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00:02Alcatraz, the most famous prison in the world, where America's most notorious criminals are incarcerated.
00:10When you break the rules, you go to jail. When you break the rules in jail, you go to Alcatraz.
00:15Known as the rock designed to be inescapable.
00:19This place was built like a fortress. You have to wonder how anybody ever escaped from here.
00:24Only the most fearless would dare to try.
00:27All these layers of security, the thick concrete walls, this was a place for the heart of the hardest criminals.
00:35Now, investigators use innovative radar scanning equipment to uncover the island's secret past.
00:42These prisoners are telling us something about their time here.
00:46What really lies behind the prison's unbreakable reputation?
00:51Well, it's completely destroyed.
00:53To solve the mysteries of Alcatraz, we'll break into this iconic jail.
00:59Blowing open its cell doors and stripping away its barbed wire-topped walls.
01:05To reveal what finally breaks the rock.
01:24Alcatraz stands more than a mile out into the waters of San Francisco Bay.
01:29Its iconic prison block, a beacon of crime and punishment.
01:34For decades, this island is home to the most wanted men in America.
01:40Al Capone.
01:42Machine Gun Kelly.
01:44Robert Stroud.
01:46The Birdman.
01:47The convicts that came here couldn't be held anywhere else.
01:51What engineering secrets lie behind its legendary reputation?
01:57The rock is designed as a prison inside a prison.
02:01The outer wall is over two feet thick.
02:06Inside are over 300 cells stacked three stories high.
02:13And a two-ton steel door blocks the only exit.
02:21Outside, twelve-foot-tall fences topped with razor wire.
02:25All surrounded by six tall watchtowers with guards who shoot to kill.
02:32Alcatraz is the original Supermax Penitentiary.
02:36But why is the world's first maximum security prison built here?
02:43In the 1800s, Alcatraz Island is home to a military fort.
02:49Historic buildings expert Tanya Comas wants to find out if this mysterious structure influences the later prison.
02:58She uses ground-penetrating radar to search for its hidden remains.
03:03We've been able to scan the rec yard here, and this scan shows us something that we sort of knew
03:09might be there,
03:10and the science was able to confirm it.
03:12What we're looking at here is the recreation yard.
03:15The steps are here.
03:16There's the stairs and the cell houses up above.
03:19There is an actual structure running east-west right beneath the rec yard.
03:22The scan locates a long earthen mound.
03:26Running beneath it is a masonry magazine, a structure used to store ammunition.
03:32This scan shows us that right under our feet here is the historic military fortress.
03:42It's a part of a much bigger system of structures on this island.
03:47In its prime, 200 soldiers operate the extensive arsenal of Alcatraz's military fortress.
03:57Tanya thinks this earlier occupation of the island shapes the development of the modern prison building.
04:06Buried under the main cell blocks lie the most substantial remains of the military fort embedded into the bedrock.
04:15Bare rooms, some just four feet wide, with thin rifle slits for windows.
04:22Look out to a dry moat.
04:27This compound is made entirely from brick.
04:31But intriguingly, scratched-out graffiti, names, and dates reveal that these rooms once held people captive.
04:42Does Alcatraz's reputation as a brutal lock-up go back much further than we think?
04:52Built in 1859, this underground basement is part of the main defensive stronghold.
05:01Tanya has unique access to explore this dungeon.
05:07It would have been horrific to be in a cell like this.
05:10There are stories of people sleeping on their hands and knees to avoid too much contact with the cold concrete.
05:17You wouldn't even know what time of day it is. This would not have been the place to be.
05:23Laser scanning reveals the true extent of this hidden world.
05:28Built directly into the rock, the citadel is an incredible feat of engineering.
05:34This 3D laser scan takes us down into what's beneath the modern prison.
05:40This brick structure was the largest structure on the island at that point in the island's history.
05:46This model is a great way to visualize not only how the basement of the citadel was used,
05:51but these 3 spaces were among the first prison cells on Alcatraz Island.
06:01During the military occupation, engineers realized that the citadel is much better suited as a military prison.
06:09By the end of the century, these small brick rooms are filled with nearly 50 prisoners.
06:15The island's function as a prison is firmly established.
06:23How does Alcatraz go from being a tiny military prison to the huge federal penitentiary we see today?
06:33The answer could lie with the darkest chapter in San Francisco's history.
06:39In 1906, a massive earthquake, 7.9 on the Richter scale, destroys most of the city.
06:50But it leaves Alcatraz standing.
06:57Tanya thinks this is a key to what makes Alcatraz the prime location for a maximum security prison.
07:04To find out more about what happens during the quake, Tanya heads to meet geologist Jack Mayer.
07:12So why did Alcatraz stand so strong when the rest of the city shook and fell?
07:18Well, this was the problem.
07:20This is the bay mud under San Francisco.
07:24We know it's bay mud because of these shells.
07:27This stuff is extremely soft.
07:30When it's wet, it liquefies.
07:32Put under pressure, it shakes.
07:33And it shakes violently and unpredictably.
07:37That's the foundation of San Francisco.
07:40That's amazing.
07:40No wonder the devastation of the earthquake.
07:43This is the stuff that fell apart when the earthquake came.
07:46And the buildings on top really didn't stand a chance.
07:50Most of San Francisco stands on land reclaimed from the ocean.
07:57The bay mud allows the city to grow.
08:01But this soil is wet and soft.
08:05The 1906 quake turns the ground into quicksand.
08:09More than 28,000 buildings are destroyed, including four of the city's prisons.
08:15Lines of evacuated convicts walk the streets.
08:19But the citadel in Alcatraz sits directly on hard rock.
08:24The shock waves pass through it, and it survives the quake with barely a scratch.
08:31Alcatraz is the last functioning prison in San Francisco.
08:35So the city ships its prisoners to the rock.
08:44This is the geology of Alcatraz.
08:47No sand, no mud.
08:48It's solid rock.
08:50It's easy to see how this would have performed in the earthquake.
08:53It would have stayed strong the entire time.
08:59The island's bedrock lays the foundations for its unbreakable reputation.
09:05Soon after the quake, the iconic prison we see today is built.
09:10In 1934, the island becomes a federal penitentiary, home to convicts no other prison can hold.
09:19But in the rush to build the world's first super prison here, do engineers make fatal mistakes?
09:54O물áriz's
09:55They completely revamped the place. It was fortified like a modern-day prison.
10:01They installed new hardened steel bars on every window and door,
10:05and a mechanical locking system with no keys for prisoners to steal.
10:10It's that whole mindset of control. Once you're on Alcatraz, they own you.
10:16They armed the guards with the most up-to-date weapons.
10:20This new super prison is said to be escape-proof.
10:26You get on this island, there's no getting off.
10:29But in 1937, just three years after it opens,
10:34two convicts, Theodore Cole and Ralph Rowe, find a chink in its armor.
10:40Rather than targeting the main cell block, they turn their attention to the Industries Building.
10:46It's the block where the prisoners work.
10:49And it sits on the edge of the island.
10:54The men get to work in the blacksmith's workshop.
10:57After many weeks of sawing through the steel, Cole and Rowe tear out two bars,
11:04and punch out unreinforced glass.
11:08Squeezing through the nine-inch gap, they drop down behind a ten-foot fence topped with barbed wire,
11:14and follow it to a small gate.
11:18They smash the lock with a stolen wrench.
11:21And the theory goes, they use old car tires to cushion the 20-foot jump down onto the hard rock,
11:28and old fuel canisters to float off the island.
11:33How could they escape the most secure jail on Earth in broad daylight?
11:42Retired FBI agent Jeff Harp has spent a career putting bad guys behind bars.
11:48He investigates Alcatraz's escape attempts.
11:52You had to be a very determined prisoner to get out of this place.
11:57He wants to find out if the prison's famous reputation hides a fatal flaw in its construction.
12:05Jeff believes that the workshop is a weak spot that helps Cole and Rowe to escape.
12:12They had access to all sorts of tools and equipment to build things while they were thinking about how they
12:17might be able to escape.
12:19A 3D model reveals how the men turn the block's floor plan to their advantage.
12:25So as you can see from the design of this building, prisoners had a lot of places to hide.
12:31As the guard's making his pathway up this wall here, he can't see into these rooms until he's directly in
12:37front of the doorways.
12:40The industry's building is L-shaped.
12:43The ground floor divided into eight sections.
12:48It's poorly designed. It's not functional from a law enforcement perspective.
12:52The workshop itself provides the tools the men need.
12:56They slowly saw through window bars using stolen hacksaws.
13:01So each time the guard had his back turned, the inmate would be able to go back to the window
13:06and cut on the steel bar little by little.
13:09The prisoners jump out of the window.
13:12What they do next seems incredible.
13:16The breakout point is just 30 feet away from the guards on the roof.
13:21So the escapees creep along the side of the building to hide from view.
13:25But once they reach the coast, the guards on the western watchtower should easily spot them.
13:31So how do they manage to stay out of view?
13:39Jeff thinks that the bay's unusual weather helps to conceal the men's escape.
13:44From the case files, we found out that the fog on that day was unusually thick.
13:49So it's quite possible that Colin Rowe deliberately waited that day for the heavy fog to come into San Francisco.
13:57San Francisco is one of the foggiest cities on the planet.
14:03Sea mist can become so dense that it hides even the gigantic Golden Gate Bridge.
14:11Jeff visits an outdoor weather simulator to find out if fog is the key to Colin Rowe's success.
14:19Between these two piers, we have a fog simulator that spews out seawater to simulate the fog in San Francisco.
14:27Jeff is going to carry out a test to try to replicate what he thinks happens during the escape.
14:35Once the fog starts, we'll be able to determine how effective it was at concealing their movement.
14:42The fog machine fires up.
14:52Jeff's test subject walks down the bridge.
14:56After a dozen paces, she vanishes.
15:02She has completely disappeared on the bridge.
15:06We're going to measure that out and see what that distance is.
15:1515.4 meters.
15:17This would be a really effective concealment and cover for the individuals who were trying to escape from the prison
15:24that day.
15:26The test reveals how fog could render the prison's watchtowers useless.
15:31But the same weather that helps Cole and Rowe escape the rock soon turns against them.
15:40The fog was effective at concealing their movement.
15:43But once they got out to sea, it was their enemy because they could not see where they were going.
15:48Back in 1937, FBI investigators conclude that the men drowned.
15:55The case is closed.
15:58Alcatraz quietly gets a new industries block.
16:02With no dead corners and new harder steel bars.
16:07This time, authorities think there really is no way out.
16:12But do they make another simple design mistake in trying to outwit America's toughest cons?
16:34Alcatraz, the toughest place to do time.
16:38After an overhaul, the prison is ready to hold the worst criminals in America.
16:46These guys are outlaws. As soon as they step foot on this island, they've got to be thinking about escape.
16:54Historic buildings expert, Tanya Comas, investigates how engineers try to seal every weak point in Alcatraz.
17:01But building on a rocky island is a real challenge.
17:06Tanya discovers how the workers cut corners.
17:10Construction on an island meant that materials are hard to get.
17:14When the cell bars were replaced in the prison, rather than discard them, they were used as reinforcing into the
17:20concrete.
17:21Good old prison labor right here.
17:26Despite this, Alcatraz is still a formidable fortress.
17:31The guards step up security to unprecedented levels.
17:36There was three guards for every one prisoner, which is unheard of for that time.
17:40In 1937, the island gets a more secure industries building.
17:45Now authorities think they finally have the ultimate escape-proof prison.
17:51When the inmates walked on this island, they saw this place, they knew that it was going to be a
17:55challenge to ever break out of here.
18:00What few know is that the new Alcatraz still has a fatal flaw.
18:04And on Friday the 13th, 1939, five men exploit this weakness, led by one of America's most dangerous men, Arthur
18:15Doc Barker.
18:18When the guards aren't looking, the five men target their cell bars.
18:24They use blades to cut through the steel and swing the bars open.
18:30All five inmates are now able to escape their cells.
18:36In the corridor, they face a concrete wall, with thick steel grilles covering the windows.
18:44But they break a one inch thick bar clean off, and smash through the iron window frame.
18:54They've broken the block.
18:57How do they manage to beat the unbreakable steel of Alcatraz?
19:04Jeff Harp examines the evidence.
19:07These five guys were in the isolation block, D block.
19:10It was supposed to be the most secure block in the whole penitentiary.
19:14The notorious D block houses convicts who break the rules.
19:19Here, they spend 24 hours a day in isolation.
19:24But the evidence shows that the cells aren't as tough as they should be.
19:29When I read the FBI document, I see that D block, where the worst prisoners are kept, is made of
19:36ordinary steel bars.
19:39When engineers upgrade the prison to maximum security, they fit most cells with strengthened tool-proof bars.
19:48But incredibly, those in D block retain the original steel, a hangover of the prison's military past.
19:56Over time, little by little, these guys would have been able to saw through these bars because it was so
20:01soft.
20:02The men use smuggled hacksaw blades, working undetected night after night.
20:08But this is only stage one of their escape.
20:12So after they broke out of their cells, they had a new challenge they had to face, and they came
20:16up against the windows with hardened steel.
20:20Unlike their cell bars, the windows in the main block do get the upgrade.
20:24Thick, tool-proof bars now block their route to the outside.
20:29Yet still the men find a way out.
20:32Looks like they had some sort of a tool where they have pried open the window and were able to
20:37snap those bars.
20:39FBI documents reveal that the men create a homemade screw jack, essentially a large screw with a bolt on the
20:46end.
20:48They turn the screw until, finally, the bar snaps right off.
20:56Just after 3 a.m., the men attempt the last part of their plan.
21:03They squeeze through the window and sprint for the cliffs, avoiding the gaze of the guards.
21:10Then they split up.
21:13McCain and Young start work on a raft, making it from 3-inch timber, driftwood, and a chair.
21:19They tie it all together with torn bedsheets.
21:23Barker and Stamphill head around the coast to collect more driftwood, while Martin scales the cliffs at the point facing
21:31San Francisco and starts swimming alone.
21:33But at 4 a.m., the guards notice they're missing and launch a manhunt.
21:39Three men surrender, but two try to swim, and the guards open fire.
21:46Only four men eventually return to the cells.
21:50Doc Barker dies in a hospital from gunshot wounds.
21:55After the failed escape, D-Block finally gets its security upgrade.
22:01Engineers put hardened steel bars on every cell, convinced it's now impossible to escape the prison cell block.
22:11Over the next 23 years, 20 more convicts try and fail to break out of the prison.
22:17Each winds up dead or back in their cells.
22:21But in 1962, three men hatch a plan to pull off the most audacious prison break in history.
22:28This is right where they were able to dig out and then climb right up there.
22:34Some people claim it takes them to freedom.
22:39Are they the only men to escape from Alcatraz?
22:57In the 1960s, Alcatraz is the most secure prison in the world.
23:03Home to convicts that no other penitentiary can hold.
23:08Dozens try to escape.
23:10All fail to break the rock.
23:14But on the morning of June 12th, 1962, one daring prison break threatens to ruin its perfect record.
23:24During a routine head count, guards sound the alarm.
23:29Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin are missing.
23:35The escape begins at lights out.
23:38To fool the guards, the prisoners use dummy heads with real hair stolen from the prison barbershop.
23:46Under the sink, a fake cardboard vent reveals a gaping hole in the concrete carved out over months.
23:54Crawling into the utility corridor, they climb 30 feet up the pipes and bend the bars on a ceiling grill
24:03to break onto the roof.
24:07Sliding 50 feet down a pipe and scaling a barbed wire fence, Morris and the Anglin brothers reach the ocean
24:14never to be seen again.
24:19Historic buildings expert Tanya Comas specializes in working with concrete.
24:24She thinks a key to this breakout lies with a structural flaw in the walls themselves.
24:31She has come to the engineering laboratory at the University of California in Berkeley, which specializes in testing different types
24:40of concrete.
24:42Concrete is a simple mix of sand, cement, rocks and water.
24:46It's very important that they be in the right proportions though.
24:48You put in a little too much water to make it easier to work with and you've greatly reduced its
24:53strength.
24:54First, she needs to look at the evidence.
24:58We're looking at one of the vents that the prisoners chiseled their way out of.
25:02Now, if you're one of the visitors who walk by this cell on Alcatraz, this might look like normal concrete.
25:08But looking closer, you can see large stones, a lot of them very close together.
25:15Alcatraz-style concrete looks rough and ready.
25:19Tanya uses a compression machine to compare it with a modern sample.
25:22I have two concrete samples here. One is a good proportion of materials properly mixed and the other we know
25:29to be a poor mix.
25:30Not well blended materials and not the right proportions.
25:34The compression machine will steadily apply pressure to the concrete sample up to the point where the concrete fails.
25:44First, the modern concrete.
25:48Start the test.
25:49The pressure applied is measured in pounds.
25:54You can see it's already climbing pretty quickly.
25:59We're now at 75,000 pounds of pressure on this sample and it's still holding strong.
26:05Okay, we're at 120,000 pounds of pressure now.
26:10We're starting to see a little bit of crumbling.
26:14It's starting to fail.
26:18The sample withstands an incredible 128,000 pounds.
26:24That's really high strength concrete.
26:27That is approximately 40, 42 automobiles of pressure.
26:32And now the type of concrete used at Alcatraz.
26:4240,000 pounds.
26:4540,000 pounds.
26:4665,000.
26:48It's already shown some failure.
26:5470,000.
27:02Whoa, there we go.
27:06Wow, look at this.
27:09Only about half of the force of the other sample and it's completely destroyed.
27:14This sample fails and crumbles at just 70,000 pounds.
27:20So if you're a prisoner on Alcatraz, this would be the kind of concrete you would want in your cell.
27:27The guys were able to use homemade tools, spoons, chisels, and a very small kind of crude motor from a
27:33vacuum cleaner.
27:34That was enough to chisel your way to freedom.
27:38It is prisoners, not engineers, who build the cell block in 1909.
27:44Over half a century later, prisoners during the escape were potentially assisted by their predecessors who created the structure.
27:53Poor construction means the concrete is weak from the start.
27:58But Tanya is convinced that it should still be able to withstand the convicts chipping it away with just homemade
28:04tools.
28:07She has special access inside Alcatraz to examine the original hole that one of the Anglin brothers escapes through.
28:15This is cell block B.
28:22So what we're looking at is the hole that one of the escapees broke out of.
28:25You can see that the concrete has just been completely destroyed.
28:29This is one of the sounds we love to hear in the concrete world when you're doing repairs.
28:34That hollow, the sound of cracking inside of that concrete.
28:38That would have made it much easier for them to chip away at it and get the grate out and
28:43then climb right up there.
28:47Tanya thinks the problem with the concrete lies with the sea air that surrounds the prison.
28:53Steel reinforcements embedded in the walls are slowly being exposed to the elements.
28:58Tanya and her team from the Concrete Preservation Institute are in a race to preserve the island's structures.
29:05If you look here, this bar has corroded, popped the concrete right off.
29:10We're in this very aggressive seaside environment.
29:13The salt gets in and you just have steel corrosion.
29:17Salt water gets into the smallest of cracks and corrodes steel five times faster than fresh water.
29:24The steel rusts and it can expand up to six times its size.
29:29What that does is put internal pressure on the concrete, causes cracks and pushes the concrete right off.
29:36Salt attacks Alcatraz from all angles.
29:41Alcatraz uses seawater to flush the toilets.
29:45It trickles from leaky pipes and seeps into the walls.
29:50The salt rusts the reinforcing steel bars.
29:54They expand, cracking the concrete.
29:59Officials believe an island location is one of the prison's greatest advantages.
30:05No one anticipates it is in fact one of its biggest weaknesses.
30:10The design and construction of this building, the unbreakable Alcatraz, is what ended up being a key factor in one
30:18of the most notorious prison escapes ever known.
30:22Morris and the Anglin brothers don't just spend their time chiseling away at the concrete.
30:27They also find an ingenious way to execute the rest of their escape.
30:34During their daytime cleaning duties, they hang sheets on the top floor to stop dust falling into the prison, cleverly
30:42obscuring the guard's view.
30:46Every night for six weeks, the inmates take turns to escape their cells and climb to the workshop to work
30:54on the escape equipment.
30:56Inspired by an engineering magazine, they design a raft made from 50 raincoats.
31:02They use steam from pipes to bond them together.
31:07They make life jackets and transform an accordion into a pump, ready for a quick getaway on the big night.
31:20Once again, the cell block's design aids an escape.
31:24But Morris and the Anglin brothers still have to get off the island.
31:28As they race to the shoreline, their hopes are now pinned on their homemade raft.
31:36The waters around Alcatraz are its last line of defense.
31:42Prison authorities believe no one can conquer San Francisco Bay.
31:47But is relying on the island's isolated location their greatest mistake?
32:08In 1962, the Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz holds more than 250 convicts.
32:15No one has ever successfully escaped.
32:19But on June 11th, the rock's unbreakable reputation hangs in the balance.
32:26Three escaped convicts, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, stand at the water's edge.
32:35They have an improvised raft made from raincoats.
32:40Freedom is within reach.
32:42But these are treacherous waters.
32:48Draining away the bay reveals hidden dangers.
32:53Across the rocky sea floor are caverns and peaks the height of houses
32:58that churn the tides into fast, unpredictable currents around Alcatraz.
33:03Averaging just 17 feet deep, the tides sweep the water out towards the bridge,
33:09where a perilous ravine plummets 360 feet.
33:16It forces 20 times more water through the narrow channel than cascades over Niagara Falls.
33:23Do the inmates overcome these deadly currents?
33:27Or do they get washed out into the open ocean?
33:32Physician, Dr. Tom Nocton, is an authority on swimming in the bay.
33:37He knows just how dangerous these waters are.
33:41Tom is going to use this huge scale model, built by the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers, to chart
33:47the men's escape route.
33:49This simulator, just outside the city in Sausalito, replicates the currents in the entire San Francisco Bay.
33:56This model is really impressive.
33:58You can see Alcatraz here, the shallow areas.
34:02Tom investigates the tides around Alcatraz Island at the time of the escape.
34:08So we can put this boat in the water, right about where we think the prisoners got in the water.
34:18And we can squirt a little dye.
34:23Okay, so we have a boat that represents the raft of the prisoners and some dye that shows the outgoing
34:28tide that the prisoners would have had to contend with.
34:31The currents push the boat towards the Golden Gate Bridge.
34:35They'd be swept right out into the Pacific Ocean.
34:38And you can still see the dye. Look how quickly it's moving.
34:43The model shows the most likely scenario.
34:46The currents sweep the little raft straight out to sea.
34:51But these waters can be unpredictable, depending on the exact time of day.
34:58Tom thinks there is a window of opportunity when a changing tide could help steer a raft to safety.
35:07So the San Francisco Bay has flood tides coming in and ebb tides going out.
35:14From this simulation, if they got in the water at the precisely right time, about 11.30 at night, they
35:22could have ridden the ebb out toward the Golden Gate and then paddled toward Horseshoe Bay in the Marin Headlands.
35:31If Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers time it exactly right, they could use the shifting tides to paddle to
35:37shore.
35:40But Tom thinks it's likely the men have to swim at least part of the journey.
35:46If that homemade raft failed, if it didn't work and they ended up in the water, they would have been
35:52in serious trouble.
35:58Plunging into the icy water instantly triggers a gasping response, drawing water into the lungs.
36:04Plunging into the lungs.
36:05You can drown instantly.
36:07At the same time, your blood vessels constrict, pushing your heart rate up, risking cardiac arrest within two minutes.
36:17If you survive that, within 10 minutes the blood stops flowing to the muscles in your arms and legs.
36:23You lose coordination and swimming becomes impossible.
36:28Just one in three people survive to this stage.
36:32After an hour, the heart slows down, starving the brain of oxygen.
36:37And you pass out.
36:41The official report concludes that the men drown after their raft fails.
36:47The rock retains its perfect reputation.
36:50But the case remains open.
36:53Many wonder, do the men beat the odds and survive?
36:57An extraordinary discovery more than 50 years later could hold the answer.
37:16In 1962, three prisoners set off in a makeshift raft from Alcatraz Island.
37:24Most investigators assume the men drowned.
37:27But the bodies of Frank Morris, John Anglin, and his brother Clarence are never found.
37:3457 years later, the case remains open.
37:37And there's one man left on the job.
37:40U.S. Marshal Michael Dyke.
37:43I still got some leads called in.
37:46People believing they came across one of them or that their next door neighbor could be one of them.
37:51So there's all kinds of theories that you could possibly imagine.
37:56It's Michael's job to keep an open mind about the escape.
38:00One theory is that the men drowned just off Angel Island.
38:04So approximately 24 hours after we believe the escapees left the island on the night of June 12th,
38:11right around the corner up over here on Angel Island they found a paddle that was floating about 100 yards
38:17off the shore.
38:19A homemade life jacket and photos belonging to the Anglin brothers are also discovered drifting in the bay.
38:26Possibly the escapees drowned and as they were drowning they discarded items just to lighten their load and try and
38:33swim better.
38:34But another possibility is that the men fake their own deaths.
38:40According to an accomplice, Angel Island is where they plan to come ashore.
38:46People believe the escapees might have discarded these items to make it look like they possibly did drown because if
38:52they were believed to be dead, why keep looking for them?
38:57For more than 50 years the trail stays cold.
39:03But in 2013, a letter sent to the San Francisco Police Department claims to be from John Anglin himself.
39:12So when this letter first came out, a lot of us speculated that the escape might have been successful.
39:19And this letter basically is written by someone claiming to be John Anglin.
39:25He's claiming to be 83 years old in bad shape.
39:28The letter is intriguing.
39:30If genuine, it would blow this cold case wide open.
39:35I'm always skeptical of most of the stuff that comes across my desk regarding this case because so much stuff
39:41I've seen has been made up.
39:43But I don't ever discount things either.
39:46Certain statements in the letter sound convincing.
39:49DNA and fingerprint analysis proves inconclusive.
39:53So FBI specialists examine the handwriting.
39:57Does it match that of the young John Anglin?
40:00Most people when they age, their handwriting stays pretty much the same as it was, just becomes less smooth.
40:08The closer Michael looks at the letter, the more he's convinced it's a fake.
40:13So this J is absolutely nothing like the way John Anglin writes his letter J when he writes his name
40:19down.
40:19Because we have numerous examples of that.
40:22The phraseology doesn't match John Anglin's examples.
40:25It's not even close.
40:28For Michael, the search for the truth goes on.
40:32It's a mystery because nobody really knows what happened to these guys.
40:36Some believe that the escape ruins the Rock's unblemished reputation.
40:41But in 1962, the prison is already living on borrowed time.
40:46There are some that say it made Alcatraz look bad because of the escape.
40:50But at the time, there was already rumors among the guard staff that Alcatraz would close probably in the near
40:55future because it was so expensive to upgrade it to modern prison standards.
41:01In 1963, a year after the escape, Alcatraz closes.
41:06Its reputation no longer able to mask its crumbling architecture.
41:12Today, teams work to rebuild and protect Alcatraz.
41:17Alcatraz's greatest battle has always been with itself.
41:23Alcatraz Island, this is an iconic building.
41:26The roots of its brutal history are buried right underneath it.
41:32For 160 years, Alcatraz is a jail like no other.
41:37During the Civil War, it locks up prisoners of war.
41:41In the 1930s, it holds America's most wanted criminals.
41:46But after being hailed as escape proof, it cannot survive.
41:51Alcatraz, this icon of crime and punishment, is a victim of its own success.
42:00The Civil War!
42:02The Civil War!
42:05The Civil War!
42:28Transcription by CastingWords
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