of them?
Fuck off.
Yeah, you're going to make it more obvious.
You go ahead and do that and I'll sneak out the back.
The men were able to assemble four cans that contained army uniforms and would double as
flotation devices like the cans.
Then they would overpower two guards, bind and gag them, and escape out the window.
During this time, the four men would leave behind two of the four cans.
I guess they were just trying to leave so fast.
Now they are getting to shore and only two of them have flotation devices.
One of the attacked guards managed to get his whistle loose while the other guard managed
to get his hands free, enabling him to blow the whistle that was free.
That's kind of cool.
That's cute.
Back in the day, they're like bobbies.
All they do is just blow whistles at people.
This whistle-blowing alerted the tower guards who then opened fire on the men running.
James Borman would be shot and begin floating in the water unconscious but supported by
Harold Brest.
As Brest was recovered by guards, Borman would be let go of and ultimately sink into the
bay, never to be seen again.
Fred Hunter, who had injured his back and hands during the escape attempt, gave up
swimming and sought refuge in a nearby cave.
He would be discovered two hours later when guards saw blood stains on the outside of
the cave and fired a warning shot into the cave to entice him to come out.
Oh yeah, totally.
I was like, oh yeah, let me run towards you.
Well, they're like, next one's in your fucking scalp.
You know what I mean?
He's probably like, yeah.
He would surrender himself and return to the prison.
Floyd Hamilton was wrongly assumed by guards to have been hit by gunfire and sunk, similarly
to Borman, but he had actually been hiding in the same cave as Fred Hunter, under a
pile of tires.
Two days later, he would climb back up the same cliff that he had jumped off of and find
his way back to the window he had escaped from.
Being under a pile of materials in the storeroom, he's like, I'm cold.
He would be found there the next morning and just continue to be at the prison.
Totally didn't escape.
I've been here this whole time.
I don't know what you're talking about.
They're like, you smell like seaweed and piss.
Exactly, though.
That's probably what he was thinking, like if they don't know that I left.
They're like, we literally saw you in the water.
We saw you.
We thought you were dead.
That's the only reason we didn't try to recover your body.
Right.
Here on Ted Walters, who was serving a sentence of 30 years for robbery, assault, and auto
theft, had noticed that on the weekends fewer guards were on duty.
He also noticed that their attention tended to be focused on the wreckyard rather than
inside.
He would take advantage of the situation on August 7th, 1943, and slip out of the new
industry's building where he was working in the laundry room.
His plan was to cut through two security fences that separated him from freedom, make his
way to the water, and swim to San Francisco.
His plan would quickly go sideways when the wire cutters he smuggled with him failed to
work.
He would end up climbing up both fences, but fell from the second fence, injuring his
back.
Although Huron would make it to the shore, he was unable to go any further due to his
injury, and he would be picked up by Captain of the Guards, Henry Weinholt, and the Associate
Warden, E.J. Miller.
Huron would be returned to the cell house where he spent some time in the hospital and
then was thrown in solitary confinement.
And then he was thrown back out to the shore.
On July 31st, 1945, John K. Giles, a prison worker, managed to assemble a U.S. Army's
Technical Surgeon's uniform, most likely from stealing pieces of garments that were sent
to be cleaned, like one at a time.
And I say prison worker, but he was a prisoner.
And he actually boarded a ferry that provided service between government facilities and
San Francisco Bay with his army fatigues, like he looked like one of the guys.
I think this is like the smartest one on the whole of them.
Shortly after the ferry's departure for Angel Island, headcount on Alcatraz came up short.
They would relay the information to the ferry who searched the boat and came across John,
returning him to Alcatraz.
Imagine that, like, he's like, God, I was so close, like I was right there.
So close.
Fuck.
That 23-year-old happened.
Don't feel sorry for him.
They're prisoners.
They're bad people.
But what did they do, though?
But like, what did they do?
Probably murder.
Perhaps the most violent and infamous escape attempt from Alcatraz came in May of 1946,
in the form of the Battle of Alcatraz.
From May 2nd to May 4th, six prisoners would attempt to escape the island.
This was also known as the Alcatraz blastout.
The six prisoners involved in the escape were Bernard Coy, Clarence Carnes, Marvin Hubbard,
Myron Thompson, Joseph Kretzer, and Sam Shockley.
So the guys from earlier.
From earlier.
Yes.
The men took control of the cell house by overpowering COs and were able to enter the weapons room,
maintaining keys to the right-yard door in the process.
Oh, that's a big goof.
Oh, yeah.
That's just like, I mean, it's just one guy that has all those keys.
You're right.
They probably all have a key, right?
The men's goal was to escape via boat, but they failed to obtain the keys to the outside
door, so they decided to battle it out with the guards.
So now they're in between the right door and the outside door, and the guards are like
inside.
They're like, come on, motherfucker.
Like Sallyport type stuff?
Or like, you know, Sallyport's like the in-between.
Yeah, kind of.
Yeah.
That's what it seems like.
The fight would ensue, and the men managed to hold two COs hostage during this time, whom
they eventually killed after two days of holding them hostage.
Oh my god.
The hostages were killed by Joseph Kretzer after Sam Shockley and Mirren Thompson encouraged
him to kill them.
And it said that it was point blank, which is really sad.
Well, hopefully it was quick.
One of the guards by the name of William Miller would succumb to his injuries almost immediately.
With the second guard, Harold Stites would ultimately be killed in the cell house by
friendly fire from the outside.
What?
I don't know if he would have lived or not, but he got additionally wounded by his own
men, unfortunately.
Oh my god.
Following this shootout, Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes would return to their cells, and
the other three, Koi, Kretzer, and Hubbard, would persist with their fight.
The US Marines would intervene to help the COs and would kill the three men who stayed
behind.
In this battle, apart from the guards and prisoners killed, 17 other guards and one prisoner were
also injured.
Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes were tried for the killings of the COs, and Shockley and
Thompson were sentenced to death through gas chamber.
That's what I was going to ask.
I'd be like, yeah, you returned to your cells at certain points or whatever, and you're
like, oh yeah, but you've already done enough damage.
Exactly, yeah.
On some of those.
And so I was wondering, did some of them get tried with murder?
Yeah.
Of course, rescindence.
So there was actually no death row at Alcatraz, so this would actually be carried out at San
Quentin in December of 1948.
And I'll talk more about that a little bit later.
But it's all essentially gen pop right now?
They're all just, it's general population.
Unless you're in the military, yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Carnes, who was only 19 years old at the time of this battle, was given an additional life
sentence.
On July 23rd, 1956, prisoner Floyd Wilson disappeared from his job at the dock, but
was discovered after hiding for 12 hours among large rocks on the shoreline.
He had given up his plan to make a raft out of driftwood.
He's like, you know what, this is too hard.
It's cold and it's wet.
And that's what a lot of people, I feel like, realized.
They're like, oh shit, this is not as easy as I thought it was going to be to get out
of here.
Prisoners Aaron Burgett and Clyde Johnson were working on the garbage detail when they
both overpowered a guard on September 29th, 1958.
They would both jump into the water attempting to swim off the island.
The two men attempted to use inflated plastic bags as flotation devices and wooden boards
as flippers.
What?
They tied them to their feet.
I don't know why that's so funny.
I feel like it's like floaties and two wooden bars.
They tied plastic bags to their arms.
That's so silly.
A police launch would intercept Clyde Johnson, but Aaron Burger disappeared.
He would die in his escape attempt and his body would be found floating in the bay near
Alcatraz two weeks later.
On June 11th, 1962, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin would successfully carry
out one of the most intricate escapes ever devised.
Oh, okay.
This is it.
I'm excited.
I don't remember a lot from it.
I just remember seeing something on History Channel.
Yeah.
Behind the prisoner's cell in Cellblock C was an unguarded, three-foot-wide utility corridor.
The prisoners would chisel away the concrete that was damaged by moisture, giving way for
it to be softer, using tools like metal spoons and forks.
They had also somehow gotten access to an electric drill made from a stolen vacuum cleaner motor.
I don't know how.
What?
And of course, this was noisy, right?
The noise of this was disguised by accordions that prisoners played during their music hour,
which is actually like an hour and a half, and their progress into the tunnel was concealed
by false walls.
You really couldn't see it, especially in the dark, until the prisoners just didn't
really know.
This escape route then led through an air vent, a shaft large enough for the men to climb
through.
The men were able to gain access to over 50 rubber raincoats from other inmates they would
plan to use as their flotation devices.
Raincoats?
Yes.
Right?
Okay.
The men would also all make papier-mache heads of themselves and leave them in their cell
bunks, like in their beds.
It looked like they were there.
That sounds haunting.
Right?
And there's a picture of one online.
It's like really creepy.
They would put these heads in their bed before escaping through a vent in the roof and departing
Alcatraz.
An official investigation from the FBI launched immediately from 1962 and lasted until December
1979 when they finally closed it.
They were just like, it's an open case and then hopefully we'll find them and then they
just never did it?
Yeah.
The official report on the escape from the FBI is that the prisoners all drown in the
cold bay water while trying to reach the mainland.
The FBI states that it is highly unlikely that the men would have been able to make the
1.25 mile swim to shore.
The US-US Marshall Service, however, their case still remains open and active.
Morris and the Anglin brothers remain on the wanted list for this department.
What?
Circumstantial evidence uncovered in the early 2010s seems to suggest that the men had survived
and that contrary to what the FBI stated about rafts never being recovered, that rafts were
in fact found nearby Angel Island with footprints leading away.
What?
Like the raincoat rafts were never recovered.
Yeah.
I was like, oh, rafts were never recovered.
And then there was circumstantial evidence that were like made of paper.
But we found 50 raincoats.
That's a little rough.
It's not a rough, it's raincoats, duh.
On top of this, a car had been reported stolen on the night of the escape by three men in
the area.
I didn't know any of this.
Oh my gosh, this is exciting.
Because of the Anglin brothers presented further circumstantial evidence in support of a rumor
that the Anglin brothers had fled to Brazil following their escape.
A facial recognition analysis of a photograph proposed to be of John and Clarence in Brazil
in 1975, 13 years after their escape concluded that it was not them.
Bummer.
I know, right?
Again, we're here rooting for the murders.
I personally think that they didn't make it, but it's just me.
I don't know.
I'd like to think somewhere out there.
Right.
I thought that these guys are Andy Dufresne, but that an Andy Dufresne exists somewhere.
Yeah, maybe.
As long as they're not hurting anyone else, which they probably are.
Yeah, hopefully they're not hurting anyone else.
Finally, on December 16, 1962, John Paul Scott and Daryl Lee Parker would become the last
two prisoners to attempt to escape from Alcatraz.
In what year?
62.
62, wow.
The men used a makeshift saw to cut through the bars on a kitchen window in the cell
house before running to the edge of the island and jumping into the water.
Daryl Parker would be found alive 81 yards from the main island on the rock formation
named Little Alcatraz, while John Scott would reach Fort Point beneath the Golden Gate Bridge,
where he was found by teenagers suffering from exhaustion and hypothermia.
Oh my gosh.
The teenagers weren't suffering.
He was suffering, sorry.
I'm sorry, the teenagers are him.
But the fact that he was found by teenagers is crazy because I'm like, he was that close
to the mainland.
Like these teenagers might have been exploring a little bit farther away, but he's under
the Golden Gate Bridge.
Yeah.
Oh, Mr. Mr. Are you okay?
Yeah.
Oh, I, you know, take my coat, take my whatever.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
After recovering in Letterman General Hospital, he would be returned to Alcatraz.
They're like, he wouldn't fucking stay in here with the fuckers.
Sorry, bro.
This is the only proven case of an Alcatraz inmate reaching the shore by swimming, which
is interesting.
And that's 1962.
Yes.
And get this.
The Alcatraz Fort Point route that they took from Alcatraz to Fort Point is now part
of two annual triathlon events.
People swim this on purpose now.
What?
Proving that it's possible.
Exactly.
Every day.
Yeah.
What's, I mean, one dude could just like hop out and just start swimming with everyone
else.
No, really.
Like it's just, isn't that wild?
I'm like, why would you do that on purpose?
One guy without goggles and a wetsuit, but still.
It's like he might be a prisoner.
He's wearing black and white.
On March 21st, 1963, Alcatraz would close its doors after 29 years of operation.
Contrary to popular relief, the prison did not close due to the escape of Morris and
the Anglin brothers, but because the institution was just too expensive to continue operation.
So it's no longer a prison.
As of what year?
63.
Oh, yeah.
So it hasn't been a prison for a very long time.
I didn't know that.
I have some fun facts.
That's pretty much the end of all the escapies, but I have some fun facts if you want to know.
More fun facts.
Yes, more.
So, number one, the gardens of Alcatraz are a well-known part of the prison, but not many
people know that they were actually started by the officers who initially worked there.
So the officers like planted and made these gardens look pretty.
It was like kind of nice, right?
Because they spent so much time there, you know?
Yeah, of course.
They wanted to look at something pretty.
Due to the harsh barren landscape, particularly hard plants were chosen, and today they are
maintained by the National Park Service.
That's so cute, right?
Number two, families used to live on Alcatraz Island.
Due to the fact that being a prison officer was such a full-on job, wives and children
of the COs sometimes lived on the island too.
I believe that.
Resulting in several children growing up there.
There's actually an alumni association for children that grew up there that exist today,
so people can chat and talk about their lives.
See, and that's what's interesting is like, I said it earlier in the beginning of the
episode, it's just Australia.
Yeah, I mean, kind of.
They used to send prisoners there right at the beginning, and now it's like inhabited.
Yeah.
For sure.
Yeah, for sure.
You know, hundreds of years.
Number three, like I said earlier, there was no death row on Alcatraz.
There were actually just no facilities for executions, and no prisoner was ever put to
death there, although some did die naturally there during their sentence.
Number four, prisoners were noted as requesting transfers to Alcatraz.
Due to the prison having single-cell occupancy, unlike other prisons close by, and apparently
high-quality food, prisoners in other facilities were known to have asked for transfers there.
It's like a Marriott.
Yeah, they're like, I have to share the fucking cell with this motherfucker?
Like, no, I'm gonna get some Alcatraz even myself.
Plus Alcapones there.
And lastly, Alcatraz was never full.
The highest number of prisoners ever reported to be incarcerated there was 320, but the
average usually stood around 260, and the fewest number I could find was 222.
So yeah, it was just never a full prison.
That's gonna be nice.
That's it, though.
It was a huge giant mental breakdown, but I think it was really interesting.
It's like a history lesson wrapped into true crime.
Right, something a little different, and honestly, I could have gone through every
single person and what they did, but it would have made like for like a two-hour episode.
I was like, I don't know if I want to do all that.
They're all murderers.
But yeah, you can look it up.
I mean, I got literally all my information in one spot, and you can find a lot of stuff
on there, but...
That's interesting.
Yeah, they still do tours and stuff.
Yeah, I'm sure they do.
I mean, I don't think I would want to go there.
No?
I would love to.
I'm sorry, Great White Sharks around in the area.
I'm not gonna go there in a teeny boat.
It's not gonna be a teeny boat?
I've been on a boat and I've seen sharks.
There's fairies, because that one guy.
That's true.
Yeah, that's true.
I don't know, maybe.
I think it'd be fun.
I'm like, I'm not really crazy about islands, but I go to islands all the time, so I don't
know why I wouldn't be crazy about them.
It's 16 American football field sizes.
That's true.
It's pretty big.
I have to think about it.
And then, I mean, clearly the prison is just one part of it.
Yeah, that's true.
Would you guys go to Alcatraz?
Tell us.
Send us an email.
Tell us in the comments.
But yeah, that's all I have for today, and I can check that one off my list, because
every time I think of a new mental breakdown idea, I write it down in my notes, and then
I'm glad I do, because I saw it today and I was like, oh, okay, I forgot I did that one.
Yeah, so you guys have maybe a location that deals with true crime that you find is interesting.
I know we did Cecil Hotel once.
That would be kind of cool.
If you guys would like to hear more about location content on mental breakdowns, of
course, not in lieu of a case.
But yeah, that would be interesting.
Yeah, keep giving us your ideas.
Like I said, this is a cool opportunity, I think, for us to, I say loophole, but either
way, we're going to do what we want to do.
Yeah.
But to talk about things that are just interesting to us, it doesn't always have to be a psychology
diagnosis or an experiment.
Exactly.
Yeah, something like this, I think, is really cool.
And of course, it ties right into what we talk about.
Tell us about your famous true crime place.
There you go.
Whatever country you're in.
Or tell us your stories and we'll do a mental breakdown with people's personal stories.
Ooh, I would love to do that.
That would be cool.
Do a compilation of like write-ins.
The mental breakdown members only.
That's cool.
Just coined it.
All right, well, we will see you guys next time.
Yeah, love you.
Love you.
Bye.
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