Many movie fans might remember the classic film “The Shawshank Redemption,” where the protagonist Andy uses a small rock hammer hidden in a book to dig a secret tunnel for a successful escape.
In reality, there was a notorious escape incident where three inmates teamed up to break out of the most heavily guarded and terrifying prison in the United States – Alcatraz Island.
Sixty years have passed, and they are still missing. 
This escape has become the greatest unsolved mystery in the legends of American prisons.
In 1960, Jim set foot on Alcatraz for the first time, both nervous and excited.
In the coming days, he would serve as a prison guard, watching over some of the world’s most infamous criminals.
“Almost every American boy grows up listening to stories of Alcatraz.”
Jim was no exception; the environment here was just as bleak and eerie as the stories he had heard.
Alcatraz, located in San Francisco Bay, is surrounded by icy waters teeming with lurking sharks.
Falling into the water almost certainly meant death.
The federal prison on the island was heavily fortified, with barred windows and doors, and an average of three guards per prisoner. Escaping was as hard as climbing to the heavens.
With double layers of hellish barriers, even a bird locked in here would find it hard to fly out.
However, despite having the best security in the country, riots and crimes continued to occur in this prison.
Because the inmates here were all hardened criminals.
Nicknamed “Scarface,” Al Capone was the number one figure in American criminal history.
In the 1920s, he was the boss of the Chicago mob, controlling the city’s drug trade and was once called the “underground mayor.”
What made him “world-famous” was a sensational massacre.
On Valentine’s Day 1929, he had his men dress as police officers, luring his arch-enemy Moran’s gang into a garage for a mass shooting.
The news shocked the nation, and the Chicago Crime Commission sent him to Atlanta Prison.
However, in prison, he not only did not restrain himself but also recruited a group of inmates as his followers, while his men outside planned numerous escape attempts.
The federal government, at its wit’s end, had to transfer him to Alcatraz, where “Scarface” received the highest level of guard treatment.
He was locked in a solitary cell, and whenever he was outdoors for exercise, he was surrounded by a dozen guards with machine guns.
During his seven months in prison, the mob continued to cause trouble, attacking police, forcing the U.S. government to let him leave.
Surprisingly, after his release, he did not return to his old ways but retired from crime.
Some say he suffered from an incurable disease, but the most popular story is that the horror and perversion of Alcatraz left him with a psychological shadow.
It’s said that prison guard DeVincenzi witnessed an inmate kill another naked prisoner in the bathroom just because the latter refused his sexual advances.
Such violent incidents were common in Alcatraz, and with the media’s exaggeration, the place became known as a “living hell.”
From 1933 to 1962, there were 13 escape attempts at Alcatraz;
Of those, 23 were caught during the escape, six were shot, and two went missing, with no successful escapes by any serious criminals.
Until 1962, four inmates devised a foolproof escape plan.
The Anglin brothers were habitual offenders, arrested for bank robbery, and were sent to Alcatraz after multiple escape attempts.
In Alcatraz, they met Frank.
This criminal was imprisoned for drug possession and armed robbery, rumored to have a high IQ and multiple serious charges, leading to his incarceration in Alcatraz.
Another member, Allen, was jailed for auto theft, and after failing to escape in Florida, was transferred to Alcatraz.
The four hit it off in prison, and the escape gang led by Frank was officially formed.
Initially, because their cells were too far apart, they asked the prison to move them to the same block as neighbors.
Logically, the prison should have been suspicious of such a request.
But perhaps confident in their security, the prison actually agreed.
Once moved, they surveyed their cells and decided the ventilation duct under the sink was the most likely escape route.
They planned to dig their way out from there.
The path was set, but what to dig with?
The tools available in prison were scarce, so they focused on the most inconspicuous item – spoons.
They used stolen spoons, coins, and nail clippers to dig a passage just wide enough for one person, using cardboard to conceal the entrance from the guards.
But even after escaping the prison, the icy waters and lurking sharks meant they would likely drown.
They collected rubber raincoats, sealing them with steam pipes to create inflatable valves and life vests.
Every night, guards would check the cells, and if they found someone missing or anything unusual, the escape plan would fail.
The four made a dummy head out of toothpaste, soap, and toilet paper.
To make the head look more realistic, they even stole hair from the prison barber shop to glue on it, making it hard to distinguish from a real head at a distance.
Once everything was ready, they decided to act.
One night, after the lights went out, the four took out their prepared dummy heads, disguised them under blankets to look like sleeping bodies, and then crawled out through the tunnel.
After escaping the prison, they floated away on their inflatable valves.
The next morning, when the guards checked the cells, they realized something was wrong. At the same time, they discovered Allen, who had failed to escape.
It turned out that Allen got stuck while trying to crawl out of the tunnel, and by the time he managed to get out, his accomplices had already left without him, forcing him to return.
From Allen’s testimony, the police learned that the cunning trio did not choose to land at the nearest San Francisco but went in the opposite direction to Angel Island.
Upon learning this, the police immediately searched Angel Island, but by then, a week had passed since the escape, and only fragments of raincoats, deflated life vests, and other suspicious items were found.
Less than a year after the trio’s escape, Alcatraz Prison was closed, and the reasons were never officially disclosed.
What was once a feared prison has now become one of San Francisco’s hottest tourist attractions;
Many visitors still come to the island with a sense of curiosity, and movies inspired by the legends of the island continue to emerge.
Sixty years have passed, and the whereabouts of the three escaped inmates remain an unsolved mystery.
Later, some claimed to have encountered the Anglin brothers in Rio de Janeiro, but there has been no follow-up since…
