John Anglin’s cell (B-158). The towels and clothing were used effectively to hide the ventilation grill.
Allen West’s cell, with a section of the fake ventilation grill visible on the bed. The inmates used cardboard tobacco boxes to create the false grills, and carefully measured and cut the grill patterns using contraband razorblades.
Frank Morris succeeded in covering the ventilation grill inside his cell with the case of his concertina, thus diverting any suspicion from the planned escape.
An officer seen examining the opening where the ventilation grill was originally located.
Also found floating was a makeshift oar, which was later confirmed to have been constructed by the inmates. The Coast Guard of Angel Island located the oar floating just off the Stuart Point Lighthouse on the northwest side of the island. One of the rafts that had apparently been used by the inmates was found just offshore in the same vicinity. It had deflated, apparently due to a breached seal along one of the seams. Another raft was also found in the same condition near the Standard Oil Wharf at Point Richmond on the other side of the bay.
A life jacket was found about fifty yards east of Alcatraz by the prison launch during its routine trip to Fort Mason. The Mae West style life preserver was identified as being fabricated from the same materials as the one found on top the cellblock, and it also contained other interesting clues. It had brown stains, which originally thought to have been blood but was later ruled out. The air valve bore teeth marks, likely indicating that the convict had held it with his teeth to prevent air leakage. This tended to support the theory that the clip may have come off in the icy waters, thus contributing to the inmate’s exhaustion and eventual drowning.
A life jacket that was found just fifty yards east of the Alcatraz Dock. The vest was saturated with stains (originally thought to have been blood but later ruled out as being grease), and there were teeth marks around the air tube. Based on this evidence, it was concluded that the inmate who wore it was desperately attempting to maintain enough air pressure to keep afloat. The prisoners had used binder claps to seal the air inside the vests, and these were probably unable to sustain adequate air pressure.
Allen West’s life vest, shown here fully inflated.
Another lifejacket was found by a couple walking along a section of Cronkite Beach in Marin County, almost four miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. The couple saw an object floating fifty feet from the shore, and waited a few minutes for it to wash up. It was a life jacket identical to the one made for West, which had been found on top of the cellhouse. This one also revealed additional interesting clues. The jacket was deflated, and the paper clip that held the air tube closed was missing. There was also a small tear at the seam, which had allowed air to escape. West stated that their plan had been to cut up the floats once they came ashore, and throw them back into the water.
The inmates concealed their discarded tools and equipment inside a five-gallon container, and then filled it with plaster. Investigators found wire, spoon handles, steel bars, the vacuum cleaner motor, staples, a homemade flashlight, ladle handles, and other bits of contraband embedded in the hardened plaster.
In the aftermath of the escape, correctional officers swarmed through the cellhouse, conducting meticulous inspections of every cell in B Block.
Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, known as the "Al Capone of Harlem," was very well-liked by both inmates and officers. He was considered highly intelligent and a sophisticated inmate who would serve two terms on the Rock. It would be rumored decades later by a fellow inmate that Bumpy had assisted in the 1962 escape by helping arrange a pick-up by boat. This theory was never proven.
For decades people speculated as to whether this famous escape attempt had been successful. The FBI launched an intensive investigation, following every possible lead, and after spending nearly two decades painstakingly exploring physical and circumstantial evidence, the Bureau finally resolved that the inmates had not succeeded. There were several key points of the investigation that would ultimately cast doubt on the success of the escape attempt by Frank Morris, and John and Clarence Anglin. Through careful examination of the available evidence, one can form one’s own opinion as to whether or not the inmates made it to freedom. Numerous other reports were filed, including testimony from Alcatraz Officer Cliff Fish, who adamantly claimed that he had found a boat near the wharf at Angel Island, abandoned with copious amounts of blood on the flooring, which he stated was “impossibly more” that could have resulted from fishing. Another telegram alleged that a deflated raft was found on Angel Island with foot prints that leading away into the rugged terrain. No pieces of evidence were ever recovered or substantiated.
Consider the following evidence assembled by the FBI:
• The formal plan was to steal a car and then perpetrate a burglary at a clothing store. No reports of any such crime were filed in Marin County within a twelve-day period following the escape. None of the other surrounding counties, including San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and Monterey County reported any related or suspicious crimes within a similar time period. It was also rumored that Morris, who had a passion for reading about aviation-related subjects, had talked about stealing a helicopter to make a rapid departure from the Bay Area. The FBI and the FAA came up with no potential leads on this angle, and in any case, it is very unlikely that Morris could actually fly a helicopter, as he had claimed to a fellow inmate.
• Sources reported that these three men had neither friends nor relatives with the resources to come to San Francisco and assist in the escape. The cost of putting a boat in the Bay night after night to assist in the escape would have been thousands of dollars. The families and friends of the trio were investigated regarding their financial resources, and their hypothetical role as accomplices was eventually ruled out. There would have been no possible way for the inmates to communicate with outside contacts in order to confirm the date and progress of their break.
• Critics on the other side of the debate claimed that the fact that no bodies were found amounted to “proof” that the inmates had made it successfully to the mainland. The reality was that it was common for people who perished in the Bay waters never to be found. On the very night of the escape, a thirty-three-year old African-American gentleman named Seymour Webb, reportedly despondent over a failed relationship, abandoned his car mid-span on the Golden Gate Bridge and tragically jumped to his death in front of sixty-two horrified eyewitnesses. Despite a quick response from the Coast Guard, his body was never recovered. The significance of this event is that the suicide entered the water about the same time as the escapees, and his body was never found.
• On June 19, 1962, Robert Panis, an eighteen-year-old Filipino male, also drowned in the waters of Half Moon Bay, approximately twenty-five miles south of the Golden Gate Bridge. On the day of the drowning, a Coast Guard Helicopter noticed a floating body wearing attire that matched that of the missing man. A surface vessel was dispatched to the location, but the authorities were never successful in recovering the body. The FBI cited this as another example of the extreme difficulty in recovering drowned bodies from the Bay. The Bureau also referenced the case of Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe, who escaped from Alcatraz in 1937. Despite intensive searches these men were likewise never located, and it was concluded that they had drowned.
• The Bay water temperatures ranged from fifty to fifty-four degrees. It was determined that exposure to the elements would have affected body functions after approximately twenty minutes. The showers at Alcatraz were always supplied with moderately hot water, in order to hinder inmates from becoming acclimated to the freezing Bay waters.
• On July 17, 1962 the Ship S.S. Norefjell, a Norwegian Freighter departing from Pier 38, reported seeing a body floating twenty miles northwest of the Golden Gate Bridge. The ship was en route to Canada, and the crew noted the sighting in the ship’s log, but did not make a formal report until returning to the United States on A
ugust 8, 1962. The SS Norefjell was not equipped with a transceiver that could broadcast on the marine radio bands used in the United States. The crewmembers logged the notation that sometime between 5:45 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. they noticed something bobbing in the water, and used binoculars to confirm that it was a body floating face down. The hands and feet were dangling down in the water, but the buttocks were clearly visible. Although bleached from the ocean and sun, the body was clothed in full-length denim trousers that appeared identical to prison issue. Coroners from San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, and Marin Counties all confirmed that a body could float for five weeks after drowning. The FBI determined this to be one of the most significant leads in the case. Their official report established that there was no other individual missing or drowned at that time who had been wearing similar trousers, and concluded that it was reasonable to state that this was likely to be one of the escapees.
• The families of the Anglin brothers stated that the escape had been a topic of family discussions for several years. None of them have ever been contacted by the brothers, and they felt that had the inmates survived, they would have made contact in some form. The Anglin family would soon suffer yet another tragedy. The third brother, Alfred, was electrocuted on a high-voltage security wire when attempting to escape from Kilby Prison in Montgomery, Alabama in 1964.
Allen West remained at Alcatraz until February of 1963, leaving only one month before the prison’s final closing. He then continued his journey through the Federal penal system until he was eventually released in 1967, in the state of Florida. His taste of freedom was brief, and he quickly landed himself back in prison less than a year later. In 1972 West fatally stabbed another inmate, and thus permanently sealed his fate, condemning himself to a life in prison. Allen West died of peritonitis in the Florida State Prison hospital in December of 1978, at only forty-nine years of age.
The mystery is still being explored decades after the Great Escape, and it is unlikely that anyone will ever be able to prove with absolute certainty whether Morris and the Anglins found death or freedom. Frank Morris wrote in an institutional questionnaire in 1943 that if he were granted three wishes, he would wish for the following:
1. To get out of prison.
2. A nice home with everything to go with it.
3. Plenty of money.
He was granted only one.
ESCAPE ATTEMPT #14
Date:
December 16, 1962
Inmates:
John Paul Scott
Daryl Lee Parker
Location:
Kitchen Basement
By December of 1962, plans had already been set in motion to close the prison due to crippling costs and structural deterioration of the main cellhouse. Decades of exposure to the harsh salt ocean air had taken its toll on the prison. The last attempted escape at Alcatraz may have been facilitated by the dilapidated state of the prison facilities. In any case, it finally demonstrated that with properly constructed floats and a favorable current, it was technically possible for an inmate to enter the icy Bay waters and paddle to the mainland. John Paul Scott and Daryl Parker were two of the tough incorrigibles that Alcatraz was designed to cage, but they proved that even The Rock was not invulnerable to a well-planned prison break.
John Paul Scott was a university educated bank robber of the modern era. His inmate file details a multitude of bank heists, dramatic prison breaks, and spectacular shootouts with police. Like Scott, Daryl Lee Parker’s attempted escape at Alcatraz would be merely a brief episode in a lifelong diary of crime. In this chapter, the stories of John Paul Scott and Daryl Lee Parker are illustrated through firsthand reports and inmate records that chronicle their lives in prison as well as their various escape attempts.
Daryl Lee Parker
Daryl Lee Parker
Parker’s transfer order to Alcatraz.
An entry in a 1967 classification study report recounts the early life of Daryl Parker, and it includes a letter from his mother describing his childhood:
Daryl’s childhood was normal. He was number five of a family of eight children. No bad habits like drinking or smoking early in life. At age of twelve to fourteen he began taking bottles and cashing them in for spending money. The habit of thievery grew rapidly with it ending in your institution. Daryl was a beautiful baby and much loved by his brothers and sisters. Therefore, might have been spoiled somewhat. He was sent to the Boys Industrial School at the end of eighth grade. He also entered Timkin Vocational and finished all but two credits in high school. He lost out in Industrial School there being a war on and a shortage of math teachers. He took printing in Timkin Vocational School. After this he worked at Isaly’s Dairy store and he married Margaret Davis, also of Tinkin Vocational School, in a church here in Canton. There were no children. His father, Howard, is a foreman at the Timkin Roller Bearing Company. He also fixes TVs in his spare time as a hobby. He was born in Morgan County, Ohio. Georgia (Walker) Parker, his grandmother, was also born in Morgan County, Ohio, and was a schoolteacher prior to her marriage.
All I can say in conclusion was Daryl was high-strung, quick-tempered, and very nervous. At age 6 he developed a stammer. It was not bad, but irritated him a lot. He changed schools three times by our moving, and he resented the last school bringing home all F’s in every department. He has been in the Boys Industrial School, Mansfield Reformatory, Lorton and the prison in Maryland. He came nearer adjusting himself after leaving Mansfield, staying out of trouble three years. He returned from Lorton Prison in very bad shape having made friends with an elder criminal, which he ended where he is now, with you. Each time Daryl has been in trouble we hope and pray it will be his last. That hasn’t happened yet and we hope that he will come out of your prison a better boy for our faith in prisons is very low at the moment.
The inmate is married but has no children. He married Margaret Davis January 19, 1952, at Canton, Ohio, and stated there had been no discord with his wife, who is self supporting as a secretary, and he stated that in view of his long sentence, he had advised her to obtain a divorce.
By 1957 Daryl’s criminal record was already full of entries, ranging from juvenile stints as a runaway beginning in 1944, to armed robbery charges in 1957. A bank robbery that he committed in that year with his friend John Bartholomew is detailed in his criminal summary:
Attached to the form 792, U.S. Attorney’s Report, accounting for the sentence of 20 years on count 1 and 25 years concurrently on count 2 for Bank Robbery and assault with a deadly weapon was the statement, Defendant, Daryl Lee Parker, which John T. Bartholomew, robbed the Clinton and Rudisill Branch of the Lincoln National Bank and Trust Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana of the sum of $50,104.00 on Friday, October 18, 1957.
The men became acquainted while both were doing time in the Federal Reformatory at Lorton, Virginia. Daryl Lee Parker, though the younger of the two men, carefully laid all of the plans and made all of the arrangements for the bank robbery. He furnished the weapons used and stole two automobiles used as getaway cars. Both Parker and Bartholomew wore grotesque Halloween masks during the actual robbery. The defendant Daryl Lee Parker disguised his appearance by the use of black hair dye and of suntan theatrical grease paint. Both men entered the bank together. Bartholomew carried a .45 automatic pistol, while Daryl Lee Parker carried a .357 caliber magnum revolver, which, we are informed, is the most powerful handgun made, so powerful that it will drive a shell through the motor block of an automobile engine.
Bartholomew took up a position near the front of the of the bank, menacing the branch manager and the assistant branch manager with his gun, and directing them to fill a laundry bag with the bank’s money from the teller’s cages. Daryl Lee Parker proceeded to the rear of the bank menacing tellers behind the teller’s cages with his magnum revolver, and compelling a youthful vault casher to take money from the drive-in windows of the bank and put it in one of the bank’s money bags. During the time of the robbery there were 15 to 20 customers in
the bank. Daryl Lee Parker vaulted over the gate in the area behind the teller’s cages, held the magnum revolver to a young girl cashier and on the youthful vault cashier whom he ordered not to take another step or he would “blow your head off.” Daryl Lee Parker ordered all of the clerks away from their teller’s cages and said that if the police should come during the robbery he and his fellow robber would take 3 hostages and that they would kill the hostages without hesitation.
Defendant Daryl Lee Parker planned this bank robbery with such meticulous attention to detail that it required months of intensive investigation to assemble the evidence required before his arrest on March 19, 1958. Daryl Lee Parker said to a fellow prisoner at the Allen County Jail at Fort Wayne, Indiana, that he was sure to be convicted of the Fort Wayne bank robbery charge on which he was held and that escape was the only way out.
Daryl Lee Parker on June 11, 1958, stated to Donald Byington, Warden, United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Indiana, that he would try to escape at the first opportunity he had and stated: “I am in too much trouble, having robbed four banks and I couldn’t do all that time”; the defendant’s brother, Robert Parker, who probably has more than just simple guilty knowledge of Daryl’s activities, has admitted that they have a total of $226,000,00 hidden away. Both Daryl Lee Parker and his brother Robert Parker are known to have made flights to Cuba soon after the Fort Wayne bank robbery.
Parker was charged with two counts of robbery, and was committed to the Allen County Jail in Fort Wayne. The following report describes his escape, which would prefigure his eventual break from Alcatraz:
Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years Page 50