List of Alcatraz escape attempts
[5] Citing these facts, as well as occasional visits from great white sharks and razor-sharp rocks, prison officers had discouraged most escape attempts.
Arthur 'Doc' Barker, William Martin, Rufus McCain, Henri Young, and Dale Stamphill were inmates of the prison's supposedly most-secure unit, D-Block, when they managed to escape the cell house and reach the Alcatraz shore on the night of January 13, 1939 (Friday).
Joe Cretzer, Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle, and Lloyd Barkdoll were working in the industries area when they jumped the guards on duty and attempted to saw through window bars to reach the shore.
John Richard Bayless (May 16, 1915 – July 30, 1981) was working on the garbage detail and managed to elude the guards and reach the Alcatraz shore.
[10] James Boarman (January 1, 1919 – April 14, 1943), Harold Martin Brest (January 2, 1914 – May 31, 1979), Floyd Garland Hamilton (June 13, 1908 – July 24, 1984), and Fred John Hunter (October 13, 1899 – November 30, 1982), managed to cut window bars in the industries building's mat shop without being noticed and assemble four cans that contained army uniforms and could serve as flotation devices.
[15][16][17][18] Hamilton was wrongly assumed by the guards to have been hit by gunfire and sunk (like Boarman), but he had actually been hiding in the same cave as Hunter under a pile of tires.
[19][20][21][22] Huron Ted Walters, who was serving a sentence of 30 years for robbery, assault, and auto theft, noticed that on weekends, fewer guards were on duty, and their attention tended to be focused on the recreation yard.
His plan was to cut through the two security fences that separated him from freedom, make his way to the water, and swim the 1.4 miles to San Francisco.
It was carried out by six prisoners: Bernard Coy, Joseph Cretzer, Sam Shockley, Clarence Carnes, Marvin Hubbard and Miran Thompson.
They daringly took control of the cell house by overpowering correctional officers, and were able to enter the weapons room and obtain the keys to the recreation yard door.
[6][26] Floyd Wilson disappeared from his job at the dock but was discovered after hiding for 12 hours among large rocks along the shoreline after giving up on his plan to make a raft out of driftwood.
The two men attempted to use inflated plastic bags as flotation devices, and Burgett tied wooden boards to his feet to serve as swim fins.
The prisoners chiseled away the moisture-damaged concrete from around an air vent leading to this corridor, using tools such as metal spoons and forks soldered with silver from a dime and an electric drill improvised from a stolen vacuum cleaner motor.
The escapees were given over 50 rubber raincoats from other inmates to use as a raft for the trip to the mainland, which they prepared on the top of the cellblock, concealed from the guards by sheets which had been put up over the sides.
Hundreds of leads and theories have been pursued by the FBI and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced favoring the success or failure of the attempt.
[30] Circumstantial evidence uncovered in the early-2010s seemed to suggest that the men had survived, and that contrary to the official FBI report of the escapees' raft never being recovered and no car thefts being reported, a raft was discovered on nearby Angel Island with footprints leading away, and a car had been stolen on the night of the escape by three men, who could have been Morris and the Anglins, and that officials then engaged in a cover-up.
Scott and Parker used a makeshift saw to cut through the bars on a kitchen window in the cell house, then ran to the edge of the island and jumped into the water.
[35] Scott reached Fort Point beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, where he was found by teenagers, suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion.
