The FBI declared the men most likely drowned in the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay, but the case was reopened in 2013 after a mysterious letter was received. Newly released age-progression images of the convicts could lead to more clues.
Sixty years ago, three inmates pulled off the impossible when they broke out of the supposedly escape-proof Alcatraz Federal Prison in the San Francisco Bay.
Now, age-progressed images of the convicted bank robbers could crack wide open the puzzling mystery — did the men actually survive? If so, where did they go? And are they still alive?
“If anybody sees any of these guys that just look like this, they should be able to call in,” retired U.S. Marshal Michael Dyke said.
The daring prison inspired the 1979 Clint Eastwood movie “Escape From Alcatraz,” which depicts how Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin made papier-mache heads with human hair to trick guards into believing they were sleeping in their cells. It’s believed they slipped away on a raft made of raincoats.
“They were able to, for several months, hide everything they were doing, including making a little workshop on top of the third tier of the cell house and manufacturing a raft, life vests, tools and paddles and stuff that they needed to escape,” Dyke said.
The FBI declared the men most likely drowned in the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay, but the case was reopened in 2013 after a mysterious letter was received.
“My name is John Anglin. I escape[d] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I'm 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes, we all made it that night, but barely,” the letter said.
In the letter, he offered to surrender in return for medical treatment.
A 1975 photo may offer further proof that John and Clarence Anglin survived, their nephew Ken Widner tells Inside Edition. He says the photo shows the brothers living in Brazil as farmers. A side-by-side comparison bares a striking resemblance to the escaped convicts.
Widner wondered if his uncles ever married and had children in Brazil.
“We really hoped to meet either my aunt or my cousins. We hoped to sit down with them and hear some of the stories about my uncles,” Widner said.
If they are alive today, John Anglin would be 92. Clarence would be 91. But Dyke says he is skeptical.
“I looked at every single clue during my time as an investigator. I worked on the case for 16 years. I was able to discount pretty much every clue that was called in,” He said.
Alcatraz was closed as a prison in 1963 and is now a top tourist attraction, with an estimated 1.4 million visitors each year.
