By the time Morris reached his late teens, his criminal record included a multitude of crimes ranging from narcotics possession to armed robbery, and he had become a professional inhabitant of the correctional system. His repeated escapes and quite brazen acts of non-conformity earned him his way to ever-larger penitentiaries. His life was a merry-go-round of short bouts of freedom interspersed with long terms of imprisonment. Meanwhile, he graduated from small burglaries to large bank heists. Then one day in late April 1955, while serving a ten-year sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for armed robbery and possession of narcotics, Morris and fellow inmate Bill Martin were on a work detail cutting sugar cane when both slipped away – and their escape went undetected for several hours.

The fugitives made their way to New Orleans, and after several months of lying low, devised a plan to rob a bank in Kansas City. Because they knew in advance that alarm mechanisms were wired to the bank doors, Morris, Martin, and a third accomplice named Earl Branci decided to cut a hole through the rear wall to minimize the risk of detection. After gaining access, Morris torched through the rear of two vaults, and removed $6,165 in coins, weighing a total of 1,200 pounds. The three men retreated to the home of a woman living in Baton Rouge, where they were harbored for several weeks. Soon after, all of them were apprehended by the FBI. Morris earned a Federal prison term of fourteen years, and he would eventually find his way to Alcatraz.

While serving his Federal term in Atlanta, Morris once more attempted to escape. On September 20, 1959 at 8:30 p.m., prison officer Paul Legg heard a loud crash and ran to see what had happened. He later would report that Morris had run toward him, attempting to conceal his identity, and had subsequently tried to sneak back into his cell without being noticed. Morris was reported, and was sentenced to punitive segregation in addition to forfeiting privileges. In 1960, Federal officials decided that Morris’s pattern of escape attempts, termed as “shotgun freedom” (although his escapes had never involved the use of a shotgun), would end at the Rock. On January 20, 1960, Morris disembarked from the prison launch and became inmate #AZ-1441. However, Frank’s long history of escape attempts would not end at Alcatraz – on the contrary, he was to go down in the annals of the island prison as one of its most daring escape artists ever.

John and Clarence Anglin

John W. Anglin. These mug shot photos illustrate the passage of approximately only two years, but his physical characteristics show significant changes. Note the handwritten entry on the Associate Warden’s Record from Leavenworth, stating that Anglin was not to be celled with his brother Clarence. At Alcatraz, they shared neighboring cells in B Block.

Clarence Anglin

Frank’s accomplices were equally well acquainted with life amid the dark world of organized crime. Brothers John and Clarence Anglin were also serving sentences at Alcatraz for bank robbery. They came from a large Florida family of fourteen children, and had been convicted along with their brother Alfred. On January 17, 1958, the brothers cased the Bank of Columbia in Alabama, and had made off with nearly $20,000 in cash. Five days later they were apprehended by FBI agents while hiding out in a small two-bedroom apartment in Hamilton, Ohio.

All three brothers served sentences at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, where they first became acquainted with Morris. On April 11, 1958, Clarence Anglin was sent to Leavenworth Penitentiary to be separated from his brothers, though John was soon transferred there as well. Then on October 8, 1960, John was caught assisting Clarence in an escape attempt at Leavenworth. John Anglin was working in the prison bakery, and the escape would involve cutting the top out of one breadbox and the bottom out of another, which provided ample room for Clarence to stand inside when they were stacked one on top of the other. After the breadboxes were stacked and Clarence was safely hidden within, John pushed them into the kitchen elevator – but a prison officer noticed that something was amiss, and halted the escape. Both brothers were subsequently transferred to Alcatraz. John was relocated on October 22, 1960, and Clarence followed on January 16, 1961, their transfer records stating the reason for the move as: “to ensure safer custody.”

John Anglin, now inmate #AZ-1476, was assigned to cell #158 while Clarence, as inmate #AZ-1485, moved into #152. Warden Olin Blackwell had shown some leniency in allowing the brothers to reside in adjacent cells. This privilege also entitled them to sit together during meal periods. Meanwhile Frank Morris, who had been assigned to cell #138 on the same ground-level tier, was already considering the odds of making an escape from the island, and had begun his formative planning.

Allen Clayton West

Allen Clayton West would later claim (and it is believed by many historians) to have masterminded the escape.

Convict Allen Clayton West, a native of New York, was also brought into the scheme – though he later claimed that hehad been the one to design the plan that resulted in the successful escape. Some have strongly disputed his claim, since Morris had previously masterminded similar types of escapes, and pertinent reading materials on fabricating the apparatus used in the escape had been found in his cell. The style of this escape was also reminiscent of Morris’ earlier bank heists.

West resided in cell #140 on the same tier as Morris and the Anglins, and regardless of who had actually masterminded the scheme, he proved to be the perfect accomplice. West carried a reputation as an arrogant criminal. He was serving out his second term at Alcatraz for a relatively unglamorous crime, interstate transportation of stolen vehicles. West also had a history of failed and aggressive escape attempts. In one such attempt at a Florida prison, West had held a gun to the Associate Warden’s head, demanded his car keys and then escaped in his car. West had become acquainted with John Anglin while serving time together at the State Penitentiary in Florida.

The plan for the Alcatraz escape started to take shape in December of 1961. It was a complex strategy that involved the design and fabrication of ingenious lifelike dummies, water rafts, and life preservers, all made from over fifty rain coats acquired from other inmates (some donated and others stolen), and a variety of crudely fashioned tools.   In later interviews with the FBI and Alcatraz Prison Officials, West indicated that he had masterminded the escape, and had brought Morris in last of all, after the Anglins. Although it is still unclear who actually conceived the scheme, West’s interview provides significant insight into the planning and details of the escape. It establishes that he was at least a key participant, and likely the most reliable source of a specific chronology for the planning sequence and the escape itself.

In the FBI interview, West stated that he began pondering the idea of escaping from Alcatraz in May of 1961. It was apparently common knowledge among inmates that there were eight ventilator holes in the ceiling of C Block that had not been used for several years. The vent covers had allegedly been cemented closed, according to many of the inmates in the general prison population. West stated that during a routine painting assignment he noticed that one of the ventilators had not been cemented shut. He said that after covertly examining the vent opening, he determined that that it would be possible, with minimal labor, to make a successful escape onto the cellhouse roof. West also claimed that during one of his painting assignments he had noticed that there was a vent duct which ran down the side of the cellhouse. He stated that given these two factors, he felt that a well-planned escape could conceivably succeed.