Historical landmark
Alcatraz Island
Former maximum-security federal penitentiary on a bay island, site of a famous unsolved escape.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco opens at 9:30 p.m. on June 11, 1962, when a guard's flashlight passes over what looks like a sleeping inmate in cell 138, a head made of soap, toothpaste and real barbershop hair. It traces the roughly six months Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin spent preparing, using a stolen vacuum motor rigged as a drill and an accordion to mask the noise. A fourth man, Allen West, meant to go with them, but his opening had hardened too much to break through in time.
This audio guide was created using AI.