Alcatraz

History, Mysteries 4 Minutes

Today is Clint Eastwood’s birthday (born 1930) and one of his movies—Escape from Alcatraz—still intrigues me.  I found this article, written by Natasha Frost, on the History.com website.

From Natasha Frost:

A 2013 letter to the FBI, if real, suggests the Anglin brothers and Frank Morris survived one of the most daring—and dangerous—prison breaks of all time.

It was one of the most ingenious prison breaks of all time—if it worked. In 1962, inmates and bank robbers Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin vanished from Alcatraz, the federal island penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco. They had used sharpened spoons to bore through the prison walls, left papier-maché dummies in their beds and floated away on a raft made from 50 raincoats.

But what happened next has stumped historians for decades. Their bodies were never recovered, leaving many wondering whether they perished in the choppy San Francisco Bay or made it to shore—and freedom.

Alcatraz

In the years since nearly six decades of silence from the men led many to conclude that the escape had met a watery end. The FBI closed its case in 1979, concluding that the escapees were unlikely to have survived a treacherous swim of more than a mile of frigid waters to the mainland.

The Letter from John Anglin

In January of 2018, CBS San Francisco published an extract of a letter addressed to the FBI that told an altogether different story—and claimed that the criminals had been at large since the 1960s. “My name is John Anglin,” it read. “I escape[d] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes, we all made it that night but barely!”

The letter was sent to the San Francisco Police Department’s Richmond station in 2013, the broadcaster reported but had been kept under wraps during a long investigation. An FBI laboratory examined the letter for fingerprints and DNA and analyzed the handwriting within, but the results were inconclusive. “So that means yes, and it means no, so this leaves everything in limbo,” security analyst Jeff Harp told CBS.

In the letter, the writer explained that he was the last living member of the trio, with his co-conspirators dying in 2005 and 2008. He offered a deal: If authorities announced on television that he would receive a single one-year jail sentence, in which he could have the medical treatment he needed, “I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. This is no joke…” The FBI did no such thing and instead repressed the letter.

Clues and Sightings of the Escape

Though this is the first time anyone purporting to be one of the men has contacted authorities, it isn’t the first piece of evidence that suggests they might have made it out in one piece. Robert Checchi, an officer with the San Francisco police, reported seeing what he described as a “pristine white boat” out in the Bay on the night of the men’s disappearance. It had no lights on, but appeared to have someone on board shining a flashlight into the water. Police followed up on the sighting, but couldn’t find the owner of this strange boat—or where it went next.

More recently, a 2015 HISTORY special showed an alleged photograph of the brothers, taken in Brazil some 13 years after their disappearance. Family members of the men have also reported strange experiences that suggest there may be more to the story than many believe. “It’s always been talked about through the family,” David Widner, a nephew of John and Clarence Anglin, told CBS. “My grandmother received roses for several years after the escape.” If Anglin is still alive today, he would be nearly 90. He has not been heard from since.

Widner expressed dismay that authorities had not contacted the family about his relative’s alleged illness. “For him to say he had cancer and was dying, I feel like they should have at least reached out to the family and let them know [the letter] existed,” he said.

Skepticism and Controversy Surrounding Alcatraz Escape

Federal authorities have been quick to quash any rumors of a successful great escape. In an interview with CBS San Francisco, the U.S. Marshals investigating the case told the broadcaster they considered the lead closed with no merit and a simple hoax from someone hoping to scam and embarrass federal and local authorities. “The Federal Bureau of Prisons say that they drowned once they got off of Alcatraz and their bodies were swept out to the Pacific Ocean—end of story,” National Park Service Ranger John Cantwell said.

The prison was closed permanently in 1963, a year after the men vanished. Today, it plays host to more than a million tourists each year, often drawn to the site by the story of the Anglin brothers, which was adapted for the screen in the 1979 film Escape From Alcatraz. John Anglin’s cell, where the men made their exit, is a popular attraction. It’s preserved almost perfectly, with the same gaping hole in its teal-painted wall—but even the scene of the crime offers few answers as to where these great escapees wound up.

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM NATASHA FROST

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLINT!

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20 thoughts on “Alcatraz”

  4. Margot Cleveland Profile picture

    Margot Cleveland

    @ProfMJCleveland

    12h• 17 tweets • 4 min read •

    Read on X

    🧵🧵🧵Recent release by Sen. @ChuckGrassley suggests systemic violations of Brady by FBI. Brady rule requires government to disclose exculpatory evidence in criminal case; to comply, FBI agents search Sentinel system. Brady mandate is considered a constitutional requirement. 1/

    2/ But according to FBI Wash. Field Office EC sent to SC Office on 9/18/19, Sentinel system includes “invisible files” that can’t just not read, but that you don’t even know exist-files identified as “Prohibited Access” files, NOT to be confused w/ Restricted Access files.

    3/ Here’s how EC explained “Prohibited Access” files, versus Restricted Access. According to this FBI Agent, then, when you search Sentinel for various terms, if the files are coded “Prohibited Access,” search will show NO responsive documents.

    4/ In contrast, when things are coded “Restricted Access,” a search will show hits but the FBI agent without the proper clearance/authority cannot view the document.

    5/ Washington Field Office FBI agent’s EC noted that May 30, 2019 (day after SC Mueller resigned), SC’s office provided FBI agent Bruce Ohr’s redacted FD-302s but asked for unredacted versions which were in “Prohibited Access” holdings.

    6/ EC adds SC Team said most “but not all” documents “had been migrated from Prohibited status to Restricted Access status, . . .” SIGNIFICANTLY, though, “investigators would (and do) remain incapable of identifying potentially relevant serials” in “Prohibited Access” status.

    7/ That paragraph CONFIRMS two different systems, with Restricted Access you can’t view document but you know it exists, while Prohibited Access, you don’t even know there is a document–it is invisible.

    8/ This paragraph confirms the point: The Washington Field Office agent can tell there are 70 documents in the Restricted Access system that include the search term “Berkowitz,” but cannot know how many more are in “Prohibited Access” because the Sentinel system will not show any “hits” if the documents are in Prohibited Access.

    9/ So while everyone is focusing on Nellie Ohr, her alleged lies to Congress, and the burying of the case against her–did Post SC Mueller’s office ever provide the documents–the scandal here is MUCH BIGGER!!

    10/ FBI’s maintenance of “Prohibited Access” files that DO NOT SHOW UP IN SEARCH REQUESTS in Sentinel means agents pulling Brady material to comply WITH THE CONSTITUTION, will not even know there are potentially exculpatory materials they should be providing.

    11/ Then there’s civil cases (think FBI’s role in the Censorship Industrial Complex!!!), FOIA cases, and Congressional Investigations! The files are INVISIBLE and won’t appear in the search.

    12/ This isn’t me saying that…it is an FBI agent saying that in an EC sent to the Post Special Counsel’s Office AND THAT EC WAS APPROVED BY THREE SUPERVISORS!

    13/ Was this why Special Counsel Smith didn’t turn over material to Trump in the electors’ case? Because the documents were invisible in a Sentinel search?

    14/ This scandal is no longer about Trump or the corruption of the Russia-collusion hoax investigators–it calls into question the way the FBI handles documents that it is legally and sometimes constitutionally required to turn over, via FOIA, Congressional investigation, Brady,

    15/ criminal and civil procedure. Questions for @FBIDirectorKash Does the FBI currently use the “prohibited access” designation to make documents invisible in Sentinel? How does FBI comply with FOIA/Brady/Civil Discovery/Congressional Investigations then?

    @FBIDirectorKash 16/16 Did Durham & the IG search for “Prohibited Access” documents? Why note? Did Post Special Counsel Mueller ever provide the Washington Field office the documents related to Nellie Ohr & search Prohibited Access?

    @FBIDirectorKash 17/ Here is how the DOJ’s IG describes “Prohibited Access.”

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  9. TheseTruths

    TheseTruths(@thesetruths)

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    Wolf

    May 31, 2025 01:24

    Astronomers find startling pulsing object in Milky Way: ‘Unlike anything we have seen’

    Astronomers recently discovered a never-before-seen celestial phenomenon hiding in our own cosmic backyard.

    The mystery object, located just a short 15,000 light-years from Earth in our Milky Way galaxy, revealed itself to an international team of scientists when it was observed emitting startling pulses.

    What made the pulses puzzling to the astronomers was that they came in the form of both radio waves and X-rays. Most intriguing: the cycle occurred like clockwork for two minutes at a time every 44 minutes.

    The discovery marks the first time that such objects, called long-period transients, have been detected in X-rays, the team said in a press release announcing the findings.

    “This object is unlike anything we have seen before,” Ziteng Andy Wang, an astronomer at Curtin University in Australia who led the research, said in a statement.

    The objects, which emit radio pulses occurring minutes or hours apart, are a relatively recent discovery – with just 10 being identified since 2022, the team said. While astronomers are so far unable to explain the origin of the mystifying signals and why they occur at unusual intervals, the team hopes their findings provide some insights…

    What could the pulsing be?

    It’s possible the celestial object could be the core of a dead star, known as a magnetar. With their extremely strong magnetic fields, these neutron stars – small, dense collapsed cores of supergiant stars – are capable of producing the powerful bursts of energy that have been observed for years.

    The object could also be a pair of stars in a binary system in which one of them is a highly-magnetized white dwarf star at the end of its evolution, the team said.

    But Wang cautioned that neither of those theories fully explains what his team observed.

    “This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution,” Wang said in a statement.

    Fortunately, finding one object using both X-rays and radio waves hints at the existence of many more, according to the researchers.

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  10. Mike Robinson
    May 31, 2025 8:31 am

    The need to rewrite the 25th Amendment:

    It didn’t work. Boy, did it not work! The 25th Amendment was supposed to define what to do if a President was no longer competent to exercise his office. Section 4 assigns this determination to “officers of the Executive department, or other such body as Congress may provide.” This is clearly not enough: what if those “executive officers” like it that way? And, do nothing?

    Strangely, the Amendment does not authorize Congress to act directly – only to respond to a determination made by a group of people who might actually like having use of their “autopen.” It also did not contemplate a President who was mentally incompetent before he was even “installed.”

    As a result, we endured four years of a “President” who always was hopelessly senile, and a group of shadowers who were running the government (far worse than Mrs. Wilson ever did). And whose last “autopen” act was to pardon far more people than any human could have signed-off on, in the final days of their show.

    Thus, the 25th Amendment failed us completely. And, so did everybody else. But they did it all on purpose.

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  11. from Filly!
    Hey! Trying like hell to get logged into WP and the system @ hospital is messed up. I can get the blogs pulled up but can’t sign in or post,can’t sign into WP. Still in hospital, have full-blown COPD, will need oxygen @ home & be here until at least Tuesday. Figured this day would come, just not this soon. Since I only have basic Medicare, I have to get home oxygen from VA, which will take longer to get arranged so I’m here until that happens. Gage came up to get some things for me & fill the feeders, feed Jake, and Carol & Mom came up today, staying until tomorrow – big help. She will return next week. She brought my computer but this system @ the hospital is beyond glitchy and I can’t sign into WP or even leave a message so far. Will keep trying. People here are nice for the most part. My O2 drops precipitously when I’m not connected to it so that needs ro level out. Let everyone know that I’m ok and hanging in there but I’ll keep trying to post.

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