SAN FRANCISCO, CA -
By Joe Rosato, Jr. KNTV
Monday marked the 50th anniversary of the infamous "Escape from Alcatraz". No one knows what really happened to the three bank robbers after they made it off the "Rock" half a century ago, but on Monday, people close to the case shared their theories at a media-only event.
On June 11, 1962, inmates Frank Morris, 35, John Anglin, 32, and his brother Clarence Anglin, 31 vanished from the island. The Anglin brothers were from Miller County, GA.
The men had spent months digging with spoons through a wall 8 inches thick, covering their tracks with camouflaged cardboard. On the night of their escape, the men put dummies in their beds, shimmied through the holes and scaled two fences topped with barbed wire.
Once past prison walls, the fugitives launched a raft made of 50 raincoats into the San Francisco Bay. Guards sounded the alarm at 7:15 the next morning. Some say the raft was found on Angel Island. A paddle was found in the Bay. The fugitives were never found.
To mark the anniversary of their escape, two sisters and nephews of the Anglin brothers traveled to Alcatraz. "Millions believe they made it. All our family of course, because we want to believe they made it. And we think they did made it," said Mearl Anglin Taylor.
They were joined by U.S. Marshals and a former guard for a panel discussion. "The Marshals Service is going to continue to look for everybody who has a federal warrant that's assigned to us to work," vowed Marshal Michael Dyke.
Dyke says the evidence suggests they could have made it. Old FBI files mention the raft found on nearby Angel Island, and a California Highway Patrol report of three men stealing a car was filed shortly afterward as well. "There should have been at least one or two of the bodies found," Dyke said.
If they are out there, the Anglin brothers are now in their mid 80s.
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