Alcatraz: Mobsters, Murder & the Men Who Vanished
**Discussion begins at 3:10** Picture this: You’re standing on a tiny island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The city skyline is just over one mile away. You can see it. At night, you can see the lights. If the wind is right, you can even hear the sounds of people living their normal, free lives across the water. But between you and them is freezing water, brutal currents, and a prison specifically designed to make sure you never leave. Welcome to Alcatraz. From 1934-1962 the former military fortress became the home of some of America’s most notorious criminals, including Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Whitey Bulger to name a few. If they were too notorious, too dangerous, or too escape prone for normal prisons, they were sent to Alcatraz. And honestly, the setup was pretty solid. You had reinforced cells, armed guards, watchtowers, barbed wire, and almost two miles of San Francisco Bay between you and freedom. The government was so confident in this arrangement that Alcatraz developed a reputation as being virtually escape-proof. Officially, no prisoner ever successfully escaped Alcatraz. But on the morning of June 12, 1962, guards discovered something very inconvenient. Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin were not in their cells. The men had spent months secretly digging holes through the walls of their cells using homemade tools, hiding the damage behind fake vents, building dummy heads out of soap, concrete dust, paint and actual human hair, constructing a raft out of stolen raincoats, and essentially running a tiny arts-and-crafts program behind the backs of the federal government. Then they climbed through the walls, got onto the roof, made their way to the shoreline, launched their homemade raft into San Francisco Bay…. and vanished. The FBI eventually concluded that the men most likely drowned, despite the bodies never being found. And this is where we put on our little tin foil hats. Because over the decades, there have been alleged sightings, family stories, mysterious photographs, flowers reportedly sent to the Anglin brothers’ mother, and even a letter allegedly written by one of the escapees claiming that all three men survived. So either three convicted criminals drowned in one of the coldest, roughest stretches of water in California... or the federal government spent years insisting that nobody could escape Alcatraz after three men successfully escaped Alcatraz. And that is not even the only weird thing about this island. Alcatraz has military history, infamous mobsters, bizarre escape attempts, a violent prison uprising literally called the Battle of Alcatraz in which the Marines had to save the day, an Indigenous occupation, and enough alleged paranormal activity that apparently even after the prison closed, some residents still refused to check out. Get your drinks ready Foil Heads, because today we are going to The Rock. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Theme song by INDA
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