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Premieres 22 October 2026 at 8:30pm UK time
The Old Fox: Great Escapes · Episode 2
Escape from Alcatraz: Spoons, Dummy Heads and a Raft
On the night of 11 June 1962, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin slipped out of Alcatraz through their cell vents, leaving dummy heads on their pillows and Allen West behind. The Old Fox tells how they did it, what was found in the bay, and why the case has never quite closed.
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What the fox said
Escape from Alcatraz? Impossible. Three men tried anyway. With spoons. Let's see who got out.
San Francisco Bay, 1962. A prison on a rock, in cold, fast water.
Neighbouring cells: Frank Morris, the brothers John and Clarence Anglin, and Allen West.
Behind each sink, a vent with a grille. They chip around it with spoons, and a drill made from a vacuum cleaner motor.
Music hour covers the noise. Painted cardboard covers the holes.
Above the cells, a secret workshop. Over 50 raincoats become life vests, and a raft.
For their beds, dummy heads, with real hair from the barber shop.
The night of June the 11th. Heads on pillows. Out through the vents, and up onto the roof.
Allen West can't get his grille off in time. He's left behind.
The others reach the shore, inflate the raft, and paddle into the dark.
Morning count. The game's up. Later, bits of paddle turn up, and a homemade life vest on a beach.
In 1979, the FBI closed its case: most likely drowned. The US Marshals kept looking.
In 2013, San Francisco police got a letter, supposedly from John Anglin. We all made it, it said. Barely. Tests were inconclusive.
Alcatraz closed the next year. Their case never quite did. Escape closed. Keep your nose to the wind.
Sources
- On the night of 11 June 1962, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin escaped from Alcatraz; their empty cells were discovered at the morning count on 12 June (FBI, 'Alcatraz Escape'; Wikipedia, 'June 1962 Alcatraz escape').
- They widened the air vents at the back of their cells using spoons, old saw blades and a homemade drill made from a vacuum cleaner motor (FBI; Wikipedia; NBC News).
- Above the cell block they built a hidden workshop, where more than 50 raincoats were turned into life vests and a rubber raft (FBI).
- Dummy heads made from plaster, paint and real hair from the prison barber shop were left in their beds (FBI; NBC News).
- A fourth inmate, Allen West, could not get his vent grille off in time and was left behind (FBI).
- Pieces of paddle, bits of rubber and a homemade life vest were later found in and around the bay (FBI).
- The FBI closed its case at the end of 1979, concluding the men most likely drowned, and handed it to the US Marshals Service (FBI).
- In 2013 San Francisco police received a letter claiming to be from John Anglin, saying all three had survived; FBI tests on it were inconclusive (CBS News, January 2018).
- Alcatraz closed as a prison in 1963 (FBI; Wikipedia).
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