Two episodes of Alcatraz prison escape legends, used to pay tribute to the blood-boiled old movie "Brave to Death Island", and the magical old scoundrel Sean Connery.
Alcatraz Island, or Alcatraz Island, is commonly known locally as The Rock, which is the English title of "Breathtaking Island". It is a small island located in San Francisco Bay with an area of 0.0763 square kilometers.
The surrounding seas are icy, with high winds and rapids, and there are many undercurrents. It is an excellent prison site, which can effectively prevent prisoners from breaking out of prison, and can be quickly supported by San Francisco in the event of an emergency. Therefore, in the nearly 30 years since 1934, Alcatraz has become a federal heavy prison, detaining notorious criminals and prison escape experts.
"Alcatraz" means "pelicans" in Spanish. At first, this island was a habitat for pelicans, and it was named after a large number of pelicans gathered. The name "Alcatraz" comes from a prisoner imprisoned here, Philip Grosser, who was convicted for refusing to perform military service in World War I. He compiled his own experience behind bars into a book and named it "Uncle Sam's Alcatraz Island", exposing to the public the horror and darkness of the prison at that time, making this island of Pelican the prestigious name "Alcatraz".
"The trash cans on the San Francisco Bay are full of rotten apples from all over the United States." Alcatraz has imprisoned many famous criminals, including Scarface, Birdman, and machine gun... Their "deeds" are legendary enough, such as Scarface. The creation of the "Valentine's Day Massacre" shocked the United States.
The prison that year has become a famous attraction. The following are taken during the tour, and some old photos are added for comparison. The past and the present are different from the past, the devil is gone, only the fragrance of birds and flowers are left.
No one wanted to go to Alcatraz before, now you need to buy a ticket to go.
The tourist "prisoners" took a boat to Alcatraz Island, became prisoners of Azkaban, and listened to imprisonment instructions.
In fact, classic films such as "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Shawshank's Redemption" have all borrowed from "Escape from Alcatraz Island" in 1979 and refer to the real prison escape incident on Alcatraz Island.
In 1979, "Escape from Alcatraz Island" starring Clint Eastwood perfectly reproduced the escape process of three geniuses in 1962 and became the pioneer of film and television works on the theme of escape.
Looking at the Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz Island. The prisoners of the year looked out here, and the vibrant world of blossoms seemed to be in front of them, but in fact it was far away—the cold, turbulent ocean currents were undoubtedly a natural barrier.
Looking towards Alcatraz Island from Fisherman’s Wharf.
Even if it is "expensive" Alcatraz, there will be an escape from a prison-even a felony prison.
1.Mission Impossible——Only 3 people escaped from prison on Alcatraz Island
On the evening of June 11, 1962, four prisoners (Brothers Allen West, Frank Worris, and Angli) were preparing for a long-term escape, and finally three successfully escaped.
And the fourth person, Allen West, is precisely because of the details of his failure to escape, and as a gang think tank and mastermind, he has countless stories of his own.
Initially, they used all the tools available at hand (such as spoons, coins, nail clippers) to dig holes in the walls and designed fake vents, which were covered by posters, newspapers or guitars. Familiar? You were right: "Shawshank's Redemption" prison escape prototype.
"Shaw" draws on the three-person escape in 1962, "The Birdman of Alcatez" in 1962, and "Escape from Alcatraz Island" in 1979.
According to the magazine "Popular Mechanics" published in November 1960, the four prisoners took advantage of the convenience of work and deliberately walked along 50 raincoats, stitched them into rubber rafts 1.8 meters wide and 4.2 meters long, and added a rubber boat. The oars, and the bellows modified from the accordion obtained by Frank Morris to inflate the raft. (In other words, their materials are sufficient, and their learning and hands-on skills are strong. Talents, is it because they are strong in related abilities that they turn from evil, or do they become strong in related abilities when they go to the underworld?)
In the cell in Area B where they were located, each had only a small vent 24 cm long and 13 cm wide. Allen West had already inquired about it from the decorator. According to his judgment, the wall of the vent was not thick. More than 15 cm, although the vent is not large and it is difficult to get in and out of a person, they can find a way to expand the vent a bit.
They tried to remove the motor from the prison vacuum cleaner and made a drill. The electric drill was louder when used, and they could only use it while playing the accordion in the prison. In the end, they dug the hole so that they could climb in and it took almost a year...
As mentioned earlier, some of them used posters, newspapers, and guitars to block the opening, and the most powerful thing was to paste cardboard and paint, disguising it as it was. Although it was troublesome, it was safer.
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After you can climb out of the vent, the next step is to continue "work". Go out along the vent of the cell. The area on that side is not guarded by guards. They can climb along the pipeline to a platform on the roof of the cell. This platform was used by 4 people to apply for the prison months ago. After repair work, carefully built.
After they were ordered to paint the platform, they covered it with a white cloth and told the prison guards that the white cloth was to prevent dust from falling on the newly painted area. However, the prison guards could not imagine that the platform was not empty underneath. It is a "secret studio" for 4 people. It can be said that this is the most important place in the entire jailbreak plan.
It is here that they make dummy heads, simple electric drills, the most important rubber raft, and other jailbreak tools. He even built a simple periscope to secretly detect the situation outside the prison.
In the end, they even made a few half-fan false heads (3 of them are very similar to themselves) using toilet paper, soap, paint, plaster, and their own hair (you have to collect them slowly for a long time) to replace them. Put it on the bed and cover the quilt, deceiving the prison guards.
It is said that Frank Morris, the squinted-eyed man in the middle, has an IQ of 133. He is smart but not evil. This nationally-famous prison seemed to arouse his ambitions, and finally, together with the Anglin brothers, created a prison escape that was worthy of criminal history.
"Escape from Pretoria" has similar parts, but the latter did not make complicated disguise props, but also made several wooden keys openly.
And there is a dummy head of a member of the prison escape mutual aid team that is not serious, that is, Allen West on the far right-not even dedicated to escape, no wonder the other three have a will.
But in fact, Allen West is the think tank of the whole team, perhaps because he feels that the dummy head is not that important, it is nothing more than fooling the police in the dark at night, and he still has many important things to consider.
The first thought of escape was the relatively low-key Allen West. He found Frank Morris in 1960 to discuss the plan to escape from Alcatraz. After several years of research, Allen West has become familiar with the location of the ventilation ducts on Alcatraz Island (but in the end it was precisely that he could not escape).
In addition, Allen West tried every means to get close to the decorators responsible for the maintenance of the prison to figure out the structure and weaknesses of the prison (which is exactly the plot of "Shawshank's Redemption"). After that, Allen West and Frank Morris told the Anglin brothers about the idea of jailbreaking, and the four began to seriously discuss the plan for jailbreaking.
It can be said that in the entire escape incident, Allen West's plans were seamless and perfect. The details were so detailed and exquisite that the FBI was dumbfounded. In addition to being determined, there is another important reason for the successful escape of the three people is luck. After long-term preparations, they need luck to escape from the prison. However, to escape the icy waters of San Francisco Bay with a simple rubber raft, it undoubtedly needs more. Luck.
In the end, Allen West is totally doing wedding dresses for others. He perfectly explained the "lost things": "lost" the three brothers, and left himself behind. (Perhaps Allen West owed them three in his previous life.)
Turning back the time to September 1961, the 4 people asked to move to the cell in Block B, and each other’s cells were close together. In this way, they were very close to the weakest vent, and then they began to take care of it. Develop the most practical and feasible jailbreak plan, and completed the work mentioned above.
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At 10:30 in the evening on June 11, 1962, this century's prison escape was officially staged. The four set up the beds with dummy heads and then began to drill into the vents.
And the other three people successfully completed this step. Unexpectedly, the Chiduo star Allen West among the four had a big mistake: when he expanded the vent, he was afraid to open the hole too much, so he only enlarged a part. , And for the rest, he just drilled a few holes, intending to break it on the day of the escape.
However, that night Allen West exhausted all his energy and couldn't move the remaining part of the wall. He tried and tried again. No matter how much he squeezed, he couldn't get through the vent. I'm afraid he was already shaking with anxiety. Finally he finally Choose to give up. In other words, he dug the vent, but in the end he didn't finish it to the point where he could definitely get in. What a serious mistake...
The initiators and planners of this great escape of the century were left behind. The remaining three people waited for a long time before reaching Allen West, so they continued to act as planned: They also wanted to leave earlier. Although one less person can make the rubber raft less load-bearing, it takes manpower to escape on the rubber raft, and Allen West is still their think tank-if they hadn't become close friends, they wouldn't meet to complete the life and death event.
Really complied with the line of "Chasing the Dragon": Life and death are fate, wealth and wealth are in the sky. It is conceivable how anxious all four people, including Allen West, were at the time.
But in the end, the three people had to choose to escape "alone" perfidiously. They climbed along the pipeline to the 9-meter-high studio, took the "raincoat" rubber raft and all other jailbreak tools, and then continued to climb.
They climbed from the studio to the top of the building by following the water pipe, then used stolen silicon carbide grinding wire to grind off the grille, opened the vent, and finally stood on the roof of Alcatraz prison, blowing the sea breeze against the night, as if connected. The air smells free, and it seems that the dawn is right in front of my eyes. I was so anxious before and turned into excitement in an instant, but the tense moment has just begun, and there are countless uncertainties in the long road to escape.
After that, they followed another water pipe, climbed down the high wall, and reached the back of the prison, pushing a rubber raft into the water.
According to rumors, Allen West came to the roof in the end, but at that time the "fleeing friends" had already left him and they had no choice but to go back and pretend that they were not ready to escape. Opposite shore.
In fact, the plan of the 4-person prison escape mutual aid team is not a secret among the prisoners. Many prisoners offered to help. Some people sent the waste paper they picked up to the prison escape team and stole important escape tools for them—— Tide table in San Francisco Bay.
In the end, the three prison escape experts successfully escaped and quietly disappeared into the vast sea of night.
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At 7 o'clock the next morning, when the wake-up bell rang, the other prisoners quickly got up with the bell. The prison guards suddenly discovered that Frank Morris and brothers Anglin, who were in the cell in Area B, hadn't come out for a long time. They found that the three were still lying in bed and sleeping. A prison guard was furious. He first opened Frank Morris's cell and opened his quilt. With a clear sound, a football-sized "head" fell to the ground, frightening the prison guards. Then, in the cell of the Anglin brothers, the sound of the dummy's head fell one after another. The prison guards began to exclaim: Someone has escaped from prison!
It was too late for the prison police to sound the alarm, and the three had already fled. And the sirens resounding through Alcatraz became the horn of victory to inform the prisoners, and there was a burst of enthusiastic cheers from each cell. The prison guard recalled the scene at the time and said: All the prisoners felt that they had succeeded, and all the guards believed that they had failed.
The prison guards were surprised to find that there was no prisoner in the cell, but the other prisoners were very happy, the scene was like "Escape from Pretoria".
After that, the FBI soon received news of the prisoner's escape from Alcatraz Island. FBI investigators conducted a carpet search, and soon found ventilation ducts, and further discovered the "secret studio", and then found the footprints of three people on the roof of the building. After that, the Coast Guard of San Francisco was also notified and quickly rushed to the coast of San Francisco to conduct a carpet search.
The police found a fake head under Allen West's bed and confirmed that he was also a member of the four-person team. It was precisely because of the exposure of Allen West’s team’s think tank that the police had all the details of the escape plan and implementation, and learned of the escape plan of the other three people-take a rest at Angel Island, then go to the north of Angel Island, cross the Raccoon Channel, in Marin The county went ashore, looked for opportunities to steal new clothes and cars, and then ran away.
They didn't choose the closer San Francisco city to the south, but chose the farther Angel Island to the north. They had to be cunning enough—the anti-reconnaissance ability was too outstanding. But the failure of Allen West to escape may change the eventual development of things.
However, the strange thing is that after the three people escaped from prison, they disappeared. Neither the bodies nor the reliable clues that they were alive...The Marin County police did not receive any reports of the theft of clothing or cars, which made the investigation bewildered. : Did the three temporarily change their escape route because of concerns about Allen West’s leak, or have they drowned?
Perhaps, Allen West failed to escape Alcatraz Island to avoid being buried in the sea. Or, it was precisely because of Allen West's failure to escape that the other three temporarily changed their escape route and were able to escape. Nothing is known.
Allen West just knows all the plans in the early stage, maybe he hopes the final whereabouts of his companions more than everyone. But does he want them to succeed or fail in his heart?
Regarding the results of this "Century Escape", two opinions in the public have been arguing. One theory believes that the three people who fled in the end were only successfully escaped from prison, but they did not succeed in getting ashore and were eventually buried in the sea. There is a laboratory restoration. Experiments have shown that when three people sit on a self-made rubber raft, at least two people have to constantly inflate and drain to maintain the buoyancy of this simple rubber raft, and only one person can be responsible for paddling.
At that time, the temperature of the seawater was about 8℃, and ocean currents were often unstable. Once falling into the water, people could only stay awake in the seawater for about an hour. And subsequent searches seemed to support this inference. The FBI successively found something between Alcatraz Island and Angel Island, including oars, the personal belongings of three fugitives, and the wreckage of some rubber rafts...
The FBI inferred that the three people don't have much money and things. Even if they can go ashore, they still need to rob food, clothing and transportation, and there has been no renhq-related case report in San Francisco. Therefore, based on several factors, the FBI and some experts believe that the three prisoners may have fallen into the water and died before they boarded the Angel Island.
And some people use data analysis to prove that the three people are likely to successfully escape to the shore. In 2014, a new laboratory data model confirmed that the period from 11:30 to midnight on June 11, 1962 was actually an excellent "escape window". During this period of time, the wind and waves in the sea were not very strong. If they escaped during this period of time, they would take a rubber raft towards the northwest and sail directly to Horseshoe Bend instead of transiting through Angel Island, they would most likely successfully land.
And many programs, including "Discovery Mysterious Investigator Series Episode 8: Alcatraz Island", PBS "Escape from Alcatraz Island", and "Mythbusters Season 3", have been based on weather, sea flow, equipment, etc. Many aspects simulate whether the three people escaped successfully. Judging from various evidences, jailbreaking is indeed very difficult, but it is not impossible. But after all, it is impossible to completely simulate and restore the various actual conditions of the year, and everything is still a mystery.
Since then, these three people have never been searched, just as the Warden Norton has never seen Andy again. The NW305 flight ransom mystery that occurred 9 years later (1971), the perpetrator has also disappeared since then, and it is also one of the legendary mysteries in the history of American crime.
Although the official statement is that all three of them have drowned, the people have forgotten their original identity as thugs, and they have relished how they managed to escape. It is said that these three people finally spent the rest of their lives in South America (or "Shawshank's Redemption").
2. The Second Return of the Deadly Escape: The Battle of Alcatraz Island
In May 1946, the famous bloody "Battle of Alcatraz" took place. Those who are interested can find information about it. Various details are also comparable to novels and movies.
After the riot prisoners have thoroughly studied the loopholes in the prison’s defenses, they suddenly attacked on the same day. They subdued the prison guards as hostages and occupied the commanding heights of the prison-the gun corridors to obtain weapons. Therefore, even if the prison guards were furious due to the attack on their companions, they were still angry. Can only temporarily give up the encirclement and suppression.
At that time, it was a group of US Marines who had just participated in the Pacific Island operations of World War II to suppress them. They were worried that their dragon-slaying skills were facing obsolescence, and they were busy launching violent mortar shelling on the prisons in District D! This was a conventional tactic used by the U.S. military to drive out the Japanese army hiding in the jungle during the Pacific War. (To this day, there are still craters from mortar shells in the prison.)
The Marines finally came up with a big move to deal with the ultimate solution to the Japanese tunnel-to make a hole in the ceiling, and then use grenade to clean up the riot prisoners hiding in the narrow space, even if the famous desperate bandits are no matter how sturdy they are, where can they be seen? After this big battle.
The first prison guard to be attacked was called Miller, and the riot prisoner obtained some of the keys by forcing Miller to take the initiative.
But Miller wisely and bravely hid the most crucial door key (the one in the middle of the picture below), and when he was imprisoned in cell 403, he waited for the opportunity to throw the key into the toilet and flush away. (Prisoners detained the police, they must be abusive and agitated, but they soon ushered in the ultimate suppression.)
This plot is exactly the plot of the movie. If Miller refuses to hand over the keys, the riot prisoners will either torture him or kill him, and still have a chance to obtain all the keys. Therefore, Miller might as well give up most of the keys and win time to keep the most important keys.
The key in the Battle for Alcatraz manga is the same as the prototype.
But there are many hard-to-follow details: whether all the keys were carried by Miller at the time; how Miller hid the door keys separately; and if the riot prisoners killed Miller as soon as they obtained most of the keys , Will you still find the key to the door in the end? Miller has the opportunity to throw away the key when he is locked in the cell. If the prisoner keeps him by his side and stares at him as a hostage, Miller has no chance to deal with the key...
Regardless of the details, it can only be said that the riot prisoners were dazzled by the momentary victory, thinking that everything was under control, and then God pressed the stop button, but he accidentally stopped Miller's life.
When the riot prisoners realized that there was no key to the door, the escape operation had been declared a complete failure. The prison guard Miller finally played an important role in preventing the escape from the riot at the cost of his life.
There is another detail: the riot prisoners acted as monsters, and the other prisoners who did not want to participate in the escape could only curl up in their cells, praying that the flying shrapnel would not hit them. And the uncle bird known as "Alcatraz Ornithologist" and a 56-year-old prisoner in prison for life-Robert Stroud came forward, and under continuous bombardment, he climbed over the fence on the third floor of the prison with his bare hands, and slid down to After the second floor, he let go and fell to the floor of the first floor. Braving the flying shrapnel, he closed the heavy steel door separating other prison sections.
Then, Stroud continued to withstand the shelling, explaining the situation of the D area prison to the prison guards outside the window. After learning that the riot prisoners had been driven out of the D area prison, the Marines quickly stopped the shelling to avoid more casualties among innocent prisoners.
In 1962, the year the trio succeeded in breaking out of prison, there was a film "The Birdman of Alcatez", which was about how Stroud changed and became an internationally renowned ornithologist.
Since that time, the Alcatraz prison has been upgraded on a large scale. If the current escape is found, all the prisoners will be killed on the spot. Until 1962, the three prisoners broke the "stalemate."
What I bought at the Alcatraz souvenir shop is a "key" key chain designed based on the original door key protected by the Miller prison guard.
In the souvenir shop, there is a DVD of "Brave to Death Island".
In 1963, after detaining more than 1,500 criminals, Alcatraz Island was closed due to high operating costs, and prisoners were assigned to prisons across the United States.
Alcatraz is transformed into a new historical role. Bookstores, gift shops, and museums have been built on the island, making it one of San Francisco's tourist attractions.
Every year, millions of tourists, with curiosity and a little nervousness, land on this island, wearing headphones, listening to the explanation and sound effects such as iron door ramming, shackles dragging the floor, etc., touching the iron railings of the cell, and seeing how the escaped prisoners stay. Evidence and traces under.
In fact, all the people who have a relationship with Alcatraz, the guards, prisoners, doctors, chefs, and even their families...all sorted out their fragmentary memories and made a lot of money.
Except for the escape trio in 1962.
The son of a prison guard even said regretfully: They could have waited for release from prison and made a lot of money from this experience, but now they feed fish in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay.
But who knows, maybe they also went to Zihuatanejo, and even watched "Shawshank's Redemption" in 1994, and did not forget to watch "Break into Death Island" in 1996. Or, afterwards, the three people were sitting together with gray hair and watching the 2005 American drama "Prison Break" while drinking beer. Perhaps they concluded that Fa Ge's "Prison Situation" was still enjoyable!
And when you have the opportunity, you may wish to participate in the night tour of Alcatraz Island, which is another full experience.
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