Young and McCain were recaptured. But Dyke has another lead in the case he's trying to figure out. The report said the letter had been sent to the San Francisco Police Departments Richmond station and handed over to the FBI in 2013. MailOnline has uncovered a redacted FBI files showing the US authorities received a tip off in 1965 from a barman in Brazil, who claimed he had seen one of the Anglin brothers in Rio de Janeiro. "Apparently, they have used some technology that was . I know of times that they came to America to visit the family. Three Alcatraz prison inmates escaped in 1962 without a trace and thought to be dead. Copyright 2023 KGO-TV. The trio crafted paper mache heads out of plaster, flesh-colored paint and real human hair to fool the guards on the night of their escape. The biggest conspiracy theory surrounding the fate of the inmates is that the trio survived the daring escape. (Alcatraz itself closed in 1963, not because its reputation as an escape-proof purgatory diminished but because its upkeep became too expensive to sustain.) The FBI tested the letter in 2013 for fingerprints but reportedly said results were inconclusive. The confession is very detailed and it says the men painted the boat white just days before they set out to assist in the prison break. He later took part in an attempted escape in 1943. Legal Statement. Widner said new technology has proven what his family. Behind the vent was an unmanned utility corridor that offered a path to the roof of their cell block. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Checchi has never told his story on television before but he explained to ABC7 Investigative Reporter Dan Noyes how the FBI agents asked him over and over again, "what did you see; where was it; what time was it" and even "How come you didn't swim out to check the boat out. Roderick had the photo analyzed by a forensic artist who concluded the men in the photo are likely John and Clarence Anglin. But on June 11, 1962, convicted bank robbers Frank Morris, John Anglin and his brother Clarence Anglin waited patiently until shortly after the last bed check at 9 p.m. before they made a. New letter suggests successful escape. While investigators concluded at the time of the daring escape that brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris died trying to make their way across San Francisco Bay in a raft made out. Sources who have reportedly seen the document told KFSN that two men were waiting on a white boat in the bay, picked up the escapees as they paddled toward shore and brought them up the coast to Seattle. And few if any sharks would have threatened them: That was primarily a scare tactic employed by the prison to dissuade escape attempts. But their nephew Ken Widner, 54, told Daily Mail Online that he is certain his uncles made it to South America - and established family lives there. Dyke says he is still following several leads in the case, but he does not spend a lot of time or money on it. There's no way to say what really happened.". While investigators believe the men died shortly after stepping foot into the cold waters that separated the prison and San Francisco, their bodies were never recovered. He also offered an explanation as to how they escaped. David Widner (left) and sisters of the Anglin brothers, Marie Anglin Widner (middle) and Mearl AnglinTaylor (far right) show art and a family picture during their visit to Alcatraz on the 50th anniversary of the their brothers' escape on Alcatraz in San Francisco, California, on Monday, June 11, 2012. Click here for more investigative stories and videos by Dan Noyes and the I-Team. They believe he was beaten because he wouldn't help authorities locate Clarence and John. Im 83 years old and in bad shape. Widner said now that four different groups have come back with the same results, he said there is no doubt in his mind the picture shows his uncles and they truly did escape the unescapable prison. (FBI). Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. I don't know. A photo of Al Capone and sheet music for a song "Madonna Mia" written in pencil by Capone while he was at Alcatraz prison. THE ANGLINS John and Clarence Anglin were part of a family of 14 children who grew up poor in the tiny Donalsonville and Colquitt communities in south Georgia before later moving to central. Widner said there are still gaps in the information. It was not until 1992 that he gave the photo to the Anglin family, who then turned the photo over to a retired U.S. Investigators found makeshift wooden paddles they believed the trio used during their escape off the island. 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Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Alcatraz inmate John Giles attempted to escape in 1945. Farm Heroes Saga, the #4 Game on iTunes. The redacted files revealed U.S. authorities were working on intelligence that at least one of the brothers, Clarence, was living in Rio. Speaking at his home in Gainesville, GA, he said: 'The family had always believed that the brothers had gone to South America. Dyke says Brizzi was a conman, and an expert working for the U.S. During the routine cell check the following morning, guards discovered Morris, John and Clarence were not in their beds. The fate of these three men and their makeshift vessel has long been questioned. For the Anglin brothers, three of 14 children who grew up in poverty-stricken areas of Georgia and Florida, it was a life-changing amount of cash. (FBI). In 2020, David Widner, a nephew of the Anglin brothers, told Georgia's Albany Herald that his family had been given some photographs by a man named Fred Brizzi. In just under two years time, the Anglins and an accomplice named Frank Morris would put that reputation to the test. (U.S. You can email her at agraff@sfgate.com. But Dyke told Fresno station KFSN-TV in 2016 that Brizzi was a known conman, and an expert working for the Marshals believed the photo was not legitimate. Alcatraz is now a popular tourist attraction attracting thousands of visitors a year. Widner said new technology has proven what his family already knew. He has studied it for more than 30 years. 'It was thought some family members knew before Fred Brizzi [a friend of the brothers who claimed to have met them in Brazil in 1975]. All three of them received a sentence of 35 years and were sent to Atlanta Penitentiary. Considering how careful the men would have had to be for the remainder of their lives, keeping the rest of the family at arms length and being cautious with their words and actions, they would have had to devote much of their energy to never making a mistake. ", Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images. ", He said, "I would love to know what the truth is. Survived? Marshal Michael Dyke, based in Oakland, said in an interview. They plan to do so until all three men pass what would be their 99th birthdays. Dyke says measurements of the physical characteristics of the Anglin brothers indicate it is not them in the Brazil photo, but even he acknowledges the difficulty in making a definitive determination and ruling it out as a valid lead completely. Yet people have done it. This is no joke., Investigators released a rendered image in 2014 of what John Anglin might have looked like at age 84 alongside his mugshot photo from 1960. Alcatraz Island June 8th, 2012. Widner said the proof he needed was in another photo of John. Al Capone's cell #181is seen on the 2nd floor of the main cell block on Alcatraz Island June 8th, 2012. (To cover the din of their work, Morris played an accordion.) The next day, when Checchi found out there had been an escape from Alcatraz, he went in to work and filed a report about what he had seen. Marshals Service to this day continues to have an open case on the escape. Investigators were initially dumbfounded but began to piece the plan together over the course of the next several days as they discovered more evidence. Frustrated officials tried to profile the men involved and determine who may have been chiefly responsible. The Anglins and Morris made it as far as Seattle, he said, before the other men involved betrayed and murdered them. Come daylight, the illusion stopped working. With so few leads to go on, a nationwide manhunt for the Anglins produced nothing in the way of evidence they had made it. The important thing is to not draw any conclusions as it hasn't been vetted through regular investigative channels.". Which would mean that if the Anglins and Morris had succeeded in anything, it was in trading one kind of prison for another. On June 11, 1962, three prisoners escaped from U.S. Penitentiary Alcatraz in San Francisco, using dummies in there cells and other complicated methods. But there's more to this story,' Ken said. The Widners also. Fox News Edmund DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Now deceased, Brizzi was a pilot who went to prison for smuggling drugs from Latin America to Florida. I have cancer. The trio crafted paper mache heads out of plaster, flesh-colored paint and real human hair to fool the guards on the night of their escape. During the Battle of Alcatraz a flag flies at half mast during the prison riots. Let's bury it. An old family friend brought the photograph to the Anglin family in the 1990's. In what the Anglin family would later point out as suspicious, Alfred was said to have been electrocuted during an escape attempt that came just days before he was set to be paroled. From there, the trail grew cold. They concealed their work using false walls, suitcases and cardboard. The U.S. Investigators released a rendered image in 2014 of what Frank Morris might have looked like at age 88 alongside his mugshot photo from 1960. They managed to make it up outside to the roof of the cell block. The family have long questioned the official account of Alfred's death, Ken said. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. All rights reserved. Legend: The bank robbing brothers fled Alcatraz in the middle of the night on June 11, 1962, in a dinghy they made from raincoats, Mystery solved: New evidence suggests that the trio did not drown, but made it out of the sea and could have got to Brazil, which was then a haven for criminals on the run as it didn't have an extradition agreement, Middle man: They say Fred Brizzi, pictured, who grew up with the Anglin brothers, handed over pictures he took of the pair after bumping into them in Rio De Janeiro. Marshal Dyke has been assigned to the case for 13 years and says his phone begins to ring when media coverage such as the History Channel special hits. 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. He detailed how he was off-dutywhen he spotted a white boat on the bay with its lights off in the marina the same night of the prison break. The senselessness of such an act led some to believe Alfred may have been killed by officials badgering him about his brothers escape. Ken believes Brazil would not extradite the brothers to the U.S. because they married and had children in the country, so becoming residents. The Anglins and Morris spent two years secretly planning their elaborate scheme to break free from the super-max prison that involved tucking dummy heads made from plaster and real human hair into their beds before squeezing through holes they spent months digging with spoons and butter knives. From the "inescapable" island's shore, they set off across San Francisco Bay on an inflatable raft made from stolen rain coats. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Robert Checchi was an off-duty San Francisco Policeman sitting in his car just before midnight at Marina Green that evening. The boats patrolling off the island were to ensure that no convicts escaped by water and to lend firepower. A coroner did not find any significant trauma to the corpse. Market data provided by Factset. Dyke said what they did was wrong but he understands why the public is enthralled with the mystery of what really happened that night 54 years ago to Morris and the Anglin brothers. But the Anglins had another advantage. He added: But instead of asking for a pardon, we now think we should be asking for time served. In the attempted prison escape, May 2-4, 1946, two guards and three inmates were killed. It had held military captives during the Civil War but was re-fortified in the 1930s to combat the major crime wave of the early twentieth century. A friend of the Anglins, Fred Brizzi, claimed to have run into the brothers in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s and took the photo, according to the special. He knew something didn't look right.". Yes we all made it that night but barely., The letter continued, If you announce on TV that I will be promised to first go to jail for no more than a year and get medical attention, I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. U.S. The government agency joined the Bureau of Prisons and the Coast Guard to mount a massive investigation. He had met them in Brazil in 1975, Brizzi said, and later gave the photos to their relatives. On the show, the nephews said the photo was taken by the Anglins' family friend Fred Brizzi, who claimed to have bumped into the brothers in Rio de Janiero in the '70s. 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