June 1962 Alcatraz escape

On the night of June 11, 1962, inmates Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, the maximum-security prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, California, United States. Having spent six months preparing their breakout, the three men tucked papier-mâché model heads resembling their own likenesses into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via ventilation ducts and an unguarded utility corridor, and departed the island aboard an improvised inflatable raft to an uncertain fate. A fourth inmate, Allen West, failed to escape with Morris and the Anglins and was left behind.

Hundreds of leads were pursued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced regarding the fate of Morris and the Anglins. In 1979, the FBI officially concluded, on the basis of circumstantial evidence and a preponderance of expert opinion, that the three inmates likely drowned in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay while attempting to reach the mainland. The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active, and Morris and the Anglin brothers will remain on its wanted list until September 2026. Numerous theories of widely varying plausibility on the fates of the three fugitives have been proposed by authorities, reporters, family members, and amateur enthusiasts, with circumstantial and material evidence continuing to surface, stoking debates as to whether the inmates may have survived their escape.