Transcript

Fleeing the Rock | Episode 2 | Daring Prison Escapes

From American History Tellers · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 36 min · 6,799 words · 49 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Fleeing the Rock | Episode 2 | Daring Prison Escapes", an episode of American History Tellers published September 10, 2025 (36 min, about 6,799 words). It mentions 38 people, works and ideas, including Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, Alan West, San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.

What this episode is about

The narrative follows two inmates, including Clarence Angland, as they attempt a daring escape from the notorious Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1962. Facing obstacles such as blocked air shafts and the reality of their confined existence, they navigate their escape plan while grappling with the challenges of ingenuity and hope for freedom.

Key takeaways

  • Alcatraz: where hopping a plane is easier than evading the guard's gaze for 5 minutes.
  • Frank Morris had sun-soaked dreams; Alcatraz presented a damp awakening to reality.
  • Iron bars do not a prison break make; the real escape is in the mind’s agility.
  • Rain hoods: great for drizzle, terrible when they rain on your escape parade.
  • Before Shawshank’s Redemption, there was Alcatraz’s almost-unsuccessful attempt at cinematic evasion.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: The Rock, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, American History Tellers, Frank Lee Morris
  2. – 10:00: San Francisco Bay, Al Capone, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island
  3. – 15:00: Alan West, Frank Lee Morris, Louisiana State Penitentiary
  4. – 20:00: Alan West, Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay
  5. – 25:00: Alan West, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, The Rock
  6. – 30:00: Alan West, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, San Francisco Bay
  7. – 35:00: Alan West, American History Tellers
  8. – 35:57: Aaron Oclarity, Airship, Alita Rosanski, American History Tellers

Notable quotes from "Fleeing the Rock | Episode 2 | Daring Prison Escapes"

  • It's the middle of the night and you're creeping along a catwalk deep inside the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Just ahead of you is your friend and fellow inmate Clarence…
    about Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary · at
  • In 1847, during the Mexicanamean War, US soldiers seized Alcatra, an island in San Francisco Bay. The US military first established a fort there, but soon figured out that the…
    about San Francisco Bay · at
  • On September 1st, 1926, Frank Lee Morris was born in Washington, DC. His mother, Clara, was just 17 years old at the time. She claimed that Frank's father was a man she had married 2 months.
    about Frank Lee Morris · at
  • Possession of narcotics. By 1955, Morris was in prison once again, serving a 10-year sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for bank robbery. At the time, the Louisiana…
    about Louisiana State Penitentiary · at
  • Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in the San Francisco Bay. The Department of Justice purchased Alcatraz Island from the Army in 1933 with the express purpose of confining the…
    about Alcatraz Island · at
  • Still considered inescapable. Since opening, 33 prisoners had tried to escape from Alcatraz, but none were successful. 23 had been caught, six had been shot and killed, and two…
    about Escape from Alcatraz · at
  • He decided to approach his cell neighbor, a 32-year-old inmate named Alan West, who was serving time for car theft. He also considered two bank robbing brothers who lived in…
    about Alan West · at
  • Levvenworth, Kansas, hijack a train and crash it through the prison gates, leading the Young Bureau of Investigation to begin their search for one of American history's most elusive fugitives.
    about Bureau of Investigation · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Clarence Anglin — Person · 20 mentions
  • John Anglin — Person · 16 mentions
  • Alan West — Person · 6 mentions · first at
  • Frank Lee Morris — Person · 2 mentions · first at
  • Clara Morris — Person · 2 mentions
  • Al Capone — Person · 1 mention · first at
    1940s, Alcatraz housed some of America's most notorious outlaws, including gangsters like Al Capone and George Machine Gun Kelly. But over the years, some of the prisons…
  • George "Machine Gun" Kelly — Person · 1 mention · first at
    1940s, Alcatraz housed some of America's most notorious outlaws, including gangsters like Al Capone and George Machine Gun Kelly. But over the years, some of the prisons…
  • Mohammad Shazi — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio editing by Muhammad Shazi. Sound design by Molly Bach. Supervising sound designer Matthew…
  • Molly Bach — Person · 1 mention · first at
    By me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio editing by Muhammad Shazi. Sound design by Molly Bach. Supervising sound designer Matthew Filler. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode…
  • Matthew Filler — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Editing by Muhammad Shazi. Sound design by Molly Bach. Supervising sound designer Matthew Filler. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Austin Racklas. Edited by Dorian Marina. Produced by Alita Rosanski.
  • Austin Racklas — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Designer Matthew Filler. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Austin Racklas. Edited by Dorian Marina. Produced by Alita Rosanski.
  • Dorian Marina — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Designer Matthew Filler. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Austin Racklas. Edited by Dorian Marina. Produced by Alita Rosanski.
  • Alita Rosanski — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Austin Racklas. Edited by Dorian Marina. Produced by Alita Rosanski.
  • Desi Bllelock — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Managing producer Desi Bllelock. Senior managing producer Callum PL. Senior producer Andy Herman. Executive producers Jenny Low Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Aaron Oclarity for Wondery.
  • Callum PL — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Managing producer Desi Bllelock. Senior managing producer Callum PL. Senior producer Andy Herman. Executive producers Jenny Low Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Aaron Oclarity for Wondery.
  • Andy Herman — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Managing producer Desi Bllelock. Senior managing producer Callum PL. Senior producer Andy Herman. Executive producers Jenny Low Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Aaron Oclarity for Wondery.
  • Marshall Louie — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Managing producer Callum PL. Senior producer Andy Herman. Executive producers Jenny Low Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Aaron Oclarity for Wondery.
  • Aaron Oclarity — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Producer Andy Herman. Executive producers Jenny Low Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Aaron Oclarity for Wondery.
  • James & Lucinda Bruce — Person · 1 mention
  • Jenny Lauer Beckman — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

Companies & orgs

Concepts & topics

  • The Rock — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    Find a way out because you refuse to let Alcatraz, the inescapable prison known as The Rock, beat you from Wondery. I'm Lindsey Graham and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story.
  • Mexican–American War — Concept · 1 mention
  • Prohibition in the United States — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

Full transcript with timestamps

Wonder. Imagine it's spring 1962. It's the middle of the night and you're creeping along a catwalk deep inside the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Just ahead of you is your friend and fellow inmate Clarence Angland. The dang clammy air reeks of mildew and clings to your skin, but you're used to it. You've been a prisoner here for nearly 2 and 1/2 years. Though, if all goes according to plan tonight, you'll be a free man soon. You spy an air shaft just ahead of you, and your heart begins to beat faster. Your entire escape plan hinges on being able to make it through this shaft and up onto the roof. Clarence squats down at the shaft, and carefully you climb onto his shoulders. His large hands reach back and grab your ankles tightly.

You ready? I'm ready. Slowly, Clarence stands up, raising you into the shaft. You peer to the end and inspect it as carefully as you can. Well, what do you see? Damn it. You shake your head, dejected. Lower me down. Slowly, Clarence lowers himself and you step off his shoulders. It's no good. We're trapped. What do you mean? What' you see? Well, this shaft isn't blocked by a fan like the others, but it is blocked by iron bars. There's some kind of cap at the end, too, like a rain hood or something. Well, we can beat that. We can bend the bars and knock the cap off.

Not likely. It's riveted into place. We'll use a drill. No. Even if we managed to get our hands on a drill and figured out a way to power it up here, it'd make too much noise. Oh, come on. We've gotten this far. We can't give up now. I don't know. There may not be a way out. Well, we have to think of something. You stare at Clarence, trying to think of some way to get the cap off, but your mind just races in circles. I don't know. We're not going to solve it tonight. Come on, let's get back to ourselves. You and Clarence glumbly tiptoe back down the catwalk and shimmy down a pipe to the first floor where your cells are located. But as you step back behind bars and slump onto your bunk, you feel dejected and morose. You can't stand the idea of spending eight more years in this god-forsaken place. You have to find a way out because you refuse to let Alcatraz, the inescapable prison known as The Rock, beat you

from Wondery. I'm Lindsey Graham and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. In 1847, during the Mexicanamean War, US soldiers seized Alcatra, an island in San Francisco Bay. The US military first established a fort there, but soon figured out that the difficult to access island a mile and a half off the shores of San Francisco was better used as a prison. So officials converted it to hold military inmates. It served that purpose until the 1930s when the Department of Justice purchased Alcatraz from the military, intending to use it as a new maximum security prison. The buildings on the island were modernized and redesigned to be inescapable with thick concrete walls, steel doors, and armed guards keeping close watch. By 1962, Alcatraz housed approximately 270 inmates, many considered the most dangerous in the nation. Among them were two brothers, Clarence and John Angland,

incarcerated for armed bank robbery, and another man, Frank Morris, serving a 14-year sentence also for robbing a bank. These three inmates, along with a fourth conspirator, would soon devise a plan to escape. But their success hinged on an elaborate series of steps, any one of which could go wrong. Nevertheless, they were determined to be the first prisoners to defy the odds and break out of Alcatra. This is episode two in our four-part series on daring prison escapes, fleeing the rock. On September 1st, 1926, Frank Lee Morris was born in Washington, DC. His mother, Clara, was just 17 years old at the time. She claimed that Frank's father was a man she had married 2 months earlier, but by the time Frank was born, the man had disappeared from her life.

Nevertheless, she gave her baby the man's surname, Morris. It soon became clear that Clara was erratic and had a violent temper. Authorities worried she would harm her baby in a fit of rage. So when Morris was just 6 months old, he was placed in a foster home. As a young child, Morris was smart and charming, but also highly energetic and had a pension for mischief. By the time he was six, he was stealing matches and lighting them just to watch them burn. He stole change from his teacher's desks and food from his classmates lunchboxes, even though he had his own lunchbox full of food. As a result of his acting up, he was bounced from foster home to foster home. Then at the age of 13, he was convicted of theft and sentenced to a juvenile detention center in Washington DC. Although his initial sentence was for 6 years, he was released on parole after serving just one. But his good behavior didn't last.

A year later, he was back in detention. At 16, he escaped from the DC detention center and made it all the way to Miami, Florida before he was caught. This was the start of a pattern that lasted into his adult life. He cycled in and out of detention centers, escaping and getting caught over and over. He racked up a lengthy wrap sheet and was convicted of everything from armed robbery to possession of narcotics. By 1955, Morris was in prison once again, serving a 10-year sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for bank robbery. At the time, the Louisiana State Penitentiary was considered the most secure prison in the southern United States. But that spring, while Morris was assigned to a work crew cutting sugarcane, he managed to sneak away. No one was exactly sure how he did it. Still, he wasn't out for long. Several months later, in early 1956, the FBI caught him in a hotel room in Baton Rouge. While free, he had

stolen over $6,000 in coins from a bank in a small town north of New Orleans. He was sentenced to 14 years for the crime, and this time there was only one prison considered secure enough to hold him. Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in the San Francisco Bay. The Department of Justice purchased Alcatraz Island from the Army in 1933 with the express purpose of confining the country's most hardened criminals. A decade earlier, prohibition had sparked a wave of violent crime in the US as bootleggers battled with each other to dominate the black market on alcohol. And as these savvy criminals were caught, they overwhelmed local prisons. The Department of Justice decided a new kind of prison was needed, one that was inescapable. and Alcatraz was deemed the perfect site. Located on a 22 acre island, the prison was surrounded by the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay, which was known for its strong current. And the prison

itself was upgraded with all the most modern technologies. The bars of the cells were made using steel that couldn't be cut through with a hacksaw. The ends of the cell blocks were secured with heavy steel doors, armed with automatic locks, tear gas dispensers, and watched over by armed guards. Heavy barbed wire lined the perimeter and bars were placed over the sewer entrances. The prisoners at Alcatraz were kept under close surveillance. Armed watchmen monitored the ground from gun towers and inside guards counted the prisoners every 30 minutes. Strict rules were also enforced. Inmates could be sent to solitary confinement for the smallest of infractions, including not finishing the food on their plate or engaging in small talk. It was the country's most secure prison. And throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Alcatraz housed some of America's most notorious outlaws, including gangsters like Al Capone and George

Machine Gun Kelly. But over the years, some of the prisons harshest methods came under criticism. An investigation in the 1950s revealed multiple prisoner abuses, including the overuse of solitary confinement. As a result, officials were forced to loosen some of the strictest rules, allowing prisoners to talk during meals and play music in their cells. But the island fortress was still considered inescapable. Since opening, 33 prisoners had tried to escape from Alcatraz, but none were successful. 23 had been caught, six had been shot and killed, and two had drowned. When frankly Morris arrived at Alcatraz in January 1960, he immediately began looking for ways to escape. The bleak track record of failed escape attempts didn't bother him. He was determined to regain his freedom. So, he watched the guards closely. He timed how long it took them to patrol the entire cell block. He learned their shift

changes. He clocked which ones were unarmed. He also studied the architecture of the prison building, looking for any weaknesses he could exploit. But the place was a fortress. At one point, he considered an air vent built into the base of a rear wall of each cell, including his own. But he was small, only about 6x 10 in, and the metal grate covering the vent was tightly affixed to the concrete wall. In the end, he dismissed this vent as too secure and too small for a grown man to fit through. For over a year, he continued to case the prison for weaknesses, but could find none. He was almost ready to give up hope, but then he learned a secret.

Imagine it's a cool morning in 1961. You are a prisoner at Alcatra, assigned to the so-called brush shop for work duty. All day you make brushes and brooms for a few cents an hour that gets deposited into your commissary account. You wait patiently as the guard finishes his count of the prisoners in the shop. Then you spring into action, reaching for a half gallon jug of glue that you use in the workshop to make brooms. You're hoping to steal some for a project you're working on back in your cell. You tip the jug of glue, carefully pouring it into a small glass bottle you brought with you. When it's full, you cork the bottle and slide it into your pocket. But when you look up, you notice the man next to you, giving you a leery stare. Hey man, what was that? That's when you realize he saw what you did.

You've never spoken to him before, but you think his name is Morris. He looks at you quizzically. Oh, it's nothing. Mind your own business. Morris is quiet for a moment and then his head. What about the snitch box? The snitch box is what you and your fellow inmates call the metal detector the guards use to make sure inmates don't sneak anything from the work areas back into their cells. You just shrug. No, man. It's just glass and cork. There's nothing to set the snitchbox off. But what if the guards frisk you? I figured I get pulled out to be frisked once every 30 times I go through. The odds are in my favor. Plus, I was frisked last week. I doubt they'll pull me out again so soon. All right, so you've been doing some thinking. Yeah, man. This place isn't nearly as tight a ship as they like to think. You don't think so?

Nah, there are plenty of security lapses. I even know a way someone could bust out of here if they had the nerve. Morris raises an eyebrow. All right, then. Let's hear it. Okay, so a few years ago, this old inmate was working as an electrician when a fan in one of the ventilator shafts above cell block B broke. He removed the broken fan, but no one ever put in a replacement. I bet you could climb that shaft all the way out to the roof. Morris stares at you, his eyes flashing with intensity. Say cell block B. Yeah, that's what I heard. But how do you access the ventilator shaft?

There's a utility corridor behind the cells. You get to the shaft from there. But isn't that corridor blocked off by like a locked steel door? Yeah, but I guess you could always ask the guard for a key. You smile as Morris's face falls. A moment later, the guard re-enters the room and it's time for the next count. So, you turn back to your broom. But out of the corner of your eye, you can see that Morris is deep in thought. You can't believe he seriously thinks he can reach that shaft and make an escape. You were just messing with him. He'll never figure out how to access the ventilator shaft, much less get out of this prison.

After learning about an empty air shaft from a fellow inmate in the brush shop where he worked, Frank Lee Morris spent the next few months mulling over how to reach it. It was somewhere behind the thick cement walls of his cell, and he needed to find a way to get to it. One night, in the fall of 1961, he sat on his bed cleaning his nails. As he used a small nail file with a tapered end to scrape out the dirt from his fingernails, his eyes landed on the air vent on the rear wall near the base of the sink, the one he had previously dismissed as too small to fit through.

His thumb grazed over the pointed end of the clippers in his hand, and he got an idea. Slowly, he stood up and peered out of his cell. There was no guard inside, so he hurried to the back wall and got down on his knees. Using the pointy file from the clippers, he scraped hard against the wall right near the vent. Tiny flakes of concrete fell to the floor. Morris's hands began to shake with excitement, and his mind raced. He knew it would be a strenuous process to scrape away the concrete to make the opening large enough for him to fit through, but he was convinced this could be the way to the air shaft and then onto freedom. But he still had a problem. He had to figure out how to hide what he was doing from the guards.

At the very least, he needed a lookout. He would never succeed on his own. So, he decided to approach his cell neighbor, a 32-year-old inmate named Alan West, who was serving time for car theft. He also considered two bank robbing brothers who lived in adjacent cells four doors down from him, Clarence and John Angland. Morris already knew these brothers because their sentences had over overlapped at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. And Morris knew that like him, they had a history of escaping from prisons. Still, Morris worried that enlisting these three men as accompllices might be a mistake. West liked to talk, and Morris worried that he might let the plan slip, and the Angland brothers had a reckless streak.

But after deliberating, he decided they were his best options. So, in early 1962, Morris approached the other three men over breakfast. He pitched them on the plan, and they quickly agreed. Morris explained that the first step would be for each man to dig around the vent in their respective cells, eventually widening the opening enough so that they could crawl through to the utility corridor that house pipes and other infrastructure behind the wall. Once through, they could look for the unobinstructed air shaft the other inmate had told him about, then figure out next steps. Clarence Angland was eager to get started digging on his vent immediately, but Morris warned him to take it slow. To pull this off, they would need to execute their plan perfectly. No detail could be overlooked and it would take time, at least several more months of careful and patient work before they actually busted out.

Everyone agreed to commit for the long haul. But Morris could feel the impatience emanating off Clarence. Still, there was no cutting him out of the plan now. All Morris could do was hope he'd chosen the right men as his accompllices. One slip of the tongue or careless move would doom the mission and condemn them all to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

In early 1962, Frankly Morris and his three accompllices had a plan to break out of Alcatraz. But it wasn't going to be easy. Their ultimate goal was to escape via an air shaft Morris had learned about from another inmate. But to do that, they would each need to gain access to a utility corridor behind the cell block where they were housed. That would require digging into the concrete walls surrounding the small air vents at the back of their cells in order to expand the hole so they could fit through. Each vent was just 6 in by 10 in, and Morris estimated that the smallest area a man could fit through was 10x4 in, meaning they would have to more than double the size of the holes.

This meant scraping through a concrete wall that was approximately a foot thick with limited tools and without getting caught by the guards. The men agreed that Morris and Clarence Angland would start digging their holes first while Alan West and John Angland kept watch for them. It was slowgoing. The file of a nail clipper was an inefficient tool, even after Morris figured out how to weld it to the handle of a spoon he snuck out of the messole. And they had to hide the dust they were generating so the guards wouldn't get suspicious.

Every night, Morris and Clarence would dig until the scrapings filled the pockets of their coats without any visible bulge. Then the next day, on their way to work detail, they would scatter the debris. Meanwhile, Morris came up with a clever way to conceal the growing hole in the back of his cell from the guards. Playing music was one of the few leisure activities the men of Alcatraz were allowed to pursue, so Morris took up the accordion. He positioned the large instrument case in front of the air vent to hide the damage he was doing to the wall from passing guards. Their scheme was underway, but Morris and the other men knew that getting into the air shaft and out onto the unsecured roof of the prison was only part of the plan. They would also need to find a way to prevent the guards from knowing they were gone to give them as much of a head start as possible once they broke out. So Morris came up with

another idea. Aware that at night the guards check the sleeping inmates cells every 45 minutes, he devised a way to trick the guards into thinking they were still in their beds. He and the other men borrowed magazines from the prison library and carefully removed pages until they had enough to make paperiermâché, which they planned to use to make dummies of their heads that looked as much like themselves as possible. To do this, John England took up painting as a hobby in order to justify buying paint from the commissary, then snuck the paint to the other men. Meanwhile, his brother Clarence worked in the barber shop. So, he smuggled out hair clippings, which they glued to the papier-mâché heads to give them an even more realistic look.

They also used papier-mâché to create homemade cardboard, which they put over the holes in the cell walls once they were too big for the metal grate to stay in place. They painted it the same color as the wall, and then painted on a fake grate. Repeatedly, Morris had to urge his accompllices to slow down. The Angland brothers were impatient. Jon wanted to rip more pages out of the magazines so they could build their dummy heads faster, but Morris snapped at him, warning that missing pages could get noticed, and they didn't want to tip off anyone about their plan. Morris hoped that between fake heads and clothes stuffed under their blankets, they could fool the guards into thinking they were still in their beds well after they had left. And if all went according to plan, their escape wouldn't be discovered until roll call the next morning, giving them several hours of a head start. But Morris also had to

remind the other men that once they got off Alcatraz Island, they would face the strong currents and icy waters of the San Francisco Bay, known to easily overwhelm even the strongest swimmers. To overcome this challenge, Morris devised a plan to build makeshift rafts. The prison commissary sold raincoats for the inmates to purchase to keep them dry while they spent time in the prison yard amid the frequent San Francisco drizzle. And John England happened to work near where the stock of raincoats was stored. So during his work shifts, he would sneak one of the coats on and then wear it back to his cell. And a guard shift change meant that the guard on duty when he left had no idea that he had not worn the raincoat when he arrived at work that morning. Through this method, Jon was able to steal over 50 raincoats that the men fashioned into two rafts by stitching the coats together. They even

waterproof the seams by holding them up to steam pipes to apply heat. They used similar techniques to make life fests for each of them as well as waterproof bags for their possessions. Finally, by the spring of 1962, after roughly 3 months of preparations, both Frank Morris and Clarence Angland had managed to make the vents in their cells large enough to be able to squeeze through. They had access to the unguarded utility corridor behind their cells and to the air shaft that would take them to the roof. Then one night after lights out, while West and John Angland kept watch, Morris and Clarence Angland snuck into the corridor, Morris pulled his accordion case in front of the hole as he climbed through. Then when they reached the ventilator shaft, Morris climbed on Clarence's shoulders and peered to the end. All the work they'd done so far had relied on the intelligence Morris had learned that

this shaft did not have a fan and would give them access to the roof. But when Morris saw the end of the shaft, his stomach sank. It was true that there wasn't a fan, but instead there were two iron bars across the end and a cap secured with six iron rivets. He knew there was no way to remove the rivets with the limited tools they had access to. Dejected, Morris and Clarence made their way back to their cells. But Morris wasn't going to let six lousy rivets stop him from getting off the rock. By breakfast the next day, he presented some ideas for how they could remove the rivets to take off the rain cap. He said that stealing a drill might be impossible, but maybe they could build one. Then one day in the music room, Morris spotted a small fan in the corner. While Wes distracted the guard, Morris crammed the fan into his accordion case. That night in his cell, he took the fan apart and removed the

motor. Then he attached it to a drill bit he'd stolen from the broom workshop. A little later, he and Clarence went back into the shaft. Morris wrapped a raincoat around the motor to deaden the sound and put the drill up to the first rivet. But the small motor didn't have enough power. Instead, he came up with a new idea. In the prison glove shop, they had a thin cord that was imbued with sharp grains of silicon carbide and abrasive. Morris realized this cord might be thin enough to slide under the top of the rivets, meaning they could potentially use it to saw the heads of the rivets off. So Morris asked a friend who worked in the glove shop to smuggle a length of the cord out for him. Once he had it, he returned to the air shaft to test it. He placed a strong, sharp cord under the head of a rivet and wiggled it back and forth, feeling it cut into the metal rod. He was thrilled that his idea worked, but it would take

slow, arduous effort to saw through each of the six metal rivets. Men took turns working in pairs, making a little more progress every night. While one man saw at the rivets, the others continued to work on the rafts and life fests. They established a workshop on the roof of their sail block near the air shaft where they stored their dummies and other supplies. Finally, in June 1962, approximately 6 months after Morris first approached the Angland brothers and Allen West, Clarence managed to remove the last of the six rivets, meaning they could now remove the rain cap and reach the roof. The only question that remained was when to attempt their escape because they knew that to succeed the timing had to be perfect.

Imagine it's Friday, June 8th, 1962. You're a prisoner at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, and you're seated at a table in the messole during breakfast. All around you, inmates shovel down their food. Constant clanking of silverware, and the smell of powdered eggs makes you feel like your head's going to explode. For the past 6 months, you've been carefully preparing to break out of this place. And last night, your brother Clarence completed the last step necessary to leave. Knowing that freedom is so close makes every second you're imprisoned here feel like torture. You want out now. You're seated across from Franklin Morris, the mastermind of your escape plan. You look around, making sure no one is listening, and then lean forward. So, tonight's the night, right?

We break out. No, no, no. We're not quite ready yet. What are you talking about? out. The rivets are off. We have the decoy dummies, the rafts, the life jackets. What are we waiting for? Getting across the bay is going to be dangerous. I want to learn more about the currents and ties. Also, I think it might be possible to make the rafts sturdier. You clench your fists under the table. Damn it. Look, the longer we stall, the greater chance we get caught. We've been lucky so far that our cells haven't been searched, but that could change any day. Man, I'm not stalling.

I'm making sure every part of the plan is airtight. But it's never going to be perfect. And you know that, right? Yeah, but we spent 6 months on this. It'd be a waste if we did all this work and then drowned in the bay because we got impatient. You grit your teeth. Okay, fine. How much time do you think we need to learn about currents and stuff? At least a week. All right. So, next Friday, we're out of here. Let's say Monday the 18th. All right. But that's the date. You're not pushing it back. Whatever you know about the tides by then is what you know.

Morris nods and you finish eating your breakfast in silence. You're glad to have set a date, but you can't stop the gnawing feeling in the back of your head that you're still waiting too long. Your gut tells you that sometime in the next 10 days, your plan will be discovered and it will all be over. Clarence Angland had a history of being impulsive and rash. In many ways, he was the opposite of Frank Morris, who was thoughtful and detail-oriented. For 6 months, Morris had kept Clarence in check, but with a promise of escape so close, Clarence began to grow increasingly impatient. Morris managed to convince him to wait just a little longer. But waiting was hard for both of the Angland brothers. The following Monday night on June 11th, frankly Morris was in his cell when he heard Jon's voice whispering to him from the other side of the wall. Checking that a guard wasn't nearby, Morris removed the

cardboard covering the hole to find Jon's head peering out. He told Morris that he and Clarence were leaving that night. They refused to wait any longer. Morris pleaded with them to wait one more week like they'd planned, but Jon said he and his brother wanted the hell out and they didn't want to wait a single day more. They were determined to leave whether Morris and Wes came with them or not. Then Jon disappeared, leaving Morris alone in his cell. Morris knew that as soon as Clarence and Jon's absence was discovered, guards would institute a search of everyone's cells.

The holes in his and West's walls would be revealed, and they would probably be sent to solitary and have time added to their sentence for attempting escape. They'd also likely get moved off sale block B, meaning any chance of escape would be over. So Morris knew he had a choice to make. Either he could leave now and risk death in the waters of San Francisco Bay, or he could let the others leave without him and give up the best chance he might ever have at escaping. Whichever decision he made, his life was on the line.

Just past 9:00 p.m. on Monday, June 11th, 1962, Frankly Morris paced in his cell at the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, listening intently to the voices just a few feet away. Morris could hear his fellow conspirator, Clarence Angland, talking to Alan West. Clarence was laying out the same ultimatum that Jon had given Morris only moments earlier. Come with them now or be left behind forever. But Wes didn't have the doubts that Morris did. He was eager to go, too. So Morris listened as Jon and Clarence England left to shimmy up a pipe to the top level of the cell blocks. He removed the cardboard from the hole in his wall and climbed through himself, pulling the accordion case behind him. He tiptoed down the catwalk as fast as he could, climbing up the pipe behind the Angland brothers. He knew they were heading to the secret workshop they had set up on the roof of the cell block where they kept their

supplies for the escape, including the dummies they would use to trick the guards. He caught up with the brothers just as they were coming back down. Their dummy heads in hand. Morris tried one more time to reason with them not to rush the escape, but the brothers weren't having it. They told Morris as soon as the lights were out, they were going. Then they headed back to their cells to stage the dummies. Morris hesitated yet again, then made his decision. he would go to. He climbed up to the workshop and grabbed his own decoy. But as he returned to his cell, he heard an odd sound that made his heart race.

Imagine it's the evening of June 11th, 1962, and you're in your cell in Alcatra Federal Penitentiary. You're desperately scraping a sharpened spoon against the concrete wall of your cell. Sweat drips down your forehead, and you can feel your breathing growing increasingly shallow. After months of preparing, you've just found out you're escaping tonight. But something is wrong. Your cell neighbor and the mastermind of your plan, Frankly Morris, hisses through the wall. What the hell's going on in there? Why aren't you getting your dummy?

Man, I messed up. What do you mean? I was having trouble with the cardboard. It kept falling out, so I stole some cement powder and closed the hole up a little.

Okay, so what? I did too good a job. I can't get the cardboard out. I'm sealed in. I'm trying to reopen the edges so I can get out. Are you kidding me? Well, I don't know what else to do. If the guards discovered the hole, the plan would be ruined. But you decided to do a top quality masonry job. What's the matter with you? It'll be fine. I just need a few minutes. All right. Well, hang on. At least let me stand watch. I don't want a guard catching you. You stop scraping and wait as you hear Morris squeeze through the hole in his wall and back into his cell. All right. Coast is clear. You start scraping the wall again. You have no time to waste. It took you 3 months to scrape through the wall the first time and now you need to get through it in minutes. At least you don't have to worry about the dust. The next time you go through the hole will be the last time. You take a quick break to wipe the sweat from your brow. You

barely made any progress. How's it looking? I need more time. Well, if you're not done by lights out, we're going without you. Your throat constricts. Lights out is at 10:00 in less than an hour. You barely made a dent in the wall. You push at the cardboard, but it doesn't budge. All right. All right. I'll get through in time. Don't worry. You hope you're right. You can't get left behind. So, you narrow your eyes and focus on scraping the wall as fast as you can. On the night they intended to escape, Frank Morris was distressed to learn that his cell neighbor, Alan West, had accidentally sealed up the hole in his wall a few days earlier. Wes began to desperately try to chisel his way through the cement he had poured, but as the lights went out, he still hadn't gotten through. In the next cell over, Morris took one last look around. His dummy head was in place, looking disturbingly lifelike with its real

human hair. All of his personal effects looked the way they always did. A guard walking by doing a cursory bed check would have no reason to think anything was a miss. Meanwhile, West could hear the Angland brothers shuffling by on the other side of the wall. He scraped faster and begged the others to wait for him, but John Angland just hissed at him to stop making so much noise. In the next cell over, Morris crawled through the hole in his wall for the last time. And as he pulled the accordion case in front of the hole, he told West to hurry up and that he'd see him up top. Then West heard each of his three accompllices shimmy up the pipe without him. West scraped and scraped and scraped. Then finally, sometime after midnight, he chipped away enough of the cement that he could get through to the utility corridor. He climbed the catwalk and shimmyed up the pipe and into the workshop where the men had stored their

rafts, dummies, and other supplies. One of the rafts, the panels, and several of the life vests were gone, but his fake head was still there. Still, he'd wasted so much time reopening the hole in his cell, he decided not to bother putting the dummy head in his bed. He just needed to go. So he grabbed the remaining raft, folded it up, and hauled himself up the air shaft. At the end of the shaft, he took a deep breath and popped his head out. A light blinded him, the security beacon, and then suddenly a flock of seagulls shrieked right next to him. Terrified that this commotion had attracted the attention of the guard standing watch in the nearby gun towers. Wes ducked his head back down, his heart pounding. After a moment, he had a horrible realization.

He was not getting out that night. He was sure the guards were now watching the roof thanks to the seagulls, and he couldn't afford to wait. Without his dummy head in place, the guards inside would soon notice he wasn't in his cell. Defeated, he climbed back down and returned. Not knowing what else to do, he went to bed. The next morning, Tuesday, June 12th, in the light of day, the guards discovered the dummy heads in the beds of Franklin Morris and John and Clarence England. The prison was immediately put into lockdown and searched extensively. The FBI, the US Marshalss, local law enforcement, the Coast Guard, and other branches of the military were all notified. The hole in Alan West's wall was soon discovered, and West quickly agreed to cooperate fully, sharing with the authorities all the details of the plan. In exchange, he was not charged with attempting to escape. West told officials that the

plan had been to use their rafts to cross the bay, make landfall north of Alcatra Island, then steal a car. Over the coming days, law enforcement investigated every car theft and home break-in in Northern California, but in the end, nothing could be traced back to the escapees. Next, authorities looked into the men's contacts, but determined that none of their friends or family had been in a position to aid them in their escape. Then, on Wednesday, June 13th, one of their homemade ores was found bobbing in the bay. The following day, an Army Corps of Engineers boat picked up a waterproof bag made out of a raincoat. Inside were family photos and a money order made out to Clarence England. With no evidence to indicate that the three men ever made it to shore, Alcatraz authorities took this as proof that the men had drowned in the bay and the case went cold. Then in March 1963, less than one year after the

escape, the Bureau of Prisons closed Alcatra. Many people theorized that it was because of the escape, but the timing was coincidental. The closing had been in the works long before the three men disappeared. A report in the late 1950s indicated that Alcatraz cost three times more to operate than the average American prison, and authorities had decided it was no longer worth the expense. 16 years later, in 1979, the FBI officially declared Clarence England, John England, and Frankly Morris dead. But some believe that the men made it to safety and disappeared into society, arguing that if they had died, at least one of their bodies would have been recovered. Because of the ambiguity, unlike the FBI, the US Marshall Service kept the case open, and Frankly Morris and the England brothers are still wanted to this day for escaping Alcatraz. Alcatraz's history of housing some of America's most famous

criminals, and its reputation as escape proof has allowed it to live on in the country's collective imagination. The name itself has become a shortorthhand for harsh and impenetrable prison. But today, Alcatraz is a popular tourist attraction with roughly 1 and a half million visitors a year buying tickets to get inside. A far cry from when prisoners would do anything to get a ticket out. From Wondery, this is episode two of our four-part series on daring prison escapes for American history tellers. On the next episode, in 1910, six inmates at the Federal Penitentiary in Levvenworth, Kansas, hijack a train and crash it through the prison gates, leading the Young Bureau of Investigation to begin their search for one of American history's most elusive fugitives.

If you'd like to learn more about this story, we recommend Escape from Alcatraz by Jay Campbell Bruce. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio editing by Muhammad Shazi. Sound design by Molly Bach. Supervising sound designer Matthew Filler. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Austin Racklas. Edited by Dorian Marina. Produced by Alita Rosanski. Managing producer Desi Bllelock. Senior managing producer Callum PL. Senior producer Andy Herman. Executive producers Jenny Low Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Aaron Oclarity for Wondery.

Questions about this episode

What is "Fleeing the Rock | Episode 2 | Daring Prison Escapes" about?

The narrative follows two inmates, including Clarence Angland, as they attempt a daring escape from the notorious Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1962. Facing obstacles such as blocked air shafts and the reality of their confined existence, they navigate their escape plan while grappling with the challenges of ingenuity and hope for freedom.

What is mentioned in this American History Tellers episode?

38 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, Alan West, San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, The Rock. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Fleeing the Rock | Episode 2 | Daring Prison Escapes"?

The episode runs 36 min; the transcript is about 6,799 words in 49 timestamped sections.

More from American History Tellers

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 19, 2025.