Escape From Alcatraz

4 Pages 905 Words

Alcatraz Island sits in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Most people think of the prisoners, its history before it became a prison, and even a few movies. One of those movies had been based on a true story. Escape from Alcatraz was a movie that told the story of Frank Morris and the Anglin Brothers, the only people who ever “made it” off the island. But did they ever make it to the mainland?
Frank Morris was considered to be very brilliant. If anyone could get out of an “inescapable prison,” it would be him. Morris was shipped from one foster home to another when he was an infant, clear into his teenage years. He was convicted of his first crime when he was only thirteen. By the time he was in his late teens, his record ranged from narcotics possession, to armed robbery. He was sent to Alcatraz because of his “shotgun freedom” escape attempts.
John and Clarence Anglin were brothers that were convicted for bank robbery in Georgia. In the Atlanta federal penitentiary they became acquainted with Morris, and were sent to Alcatraz for escape attempts similar to those of Morris. But a sentence in Alcatraz still wasn’t enough for Morris, and he let it rub off on the Anglin brothers. Allan West was another prison inmate that was in on the plan. He was very arrogant, and later took credit for the plan. He was serving his second term on the rock.
In December of 1961, the plan started to take shape. The brothers were slowly sneaking hair from the barbershop in the prison, and hiding it in their cells. Morris would spend most of the nights chipping away at the air vent in his cell, and by May of ’62, all three had dug through the six-by-nine-inch holes.

The Anglin’s cells were next to each other, and so were West’s and Morris’s. The inmates took different shifts with one working, and one as a look out. They started at 5:30 p.m. and continued on until 9:00 p.m. John and Clarence started making dummy heads, and even na...