Looking Back at the Escape from ‘Escape-Proof’ Alcatraz Through Historical Newspapers
On the night of June 11, 1962, Alcatraz prison, famously deemed “impossible to escape,” faced its most dramatic challenge. Inmates Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin executed a daring escape, meticulously crafting tools to dig through their cell walls. They navigated utility corridors and launched a handmade raft into the perilous waters of San Francisco Bay. This audacious breakout, which defied Alcatraz’s reputation as an inescapable fortress, remains one of the most captivating stories in its 90-year history.
To mark the 90th anniversary of the opening of the infamous prison, the Research team at MyHeritage has extracted some treasures from our collection of historical newspapers on OldNews.com: articles reporting on the opening of the prison and the most wanted prisoners who served their sentences there as well as the famous escape.
Alcatraz opens
In 1934, a prison was built on a rugged island in San Francisco Bay. Originally a military fort, the facility was converted into a maximum-security penitentiary, designed to house America’s most notorious criminals. Its isolated location and harsh conditions quickly earned it a reputation as the most secure prison in the country. It was described in The Southeast Missourian on June 30, 1934 as “a penitentiary in San Francisco Bay from which it is said there is no possible escape.”
The Southeast Missourian, June 30, 1934. Source: OldNews.com
Alcatraz was designed to be inescapable. “In a further move to defeat the announced purpose of prisoners to escape at the first opportunity, the federal government is considering the installation of an invisible mysterious magnetic field ‘trap,’” reported an Evening Star journalist on Feb 1, 1934. “The trap will sound an alarm if a convict ventures too near unguarded gates or walls.”
Evening Star, February 1, 1934. Source: OldNews.com
“Walls that see and gates that speak probably will be installed,” reported The Spokesman Review on April 5, 1934.
The Spokesman Review, April 5, 1934. Source: OldNews.com
‘Devil’s Island’
The most famous prisoner sent to Alcatraz when it opened was Al Capone. In August 1934, the Lewiston Morning Tribune reported the completion of preparations for his reception at the notorious penitentiary. “‘Scarface’ Capone and 52 other prisoners slept tonight in their cells on Alcatraz Island,” the Lewiston reported. “Sanford Bates, director of the federal prison bureau, said the former Chicago gangster had been sent to the so-called American ‘Devil’s Island.’”
Headline and photo in the Lewiston Morning Tribune, August 1934. Source: OldNews.com
“100 Criminals Locked Up in Island Prison” was the headline of the Brownsville Herald on September 5, 1934. “‘Machine Gun Kelly’ in Alcatraz with Al Capone,” the article went on. “An estimated hundred more of America’s most desperate criminals were locked behind the bars of Alcatraz Island’s bleak fortress-like penitentiary in the San Francisco Bay Tuesday. A trainload of convicts from Leavenworth prison, including the notorious George ‘Machine Gun Kelly,’ was run onto a train barge. With the same elaborate precautions which marked the recent arrival of ‘Scarface’ Al Capone, former Chicago gang leader, and 50 other prisons from Atlanta penitentiary, the barge was conveyed across the bay by boats bristling with rifles to the prison.”
The daring escape
For almost 30 years, the belief persisted that Alcatraz was an escape-proof prison on the devil’s island from which there is no way back. All that was shattered in one night on June 11, 1962 by a crazy escape operation that has since been immortalized in numerous films.
Three bank robbers, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin who were convicted and sent to Alcatraz, successfully implemented a sophisticated escape operation. No one knew what happened to them and whether they survived the dangerous endeavor — and that remains a mystery to this day.
“Bank robbers believed to have left the island on raft or driftwood,” reported St. Joseph News Press on June 12, 1962. “[The warden said] they had cut away a portion of the back of their cells with a sharpened spoon. They gained access to a utility pipe tunnel through which they climbed to the roof of the cell block. They removed bars protecting a skylight… From the roof they dropped down a pipe to the ground. Then they made their way to the rear of the island to the water’s edge.”
St. Joseph News Press, June 12, 1962
In June 2022, U.S. Marshals released age-progressed images of Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin, who escaped from Alcatraz in 1962. Despite the initial belief that they drowned, new evidence and ongoing investigations suggest they may have survived, keeping the mystery of their fate alive.
Could any of your ancestors have been convicts? There’s an easy way to find out: MyHeritage offers several rare collections of names and photos of prisoners from the 19th and 20th centuries from all over the world including Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Norway and more.
You can also find a wealth of information about your ancestors — whether they were famous, infamous, or merely the subject of small-town gossip — on OldNews.com, our innovative website for searching historical newspapers.
