Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

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- NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Three bank robbers disappeared

from Alcatraz prison.

- NARRATOR: The greatest prison break in history

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

became America's most notorious cold case.

- We've had zero, no leads, zero leads, for 50 plus years.

- NARRATOR: The escape from Alcatraz in 1962

forced the government into a merciless manhunt...

- The escape was a huge embarrassment.

The FBI was relentless.

- NARRATOR:... And it put an unknown Florida family

into the national spotlight.

- We couldn't do anything without the FBI showing up

asking questions.

- They bugged every one of our phones.

- It was a terrible thing for our family.

- NARRATOR: Until they ultimately went into

self-imposed exile.

But now, the Anglin family is finally ready

to share their secrets.

- We have some items that will prove that those boys

were alive at least until 1975.

- It's almost kind of like getting the blessing -

go solve this mystery.

- Never seen anything like that before in my life.

- NARRATOR: And possibly solve this infamous case.

- I never would have believed that this would happen.

- People are going to be shocked at what they see.

[dramatic music]

- NARRATOR: Washington, D.C.

Former United States Marshal Art Roderick receives

a breathtaking phone call...

[phone ringing]

- Art Roderick, can I help you?

- [on phone]: This is Ken Widner,

the nephew of John and Clarence Anglin.

- NARRATOR: The family of two of the three escaped prisoners in

the 1962 Alcatraz escape is reaching out to the former

Marshal, and for the very first time, offering their assistance

with this legendary cold case.

For the one-time lead investigator of the Alcatraz

scape, the surprise development is a shocking potential break

in a half-century old mystery.

- Law enforcement had been in touch with the family since

the escape occurred in 1962 and has tried over the decades

to get cooperation from them and it has never happened

up to this point.

- [on phone]: We're finally ready to share what we know

about the Alcatraz escape with the Marshals Service.

We're ready to put this case to bed.

[music]

- NARRATOR: When it opened in 1934, Alcatraz housed the

most infamous, high risk criminals of its day...

- NEWSREEL NARRATOR: The doors open to Al Capone

and Machine Gun Kelly serves a lifetime with no pals

to aid him!

- NARRATOR: ...And was the most feared penitentiary in America.

♪

Touted as inescapable by officials,

Alcatraz captured the public's imagination.

And as the years passed, the Rock's mythology grew.

♪

But in 1962, the unthinkable happens.

Brothers John and Clarence Anglin,

along with Frank Morris,

pulled off an ingenious escape, disappearing into the night.

- NEWSREEL NARRATOR: The escape triggered the greatest manhunt

in San Francisco's history.

- NARRATOR: With each passing day, the national scrutiny grew,

shaming J. Edgar Hoover and his Federal Bureau of Investigation.

- It was a big embarrassment for the FBI.

That was Hoover's baby and they did not want people to believe

that they made it out of there.

- NARRATOR: Ken and David Widner are the nephews of

Alcatraz escapees John and Clarence Anglin.

- DAVID: When I was a kid growing up,

we couldn't do anything without the FBI showing up

asking questions.

- NARRATOR: As the feds insisted that the fugitive trio

more than likely drowned in San Francisco's bay,

they were simultaneously pursuing their manhunt

with reckless abandon.

- KEN: The FBI, they followed them, they bugged every one of

our phones, they come into my grandmother's living room,

demand that everybody stay where they're at until they answer

all their questions.

- The FBI harassed the family so bad because they thought that,

you know, somebody knew something.

- We don't trust the FBI and we do not trust the

Marshal Services for that very reason.

- NARRATOR: Now, five decades removed from the escape,

and after poring over their family's prodigious archives,

the brothers believe they have unearthed evidence that may

answer the question of what happened to their uncles.

To this day, it is widely believed that the three escapees

made it out of the prison alive,

but never made it out of the treacherous water.

- Well, we have some items that I think will prove

to everyone that those boys were alive

at least until 1975.

- We're not doing this for the fame.

We're not doing this for the money.

We're doing this to prove that they actually did

get off that island.

They actually did survive that crossing.

It's very possible they're still alive today.

- NARRATOR: To help pursue their evidence, the brothers have

reached out to retired Marshal Art Roderick,

well known to the Anglin family as a fair and balanced

investigator.

- Art Roderick worked on this case for a long time.

It consumed his life for 25 years,

just like it consumed ours.

- DAVID: We have information that I know he's gonna find

very interesting, and I think between the two of us,

we can probably solve this case.

- NARRATOR: The Widner brothers have asked Roderick to

meet them in Ruskin, Florida, just south of Tampa,

hometown of the Anglin brothers.

- ART: This is the first actionable lead we've had in

this entire case in 53 years so we have to move on it.

♪

♪

- DAVID: It's hard to believe we're going to meet

a retired Marshal.

You know, he's gonna probably be freaking out a little bit

to be out in the middle of nowhere.

He's gonna wonder what's really up.

- But you know, I believe we've got an answer for that.

Because I want him to see, you know, hey, this is the

Anglin family cemetery.

I mean, this is where all of 'em are buried at.

It's a good place to start this journey at.

It's right there in front of grandma and granddaddy's grave.

It's almost kind of like getting the blessing.

Go solve this mystery.

- Yes.

- NARRATOR: The mystery surrounds the whereabouts of

their two fugitive uncles, John and Clarence, who along

with their older brother Alfred, robbed an Alabama bank in 1958

using a toy gun.

After multiple escape attempts in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary

and at Leavenworth, John and Clarence were sent to

"the Rock" and requested to be housed near one another.

But a strongly worded cautionary note from the associate warden

at Leavenworth, advised against such a situation.

Yet the warden of Alcatraz, Paul Madigan,

dismissed the warning, believing that Alcatraz was inescapable,

and placed the brothers in neighboring cells.

♪

♪

The primitive Baptist church and cemetery:

an interesting setting for the first meeting between

the Anglin family and the United States government.

- KEN: This is it right here.

This is where we're going to be meeting him.

♪

- KEN: Hard to believe this is where all the Anglins

are buried.

- DAVID: All but two.

- KEN: I know it would definitely be good

for our Mom and Aunt Merle.

It would be, it would be closure for them.

Why we didn't start this 25 years ago, it wasn't time.

It's definitely time now.

- For my Aunt Merle and my mom, they will know before

they pass away what really happened to their brothers.

♪

- DAVID: Yup, this is it, Grandma and Granddaddy.

- KEN: Wow.

I wish that what we're going to show the Marshal,

that we could show her.

You sure we can trust this man?

- No, I'm not sure.

[suspenseful music]

♪

- DAVID: Art?

- ART: Gentlemen.

- David Widner.

- ART: Good to finally see you. - DAVID: How are you doing?

- Art, Ken Widner, nice to meet you.

- ART: Good to meet you guys.

- Well, you know, we asked you to come out here because,

you look around, this is where all of the Anglin family

are buried.

Our grandmother, our grandfather.

We've got uncles buried here, we have aunts buried here.

All of the Anglin families are buried here except

for two people.

We want to be able to bring them back to the cemetery

and bury them here, with their family.

- Well, I mean, a lot of people have different theories.

My theory is they never got out of the water.

I don't think they made it.

- We don't believe that.

- KEN: Yeah, we don't believe that for a minute.

What do they have today to show me that my uncles

did not make it across?

What do they have? They have nothing.

- Take it from, from our perspective that we have never

seen anything to say that they made it out of the water.

We're working from that premise right there.

- Well, I'll tell you what.

What we're fixing to show you might help us get

our uncles back here where they're supposed to be.

- We're about to give you a new lead.

- OK.

- We'd like to show it to you.

- Lead the way.

- KEN: Let's go.

♪

- DAVID: We've got a couple of things that you might

be interested in.

What we have here is some Christmas cards from the boys,

and as you can tell, every one of these cards has been

marked and read as they left the prisons.

That one.

- ART: Okay, and that's their number there, right?

- DAVID: That is their prison number.

- ART: 25034. - KEN: Exactly.

- DAVID: Our family received Christmas cards

starting in 1962.

- ART: Mhm.

- DAVID: That just showed up in the mailbox,

had not been through the post office.

They're also signed by John and Clarence.

Guess what?

There's no markings.

- ART: And you're saying these two came after,

after the escape.

Post-escape.

- DAVID: Exactly.

[music]

- NARRATOR: Ruskin, Florida.

For the first time in 53 years, the family of Alcatraz escapees

John and Clarence Anglin is sharing evidence with the

United States Government to try and find out what happened

to the brothers after they escaped from "the Rock" in 1962.

- DAVID: We've got a couple of things that you

might be interested in.

What we have here is some Christmas cards from the boys

that just showed up in the mailbox, had not been

through the post office.

- ART: And these two came after, after the escape.

Post-escape.

- DAVID: Exactly.

- Every year, no matter where they were,

John and Clarence always sent Christmas cards.

For three years after they escaped, my grandmother

and grandfather continued to get cards signed,

"John and Clarence."

- Well, yeah, the problem is it's hard to verify these

came after the escape in '62.

I mean, I know you're telling me this, but, you know,

you gotta show me something better than you just

telling me that they showed up in the mailbox in,

in '62, '63, and '64.

- Well we actually do have something else.

- Okay. Alright.

- So I want to start off and I want to show you something.

1992, a friend of the family gave us this photograph.

- DAVID: That's for comparison there.

- KEN: Those two men look familiar to you?

- ART: Hmm.

- I think that Art thought that he's probably wasting his time

coming down to talk to us but once I handed him that picture,

I think a light bulb went off in his head.

- I got a photograph that might help jog your memory.

- So he's saying that those are your uncles right there?

- KEN: Look at that photograph there.

- ART: Yeah.

- KEN: And look at photograph there and you tell me.

- Are you surprised?

- Yeah. Uh, uh, yes.

I'm surprised.

My mind's already flowing.

I basically didn't even hear what they were saying to me

after I saw that stuff.

And I'm thinking, immediately, "What are we going to do here?"

- NARRATOR: For the lawman, the picture could prove revelatory.

If it withstands forensic analysis, everything we've

known about the 1962 escape would be turned on its head.

- They're always wanting to say these boys didn't make it.

They drowned, they got washed out to sea.

Well, this picture proves differently.

This is what they've been looking for, for a long time.

- I would like to take this stuff out to Northern California

and meet with Mike Dyke who is the active case agent.

- Oh, we know Mike Dyke, and we don't trust him.

- KEN: This material is not leaving our possession.

- OK.

- So we're going with you.

- OK.

- NARRATOR: Michael Dyke has been the lead investigator on

the Alcatraz escape for the last 12 years,

a case that remains open for the U.S. Marshals Service.

- Every case is open until we close it by either arrest

or someone reaches the age of 99 or the court decides

to dismiss the warrant.

If we did find them they would be still arrested because

they still, believe it or not, owe time to the government.

- NARRATOR: Dyke's single greatest lead in the Alcatraz

case are bones that washed up in San Francisco Bay nine months

after the escape.

Statistical records show that two out of every three people

who go missing in San Francisco Bay

will eventually be found, which leads Dyke to a

possible conclusion in his case.

- These bones were believed to possibly be one

of the escapees but never could be proven because of

DNA evidence at the time.

- NARRATOR: In 2010, Dyke tested family DNA from the

third escapee, Frank Morris, against the washed up bones.

But his efforts proved inconclusive.

- About the same time I started working on DNA reference

samples for the Morris family, I also contacted, uh,

members of the Anglin family.

I did have a face to face meeting with them in 2012

and they flat out refused to provide a reference sample.

- No.

You know, no and hell no.

We told Marshal Dyke that we would be willing to do it,

only if we could do it on our terms and he didn't like that.

- The Anglin family has had this long,

drawn out period of mistrust, uh, mostly because of the way

they feel that they were treated by the FBI

at the time of the escape.

The FBI was very aggressive in their investigation at the time

because, you know, it was a very big deal.

I've been very generous as far as not bothering them

very much at all.

- I know he's trying to close this case,

but he wants to close it on his terms.

He wants to be the hero.

Well, guess what?

He's not gonna be the guy that saved the day.

He's not gonna get anything unless we give it to him.

[music]

- NARRATOR: Art, Ken and David arrive in the Bay Area,

minutes away from a meeting with Marshal Dyke.

For the brothers, who've have had years of run-ins

with the marshal, entering Dyke's office

is like walking into enemy territory,

and they have no idea how he will react

to their new evidence.

- ART: What do you think?

What do you think is going to happen today?

- I'm a little apprehensive about this,

I'm going to be honest with you, because if he tries

to grab what we have, and cut us out of this,

I'm not going to be very happy about it.

- He could legally do that, but I think the difference is

you're cooperating with us now.

I think that's gonna, he's gonna have a different tune

when we sit down at this meeting.

- DAVID: You know, my biggest fear is that he wants to

close the case and him be the cowboy to save the day.

- DYKE: Art, how ya doing?

- ART: Good to see you man.

- DYKE: Ken, how you doing?

- KEN: Good to see you again.

- DYKE: David, good to see you again.

- DAVID: Good to see you.

- Come on in the office over here.

- Uh, Mike, as you're very familiar with this case,

it's 53 years old.

The difference is now is that we have the cooperation of the

family, which wasn't there before...

- I appreciate that, that's what I've been looking for.

I recovered those bones about five years ago and I've been

just looking for any sample I can get to compare it to either

Morris or the Anglin brothers so I really appreciate

any help you can give me on it.

- Well, we know you want the DNA.

You've been trying to get it for two or three years now.

We got something we want.

We would like to have Alfred exhumed,

to find out how he died.

Alfred is another key to what really happened to

John and Clarence.

- NARRATOR: Brothers David and Ken Widner are the nephews

of Alcatraz escapees John and Clarence Anglin.

They are meeting with United States Marshal Michael Dyke,

lead investigator of the Alcatraz case,

and have just asked the marshal to exhume the body

of another uncle, Alfred, a brother to the

legendary escapees.

- I've been wanting this answer since I was a kid.

- DYKE: Alfred Anglin is John and Clarence Anglin's brother.

All three of them, uh, robbed a bank in Columbia, Alabama

in 1958.

John and Clarence ended up in Alcatraz.

Alfred ended up serving concurrent state time in

Alabama Penitentiary.

A little bit more than a year after the Alcatraz escape,

Alfred tried an escape of his own.

He and another inmate gathered some tools, hacksaw blades,

and were able to saw at some bars and climbed out the window.

And there was a high voltage power line there.

He accidentally hit the high voltage line

and electrocuted himself to death.

That is the official cause of death.

A coroner did do an inquiry, and they couldn't find any

other evidence of death other than electrocution.

- It didn't happen the way they said it happened.

We don't believe that.

- Uncle Robert went down and he ID'd the body

and the funeral director told him, this man had not been

electrocuted, he had been beaten to death.

- My mom and dad was the last ones to see Alfred alive.

When they visited him in Kilby Prison in 1963 at Christmas,

he told them, "I know where they're at.

"I'm coming up for parole.

When I get out I'm going to meet 'em."

11 days later he was dead.

- NARRATOR: The shocking revelation from Alfred that

he knew his brothers not only survived the water crossing

at Alcatraz, but were living somewhere as free men,

is the reason the Anglin family believes a vast government

conspiracy has been forever at play.

- In the family's mind, they had that table bugged

and they knew that he knew where they were.

And the family really believes that they beat him to death

trying to get him to tell them where them boys were.

- NARRATOR: For David and Ken, there's only one way

to resolve their family's long-standing questions.

- DAVID: I'm proposing to them if they dig Alfred up

and find out how he really died, then they can have

the DNA from Alfred.

We want the truth.

- Um, we can make arrangements, to, uh,

have Alfred exhumed and an autopsy done on him

and, uh, they can look and see if there's a cause of death

other than electrocution.

- Sounds like a plan.

- The exhumation of Alfred Anglin, I think,

solves two things.

I mean, number one, we're going to get great DNA samples.

The most actionable lead that the Marshals Service has

right now is the bones that washed up on the beach

back in '63.

And up to this point, the family has not made available any DNA

to be compared to the sample that they have from the bones

that they discovered.

Number two, if we do find some trauma to the body that looks

like he was beaten to death, then obviously that's going

to be big news.

I mean, it's a homicide case.

Might be 52 years old, but it's still a homicide case.

Any connection to the Anglin family at all and any

connection back to Alcatraz is gonna' be big news.

- NARRATOR: With a deal in place, it's time for David

and Ken to present their new evidence to the active marshal.

- Well, I'm sure that you've heard all the stories

and you know that the family received some Christmas cards

after the escape.

- I have heard that and, uh, I'd love to see those

if you have them.

- DAVID: Well, I would like to show you.

- DYKE: OK.

- DAVID: They did not come in an envelope.

They were placed in the mailbox.

Do you think the handwriting looks similar?

- Uh, John's name is really close...

and so is Clarence's name, but, you know, handwriting is

a lot more than just looking at letters or spacing.

There's pen pressure.

There's a lot of different things involved with handwriting

samples, but is there a way to prove that these came

after the escape?

That's what I would be really interested in finding out, so...

- Yeah, the only thing I figured was possibly looking

at when the cards were made.

- DYKE: Yeah.

- We also have some other items.

- These items were given to the family in 1992

by a family friend that actually grew up with the brothers.

- DYKE: OK.

- John and Clarence.

And in 1975, he took this photograph.

Thought maybe you might be interested in that one.

- Yes, I am.

[music]

- NARRATOR: Inside the secure walls of San Francisco's

Federal Building, the lead investigator on the Alcatraz

escape case, U.S. Marshal Michael Dyke, has just

seen something that may prove incredible.

- KEN: Thought maybe you might be interested in that one.

- Yes, I am.

- NARRATOR: Brothers David and Ken Widner are the nephews of

two of the three Alcatraz escapees, and are showing the

marshal family evidence that they say is their uncles,

John and Clarence Anglin, alive years after the 1962 escape.

- DAVID: You think you recognize them?

- Uh, they look like they could possibly be John and Clarence.

- DAVID: In 1975.

- KEN: We put together another series of photographs that does

some comparisons with their Alcatraz, and some of the

family photographs.

- DYKE: Mmm hmm.

- And you can see in Clarence, you look at the hairline,

the hairline is exactly the same to all

of his photographs including his mug shot in Alcatraz.

You look at his jaw line, exactly the same.

- There's a lot of similarities here.

- And that was 1975.

- And then who gave you the photo?

A family friend you said gave you the photo, right?

- Yes.

- Now when they sent you the photo, did they claim

it was John and Clarence?

- Yes.

- They did claim that. Okay.

And they say where the photo was taken?

- Brazil.

- DYKE: Brazil?

- On their farm that they owned.

- Okay.

- Which is very interesting because, um, in the early 90s

I took a phone call from a male, relayed basically

that story to me.

- That he saw them in Brazil?

- He saw them in Brazil on a farm.

- Okay.

- But, at that point in time it really wasn't

actionable enough.

- Okay.

- But that phone call always stuck in my head

all these years.

- Okay.

I have had a lot of photos sent to me from various people

everywhere.

And I've never seen this photo just so you know.

- Well, we actually have some other photographs.

- Do you?

I would love to see them.

[laughs]

Anything you have is always helpful.

- Okay, how about a picture of their farm?

- Same color soil...

and this does not look like American.

Electricity pole and everything doesn't look like American.

A family friend you said gave you the photo.

Obviously you have his name.

- That is Fred Brizzi.

Fred Brizzi.

He was a family friend of the boys growing up.

- KEN: Fred Brizzi grew up with the brothers.

They actually lived on a river called the Alafia River.

So, as children, Fred and John and Clarence and Alfred,

they all played together out in the water, swimming,

cutting up, so he grew up with 'em.

- NARRATOR: As Brizzi and the Anglin boys grew into men,

the family claims they all remained friends,

even as the Anglins took to a life of crime,

spending time in the federal penitentiary system.

In 1992, 30 years after the Alcatraz escape, their childhood

friend unexpectedly reached out to the Anglin family,

asking for a meeting.

And when he arrived at the family compound,

Brizzi shared a wild, sensational story

with the entire Anglin clan.

- In 1975, he went down to Brazil, and he went to a bar

right outside of Rio.

He said he had just sat down and all of a sudden he said

an American came into the bar and he went,

"My God, I know that man."

- And he said the guy got up, walked to the bathroom

and he stopped him.

- KEN: He said, "John."

- DAVID: "You remember me?"

- KEN: John turned around and looked at him and said,

- DAVID: "Yeah, you look familiar."

- KEN: And he said, "I'm Fred, Fred Brizzi."

And he said John went, "Oh my God."

- NARRATOR: Brizzi told the family that after their

escape from Alcatraz, the Anglin brothers had become farmers

in the Brazilian countryside, and allowed their long-time

friend to shoot a few pictures of their adopted home.

- KEN: We have a picture of the house.

We have a picture of the mountain ranges where this

house is located at, of a river that runs through their property

and then he took a picture of them.

- I think that the boys wanted him to bring that

picture back to the family.

- He was telling my mom and them, he said,

"I just want you all to know.

They wanted me to tell you, do not worry about them."

I have no doubt Fred Brizzi was telling the truth

and I have photographs to prove what he said.

- NARRATOR: Brizzi's tale is a bit much to take on face value,

but testing the photos could verify its truth.

- What I like is obviously he grew up with them,

so he played with them as a kid.

There's a long connective history there.

- These photographs are promising and I'd like to really

look into this one some more.

And is there a possibility I could get photocopies

or photograph copies of each of these things

and, and that way I can do also do my own research into it?

- We would like to do everything with an

independent group.

Just so we can come back and as this trust is being

built between us.

- I understand.

I'm not doing anything on my investigation to violate

that at all.

Everything I'm really doing is up and up and up in the front.

- Well what if I was to tell you that we got something

to back those photographs up?

- OK, anything you have would be wonderful.

[playing tape recording]

[playing tape recording]

[playing tape recording]

- DAVID: Now, we...

- That's Mr. Brizzi?

- DAVID: ...need to have this cleaned up a little bit...

- DYKE: Yeah.

- ...but that's Fred Brizzi.

- Okay.

- And it was recorded off of that tape recorder.

That's my mom sitting right beside Brizzi.

- NARRATOR: Both Dyke and Roderick realize the

magnitude of the recording.

Not only does it provide more context for the incredible

photographs, but Brizzi's story on tape seems to state that

the Alcatraz escapees neither swam nor paddled off the island,

but were, in fact, somehow towed to freedom.

[tape recording playing]

[tape recording playing]

- This here is something that I know I want to look

into a lot more.

- NARRATOR: The new evidence the brothers have introduced

are the first new leads since the escape.

- The Brizzi story is pretty incredible about

how he just, all of a sudden, bumped into them

down in Rio de Janeiro.

But what lends some credence to the, to the story is the

evidence that we're provided in the form of the photographs.

From this point on we're going to have to really

dive into Brizzi's background and his connection

to the family members.

- NARRATOR: Walking out of the office, David and Ken are

certain of only one thing: their Uncle Alfred will soon

be lifted from the ground, a development that will

not only help move the Alcatraz case forward, but will

also solve a conspiracy the family insists was

behind his death in 1964.

- KEN: 51 years my grandfather wanted this done.

He didn't have the ability to do it and now the Marshal Services

are offering to do it for us and we're going to close that

part of our case, which is really the family's case.

- NARRATOR: The wheels in motion thanks to their evidence,

the brothers figure there's only one place they need to visit

in San Francisco, the former, temporary home of their uncles:

[music]

- NARRATOR: John and Clarence Anglin were

Alcatraz inmates 1476 and 1485 respectively,

but who were these men and how did they get off the Rock?

Much of the ingenuity of their feat is credited

to the third escapee, Frank Morris, whose IQ was

apparently measured at 133, a figure that placed him

in the top 3% of the population.

And while the escape and its planning was a collective effort

that included Morris, the Anglin boys played a central role

in helping craft the plan.

- That's one of the things that always makes me so mad.

I hear all the stories about, oh, Frank Morris, you know,

had a high IQ.

He's the one who came up with this plan,

and the Anglin brothers, they were dumb farm hicks

with a third grade education.

They didn't know what they were doing.

And I don't believe that for a moment.

- Growing up, Mom said they could make anything

out of nothing.

- KEN: They were the MacGyvers of the 1950s.

- NARRATOR: Over the course of 15 months, the Anglins tapped

into their resourcefulness, creatively assembling the assets

they would need to escape Alcatraz undetected.

- We've read in the files that 52 raincoats were missing.

We know that Clarence knew how to stitch.

- They made not only a boat out of it but they

also made life preservers.

- They took up painting.

They actually painted portraits of their girlfriends.

Well, the only reason that they did that,

they needed flesh-colored paint to put on those dummy heads.

Clarence took a job in the barber shop.

He knew he needed hair.

So he took hair and dropped it, as he was cutting it,

and it would fall down in his cuffs of his pants,

and he walked it back to his cell.

- To do all that under the noses of the guards?

I mean, what else can you say about them?

They were highly intelligent men.

- NARRATOR: By June 11th, 1962, with the holes in their cells

cut and covered, and a plan in place, it was only a

matter of hours before the men made their break.

What happened to them when they hit the water has been

debated and theorized for half a century...

...with speculation on the escape continuing to this day.

Michael Esslinger is currently working on a book about

the escaped Anglins.

He's joining their nephews, Ken and David,

and former lead Alcatraz investigator Art Roderick,

for a trip to the Rock.

♪

♪

- KEN: Was it Clarence that said the boat drive was shorter

and they were goin' in the wrong direction.

- Yeah, [laughs].

Is that what you just thought about?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, he knew in his mind, he wasn't,

they wasn't stayin' there.

- Yeah, I believe that.

They, they had already started planning, I think,

before they even got there.

♪

- NARRATOR: As the ferry inches closer to Alcatraz Island,

the weight of their current odyssey descends upon the

brothers, and what their infamous uncles must have

been thinking in 1960, as they prepared to be locked away

in the harshest prison known to man.

- I want the world to know that when they go out to

Alcatraz, and they walk around and they see the mugshots,

they hear about the robbery, and they hear the stories

about how they got out.

I want them to know that these were more than criminals.

- They wasn't murderers.

You know, they robbed a bank with a toy gun.

But what got them sent to Alcatraz is,

"Hey, we can't keep these boys anywhere.

Let's put 'em in Alcatraz, we can keep them there."

- These were not totally bad people.

They were human beings.

They had a family.

They had a mom and dad who loved them.

They had brothers and sisters who cared about them.

These were my uncles.

[seagulls squawk]

[suspenseful music]

♪

- KEN: This, this is where they first made their first entry.

- ESSLINGER: This is it.

- DAVID: Wow.

- ESSLINGER: This was their first stop inside.

- KEN: Wow.

♪

- ESSLINGER: And here we are.

- KEN: Wow.

- ART: Alcatraz blows me away.

- KEN: Always blows me away.

♪

♪

♪

- DAVID: Well, this is where our whole lives started,

with all the harassment, everything.

- KEN: Yeah, this is where all of our lives got turned

upside down.

I mean they left, and, you know, it affected all of us.

- KEN: Here it is.

- DAVID: This is Clarence's cell.

Wow.

- KEN: They left, right through that hole.

- Unbelievable.

Just couldn't nothing hold 'em!

[soft music, seagulls]

[heavy sigh]

- KEN: I just cannot believe they were actually in there.

- DAVID: You know, their beds were side by side,

just a concrete wall separating them.

- KEN: I bet it was good to be close to family.

- DAVID: Yeah, that was probably the only way they

kept their sanity.

- But you know, it didn't end here.

- No. - No.

I do not believe it ended here.

It might have began here, but it didn't end here.

♪

- NARRATOR: At approximately 9:30 PM on June 11th, 1962,

just after the guards called for lights out...

♪

...15 months of meticulous preparation was finally

put to the test.

The three cons inched out of the backs of their cells through

tiny holes that they had spent months cutting and concealing...

...made their way up the ventilator shaft, and out onto

the roof of the cellblock.

What they did next turned them into legends.

[music]

- NARRATOR: David and Ken Widner are the nephews of two men who

used to call these cells home:

Alcatraz escapees John and Clarence Anglin.

The brothers are shadowing the footsteps of their uncles

as part of a fresh investigation into the escape,

and the trip is rekindling a host of emotional

childhood memories.

- I remember my mom telling me the story.

I was just a small kid, a baby actually.

And she said she heard it on the news,

that there had been an escape at the Alcatraz prison.

She said she knew right then who it was.

- RADIO ANNOUNCER: It appears to be the first successful escape

in the history of the maximum security prison.

- KEN: And from that moment on, everything changed.

I mean, it was in our blood from the very beginning.

- DAVID: As kids we would hear our parents, you know,

when they'd get together, you know, they would talk.

And a lot of times when the kids would come around

they'd stop talking, and we know that they knew more than,

than they were telling.

- KEN: Coming from that background,

it did make me want to go dig.

It made you want to look past what some of the stories were

and say, "Well what caused that story to occur?"

- NARRATOR: The brothers mined the family archive

and found these photos: two men in Brazil in 1975,

whom they believe is John and Clarence Anglin.

To try and find out what happened to their uncles,

they've teamed up with former U.S. Marshal Art Roderick

and historian Michael Esslinger.

- You know, once they get out from the ventilator

on top of the roof, they slowly started making their way

across the top of the hospital to this side.

One by one, they come down what is a large smokestack,

it's no longer here, and they make their way down.

So there's soot all over it, it's real dirty.

You can actually see, in a lot of the FBI photographs,

sneaker prints leading away from the smoke stack.

They make their way out onto the officer's catwalk

for the rec yard,

go down into the vegetation here,

and then walk right in front of the water tower.

And made their way down this location here.

It's amazing that right over here, this is what some of the

FBI photos show.

- ART: So the Bureau found footprints, evidence,

that they came exactly this route?

- ESSLINGER: They did.

- KEN: Oh my gosh.

- ART: Your adrenaline would be pumping at this point

because you're so close.

- ESSLINGER: I mean, when you think about it, all the planning

that went into getting to this point in the escape, you know,

here they were, they were carrying their raft,

their life preserver, they had their paddles, their packs,

the concertina to, you know, inflate everything,

I mean it's, it's really amazing.

- DAVID: Wow.

- KEN: You could taste freedom from here.

- ESSLINGER: You could.

♪

- Everybody knows how they got to the water.

I want to know the details around how they got from

that water all the way to land.

- ART: The main thing about Alcatraz, why everybody thought

it was inescapable, was the water barrier.

I mean, you were on an island, tides, cold water,

swift currents, so that even if you got to the

edge of the island, you would never make it to the mainland.

- Them boys did not spend over a year planning this

to get to the water and say, "What do we do now?"

They knew all along what they were gonna do.

They had it planned out to a T.

- NARRATOR: With no definitive proof that the brothers

lived or died, the truth remains elusive, and the possibilities

have been hotly debated since 1962.

The widely held assumption is that the men put a raft

into the water and paddled into the abyss.

But a re-examination of past interviews and documents,

combined with the evidence the family has unearthed,

has generated a shocking new theory.

- ESSLINGER: Basically what the theory is is that rather than

just get to the water's edge in the raft and go out towards

the Golden Gate, they actually went around the

perimeter of the island.

There's an FBI document that indicates that when they were

searching the island, they had actually brought bloodhounds

on the island.

And what they stated was, was that the bloodhounds actually

made it to the cave and that's where they lost the scent.

The only true caves on Alcatraz were actually on the west side

of the island near the incinerator.

- NARRATOR: Working their way around the island allowed the

escapees to avoid the only active guard tower on Alcatraz,

on the east side of the island .

But even if the men made this full circle and landed

at the prison's boat dock, the question still begs:

how did they cross the bay?

The answer may lie hidden within the maze of information

collected by the authorities in the days following the escape.

FBI records state that 120 feet of electrical cord that was

stored near the boat dock was reported missing.

A ferry would shuttle prison guards to and from the island.

The last departure that night was at 12:10 AM.

When the feds studied the contents of each escapee's cell

the morning after the escape, they found some

telling evidence.

On Frank Morris' desk were three magazines.

One, a copy of Popular Mechanics showing how to

build a homemade raft.

Another, a Sports Illustrated article detailing how a boat

enters and exits a slip, and how to tie and untie

the boat from a dock.

And the final magazine, left open by the inmate,

a Miller High-Life advertisement,

showing a couple on a beach, kicking back with a few beers.

When deciphered from the maze of evidence, these facts -

the electrical cord, the ferry schedule and the magazines -

reveal an intricate road map for the escapees

once they make it to the boat dock.

- ESSLINGER: The theory is, is that they came up right up under

the dock here, where the actual prison launch was sitting.

And then they went underwater, tied the electrical cord to the

cowling, up by the rudder, and then fed this cord all the way

around the dock.

So, that way, when the prison launch was coming out of the

slip, they would actually be able to position the raft to

where it would actually be towed right out as the boat took off

towards the mainland.

- NARRATOR: The escapees could have known exactly

when to be at the boat dock for their departure,

used the instructions in the magazines, and tied the

stolen electrical cord to the guard boat for their tow.

- So they didn't swim, they didn't paddle.

There was three boats leaving that island that night

and they caught a ride from one of 'em.

- NARRATOR: The theory continues that as the guard boat

left the Alcatraz shoreline, the fugitives somehow

untied the cord and paddled to a nearby getaway boat.

Remarkably, there is a witness to this theory.

A young San Francisco beat cop named Robert Checchi told the

FBI and the Oakland Tribune that he was smoking a cigarette at

St. Francis Yacht Club after his shift when he looked out

towards Alcatraz and saw something suspicious

a couple hundred yards away in the water.

Between him and Alcatraz Island, Checchi noticed a pristine,

white boat in the bay, with no fishing poles,

sitting idle for 20 to 30 minutes,

before it made its way towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

In the frantic manhunt that followed the escape,

the FBI dismissed his account out of hand.

But if what he saw was tied to the prison break,

it would mean that the escapees had received help

from the outside.

- ESSLINGER: I really believe that this is a game-changer.

It actually would bring them right to the very location that

Officer Checchi was in.

You know, before, it seemed so random and there was no possible

way that they could have got to that area, but now when you put

all of this together and connect the dots, it actually would

put them right in the same area that he witnessed that boat

out on the bay that night.

- This makes more sense than anything

I've ever heard before.

- If you take portions of what we got from Brizzi,

the alternative theory, the missing extension cord,

that all kind of fits.

And I think the clincher is Officer Checchi seeing the

boat out there, and I've always looked at that newspaper article

and read that interview and thought,

"Wow, this is very compelling."

- I actually think it changes all of the theories

and makes it plausible.

It makes it actually one of the most reasonable ways

to get off the island, in my opinion.

- NARRATOR: But who would agree to provide such help?

And who could the escapees truly trust to keep their

plan close to the vest, not only during the

15 months of planning, but for years after,

as fugitives from the law?

Roderick believes Anglin family friend Fred Brizzi

may have the answer.

[tape recording playing]

[tape recording playing]

[tape recording playing]

[tape recording playing]

[ominous music]

[music]

- NARRATOR: The search for the truth in the 1962 Alcatraz

escape case is unfolding.

A plausible new theory on how the escapees made their way to

freedom has just been explored, and is supported by evidence

that was presented by the family of the escaped Anglins.

Now, the nephews of John and Clarence are on their way

back to central Florida to follow an important,

if painful, lead:

exhuming another of their uncles, Alfred Anglin,

whose corpse holds details that could solve

the mysteries of the Rock.

- The only way we're gonna get to the bottom of this

is to dig him up and find out what really happened to him.

- It's going to be tough, you know, but um,

I'm going to do it because yes, we do have something to prove.

- NARRATOR: As the brothers make their way to the family plot

in rural Ruskin, Art Roderick touches ground in Washington.

The former lead investigator on the Alcatraz case

is back in D.C., walking into a meeting with longtime cop

Michael Streed, now one of the country's preeminent

facial imaging experts.

- I've got some photographs I'd like to show you.

I'm hoping you can help me out on this.

This picture of, uh, two individuals taken probably

sometime in the mid 1970s.

This picture is supposedly of John and Clarence Anglin.

John being on your right, Clarence being on your left.

Here is a mugshot of John from 1960 and then Clarence.

I also have some, some family photos in digital format that I

can provide you.

- All right.

- This is probably the absolute best lead

in this case since 1962.

If you can come up with something or you see some

similarity in there.

And you with your investigative background would say,

"I would continue to investigate this particular lead."

That's what I'm looking for.

they weren't wearing the glasses and stuff and people are

at a distance and, you know, measure chin to mouth

and do all the morphological measurements and such.

This case you don't have that, so it's more relying

on a surface feature.

What I'm going to have to do is scan them into the computer,

take a look and start doing some detail analysis.

- Okay, very good.

- NARRATOR: Back in Florida, a convoy is on the move,

thanks to a deal the Widner brothers have struck with

the U.S. Marshals Service.

If the government helps to exhume their Uncle Alfred

and conducts an autopsy to once and for all

determine his cause of death, the family will offer up

a sample of Alfred's bone for forensic analysis.

- DAVID: We are fixing to go do something that's

going to be incredible.

- MARIE: It is amazing.

- NARRATOR: David and Ken's mother Marie, along with their

Aunt Merle, are the younger sisters of John, Clarence,

and Alfred.

- DAVID: Long time coming.

- KEN: Wow.

- MERLE: It really has.

- You know I asked my mom is she prepared for

Alfred coming out of the ground.

And she is.

Her and Merle, my Aunt Merle, they've both been waiting

a long time for somebody to prove what they already know.

- NARRATOR: In 1958, Alfred Anglin, along with his

soon to be infamous brothers John and Clarence,

robbed a bank in Columbia, Alabama.

The bank heist put each of the brothers behind bars.

John and Clarence would eventually be sent to Alcatraz,

while Alfred ultimately stayed in Alabama.

- He ends up at Kilby Prison in September of 1963.

When he arrives, he's actually already eligible for parole.

So all he's gotta do is just, you know, a couple more years

and he's gonna get out of prison.

- NARRATOR: But in January of 64, after John and Clarence

had already pulled off their mysterious escape from the Rock,

Kilby Prison notified the Anglin family that Alfred had attempted

a brazen escape of his own, and died in the process.

- MARIE: Alfred, we are fixing to find the truth

about you honey.

- We've always thought that they killed you.

- MARIE: That's right.

- In Alabama.

- MARIE: And now we're about to find out...

- MERLE: Yes.

- MARIE: Amen.

- MERLE: Amen.

- There's no way Uncle Alfred only had

a few days left to come up for a parole hearing.

There's no way he tried to escape.

You'll never make me believe that.

Sorry.

- NARRATOR: For the past 51 years, the Anglin clan

has maintained that Alfred was beaten to death by prison

authorities, after getting wind that his brothers made it

safely off Alcatraz Island.

The alleged beating, they believe, was due to refusing

to share what he knew with Kilby officials.

- I know that they made it and I know that he knew

they made it and that's the reason why he was killed.

- If the results come back that Alfred has broken bones,

then Alabama is going to have to answer to what

really happened to Alfred.

How did he get broken bones when y'all claimed

he was electrocuted?

- NARRATOR: The official autopsy gives the marshals something

they've long sought: a DNA sample from the Anglin family

to match up against the bones that washed ashore in

San Francisco Bay nine months after the escape.

- Well, I want you all to know it's been a long time coming.

[sobbing]

- MERLE: It has, David.

It has.

- MARIE: 51 years to solve this puzzle.

And we are about to find out.

[dramatic music builds]

♪

♪

- NARRATOR: As Alfred's coffin is raised...

Roderick makes his way to official marshals headquarters,

where he is learning more about the Anglin family friend

who claims to have taken pictures of Alcatraz inmates

John and Clarence Anglin in Brazil in 1975,

13 years after their escape.

[knocking]

- HENRY: Hey, how are you doing?

- Henry, how are you, buddy?

- Good to see you.

- NARRATOR: Chief Inspector Henry Geberth is well aware

of one of the agency's most notorious cold cases.

- It seems like a pivotal person in this particular escape case

is an individual by the name of Fred Brizzi.

- Brizzi.

- I don't know how it's spelled.

- OK.

- The greatest thing I've got is just a picture of the

individual and that was probably taken around 1992.

Now he grew up with the Anglin brothers, all of them,

and apparently he actually ran into them in the mid-70s

down in Brazil.

- Oh really?

- Yes, and I was hoping, possibly, you could query the

system and do a run on him and see what we've got

in the database on him.

[chain rattling]

- I see it moving.

- It's moving!

- MERLE: It sure is!

- DAVID: Here he comes... whoa!!

- MERLE: Ooohh!

[chain rattling]

- Started right here.

Started right here.

Been wanting to do this since you was 11 years old.

- DAVID: Yeah.

- MARIE: He said, "Mom I want to do this, but I don't know

where to start."

- KEN: Well here we are.

- MARIE: Here we are.

♪

- I believe this is what Alfred wanted.

He doesn't have a voice today.

We're his voice.

- Well you just know that you and Mama would not leave

this Earth not knowing.

[music]

- NARRATOR: The brother of Alcatraz escapees

John and Clarence Anglin is exhumed from the earth

after 51 years underground.

His dramatic resurrection and transport to the autopsy room

is the result of an agreement the Anglin family has made

with the U.S. Marshal Service:

help solve a family conspiracy theory related to Alfred's death

by conducting an official autopsy on his corpse...

and in exchange, the Anglins will provide a DNA sample from

his remains to test against bones that washed up in

San Francisco Bay nine months after the 1962 escape.

- I'm ready for some justice and some closure

to this situation and we are ready to learn the truth

about what happened to my brother, Alfred.

- KEN: I just can tell in my Aunt Merle as we got her out

of the car she just seemed to, I don't know, the emotions

were starting to come out in her like I have never seen

before in my life.

You sure you're okay?

She started to shake and I kept asking her I said,

"Aunt Merle, are you OK?

Are you OK?"

"Yes, I'm ready for this," and she took her glasses off.

I was like oh please do not faint here on me!

Hey, this is the only way we're going to find out.

- I know.

- Okay?

- I know.

- KEN: We won't ever know if don't look.

- MERLE: I know. I know.

- It was tough.

It was, it was very tough.

- I cannot do this.

- DAVID: You don't need to.

She almost changed her mind right there at the end.

You know, she was like, I don't know if we should be doing this

and I had to tell her, "Aunt Merle, this is the

only way to get the answers that we need."

- DAVID: I know it's hard.

- MERLE: It is.

It is.

It's very hard, David!

[crying]

- DAVID: We got to find out, though.

- MERLE: I know we do, but looking at that casket...

- DAVID: I know.

It just brings back a lot.

- MERLE: It really does.

- KEN: They're opening the head.

- DAVID: Okay. Okay.

- DAVID: You know, it was really tense for me because there was

some doubt that he might not even be in the casket, you know,

or was he going to be in good enough shape to do

anything with?

- You gotta get down here a little bit too.

- Oooof.

- I was totally shocked and I believe everybody else there

was totally shocked at what they saw.

- What I saw is imprinted in my head.

I seen who I know was my Uncle Alfred.

♪

- NARRATOR: Alfred Ray Anglin, brother to the Alcatraz

escapees, well preserved after half a century underground.

- Because he's in that good of shape we should be able to

get the answer whether or not he was murdered and we can also

use the DNA to prove those bones are not any of the Anglins.

- Yeah.

We're actually going to solve two different things here,

one way or the other.

- He's going to be the answer to two questions.

- HENRY: I did some digging, you know.

Fred Brizzi.

And I came up with a potential lead for you.

His criminal history dates back to 1946...

- ART: Wow.

- ...and involves a wide gamut of things but primarily

narcotics and weapons offenses.

- NARRATOR: In the mid-1970s, Fred Brizzi was part of a

smuggling ring, moving marijuana, cocaine, and hashish

from South America and the Caribbean into central Florida.

In October of 76, with a plane laden full of drugs,

Brizzi and his companion were forced to crash-land their

prop plane in waters just outside of Ruskin...

where they engaged in a shootout with local fishermen

and were arrested for possession of $750,000 worth of drugs.

Brizzi was sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

But it was many years before his criminal exploits began that

ties Fred Brizzi to the Alcatraz case when he grew up in Ruskin

just down the street from the 14 siblings of the Anglin clan.

- Yeah, he's got really quite an extensive record here.

This is great stuff.

Thank you, I appreciate it, buddy.

- NARRATOR: The preliminary information the active marshal

provided is enough to pique the interest of Roderick.

Fred Brizzi was indeed a childhood friend of the

Anglin brothers, had an extensive rap sheet,

and, incredibly, was running drugs into central Florida

from somewhere in the Americas, even possibly from Brazil.

- The Brizzi story, I find very interesting.

What I find interesting about that, he was a pilot,

and I think he was probably concerned about what would

happen if he openly said he was involved in this escape.

My thought is, he more than likely assisted them

in the escape.

If those two individuals are in Brazil, then more than

likely he helped them get there.

- NARRATOR: With the new information on Brizzi,

Roderick heads to Reagan National for the flight

to south Florida and the very likely possibility

that tomorrow's autopsy of an Anglin brother may finally solve

the mystery in the 1962 Alcatraz escape.

[music]

- NARRATOR: Laying on a gurney at a funeral home in

Hillsborough County, Florida, is the corpse of Alfred Anglin.

He's the brother to Alcatraz escapees

John and Clarence Anglin, and he and the secrets he carries

have just been unearthed after more than

half a century underground.

Official Alabama prison records state Alfred was electrocuted to

death upon attempting an escape from Kilby prison in 1964.

But the Anglin family has long suspected a government cover-up,

believing Alfred was murdered by prison guards for refusing to

share inside information he had about his brother's escape

from Alcatraz.

- ART: Having Alfred exhumed takes care of the issue

that the family has that Alfred was beat to death

for having information that related to the brothers' escape,

but also it gives us a clean DNA sample for us.

- NARRATOR: Art Roderick is a retired United States Marshal

and has just arrived at the autopsy room from Washington.

He's acting as a liaison between the marshals and the family

of the escaped Anglin brothers, who have struck a once

unthinkable agreement.

The marshals will perform an autopsy on the corpse of

Alfred Anglin to definitively determine his cause of death...

...and in return, the Anglins are providing a DNA sample from

Alfred's bone to be tested against the DNA of bones

that washed ashore in San Francisco Bay nine months

after the escape.

- Exhuming Alfred, I mean, that is so big.

I mean, that's everything.

You know, if we're able to test the DNA and figure out that,

you know, those bones belong to one of the brothers,

we solve one of the greatest mysteries from the 20th century.

- NARRATOR: For the Anglin family, who believe the men

made it across the water, learning the truth about Alfred,

and being able to share that story with the world, is one

of the main reasons to finally work with the authorities.

- KEN: I guarantee you, you could ask anyone today

and no one would know anything about Alfred Anglin.

And so to me, when we reached out to Art,

it was not only a way to say we know where they're at

and we're going to help you find them, but it was also

a way to give a voice to another brother

that everybody simply forgot.

- NARRATOR: Despite his time underground, Alfred's coffin

was almost perfectly sealed, preserving the body

better than anyone had expected.

- Now, what we're all gonna need to do,

everyone in the room, while she's shooting these,

you have to be out.

- NARRATOR: Dan Schultz is a noted pathologist

and medical examiner and has been in practice

for over 30 years.

His first step, before doing anything else to the corpse,

is to order a full body x-ray which will be used to determine

if the family's suspicions of foul play are justified.

- SPECIALIST: X-ray! OK.

- SPECIALIST: Look at that!

- DAN: Wow!

Nice.

Wow.

51 years.

- SPECIALIST: Amazing, isn't it?

- DAN: Isn't that amazing?

- ART: The family gets hung up on the inconsistencies as to

whether there was an autopsy or not, but the real evidence

is going to be what does the body look like?

Does the body look like it went through electrocution

or did it go through a beating?

That's the bottom line.

- DAN: So we're gonna just cut up the middle

and just take a look at what it looks like there.

- NARRATOR: With the x-rays complete, pathologist

Dan Schultz can begin his autopsy and the extraction

of bone for DNA sampling.

- DAN: So, you are gonna hold, uh, the bone down fixed

and I'm gonna cut a segment.

This is mid-shaft of the femur.

- DAN: In order to collect DNA, we took two samples.

We took one sample about seven centimeters long

from each femur, which is the best medium

for good identification.

And that's packaged up and will be sent to a laboratory.

- NARRATOR: The lab results will have far reaching consequences.

If the DNA samples are a match, it would mean that one of the

Anglin brothers died in the frigid waters

after escaping from the rock...

...and the photo that the family believes is

John and Clarence Anglin in Brazil in 1975

is a complete fraud.

But if the DNA doesn't match, the only remaining lead

in this 53-year old case is that photo.

- At the end of the day, we can come up with every theory

in the world, but right now, there's nothing other

than this photograph to show that they made it out.

- NARRATOR: Roderick makes his way back to Washington D.C.

and heads straight for Michael Streed.

The facial imaging expert is in the middle of a detailed

analysis of the photo allegedly from Brazil to determine whether

the two men in the picture from 1975 could be Alcatraz escapees

John and Clarence Anglin.

- I think everybody who does some sort of forensic analysis

doesn't wanna be wrong, and I don't think in a case

like this, that you, you can be wrong, because it's not a

positive ID science, but I think the enormity of it for me was

not wasting people's time, not getting the family's hopes up

or getting law enforcement hopes up that they would

still be there, because they would have to provide

a tremendous amount of resources to reopening the case.

So, I took the photos that you provided and I went in

and scanned them in the computer.

So, what we'd like to do is kind of compare them together.

And the first thing on both pictures, but especially

on this one, is the forehead.

- ART: Mmhmm, yes.

- STREED: The height and the shape of the forehead,

as well as the frontal bone there.

If you look near the arrow there, that depression in both,

that's bone structure.

- The forehead just blows me away.

How similar the forehead is.

- STREED: Well, you can see the brow, that sharp downward turn

in the brow is what does it for me.

If you look at the ear outline as well, and we'll go ahead

and, uh, show you the ear overlay.

Let's see how it matches up to the tracing and the ear.

- ART: Wow.

- STREED: Look, look at that.

It fits.

Let's just go ahead and...

- ART: It does.

- STREED: And if you just toggle on and toggle off,

the whole things matches.

- It's evident, you can't discount it.

I mean, it really is like he's wearing the mask.

To me, that matches up.

- The nose, the hairline, the jawline.

- I'm listening to every word you say but my mind

is going 100 miles an hour here trying to figure out,

uh, what we do next.

I just never expected this.

- As a former detective and, you know,

as a forensic artist, but mostly as a detective, my gut instinct,

as a police officer would be to round up the posse.

- I can't believe this.

[music]

- NARRATOR: For over 50 years, the mysteries surrounding

the Alcatraz escape have both confounded authorities

and mesmerized the public.

Three fugitives, brothers John and Clarence Anglin,

along with Frank Morris, escaped from the Rock,

stepped into frigid waters and, having never been found,

secured a mythical place in American history.

- ART: The main reason why Alcatraz Island still

captivates everyone is because these three individuals

did the unimaginable.

It was really the great escape.

- NARRATOR: Art Roderick is a retired United States Marshal

and for the past few months has been working with the family

of the escaped Anglin brothers to pursue fresh leads

in the case thanks to shocking new evidence introduced

by the family members themselves.

[tape recording playing]

- NARRATOR: In his possession Roderick now holds the

final results of all aspects of their current investigation,

and he's in Leesburg, Georgia to deliver the news in person.

- ART: What I'm getting ready to tell the family about what we

found and the evidence that they gave me is going to move the

needle on this case.

- NARRATOR: For the Anglin family, the potentially

historic news the lawman is about to share

is less about American history and more about their

own personal history...

...finding out what happened to three beloved family members.

- You know, it's more than a TV show for us.

This is personal.

This is real life for us.

I mean, we lived this every single day.

- KEN: Art!

- ART: How you doing?

- KEN: Good, good.

- MARIE: Good to see you.

- ART: Good to see you.

- DAVID: How you doing buddy?

- MARIE: Good to see you.

- ART: Well, we got a lot of stuff to go over.

Um, I think we should probably get to it.

- KEN: I'm ready for it.

- MARIE: I'm ready.

- DAVID: Absolutely ready.

- KEN: Let's go.

- DAVID: We've been waiting a long time.

- ART: Oh, I know.

- DAVID: My nerves were goin' crazy.

I knew that we were gonna prove something, I wasn't sure

exactly what it was, but I knew that it was gonna be big.

- : Well, first of all, Marie, um, Ken and David,

I want to thank you all for inviting me along

on this journey.

Having said that, you provided quite a bit of information.

Let's start with the first thing you gave me which

was the Christmas cards.

It was very difficult to confirm what year those cards were made,

and as far as being able to confirm that it's actual

evidence that they made it out, the Christmas cards really,

really don't provide that type of information.

OK?

- That was strike one for me.

I was like, OK.

You know, uh, now he's bringing out the results for Alfred.

- The, uh, second item is near and dear to your family.

And it's, concerns Alfred's death.

- KEN: Right.

- ART: OK.

Allowing us to exhume Alfred's body, obviously that served

a dual purpose, number one, you as the family

wanted to find out if there was any evidence as to

how he passed away.

From the Marshal Service perspective, you know,

we wanted to get a DNA sample to compare it to the remains that

were found in San Francisco Bay.

We were, we were actually able to, uh, do both those things.

The medical examiner provided us a report.

Basically what he did is he did a regular autopsy there, okay?

But they also did a head to foot, um, x-ray.

And I've got copies of this here.

So this is exactly what they did to determine, you know,

if there could be any possible trauma to the bones.

- DAVID: Wow.

- ART: And the bottom line is when he did the complete medical

examination, they could find no trauma to any of the bones.

- That was strike two for me.

I was like, "Man."

You know, it was just a downer, another downer.

- When you look at all the evidence around Alfred's death,

it makes no sense whatsoever.

- Yes, it was definitely one of the, one of the things

we needed to know.

- KEN: Right.

- Yeah, we really appreciate you, you doing this.

- MARIE: Absolutely.

- No, it, um, you know, we're doing this together.

Obviously we wouldn't be at this point without your help.

And that's the key thing to this case right now.

I think we all want a resolution one way or the other.

- The Christmas cards come back as a strike.

The autopsy come back on Alfred, you know, that there was

no blunt force trauma.

Uh, strike two.

This DNA we really needed to be right.

This could not be strike three for us.

- We were able to take two seven millimeter samples from

Alfred's femur bone, which the marshal service requested

to be able to compare Alfred's DNA profile, with the profile

that was of the remains that were found in San Francisco Bay.

We then sent it off to a forensic anthropologist

and they were able to actually come up with a comparison

between Alfred's DNA and the DNA that was located

in San Francisco Bay.

- Unrelated.

- KEN: I knew it.

- DAVID: Wasn't his bones.

- KEN: I knew it.

- MARIE: I knew that was not...

- DAVID: Awesome, I knew it wasn't theirs.

- ART: I mean you're never gonna get--

- KEN: I had no doubt.

That was not them.

- ART: It's not even close.

I think it's like 9,200 to 1.

So it's way out there.

- I knew it.

- KEN: That's exactly what I wanted to hear.

- MARIE: I knew it.

- That was, that was big for me.

- This proved it is not them.

100% proof.

- Well, I'm not done yet.

As you recall, when you shared this information with me

initially I was pretty excited about this last piece of

information.

This is the picture of who you believe are

John and Clarence Anglin.

I told you, I think, at that point exactly

what I was going to do.

We went to a very well-known forensic artist.

And he gave me his, his initial impression and then did

a full-blown, actually walked me through the whole process

of how he was able to do the comparison and his conclusion

was actually pretty simple.

He said that it's highly likely that the two individuals

in that 1975 photograph are John and Clarence Anglin.

- KEN: Told you.

- DAVID: I knew it!

- KEN: I told you.

- MARIE: [laughs] I knew it!

- DAVID: Boy, you just gave me chills.

I knew it was them.

- KEN: I knew!

I told you!

- ART: Now, again they're never gonna give you 100%...

- DAVID: Right.

- ART: But...

- DAVID: Hey, that's close enough for me, buddy.

That's close enough for me.

- ART: ...I asked him, I asked him the question,

"If this was you and you were in my place as an investigator,

what would you do?"

And he basically said, "I would round up the posse."

- KEN: Oh my god!

- MARIE: Oh man!

- KEN: Whew!

I knew in my heart that it was them.

I wanted science to kinda back it up.

This is a new chapter that's about to be written.

And we're gonna be part of that chapter.

- I can't wait 'til the world hears this!

- So now that you have that from the guy who looked

at these photographs, what do you believe?

- Well, I'm, I'm changing my mind based on the,

the photograph, which I think I told you that the photograph

to me was the most convincing thing.

Obviously this is a complete game-changer in this case.

- DAVID: Yes.

- MARIE: It is.

- Um, obviously the DNA, coupled with the...

- KEN: Sorry, I...

- ART: No, that's fine.

- KEN: I am still, I'm still just floored.

- Listen, I was bowled over myself so, um, have at it.

- DAVID: The family does feel vindicated, uh, about everything

that we found, mainly because we now can prove to the world

that those boys did not drown in that water.

And that photo is actually the only piece of evidence that

proves that they made it.

♪

♪

- ART: I'm very lucky to be sitting here now and in this

very short period of time, have brought this case

to this point where I truly believe we're going to close it.

♪

♪

- Director Harlow.

- Art, good to see you.

Good to see you sir.

♪