Alcatraz Crew

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Frank Lee Morris (born September 1, 1926 – disappeared June 11, 1962) was born in Washington, D.C. to a woman named Clara, who named him after a civil engineer she claimed she had married but who was not his father. Morris was placed in a foster home, then an orphanage. He was described as affable and quiet, but by age 6 would steal small change from a teacher's desk. Orphaned at age 11, he spent the rest of his childhood in foster homes. He was convicted of his first criminal offense at age 13, and by his late teens had been arrested for crimes ranging from narcotics possession to armed robbery. He reportedly ranked in the top 2% of the general population in intelligence, as measured by IQ testing (133). Morris was sent to Alcatraz on January 18, 1960, as inmate number AZ1441. John William Anglin (born May 2, 1930 – disappeared June 11, 1962) and Clarence Anglin (born May 11, 1931 – disappeared June 11, 1962) were born into a family of thirteen children in Donalsonville, Georgia. Their parents were seasonal farmworkers; in the early 1940s, they moved the family to Ruskin, Florida. Clarence and John were reportedly inseparable as youngsters; they became skilled swimmers and amazed their siblings by swimming in the frigid waters of Lake Michigan as ice still floated on its surface. On January 17, 1958, John, Clarence and their brother Alfred robbed the Bank of Columbia in Columbia, Alabama, making off with US$19,000. After repeated attempts to escape from Atlanta, John and Clarence were transferred to Alcatraz. John arrived on October 24, 1960, as inmate AZ1476, and Clarence on January 16, 1961, as inmate AZ1485. Allen Clayton West (born March 25, 1929 – died December 21, 1978) was born in New York City. He was arrested over twenty times throughout his lifetime. He was imprisoned for car theft in 1955, first at Atlanta Penitentiary, then at Florida State Prison. After an escape attempt from the Florida facility, he was transferred to Alcatraz in 1957 to serve ten years for auto theft and became inmate AZ1330. He arrived for a second term in 1958 as AZ1335. His violent and aggressive reputation made him unpopular with Alcatraz guards, and he was imprisoned in isolation and assigned to work as a maintenance orderly as punishment.

In Their Own Story

On January 30, 1960, Morris was moved into Cell No. 138 on outside B Block. West was his cellmate next door. West, who played with an accordion, was reportedly a compulsive chatterer. There are conflicting accounts as to who masterminded the escape plan. Some say the plan was formulated under the leadership of Morris, after a fellow prisoner revealed that in 1957, inmate electrician Willard Winhoven had removed a fan motor from a ventilation shaft to the roof on B Block and no replacement was made. Under interrogation following the escape, West claimed the escape was his idea, saying he had been painting the prison roof in spring 1961 when he realized the ventilation shafts were a viable way out. Prison officials were skeptical of West's claims and believed Morris was the mastermind. Over the subsequent six months, the prisoners widened the ventilation ducts beneath their sinks using discarded saw blades found on the prison grounds, metal spoons from the mess hall and an electric drill improvised from the motor of a vacuum cleaner. The men concealed their work with painted cardboard, and masked the noise with Morris's accordion on top of the ambient din of music hour. Once the holes were wide enough to pass through, the men accessed the unguarded utility corridor directly behind their cells' tier and climbed to the vacant top level of the cellblock, where they set up a clandestine workshop. Here, using over fifty raincoats among other stolen and donated materials, they constructed life preservers, based on a design Morris found in the March 1962 issue of Popular Mechanics. They also assembled a six-by-fourteen-foot (1.8 × 4.3 m) rubber raft, the seams carefully stitched by hand and sealed with liquid plastic.

Reader's Guide

Hundreds of leads were pursued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced regarding the fate of Morris and the Anglins. In 1979, the FBI officially concluded, on the basis of circumstantial evidence and a preponderance of expert opinion, that the three inmates likely drowned in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay while attempting to reach the mainland. The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active, and Morris and the Anglin brothers will remain on its wanted list until September 2026. Numerous theories of widely varying plausibility on the fates of the three fugitives have been proposed by authorities, reporters, family members and amateur enthusiasts, with circumstantial and material evidence continuing to surface, stoking debates as to whether the inmates may have survived their escape. Prior to the June 1962 escape, two inmates, Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe, escaped Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1937; they vanished into the bay and were unaccounted for, though officials presumed them drowned. Inmate Aaron Burgett drowned during an escape attempt in 1958.

Did You Know?

• Frank Morris reportedly ranked in the top 2% of the general population in intelligence, with an IQ of 133.
• The escapees used over fifty raincoats to construct life preservers and a six-by-fourteen-foot rubber raft.
• Morris found the raft design in the March 1962 issue of Popular Mechanics.
• John and Clarence Anglin amazed their siblings by swimming in Lake Michigan while ice still floated on its surface.
• The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active, and the fugitives will remain on its wanted list until September 2026.