What happened to three Alcatraz prisoners who tried to escape island as Trump vows to reopen site
Between upping tariffs and slashing NASA's science budget, President Trump has announced another dramatic plan: to re-open the famous Alcatraz prison.
Located on a 22-acre island some 2km (1.25 miles) from San Francisco, it was meant to be a naval defence fort before being rebuilt into a prison in the early 20th century.
Alcatraz operated for 29 years, housing some of the most notorious criminals in American history. However, the prison, which held around 340 inmates at its peak, closed in 1963 due to its impracticality and the cost to run it.
However, Donald Trump has called for Alcatraz to be re-opened to hold the US's 'most ruthless and violent offenders'.
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On May 4, he took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to announce that he wanted to 'rebuild and open' Alcatraz - although doing so is estimated to be an expensive job.
When Alcatraz shut its doors for good - 62 years ago - the Federal Bureau for Prisons (BOP) said it cost nearly three times more to operate than other federal prisons; around $10 to $13 per inmate per day, compared to $3 to $5 elsewhere.
The high cost was largely due to the need to ferry in all food and supplies by boat.
Today, with average prison costs ranging from $120 to $164 per inmate daily, a reopened Alcatraz could cost over $500 per person.
Alcatraz was designed to be inescapable, yet from 1934 to 1963, 36 men tried to flee in 14 separate attempts. Most were recaptured or killed.
But only three inmates - brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris - successfully escaped before vanishing without a trace - and their fate remains one of America’s greatest unsolved mysteries.
How did the Anglin brothers and Morris escape Alcatraz?
Morris, a convicted bank robber with a high IQ, arrived to the prison in 1960, with the Anglin brothers following soon after.
All three had served time together before and were known for - you guessed it - attempted escapes.
Bizarrely, they were assigned to neighboring cells and began plotting away, with the help of another prisoner, Allen West, who later aided the FBI in their search to find the three men.
With crude tools fashioned from a vacuum cleaner motor and scavenged materials, they quietly chipped through cell walls, built a secret workshop above the cell block and even crafted a raft and life vests from 50 stolen raincoats.
On the night of June 11, 1962, they slipped through the prison’s ventilation system, scaled the walls and disappeared into the night.
Their dummy heads - made from plaster, paint, and human hair - fooled night guards long enough to buy them a crucial head start.
The next morning, after the three prisoners were discovered missing, Alcatraz went into lockdown and a massive manhunt followed.
Bits of debris - a makeshift paddle, a deflated life vest - were found in the San Francisco Bay.
Yet there were no sightings - and no bodies recovered.
What happened to the three escapees?
Despite 17 years of investigation, the FBI officially closed the case in 1979, concluding that the men likely drowned.
The fate of Morris and the two Anglin brothers remains a mystery to this day. Naturally, there are a good few theories floating around.
Some believe the three men made it to land and went on the live new lives. If the three men were still alive today, they'd be well into their 90s.
The men had planned to steal clothes and a car once safely on land, yet the FBI says no similar crimes were ever reported.
Plus, the FBI says that within their 17-year investigation, they found no concrete evidence that the men were alive, neither in the US nor overseas.
Others reckon the men drowned in the Bay’s treacherous currents, though their bodies have never been recovered.
The case was closed by the FBI but was turned over to the US Marshals Service 'in the unlikely event the trio is still alive,' authorities said.
Topics: Donald Trump, Crime, US News, History
Ellie Kemp