Return to (and Escape from) Alcatraz

A quick health update:

This week I had my bi-monthly checkup with Dr. O'Sullivan at Princess Margaret Hospital. I'm pleased to report there were no problems detected during the physical exam; in fact, I appear to be slowly gaining weight back, which is an excellent sign. At a later appointment I'll undergo a chest x-ray, but nothing currently indicates the need for a peek at my insides. Hooray! My next checkup is scheduled for the end of June.

And now, we return to Alcatraz:



I have had a number of requests to post my photos of the Alcatraz exhibit about the infamous escape from Alcatraz of June 11, 1962. So here we go...

From the signage at Alcatraz:

"Using the unlikeliest of supplies, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin made the most creative escape attempt in the history of Alcatraz.

"Placing dummy heads made of soap, cement, and paint under their blankets in the middle of the night, the escapees crawled out of their cells through small vents, scaled the utility corridor to the roof, slid down a stove pipe, and crept to the shoreline.


"The three men had reached the bay. As they slipped into the water -- using a raft fashioned out of a raincoat -- they met an icy current rapidly ebbing out to see. They were never seen again."

In the photo below you can see the view looking into one of the cells. A dummy head is just visible beneath the blankets on the bed. At the back of the cell, beneath the sink, you can see the exposed vent hole, widened by the escapees over two years using utensils stolen from the mess hall.



To keep their digging hidden from the guards, the inmates created fake vents from cardboard and paint.



The excavated openings were just wide enough to crawl through...


...and opened into a narrow utility corridor filled with pipes that enabled the trio to climb to the roof. Here is an archival photo of police investigating the corridor after the escape:



The official word is that the three men drowned trying to cross the bay on their makeshift raft, but no bodies were ever recovered. In season one, episode 8 of the marvellous Mythbusters -- the first episode I ever saw, in fact -- Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage proved that a safe crossing was possible using a raft made from the same materials used by the escapees.


The 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood tells the story of this escape, but whatever really became of Morris and the Anglin brothers remains a mystery.