The climb to the jailhouse roof went fairly easily for Morris and the Angling brothers. After which, they had to make a heart-pounding crossing of over 100 feet of rooftop before they could begin their descent. The three men climbed down 50 feet of pipes on the building’s side to reach the ground.
They came down next to the showers and quietly snuck past the guards stationed there. The three remaining team members used their wits and preparations to evade all the other guards on duty as they made their way to the shore. They had to stop there in order to inflate the raft and life vests.
Things go Wrong
Morris and the Anglin brothers slipped out of their cells without difficulty, but Allen West couldn’t escape his. He had let the others know that the hole he made was ready, but it seems he miscalculated the size or the work necessary to enlarge the hole.
Frank Lee Morris worked from the utility corridor, while West worked from the inside. They tried everything, but the hole just wasn’t big enough, and West was stuck. Around 9:30 PM, over a glass of water from West’s cell, they both decided that West would have to be left behind.
One Man Left Behind
After many months of working together and a general feeling of comradery, leaving West behind could not have been an easy decision, but the group was not left with a whole lot of options. The hole wasn’t budging, and any additional noise making it bigger was likely to bring about the guards’ unwanted attention.
Although reluctantly, West took one for the team and maybe even made the escape possible due to less weight on the raft. The three remaining escapees were finally ready to start their climb. They used the plumbing pipes in the utility corridor and climbed up 30 feet toward the roof.
Raising the Alarm
Following that day, Frank Lee Morris and John and Clarence Anglin were never seen again. They headed out to sea in their improvised raft at roughly 11:30 PM and fell off the face of the earth. The prison authorities didn’t even notice they were missing before the following morning.
Early the next morning, blaring sirens rocked the prison of Alcatraz and woke up all the inmates. There was great confusion, and nobody could believe that anyone had actually tried to escape “The Rock.” They all knew such a thing could not be done, but they would soon discover that three inmates had achieved the impossible and gotten away.
Last Man Out
Allen West was down but not out, and he had not given up on his plans for escape. Even though he was left behind, he continued working on enlarging the hole in his cell enough to squeeze through, and he finally succeeded. West was ecstatic; he left his cell and started to follow the rest of the team.
After leaving his cell, West climbed to the rooftop, but by the time he made it to the top, the others were nowhere to be seen. He had no raft or help and had to decide whether to take a chance and swim for it, and most likely lose his life or return to his cell.