What Happened to the 3 Men Who Escaped Alcatraz?

How did three men escape Alcatraz in 1962, and did they survive? On the morning of June 12, 1962, a guard at Alcatraz reached through the bars to wake a sleeping prisoner, and the man's head rolled onto the floor. It was made of paper, soap and cement dust, with real human hair. Frank Morris and the brothers John and Clarence Anglin were already gone. Prof. Theodore Page opens the case file: the prisoners' own cards from the National Archives, the wall they dug through with sharpened spoons, saw blades and a drill made from a vacuum-cleaner motor, the hidden workshop above the cells, the raincoat raft, the night of the escape, what the bay gave back, the FBI's 1979 conclusion, the 2014 tide model from the Netherlands, and the paper trail that keeps the case open: a 2013 letter, a photo from Brazil, and U.S. Marshals warrants that are still active. Status as of October 2026. Previous episode: The Panama Canal Is Auctioning Off Its Rain ▶    • The Panama Canal Is Auctioning Off Its Rain   Chapters 0:00 A head on the floor 0:46 Your guide 1:13 The Rock 2:03 The men 3:10 The wall 4:04 The workshop in the ceiling 5:04 The paper heads 5:58 The night 7:02 The morning 7:47 The water 8:54 The paper trail 9:58 Did they make it? Sources The escape and the investigation: FBI, Famous Cases "Alcatraz Escape", "A Byte Out of History" (2007), the FBI Vault case file (1962–1979) and the FBI San Francisco press release on the 3D-printed heads (15 Nov 2018); Federal Bureau of Prisons, Alcatraz history. The men: National Archives (RG 129), Bureau of Prisons "Warden's Notebook" cards for Frank Lee Morris (AZ-1441), John William Anglin (AZ-1476), Clarence Anglin (AZ-1485) and Allen West (AZ-1335). The search today: U.S. Marshals Service fugitive pages and age-progression images (FBI, shared again in 2022); FOX TV stations (21 Jun 2022); ABC7 I-Team (16 May 2016). The 2013 letter: CBS New York, TIME and KTVU (Jan 2018). The tide model: Delft University of Technology / Deltares (2014), via BBC News (15 Dec 2014), AP and EARTH Magazine. Background: NPR (Sep 2009); Seattle Times (2 Jan 1994); History.com; National Park Service. Archival photographs: FBI; National Archives; U.S. Marshals Service. Music, narration voice and sound effects: ElevenLabs. Prof. Theodore Page is a fictional animated host. Illustrations are AI-generated recreations; the historical photographs and records are from U.S. government archives. The tide chart and the boat paths on the map are simplified illustrations of the published study, not its data. #Alcatraz #TrueCrime #Documentary