Alcatraz Island

The morning bed check on June 12, 1962, revealed three missing prisoners and three carefully made substitutes. Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin had left dummy heads in their beds, using plaster, paint and real human hair to suggest sleeping men. Guards had been watching the cells while a different kind of work progressed behind them. The deception bought time for an escape whose final outcome has never been established.

The men had loosened ventilation openings, reached an unguarded utility corridor and built equipment in a concealed workspace above the cellblock. Raincoats became a raft and life preservers. Allen West helped with the plan but failed to get out of his cell in time. The others reached the roof and the shoreline on the night of June 11. Investigators recovered items associated with the escape, but no credible evidence of the men's later lives emerged during the FBI's investigation. On December 31, 1979, the bureau closed its case and transferred responsibility to the U.S. Marshals Service. Escape from a cell had been demonstrated; survival beyond the island remained uncertain.