The Great Escape from Alcatraz

The Greatest Escape from Alcatraz - Another Chapter...

After decades of investigating, the F.B.I concluded that there were more key findings indicative of a failed escape rather than any findings or evidence that would suggest any of the inmates found their way to freedom. In the end, there was never any credible land based evidence that would lend to a positive outcome for any of the inmates.

A little known fact about the famed “great escape,” is that there were initially six accomplices! June Stephens (1225-AZ), had been brought into the plan as early as December and occupied a cell on the third tier, directly above Morris and the Anglin Brothers. During a prison-wide shakedown following the escape , there were also holes found around the ventilation grill inside the cell of Robert L. Williams (1184-AZ). Williams, serving time for murder, later denied any direct involvement, but Stephens admitted his role and later revealed that Frank Morris asked him to withdraw due to three issues that he had felt would ultimately compromise their escape plan.

The first was that each cell was having an additional water spout for warm water installed. While the backsides of the cells at ground level would be easy to conceal for officer inspections, there would be no way to conceal holes located at the backsides of the upper tier cells. Additionally, once the inmates had completed cutting around their grills, there was a risk that loose sections of the cement or grill could fall and alert officers to the escape plot. Finally, if they were successful going undetected, maneuvering out of the hole only being able to hold the pipes at such a high elevation would be much more difficult, not to mention it would be too dangerous emerging from a confined space at that height.

While Stephens role in the escape was believed to end five months prior to the date the plan was executed, his interviews with officials offered detailed descriptions on how the inmates carefully planning and effected their escape. While Robert Williams completely denied his role, Stephens later revealed that Morris and Williams worked together in the Glove Shop and stated that “Williams probably had a significant role” as both he and Morris “were close friends” and that he helped secure many of the articles that were used in the escape. Stephens was later tried and convicted for his role in the escape and sent to isolation. Stephen’s died in November of 1995 and Williams in May of 2006.

Crew members from the Freighter Ship Norefjell filed an official report stating they had seen a body floating about twenty miles west of the Golden Gate. Click on the ship's photo to read one of the offical statements to the F.B.I. (requires Adobe Reader).

While historians share different theories on why West didn’t make it out, both West and Stephens both provided one common story that would suggest that West was left behind.

An official F.B.I. Investigative Report provided the following statement of the escape:

F.B.I. OFFICIAL INVESTIGATIVE SUMMARY REPORT

At 7:15 AM, June 12, 1962, Frank Lee Morris, John William Anglin, and Clarence Anglin, all inmates of the United States penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, California, discovered missing from their cells by officers of the penitentiary, in dummy faces were found in their beds. Escaped by digging holes to the back walls in ventilator areas of their cells; climbing plumbing pipes in utility court or behind cells and then broke through bars in ventilator lid onto the roof. Climb down from the roof on the large pipe at the rear the cell house, over the fence, and to the north east shore of the island. A similar hole in the cell of inmate Allen West as well as a dummy face. They left at about 9:37 PM on June 11, 1962, supposedly to return and help finish West's hole, and not seen since. Later that night Wes completed the hole in the cell, proceeded to the roof, and ascertained they had gone. He returned to his cell and to bed. Escapees had taken a 6' x 14' raft made from rubberized raincoats and three yoke life preservers similarly made. These articles had been made and stored on roof tear under the cell house roof, and escapees had worked on the same in evenings after breaking out of the cell. West states they plan to escape to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay and then to the mainland. They would commit burglary to obtain guns and clothing; then steal a car and leave the area.