Escape from Alcatraz: US Marshals Service share new, age-progressed images of escapees

About 60 years have passed since three inmates from the federal prison on Alcatraz escaped, never to be seen again.

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But recently, the U.S. Marshals Service shared new age-progressed images of Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin and his brother John Anglin depicting what the FBI believes the men would look like now.

The three men are still listed as fugitives, according to the marshals.

But they were not the only ones who tried to get off “The Rock.”

The FBI said that between 1934 and when the prison closed in 1963, 36 men tried to escape in 14 separate attempts. Most were either caught or didn’t survive.

Morris and the Anglin brothers knew each other from serving time in prison together prior to their time on Alcatraz Island.

The three men, along with another inmate, Allen West, hatched a plan to get out of the prison.

Morris, Clarence Anglin and John Anglin were not in their cells when guards did their routine bed check on the morning of June 12, 1962.

Instead, dummy heads made of plaster, real human hair and flesh-toned paint were in their place, the FBI said.

The night guards apparently didn’t notice the replacements when they did their rounds.

As soon as the escape was discovered, the prison went into lockdown and officials searched the facility.

Within days, letters sealed in rubber were found, along with paddle-like pieces of wood and pieces of rubber inner tube in the water.

A homemade life vest was found on the shore of Cronkhite Beach, but nothing else was found.

Through its investigation, the FBI discovered that the men had escaped the prison by removing air vent covers in their cells to access a corridor and eventually, the prison roof. They shimmied down a smokestack, climbed over a fence and made their way to the northeast shore where they launched a raft made of raincoats, the FBI said.

The FBI closed the case on Dec. 31, 1979, saying there was no credible evidence that Morris and the Anglin brothers were still alive at that time, the “Today” show reported.

The agency believed that the men had drowned, according to NewsNation.

The bureau turned the case over to the U.S. Marshals Service, where it is still active.

The prison had been thought to be inescapable, but former U.S. Marshal Michael Dyke told the “Today” show: “Obviously not. They got off the island.” But he is not sure if they lived through the escape. Dyke had worked on the case for several years.

A letter was received by police in San Francisco in 2013, in which the writer claimed to be John Anglin.

CBS San Francisco obtained the letter which says that John Anglin was 83 years old and that he was diagnosed with cancer.

“Yes we all made it that night but barely!” the letter’s writer stated. He said he was the last of the three men to still be alive at the time of the letter’s writing.

The writer said that Morris died in 2008 and Clarence Anglin died in 2011.

The writer then said he would turn himself in for “no more than a year and to get medical attention.”

The marshals sent the letter to FBI lab analysts — who looked at fingerprints and DNA — as well as handwriting experts who examined the writing. All results came back inconclusive.

Other supposed evidence, including a photo that allegedly showed the Anglin brothers in Brazil more than a decade after the escape also turned up over the years, adding to the mystery of what happened to the three men.

Despite the new age-progressed images of the men who would be in their 90s if they are still alive, the marshals have not made any new comments about the case, according to “Today.”

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