In the most famous and most controversial escape attempt, four men devised an elaborate and creative way to escape both Alcatraz and detection. Frank Morris, Allen West, and brothers John and Clarence Anglin spent months preparing for their flight from the island. Using tools they created or stole, they chipped their way through the back walls of their cells to the utility corridor behind. They disguised their work (and their frequent absences from their cells) by creating false walls and plaster heads decorated with human hair they pilfered from the prison barber shop. To navigate the cold and dangerous waters of the bay, they stitched together prison-issued raincoats to make life vests and an inflatable raft. Their inventiveness paid off in that their escape was not discovered until the following morning. (West was not able to dig out the back of his cell effectively and ultimately was left behind by the other escapees.) A massive search turned up some meager artifacts such as oars, letters and photographs... but Morris and the Anglins were gone. Several weeks later, a body wearing what appeared to be an Alcatraz uniform was found up the coast from San Francisco. Unfortunately, the corpse was so badly decomposed that a positive identification was impossible.

Although proponents of the successful escape argument often cite the lack of bodies as proof that Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers made good on their flight from Alcatraz, the probability of successfully fleeing the island was greatly against the trio. Although several swimmers, including fitness guru Jack LaLanne, have proven that one can successfully swim from Alcatraz to the mainland, none of the inmates were properly trained or had sufficient knowledge about the conditions in the bay to rationally attempt such a crossing. Keep in mind that several other escape attempts from The Rock were stopped right at the shoreline by the escapees themselves -- presumably because they preferred their warm cells to a watery tomb. Those who entered the water and weren't recaptured were inevitably drowned or disappeared forever. The bay's currents were notorious for hiding bodies, as was the case for inmates Theodore Cole, Ralph Roe and John Boarman. [To see more on these escape attempts, click here.] In fact, on the same night as the "great escape," a man committed suicide by leaping off the Golden Gate Bridge in front of witnesses. Despite the best efforts of the Coast Guard, his body was never found either.

Family and friends of Morris and the Anglins never reported any contacts with the men after June 11, 1962; and no witness reports of anyone ever seeing them again would seem to underscore the likelihood that they all died in the water.

And then there was that floating body wearing the prison-style clothing spotted by a Norwegian freighter over a month after the escape. The FBI considered this the most damning piece of evidence against the escapees having survived the attempt. But do all these factors add up to failure? Consider these factors in favor of the successful escape hypothesis:

The Rock's "escape-proof" reputation was unfounded. During its years as a military prison, dozens of inmates escaped the island by water with 22% of them remaining unaccounted for. Although authorities usually (and probably correctly) assume that most of these missing persons were washed out to sea, survival is possible. The most successful escape from the prison occurred on November 28, 1918, when four military prisoners escaped with rafts and were later found hiding out in the Sutro Forest. Only one was recaptured. The similarity to the Morris-Anglin escape is profound. Numerous civilians, including several teenage girls, were also able to swim back and forth to the island before it became a penitentiary. And finally, in 2003, the Discovery Channel's Myth Busters were able to reproduce the tools and conditions of the escape and proved that the inmates could have made it successfully to the Marin headlands.

Stories about the bay being filled with man-eating sharks are also incorrect. Although species like the Great White Shark do exist in the area, they do not enter the bay and pose no threat to swimmers.

Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers were all housed at Alcatraz due to their numerous and successful escapes from other penitentiaries. Morris in particular had a superior intellect and was a patient craftsman for his escape. Unlike other failed attempts, the Morris-Anglin escape seemed to take the dangerous waters of the San Francisco Bay into full account -- hence the careful production of the raft and life-preservers. Perhaps the inmates had learned from their predecessors and were determined to be in the water for as little time as possible.

After spending most of their adult lives behind bars, the convicts may have vowed not to contact any family or friends out of fear of being recaptured. Considering the discipline they showed in preparing for the escape, it's not unreasonable to assume that they would show similar self-restraint once they made it ashore. They must have known that they would eventually be declared dead... and then they would be home-free.

As for the body seen by the Norwegian sailors, there are several problems. First, the freighter crew did not bother to collect the remains or even report them until three months later. Second, the identification that the corpse was wearing "prison clothing" is dubious as this determination was made through a pair of binoculars and mainly espoused by the FBI who claimed that no other missing persons in San Francisco were reported as wearing that type of clothing.