50 years ago today, three men did the impossible. They escaped from Alcatraz. They may or may not have lived.
Apparently, the promise was made that if they escaped, lived, then continued to live, they would return today. There are people waiting on Alcatraz today, including the sister of one of the men. So, we’ll see.
Mean time, here’s the trailer from the movie, “Escape from Alcatraz”;
In case you were interested in escaping from Alcatraz yourself, you could try this:
And finally, the MythBusters tackled the story and here’s what they came up with:
Photo by kayakeverywhere
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or Paperback
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Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
It says something about human nature that I (along with many others, I’m sure), hope they made it. I have no idea what they were incarcerated for, but you’d think I wouldn’t want convicted criminals walking the streets of the Bay Area.
They were not violent criminals. The brothers (two were brothers) had escaped from several prisoners earlier, that’s why they put them on Alcatraz. They were back robbers, but the good kind … no guns.
So all the triathletes make it. I’m guessing the swimmers wet suits though had a lot to do with making it across in the triathlon. Still prison culture has always placed an emphasis on physical workouts so it’s not unfair to assume the men were in good physical shape. Nor would it have likely been very difficult for the prisoners to acquire a supply of fat/grease etc to smear their bodies with to protect against the chill of the water. It seems to me – especially as these 3 had created a makeshift rubber raft – that there is a decent possibility they made it (there was a report shortly afterwards from a ship passing the coast of a body floating in the sea wearing clothes very similar to those issued in prison – so possibly only two made in which case likely the brothers looking out for each other)
The Mythbusters did a very good job on that one IMO. They actually added info in terms of the likely beaching site being different than people back in the day thought. It would be good to actually know. If I were Governor, I’d make an offer of clemency for them to come forward if they indeed still live and have not committed any felonies since.