Anything is possible if you have the determination and – in case of criminals escaping from maximum security prison – an executable escape plan. Previously thought to be an unbreakable fortress with fool-proof security and surrounded by cold water, the San Francisco Island famously known as the Alcatraz Prison is now believed to have been breached some 53 years ago.
According to the reports issued by the FBI officials, two bank robbers and brothers named Clarence Anglin and John Anglin drowned while trying to escape from the Alcatraz. Their remains were found on San Francisco Bay six months after their attempted prison break, and were confirmed by the FBI. However, new evidence presented by the nephews of the Anglin brothers in a TV documentary suggests quiet the otherwise.
Arrested in 1956 after a string of successful bank robberies, two brothers were deemed dangerous and authorities transferred them to Alcatraz in 1960. The first and the most famous maximum security prison in America, the Alcatraz was built to ensure the safe ‘keeping’ of some of the most notorious criminals of twentieth century. (Mail Online)
Anglin brothers tricked the prison guards using card-board face masks, before getting into the vents. They then used old raincoats as canopies to get to the outside boundary of the prison. The theory was that they then body-surfed behind a ferry driven by one of their old accomplice who then dropped the two brother and another inmate Frank Morris on San Francisco Bay.
This and many other theories surfaced after the famous escape, though FBI and US Martials has always maintained that the trio drowned while attempting to swim their way to freedom. However, the nephews of the Anglin brothers, Ken Widner 54 and David Widner 48, have given the filmmakers of a History Channel Documentary some very concrete piece of evidence pointing towards the fact that the two brothers along with another inmate successfully escaped.
According to the Widner brothers, the family used to get the Christmas cards from the two brothers when they were in Alcatraz, however they kept on receiving the cards at least three years after they were reported to have drowned. But the most striking evidence was a photograph given to the family by a childhood friend of Anglin brothers in 1992. Fred Brizzi who grew up with Anglins smuggled drugs from South America and claimed to have met the duo on a farm in Brazil in the summer of 1975.
The evidence put forward by Widner brothers was analysed by forensic experts and a retired US Martial who has been following the story ever since it took place in 1962. Both experts believe that two people shown in the image could possibly be the Anglin brothers. The new revelations are striking and have stirred a new debate about the FBI’s treatment of the case, and possible falsification of the forensic evidence.