In the missing persons case of Frank Morris,
Clarence Anglin and John Anglin, there are two theories:
1.Did they drown?
2. Or are they somewhere on the
other side of the world living their life?
Now 50 years later new leads are
being presented to testify that the Anglin brothers were still alive.
The first conspiracy theory was that
the men drowned. The next day their things washed ashore, so the men were then
assumed dead. Even though no bodies were, found prison officials claimed it was
enough evidence to file it as a drowning (Noyes 1). In order to keep the truth
about the escape from the media, the prison officials presumed them dead. With
Alcatraz being the kind of prison it was, there was a no escape zone. No one
was ever supposed to escape and have a chance of surviving (1).
The second conspiracy was that they
did make it and were somewhere on the other side of the world living their life
(Noyes 1). To prove that fact John and Clarence Anglin were great swimmers.
They grew up in the frigid waters of Lake Michigan (1). Their swimming skills
and cold-water tolerance would eventually pay off in a big way. As scientist
went back to the conditions on the night the men escaped there was a possible
chance that the men could have made it (1).
Other leads that could've proved
that the men did in fact make it was that a dying man had told his nurse he and
an accomplice helped Frank Morris and the Anglin Brothers escape from the
Alcatraz (Noyes 1). The confession indicates the two men were waiting in a boat
near Alcatraz that night, they plucked the three convicts from the water and
whisked them away. The man was very detailed as he told the story he even said
they painted the boat white just days before they set out to assist in the
escape (1).
Facts to prove the dying man wasn’t
telling a fib was that, Robert Checchi an off-duty San Francisco Policeman
sitting in his car just before midnight at Marina Green That evening was gazing
out at the Bay when he noticed what he called a “pristine white boat” Checchi
says he immediately felt like something was wrong because the boat had no
lights on. He didn’t see anybody on the boat and he couldn’t hear any noise
coming from the boat, but after watching the boat intently for several minutes,
Checchi said a light went on. He says somebody on the boat was shining a
spotlight or a flashlight into the dark waters of the Bay. He told ABC7’s
I-Team it just didn't look right (Noyes 1). The following day when Checchi
found out there had been an escape from Alcatraz, he went in to work and filed
a report about what he had seen (1). The FBI agents asked him repeatedly “what
did you see; where was it; what time was it” and even “How come you didn’t swim
out to check the boat out.” Checchi recalls one FBI agent said to him, “Like
hey, let's make this go away. Let's bury it (1).” Now all these years later,
the deathbed confession suggests what Checchi saw could have been the boat that
was there to help the convicts escape. Retired now, Checchi says he believes
the men who escaped Alcatraz were on the boat. There're still elements of the
deathbed confession we still look at and I wonder if some of it could be true
or not. I don’t know, anything is possible and it's just one more layer to this
big mystery. Esslinger the preeminent scholar on Alcatraz and the 1962 escape
calls the escape from Alcatraz “one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th
century” (1). He also says “I would love to know what the truth is, for every
single piece of evidence that suggest these guys died, there's another piece of
evidence that makes it equally as strong that they survived” (1).
Others leads that came about 50
years later that suggest the Anglin brothers were alive was the Anglin family
who were finally cooperating (Donnelly 1). Evidence is offered up by the
Anglin’s nephew David and Ken Widner. Alcatraz officials were not willing to
say the escapes did make it. David Widner says, “that gave me the motion to
prove them wrong” (1). First there were Christmas cards signed with Clarence
and John Anglin's names that were delivered for their mother during the three
years after the escape, they arrived without postage (1). When investigated by
Roderick who retired in 2008 but still working the case says the handwriting
matched. The next big piece of evidence was buried about six feet under (1).
The family let investigators dig up the remains of the Anglin brother Alfred
who was electrocuted during his own escape attempt from Alabama (1). They
needed his DNA a set of bones washed ashore north of San Francisco in 1963. DNA
proved to not be a match, Anglin family claims that the two may indeed still be
alive (1). The bones could still belong to Frank Morris though he has no living
relatives to test (1).
Work Cited
Whitaker, David. “New Evidence Surfaces In
56-Year-Old Alcatraz Prisoner Escape Investigation”. Brain Sharper.
12/3/2018.http://www.brain-sharper.com/entertainment/alcatraz-story-ob/
Donnelley ,Tim “The proof that 3 men survived
their escape from Alcatraz”. New York Post. 12/3/2018. https://nypost.com/2015/10/10/relatives-have-proof-alcatraz-escapees-are-still-alive/
Noyes, Dan “New leads in
manhunt for Alcatraz escapees”. Abc30 Action News. 12/3/2018. https://abc30.com/news/new-leads-in-alcatraz-escapees-manhunt/1351556/
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