Many people would love to believe that Frank Morris and the two Anglin brothers lived through there escape from Alcatraz, but it cannot be proven. It has been fifty years since their escape and we still have no evidence as to whether or not they ever even lived. Alcatraz has become one of the most haunted places in America and was home to some of America's most notorious criminals. Some will choose to believe that the ghosts of Alcatraz exist, but others may not. So, why did Alcatraz shut down? How did the prisoners escape and are they alive?
The famous Alcatraz Island is located in the San Francisco Bay one and a half miles offshore from San Francisco, California. One might say that the climate on Alcatraz is very unpredictable, but why? Some people would like to believe that it is because of all the spirits of prisoners hanging around but that is not the case here. One reported that, “cold, foggy mornings may give way to sunny afternoons, which in turn can shift quickly back to more fog and blustery winds.” It rarely reaches above seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit or lower than thirty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, it almost never snows on the island. Winters are wet and winds are expected in every season. (Alcatraz Cruises).
We all know that prisoners lived on Alcatraz Island, but where did the guards and their families live? Since Alcatraz is not very big, guard families lived in building number sixty-four. There were three apartment buildings, one large duplex, and four wooden houses for senior officers. The Warden lived in a large home adjacent to the cell houses. He used inmates that had been reported to have good behavior to clean and cook for him. The Captain and the Associate Warden lived in the one duplex. At any given time was only a population of 300 civilians. It may seem like the families may have had a very boring life but they enjoyed many leisure activities such as a bowling alley, convenience store, and a soda fountain shop. Most people preferred to take the prison boat each day to the mainland to do their shopping though, the prison boat would travel from the prison to the mainland twelve times a day. (Alcatraz History).
We know that the staff and their families ate fairly well on Alcatraz, but what about the prisoners? Alcatraz prisoners would receive food such as Beef Pot Pie Anglaise, Baked Meat Croquettes, and Bacon Jambalaya. Some ex-inmates had compared Alcatraz food that of fine restaurants because of the quality of food produced from its kitchens. Former prisoner William Baker said, “It was rich. It was heavy. It was greasy. It was good.” Coming form an ex-inmate that is now eighty years old, and can still recall the taste of the food served to him, has got to be saying something about what their food was like. Alcatraz was said to have the best food in the entire U.S prison system. Would it be a good idea to let some of the countries worst criminals handle your food? In Alcatraz the inmates who had many different ethnic roots were responsible to cook for every prisoner. (What Prisoners Ate at Alcatraz in 1946: a Vintage Prison Menu, Gourmet Menu from Alcatraz Shows the Surprising Grub Served up to Inmates, Eating Like an Alcatraz Inmate, Hyatt Hotel Serves Alcatraz Prison Food).
Taking into consideration that the island was not that big, prisoners cells were not that small either. Most prisoners lived in B and C Blocks of the prison and each cell was five by nine feet. Every single cell was equipped with a sink that had only cold water, a cot, and a toilet. The segregation cells in D-Block were more spacious. Prisoners in D-Block were very lonely being in a cell for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, except for their one day visitation to the recreation yard. In total, Alcatraz contained 336 cell in B and C Blocks, thirty-six segregation cells, and six solitary confinement cells. With such little space, Alcatraz was home to some of the U.S.'s most notorious killers such as; Al Capone, Robert “Birdman” Stroud, Abie “Butcher” Maldowitz, Rufe McCain, Escapees Coy, Cretzer and Hubbard, and George “Machine Gun” Kelley. (Alcatraz Facts and Figures, Five Famous Prisoners Who Haunt Alcatraz).
Alcatraz became known as “the rock” after a devastating earthquake in 1906, where prisoners then had to basically build a completely new prison. With all of its years, Alcatraz has had many people try to escape but none were successful. Until June 1962, prisoners Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin performed perhaps the greatest escape in the history of prison escapes. How they performed the escape was purely ingenious, and it is said that the mast mind behind the escape was Frank Morris. The escape involved spoons, paper-mach heads, and rubber raincoats. The three men dug at the concrete around vents in their cells with the spoons and a drill-like tool made from a vacuum cleaner. Cardboard was used to cover the holes as they got bigger and when the time came the men placed the paper-mach heads in their beds and crawled through the holes to their freedom. Knowing that they could never swim to shore, the men made a raft out of the rubber raincoats. The men were never seen again, but remains of the raft were found the next morning. Many would like to believe that the men escaped and survived, but it has never been proven even to this day. ( Alcatraz Prison- Facts and History of Alcatraz, Alcatraz Prison, The Great Escape from Alcatraz, Alcatraz Escape Still Surprises 50 Years On, What Happened to the Three Men Who Escaped from Alcatraz?).
Today, Alcatraz is a National Park and tourist attraction. It attracts people from all over the world every year. The Prison Tour is a tour that takes you through the entire prison and shows you what the prisoners did in their time living in the prison. Alcatraz is known as one of the most haunted places in America. Some of the most famous ghost stories are; “The Strip,” “Cell 14D,” and “The Ghost of Al Capone.” (Alcatraz island | san francisco attractions, alcatraz, Alcatraz island (u.s. national park service), The shadowlands: famous hauntings, Haunting ghost stories of alcatraz).
The Alcatraz Prison shut down on March 21, 1963 after only twenty-nine years of operation. It is rumored that it shut down because of the three men that escaped, but that is not really what happened. It actually shut down because of where it was located. It had cost to much to ship prisoners from all over the country to the west side of the country continuously. (Bop:alcatraz, Alcatraz Closes).
The Alcatraz Prison shut down because it had cost to much to keep sending people to the other side of the country. Only three men ever successfully escaped the prison but we do not know if they lived after they escaped with their ingenious plan. We know answers to some of these questions that we may have but others might always be a mystery to us.