Alcatraz Escapees

2013 Letter Spurs Speculation Alcatraz Escapees Survived

But US Marshals says lead is a dead-end

By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff

A Golden Gate Ferry boat makes its way past Alcatraz Island and the fog Thursday, July 13, 2017, in San Francisco.   (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

(NEWSER) – The argument has been made before: that some or all of the three inmates who famously escaped from Alcatraz prison in 1962 may not have ended up dead after all. Now, KPIX 5 reports on another potential bit of evidence. Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin escaped by chiseling a hole into a prison wall and heading into the cold San Francisco Bay, with homemade paddles and a raft made from raincoats. Never found, they were presumed to have been swept out to the Pacific and died. If a letter is to be believed, that might not be the case for John Anglin. SFPD's Richmond station got a letter in 2013 that KPIX 5 reports it was able to view via a source.

It was purportedly from John Anglin, who was described in the letter as 83, living in Southern California, and "in bad shape" due to cancer. The letter writer says all three men survived—with Morris dying in 2008 and Clarence Anglin in 2011—and proposes a deal: "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." But perhaps it was: An FBI review of the letter's handwriting and any fingerprints or DNA on it had "inconclusive" results, per KPIX 5, which was told by the US Marshals the meritless lead isn't being pursued further.