It is only a grainy ID photograph of an aged man – however for Ken Widner, the picture proves his uncles actually did pull off the best jailbreak in historical past.
Widner, 65, says the {photograph} solutions questions which have been lingering since brothers John and Clarence Anglin, alongside cellmate Frank Morris, busted out of Alcatraz in 1962.
The officers who pursued the inmates on the time say they most definitely by no means received past the frigid, uneven and shark-infested waters of San Francisco Bay.
However no our bodies had been ever discovered, fueling hypothesis about their destiny and even a Clint Eastwood film about that cool evening in June.
What’s by no means been doubted, although, is the ingenuity of their plan.
The lads left papier-mâché fashions of their heads of their beds to distract guards.
They then crawled out via air flow ducts, which they’d widened with eating spoons, earlier than fleeing on a makeshift inflatable raft.
Now, Widner, a nephew of the Anglin brothers, has obtained a photograph, purportedly exhibiting an 80-something-year-old John in Brazil. It is considered proof he survived the jailbreak.
Not solely did the boys attain land, Widner claims, however they had been allegedly flown to Mexico the day after the get away by drug smuggler Fred Brizzi.
The colour photograph (proper) purportedly exhibits John Anglin in his eighties in 2015 or 2016, and bears many telltale similarities to his jail mugshot from the Sixties (left)
Brothers John and Clarence Anglin, alongside cellmate Frank Morris, had been among the many 36 prisoners who made 14 escape makes an attempt from Alcatraz in its 30-year historical past
It is believed they spent some years residing in Mexico or elsewhere earlier than transferring to Brazil, the place they each received married, had youngsters and lived out their days in relative wealth and luxury beneath assumed identities, he claims.
The surprising twist comes as President Donald Trump strikes to reopen Alcatraz, and asserts that the island lock up was inescapable.
The Every day Mail can solely current the unearthed photograph, which was taken in 2015 or 2016, in response to Widner, and exhibits a gray-haired man in his eighties.
Widner says a person in Brazil – whom he believes has some connection to his uncle John – contacted him and despatched the picture. He’d snapped it together with his telephone from the safety system of an ‘unique gated neighborhood’ close to São Paulo, the place the photographed particular person is claimed to have lived together with his spouse.
‘I used to be like, “Oh my gosh, it actually seems to be like John,”‘ Widner informed the Every day Mail.
‘However the man was a lot older than different footage of John, and I am simply an newbie, so I needed to make certain.’
A former police forensic artist examined the photograph and located 13 telltale indicators within the eyebrows, ears and different options that had been a ‘constructive match’ to John’s jail mugshot, Widner says.
In line with the narrative Widner has constructed up via intensive analysis, John made a ‘fairly penny’ promoting farmland as a fugitive in Brazil.
He was residing together with his spouse beneath an assumed title, which Widner declined to share with the Every day Mail, in a ritzy neighborhood boasting BMWs within the driveway, in response to his ongoing analysis.
Warrants are nonetheless out for the three males, seen right here of their reserving images for armed financial institution robberies. The three labored collectively to dig their approach out of Alcatraz and sneak previous guards
Brothers John and Clarence Anglin, alongside cellmate Frank Morris, left papier-mâché fashions of their heads of their beds to distract guards whereas they fled
Federal and native authorities investigated the escape for 10 days, scouring the water, air and land
Widner says he is obtained a 2018 loss of life certificates of the person within the photograph.
He plans to journey to Brazil to assemble DNA traces from the house and even the gravesite, and examine it to Anglin members of the family, he informed the Every day Mail.
‘That’ll just about seal the deal,’ says Widner.
He declined to determine the Brazilian man who shared the photograph. The supply, he says, realized concerning the concept that the Anglins ended up in Brazil from a 2015 Historical past Channel documentary based mostly on Widner’s analysis.
The photograph, which the Every day Mail can’t confirm, is simply the most recent piece of proof Widner and his family members have collected over the many years that present the inmates escaped the Rock alive.
One other photograph they obtained within the ’90s exhibits John and Clarence carrying sun shades standing beside a street, allegedly residing on a farm in Brazil in 1975.
The brothers are also believed to have despatched Christmas playing cards to the household dwelling in Florida for 3 years after their escape. The handwriting did seem to match the brothers’.
In the early Sixties, the Anglins and Morris had been serving sentences in Alcatraz for financial institution theft once they began hatching plans to interrupt out.
They spent months utilizing spoons and forks to dig holes within the partitions surrounding the air vents of their cells, in response to the FBI.
On the evening of the escape, they used painted papier-mâché heads topped with hair collected from the jail barber store to idiot the guards into pondering they had been asleep in mattress.
They squeezed via the opening and made their approach from the jail roof to the water’s edge, carrying a makeshift raft crafted from 50 pilfered cotton raincoats.
The raft and different objects from the escape had been discovered washed up on a close-by island.
In line with Widner, his household had been involved together with his uncles in Brazil till at the least the early 1990’s, with {a photograph} seemingly of the 2 in entrance of termite mounds in a jungle, seen right here
The convicts crawled via the opening they’d spent months digging with spoons on June 11, 1962
An officer confirmed the within of a detachable part of their vent and the way they had been capable of get out that evening
Jail officers and federal brokers insisted on the time of the escape that the inmates died – the FBI formally closed its case in 1979, turning it over to US Marshals, who proceed to research.
Writers Ken Widner and Mike Lynch, revealed their findings in new ebook ‘Alcatraz: The Final Escape’
That very same yr, their exploits had been changed into the film Escape from Alcatraz, starring Eastwood as Morris.
Greater than 40 years later, Widner and co-author Mike Lynch drew collectively their analysis of household interviews and historic paperwork to provide the 2024 ebook Alcatraz: The Final Escape.
Of their telling, the boys escaped by utilizing wires to hitch the makeshift raft to a passing boat.
From there, they declare, the fugitives met a second boat within the San Francisco Bay space, which took them to dry land.
Widner says his uncles’ fellow prisoner Whitney Bulger, the notorious Irish Mob boss from Boston, helped them put together their our bodies for the freezing water.
Bulger, who reportedly took an curiosity in Scuba diving, suggested them to soak towels in chilly water from their sink and bathroom, wrap themselves within the towels and lie on the cement flooring to get used to the temperature, in response to Widner, who says he has communicated extensively with the mobster.
After reaching dry land, a non-public airplane chartered from a small airport at neighboring Marin County flew the trio to Mexico to start a brand new life, in response to Widner’s ebook.
Fearing that brokers had been on their path, the Anglins later moved to Brazil.
Of their ebook, Ken Widner (left) and Mike Lynch current their model of how the Anglin brothers survived the jailbreak
The FBI formally closed its case in 1979, and turned it over to US Marshals, who proceed to research
The story of the June 11, 1962, escape was changed into the 1979 movie starring Clint Eastwood known as Escape From Alcatraz
In line with Widner, his household was involved together with his uncles there till at the least the Nineteen Nineties.
Earlier than his loss of life in 2010, one other brother of the fugitives, Robert Anglin, informed members of the family he’d been in contact together with his siblings for 25 years following their escape.
Now, earlier in Might, Trump vowed to reopen Alcatraz as he continues to crack down on violent criminals and unlawful migrants.
He mentioned the infamous facility, which was shuttered in 1963 and as soon as held famed gangster Al Capone, will ‘home America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.’
He additionally declared that, ‘No one’s ever escaped from Alcatraz.’
A complete of 36 prisoners made 14 escape makes an attempt from Alcatraz in its 30-year historical past.
Out of these, 23 had been caught alive, six had been shot and killed, and two are recognized to have drowned making an attempt the 1.25-mile swim to shore via brutal currents.
5, together with the Anglins, who had been incarcerated there in 1957, and Morris, who had been an inmate there since 1960, are listed as ‘lacking and presumed drowned.’
Widner says Trump was ‘incorrect about’ Alcatraz being inescapable, however praised his declassification of historic investigations and desires him to do the identical with the ‘Alcatraz information.’
His co-author, Lynch, calls plans to reopen Alcatraz wrongheaded, saying it’ll price an excessive amount of to renovate the previous buildings and that the location is protected as a landmark and chicken refuge.
‘It is a good concept, however it’s by no means going to occur,’ Lynch informed the Every day Mail.
‘The whole lot needs to be transported to the island. All of the water, meals, medical gear and different supplies wanted to run a jail should be shipped to the island each single day. That is simply approach too costly.’
Widner and Lynch will signal copies of their ebook on Alcatraz Island from June 12 to 14, marking the 63rd anniversary of the breakout.
#eerie #photograph #lastly #PROVES #uncles #survived #infamous #escape #Alcatraz