Photo: f8graphe (Getty)
It’s been more than 50 years since three inmates escaped from Alcatraz, never to be seen again. But now a new letter has emerged, supposedly written by one of the convicts.
The letter, which was written to police in 2013, but obtained by KPIX this week, was written by who many believe was John Anglin. The point of the letter? To tell police that he would reveal his location and serve one year in prison in exchange for medical care. Anglin said he was 83 at the time of the letter, and in “bad shape.” “Yes we all made it that night but barely!” Anglin adds.
Back in 62, Anglin, his brother Clarence and another inmate, Frank Morris, who were all bank robbers, broke out of the famous prison and made a swim for it. What happened to them is a mystery. But the letter states otherwise.
Federal officials have said the trio drowned after sneaking through an intricate maze of vents and pipes. The supposed letter from Anglin says otherwise. He told police Morris died in 2008 and Clarence passed in 2011. He allegedly lived in Seattle for a significant amount of time, move to North Dakota and then settled in southern California, KPIX reported.
The U.S. Marshals Service, which took the lead on the probe, said an FBI lab scanned the letter but got inconclusive results. The agency left whether they survived or not open — but did conclude that the men were not reformed by their time in prison.
“There is absolutely no reason to believe that any of them would have changed their lifestyle and became completely law abiding citizens after this escape,” the Marshals Service said in a statement to KPIX.
“If you announce on TV that I will be promised to first go to jail for no more than a year and get medical attention, I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. This is no joke…” the man claiming to be Anglin wrote in the letter.
The Marshals Service, which took over the probe in 1979, closed the case without merit.
This story gets even more bizarre as relatives of the Anglins insisted the brothers were alive, even going as far as to say that they have a photo of John and Clarance at a farm they owned in Brazil in 1975.
So what do you think? Did these inmates make it out of the most famous prison ever alive?
