Notorious Prison Breaks (Vol. 1)

For as long as human beings have been locking one another up in cages or dungeons, there have been other human beings scheming and strategizing ways to escape their cells and break free of their prisons. More often than not, their attempts prove futile and they’re recaptured, their punishments extended and the conditions of their surroundings made worse. But in their experiences with freedom, however brief they may be, the escapee becomes legendary, their exploits going on to be told and retold in books, films, and songs long after the prisoner has passed away. While some prison breaks—like those of the wrongfully incarcerated or unduly punished—can be justified and go on to be romanticized, others are less romantic or exciting and can even lead to deadly outcomes. And yet, no matter the circumstances and outcomes, each one can tell us something about the system and culture responsible for the initial sentence and subsequent escape. Here is the first volume of this fascinating subject!

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Getting a good night's sleep can start well before your head hits that pillow. I take my nighttime routine very seriously. I need a cup of tea, honey. I gotta go upstairs. I gotta do my skincare routine and then I need to lay in bed and maybe do a little meditation on the, on my Hatch alarm clock. The Hatch Sleep Clock is a different kind of sleep tracker designed to help make sense of sleep without adding more stress. Contactless tracking works right from the nightstand. No ring or wristband required, nothing to wear and nothing to recharge. Honestly, checking in on my sleep score all the time and wondering if I slept well enough kind of makes like sleeping an anxiety inducing activity for me. So I love that Hatch Sleep Clock skips sleep scores and score chasing.

• 0:43Speaker 00

  Instead, it provides personalized insights and recommendations to help uncover what supports better sleep. See how different bedtime routines, including meditation, audiobooks, sound baths or sleep sounds, affect sleep over time and learn what works best for you. Try Hatch Sleep Clock, the sleep tracker designed to get you to sleep. Now available on hatch.co and Amazon.

• 1:06Speaker 00

  Ready to upgrade your PC? Shop now during the Dell Top Tech Event and find the award winning tech the experts trust the most. Like the Dell XPS 13 Laptop. Study, work and do more with a thin and light design. We love to see it. A vivid touchscreen, long lasting battery life, my favorite. And impressive performance powered by Intel Core processors. While shopping, you'll also find great prices on monitors and accessories and even perks like Dell Rewards, fast free shipping and financing with flexible payment options. Visit dell.com/deals. That's dell.com/deals.

• 1:47Speaker 00

  Here's one holiday mystery officially solved. What to get the man in your life? The Old Spice Holiday Gift Pack is that perfect gift that he's actually going to use. It's also a great value since each ready to gift pack includes four, one, two, three, four, honey. Full size products. There's a deodorant, body wash, body spray and a shampoo. Choose from scents including Swagger's cedarwood scent and Fiji's palm tree and coconut scent. Old Spice makes holiday shopping easy, leaving more time for building that epic backyard snow fort. I'm obsessed with that. I will absolutely be putting this in Drew's stocking. Buy Old Spice Holiday Packs for a limited time to give the gift of scent this holiday season.

• 2:31Speaker 00

  Hey weirdos, I'm Ash.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  And I'm Elena.

• 2:33Speaker 00

  And this is Morbid.

• 2:49Speaker 01

  This is Morbid.

• 2:50Speaker 00

  What's up, Big Red?

• 2:51Speaker 01

  I'm exhausted.

• 2:52Speaker 00

  Period.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  We had a late over at our house last night where they, all the kids got to stay late.

• 2:59Speaker 00

  Those are all the rage these days.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  They are, because sleepovers are the worst.

• 3:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  But it's still the same because everybody's exhausted.

• 3:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:09Speaker 01

  And miserable, like really grumpy and, and not feeling well now because they didn't get enough sleep.

• 3:14Speaker 00

  I used to be the worst after a sleepover.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:17Speaker 00

  I would be like, I don't feel good. Shut up, don't talk to me.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's essentially what's happening right now.

• 3:22Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's brutal.

• 3:24Speaker 01

  So that's what I'll return to after we record.

• 3:28Speaker 00

  I slept last night, but my body didn't get the message that it was sleeping, I think.

• 3:33Speaker 01

  That it happens.

• 3:33Speaker 00

  I woke up and I was like, did I sleep?

• 3:36Speaker 01

  Did I though?

• 3:36Speaker 00

  Hello? And today I kind of just feel like I'm not here.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm not. My Oura ring keeps telling me I have minor signs of strain.

• 3:44Speaker 00

  I had to stop wearing mine because I was getting too invested.

• 3:48Speaker 01

  I like it because it makes me, I think it's, it's all in how you, you take it. Cause the way I look at it is it, I'm not good at telling myself to slow down.

• 3:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:58Speaker 01

  Normally, but when I see it like that, I'm like, you should probably slow down.

• 4:01Speaker 00

  Cause you know that you're affecting your body.

• 4:03Speaker 01

  Cause I can see my heart rate. I can see like my sleep. I can see what it's affecting. So I think it's helping me to be like, hey.

• 4:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  You gotta chill out.

• 4:12Speaker 00

  Cause like manifesting. I have such an addictive personality that I'll just go like way too far the other way and like change my whole life. Like in a, in a ridiculous way.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  See, I'm just looking at it as like, hey, maybe don't have ice cream late at night and get more sleep.

• 4:28Speaker 00

  That's not the way to live though.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  No, I've, hey, it's working for me.

• 4:31Speaker 00

  Ice cream at night is the best.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  Oh, I love it at night, but only, but I was eating it way too late.

• 4:36Speaker 00

  Oh, okay.

• 4:36Speaker 01

  And then you're digesting all night.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  What's too late?

• 4:39Speaker 01

  They say you should like one or two hours before you're going to sleep. Probably two hours before you go into sleep.

• 4:45Speaker 00

  I made slutty brownies the other night.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  I love slutty brownies.

• 4:49Speaker 00

  Um, with like the pumpkin cookies, the Oreo and then the brownie mix. And I had one of those with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream at nine PM.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  That sounds delicious.

• 4:57Speaker 00

  And then I went to bed probably at like 10 and had the worst heartburn of my life.

• 5:01Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 5:02Speaker 00

  Lot of fucking chocolate to just directly lay down on your side.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  Lay down.

• 5:06Speaker 00

  I turned over to Drew, I'm like, heartburn. He's like, yeah.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  It's like, I can't imagine from what?

• 5:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:11Speaker 01

  It's crazy.

• 5:12Speaker 00

  It's like, that's so nuts.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. Just be like that, you know?

• 5:17Speaker 00

  And here's the thing, I like to live my life that way. So.

• 5:22Speaker 00

  It is what it do be.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I just like, I like having the control.

• 5:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:26Speaker 01

  Of everything.

• 5:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:28Speaker 01

  But I'm exhausted and today we're gonna talk about. So this will be like a multi-part, but not like back to back. It'll be something that we like, almost like a spooky road kind of thing.

• 5:38Speaker 00

  Like a series.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  That we kind of dip into every once in a while.

• 5:41Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  We talked about doing notorious prison breaks.

• 5:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  So I have two today.

• 5:46Speaker 00

  Ooh.

• 5:47Speaker 01

  That we're gonna talk about and then we'll talk about a couple more in a couple of weeks.

• 5:50Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  You know, we'll sprinkle, sprinkle them in.

• 5:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:52Speaker 01

  You know, they're a fun little detour.

• 5:54Speaker 00

  It's always fascinating when people break out of prison.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  Because it's, there's true crime here.

• 6:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  There's, there's fascinating prison life here.

• 6:04Speaker 00

  Fascinating prison life.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then there's somebody escaping from fascinating prison life.

• 6:09Speaker 00

  Sounds like a TLC show.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  Fascinating prison life.

• 6:13Speaker 00

  Are you caught up on fascinating prison life?

• 6:15Speaker 01

  No, I'm not caught up on it yet. Well, no. I don't know if I can return, it stresses me out. So today.

• 6:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, okay.

• 6:24Speaker 00

  I don't know if I can go back.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  I told you, I'm tired.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  I'm also like fully in like draft writing right now. And I'm, so my brain is a wasteland right now.

• 6:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, your brain, I would like to look at it.

• 6:40Speaker 01

  It's just got a lot of weird shit in it right now. A lot of weird research happening.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  Yeah. Let me cough.

• 6:46Speaker 01

  The way you said that was so aggressive. You were like, let me cough. Like I wouldn't let you.

• 6:52Speaker 00

  I really had to cough and I was like, I have to do it now. So I was like.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  Let me cough.

• 6:56Speaker 00

  I meant to be like, let me cough, like, don't say anything, but.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  Shut up.

• 6:59Speaker 00

  I had to cough.

• 7:00Speaker 01

  Let me cough.

• 7:00Speaker 00

  You leave that in, take the cough out, but leave that little back and forth in.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  So let's talk about John Dillinger and his escape from Crown Point.

• 7:10Speaker 00

  I feel like I know him.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  You should.

• 7:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  He's pretty infamous.

• 7:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:14Speaker 01

  I would say. So we're gonna go back to the Dust Bowl.

• 7:17Speaker 00

  Oh, fuck.

• 7:18Speaker 01

  Let's go to the Dust Bowl. So in the Dust Bowl, ravaged towns and villages scattered across America's mid and southwest during the Great Depression. Few, if any, names were as notorious feared and revered as John Dillinger.

• 7:36Speaker 00

  Okay, Seuss.

• 7:37Speaker 01

  So.

• 7:39Speaker 00

  Okay, poet.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  That's Dr. Seuss too. Don't forget about my MD.

• 7:44Speaker 00

  Oh, yes, of course.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  So yeah, you should, you, I'm sure you've heard of John Dillinger.

• 7:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, I also think I learned, I like definitely learned about him, but I think we talked about him briefly on Crime Countdown.

• 7:54Speaker 01

  Yes, I'm sure we did.

• 7:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Yeah. So as far back as his teenager years, Dillinger had been kind of doing, doing the petty crime.

• 8:03Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  He was just in the crime, you know? He was arrested a few times for minor thefts, you know, just getting drunk, getting in fights. Uh, after he was arrested for stealing a car in 1922, you know, those roaring twenties.

• 8:17Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  Can't stop them. He meant, you can actually, like the Great Depression is gonna stop them.

• 8:23Speaker 00

  It stopped them in their trucks, to be frank.

• 8:26Speaker 01

  He managed to avoid serious consequences by enlisting in the military.

• 8:31Speaker 00

  Ah, there it is.

• 8:32Speaker 01

  And he served two years before being dishonorably discharged in 1924. And returning home to Indiana where he married his girlfriend, Beryl Hovius.

• 8:42Speaker 00

  Beryl, isn't that fucking Kiff's mom's name?

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Mom's name.

• 8:45Speaker 00

  Shit. And I never thought I knew another Beryl.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  Here you do. Here you do.

• 8:49Speaker 00

  Check that out.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  Now, despite leaving the Navy during a particularly strong period for the American economy, the Midwest where much of the, you know, the agriculture industry was clustered, it was struggling, even though the rest of the country was doing okay. Due to post-war overproduction and declining prices.

• 9:08Speaker 00

  Ah, shit.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  That meant that while there was definitely jobs to be had in like urban areas, opportunities for good jobs were kind of scarce in small rural places like Indiana.

• 9:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  Like, like little towns in Indiana. Uh, and Dillinger was kind of struggling to find stable work at this time. So he's frustrated. He's like, this is annoying.

• 9:28Speaker 00

  He's gonna crime again?

• 9:29Speaker 01

  He's out of options. Sometimes you just gotta crime, I guess. He's out of options. So he and his friend Ed Singleton, you know, they just robbed a local grocery store.

• 9:38Speaker 00

  I knew he was gonna crime again.

• 9:39Speaker 01

  He crimed again and they were quickly arrested, of course, and convicted for that crime. And Dillinger and Singleton were sentenced to several years in prison for this robbery.

• 9:48Speaker 00

  Damn.

• 9:48Speaker 01

  Uh, but Singleton served just two years before being released.

• 9:51Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 9:52Speaker 01

  Now, at first, John and Barrel kept in touch through letters and she would visit whenever she could.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  Romance.

• 9:58Speaker 01

  But the distance, you know, the prison distance, uh, it's in the long-term separation were a little too much for Barrel.

• 10:06Speaker 00

  They didn't get life after lockup?

• 10:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, they did not get that. And in June 1929, just two days before his birthday, she requested and was granted a divorce.

• 10:16Speaker 00

  Barrel.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  She said, I don't want to have to get you a birthday gift.

• 10:19Speaker 00

  Oh damn. She said, times is tough.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  She did.

• 10:22Speaker 00

  She said, happy birthday. We're divorced.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  And he's in prison. So she's like, and are you?

• 10:26Speaker 00

  Fuck.

• 10:27Speaker 01

  Uh, when the news reached Dillinger, he was obviously devastated and would go on to cite the divorce as one of the motivating factors for his crime spree.

• 10:35Speaker 00

  Men.

• 10:36Speaker 01

  That eventually made him, quote, "public enemy number one."

• 10:39Speaker 00

  Men love to blame women for everything.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  I was like, I don't know if it's so much her fault as it is you doing crime and getting arrested and being in prison.

• 10:49Speaker 00

  It's probably that.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  I feel like that feels more like the fault here.

• 10:52Speaker 00

  No, that was her fault, too.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  Definitely her.

• 10:54Speaker 00

  Everything is Barrel's fault.

• 10:55Speaker 01

  Everything is Barrel's fault. So during his time in prison, he associated with several other known criminals, as one does.

• 11:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  Including bank robbers Harry Pierpont, Russell Clark, and Charles Mackley. To pass the time, they would just recount their stories of their successful heights. You know, they were kind of like those guys who talk about being quarterbacks in high school football.

• 11:18Speaker 00

  Yup.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  They're like, remember that time when we robbed a bank? And you're like, yeah, I do, because you're in prison.

• 11:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  Um, and they would plan future robberies that they hoped to carry out once they were released. They were dreaming big, you know?

• 11:30Speaker 00

  That's good to do in prison.

• 11:31Speaker 01

  Dreaming big. We're in prison now, but like, let's keep crime in when we're out.

• 11:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, perfect.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  Although he had been sent to prison for robbery, Dillinger's crime was nothing compared to the crimes of Pierpont, Clark, and Mackley. And it was through them that he learned the ins and outs of criminality that he would later use for his later crime spree.

• 11:48Speaker 00

  Dun, dun, dun.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  After serving nearly 10 years in prison.

• 11:52Speaker 00

  Damn, and his friends served two?

• 11:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:54Speaker 00

  That fucked up.

• 11:55Speaker 01

  Grocery store robbery. He was released in May 1933 at the peak of the Great Depression.

• 12:01Speaker 00

  Woof.

• 12:01Speaker 01

  What a time to be released.

• 12:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  He had no wife, no job prospects, and he was a very bitter man with serious contempt for a society that he believed had done him wrong.

• 12:13Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, it's never your own fault.

• 12:14Speaker 01

  He, he robbed a grocery store.

• 12:16Speaker 00

  Never, ever look within.

• 12:18Speaker 01

  No, never.

• 12:19Speaker 00

  No.

• 12:19Speaker 01

  Never some introspection to be had.

• 12:21Speaker 00

  Who does that?

• 12:22Speaker 01

  Uh, don't do that.

• 12:23Speaker 00

  What?

• 12:24Speaker 01

  Having been released at, you know, arguably one of the worst periods in American history.

• 12:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, have you seen today?

• 12:30Speaker 01

  As far as the economy was concerned, at least, John Dillinger didn't bother investing much time in finding a job that he knew was not out there to be found, which like, he's not wrong.

• 12:40Speaker 00

  He said, not there, won't try.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  Instead, he found, he put his newly developed criminal skills to work. And in late June, just one month after being out of prison, he robbed a bank in New Carlyle, Ohio, getting away with $10,000.

• 12:53Speaker 00

  Dang.

• 12:54Speaker 01

  10 times the average annual income for an employed American at the time.

• 12:58Speaker 00

  Holy shit.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  Yeah. Dillinger's success led him to begin immediately planning his next heist. This time, though, he was captured by police in Dayton, Ohio and thrown in jail.

• 13:10Speaker 00

  I was like, did you even need to do another heist at that point? You got away with 10K, babe.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  It's like a gambler.

• 13:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  Like, they get that high and then that won't stop.

• 13:16Speaker 00

  I can do this again.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  Police seemed confident that the arrest put an end to his criminal career, but what they didn't know was that he had already devised a plan for what they would, what they would do should one of them get captured again, like the whole group of them. Now, in early August, Dillinger had convinced, uh, convinced several former prisoners to smuggle guns into the cells of Pierpont, Mackley, and Clark, the three guys that he was back in jail with.

• 13:43Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  And several other prisoners, which they used to escape from prison.

• 13:48Speaker 00

  Damn, how do you smuggle guns into a prison?

• 13:51Speaker 01

  So the gang kept a low profile for a few weeks before settling, setting the second phase of the plan into motion on August 12th, 1933. Now, on that day, the men impersonated Indiana state troopers and convinced Ohio authorities that they were there to extradite John Dillinger to Indiana.

• 14:11Speaker 00

  Okay. Even though there was like no paperwork to say he was being extradited? Iconic.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  Now, unfortunately, when they conceived of the plan, it never occurred to the members of the gang that someone might, you know, like you said, want to see identification.

• 14:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  Want to see some extradition paperwork. When they were asked for those very things by the local sheriff, Harry Pierpont shot the man to death and they escaped, taking Dillinger with them.

• 14:37Speaker 00

  Sheriff.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  He shot the sheriff.

• 14:39Speaker 00

  Damn.

• 14:40Speaker 01

  But he did not shoot the duck.

• 14:41Speaker 00

  He did not. He just got JD. He did not. Fuck.

• 14:44Speaker 01

  Now, free from jail, Dillinger and his gang spent the next three months robbing banks all over the Midwest.

• 14:51Speaker 00

  Fun.

• 14:51Speaker 01

  They got him out. They busted him loose. At a time when organized crime was on the rise in America and career criminals like, oh, I don't know, Al Capone.

• 14:59Speaker 00

  Heard of him.

• 15:00Speaker 01

  Lucky Luciano, your guy. They were becoming folk heroes at this point.

• 15:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:05Speaker 01

  Dillinger and his gang immediately caught the attention of the press and became household names. Their pictures plastered on the front pages of newspapers everywhere. And although the men enjoyed the notoriety, because obviously, the press coverage ultimately proved to be kind of a hindrance for their criminal careers. It's like, not great.

• 15:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, you don't want to be like, you don't want to be notorious.

• 15:26Speaker 01

  When your face in the papers, when you're robbing banks.

• 15:28Speaker 00

  While you're criming, you know?

• 15:30Speaker 01

  In late January 1934, two firefighters in Tucson, Arizona, recognized the group when they were escorting guests out of a hotel during a small fire.

• 15:38Speaker 00

  Dang.

• 15:39Speaker 01

  They'd seen their photos in a magazine of detective stories that they'd been reading earlier in the day. And they were like, hey, that's John Dillinger and his gang.

• 15:46Speaker 00

  Hey, I know you.

• 15:47Speaker 01

  The firefighters reported the sighting to police, who immediately traced the Dillinger gang from the hotel to a nearby rental home where their luggage had been sent after the fire.

• 15:56Speaker 00

  Wow. So they were like, kind of dumb.

• 15:59Speaker 01

  Yeah. Tucson officers devised a plan in which one officer would go to the door, claiming to be lost and looking for an address he was unfamiliar with. After confirming the men were inside, police would rush the house and arrest the gang. Not a bad plan, you know, as those plans go.

• 16:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  I would say. But it didn't work out that way.

• 16:17Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 16:17Speaker 01

  Not at all. As soon as the door was opened, Russell Clark assumed the man at the door was a police officer and rushed at him.

• 16:24Speaker 00

  Good.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  Just right away.

• 16:25Speaker 00

  Good.

• 16:25Speaker 01

  While a woman in the house quickly slammed the door before the other officers could even get inside.

• 16:30Speaker 00

  Shit.

• 16:31Speaker 01

  And when she slammed the door, she crushed one of the officer's fingers in the process. Inside, Clark and the undercover officer, Chet Sherman, fought over Sherman's gun, wrestling one another all over the living room and in a Jason bedroom. Clark finally managed to draw his own gun and pointed at Sherman, the police officer. But by then, the other officers had made their way inside and subdued Clark. Later that day, police arrested Dillinger, Pierpont, and Mackley, or Markley, but, or no, it is Mackley, sorry. I thought I was being very too Boston.

• 17:02Speaker 00

  No, no, you're good.

• 17:03Speaker 01

  But the rest of the gang managed to get away.

• 17:05Speaker 00

  Oh, wow.

• 17:06Speaker 01

  Now, in a statement following the arrest, the commissioner of public safety, Alaina, Fi-na, Fi-he-he-he. There it is. Uh, told reporters, "It is a great relief to the state to have these desperados in custody. Like all so-called bad men, they apparently folded up when they were overwhelmed. They quit when they did not have the upper hand."

• 17:26Speaker 00

  Those desperados.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  Dang.

• 17:28Speaker 00

  I'm like, most people do quit when they don't have the upper hand.

• 17:31Speaker 01

  They're little bitches.

• 17:32Speaker 00

  That is kind of funny.

• 17:33Speaker 01

  That's essentially what he said.

• 17:34Speaker 00

  He said, fuck them.

• 17:46Speaker 00

  Everyone hates bank fees, right? Well, that's where Chime comes in. They're not like traditional old banks who charge fees and gatekeep perks. Chime offers the most rewarding fee-free banking, all with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, and no minimum balance fees. You get 5% cash back on Chime card in a category of choice, like gas or groceries, all while building credit through everyday spending. Plus, you can grow your money faster with a savings rate that's nine times the national average. And SpotMe lets you overdraft up to $200 fee-free. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to chime.com/morbid. That is chime.com/morbid. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services and

• 18:30Speaker 00

  Chime card provided by Chime's Bank Partners. Validifying direct deposits required. Terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com/disclosures for details.

• 18:41Speaker 02

  This episode is sponsored by Stella Rosa. Weirdos, Mikey here. After all the murder, mayhem, and deeply unsettling stories, sometimes a palate cleanser is exactly what you need. Stella Rosa Black is a semi-sweet, semi-sparkling red wine with bright blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry flavors. It's dark, fruity, and honestly feels extremely appropriate for weirdos like you and me. Like, if a wine was going to join you for a creepy story at night, obviously it would be this one. Then, there's Stella Rosa Moscato di Asti, a semi-sweet, semi-sparkling wine with ripe pear and apple flavors. It's lighter, bright, and basically the perfect palate cleanser to have after spending an hour discussing

• 19:24Speaker 02

  something deeply disturbing. I am not a huge fan of dry wine. I can't have things that taste like the barrel that they were stored in. I just like something sweet. I love the sweet things in life. And the best part about Stella Rosa is that it also is sparkling. I love me some sparkling water, and I love sparkling wine. It's so refreshing and bright, and it's so delicious. It's the perfect way to end a meal. I absolutely love it. Find Stella Rosa at stellarosa.com or at your local retailer. You must be 21 plus to drink responsibly.

• 20:05Speaker 00

  You know that feeling when you come home late from work and those puppy dog eyes just pierce right through your soul? Or when you're packing for a trip and your cat refuses to leave your suitcase? Yeah, we've all been there. Pet parent guilt is real. And you know what? It's completely normal. That's exactly why Hill's Pet Nutrition exists. They understand that being a pet parent means being human, with all of our imperfections and daily juggling acts. Hill's science-led nutrition helps you give more love than humanly possible. Whether it's those long workdays or trying to balance attention between multiple pets, Hill's Pet Nutrition gets it. They've created science-based nutrition that supports your pet's lifelong health, so you can feel confident even when life gets hectic. Because you're only human, there's Hill's. Science does more. Ready to let go of the guilt? Find the

• 20:49Speaker 00

  right food at hillspet.com/podcast. That's hillspet.com/podcast.

• 21:00Speaker 01

  A few days later, Dillinger and the others were extradited to Indiana to stand trial for 10 bank robberies across the state, which netted them nearly $250,000.

• 21:11Speaker 00

  Yeah. So they did not need to keep doing this.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  They were gluttonous.

• 21:14Speaker 00

  Just fucking cut that money and run.

• 21:16Speaker 01

  Gluttony. Now, on the trip back to Indiana, Dillinger spoke freely with their detective escorts. He told them before freely confessing to the robberies, there's no use denying anything now.

• 21:29Speaker 00

  I mean, you are caught red handed.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  To the officers and the escort party, he's appeared to be in fear of spending the rest of his life in jail. So he confessed in the hope of leniency.

• 21:39Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  Now, one of the detectives told a reporter, Dillinger is convinced that he's going to burn. And so he's talking. Of course, John Dillinger was not the kind of man to fear prison, having spent a lot of his life already there.

• 21:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:52Speaker 01

  And what the detectives recognized as defeat and desperation was in fact bravado and a lot of confidence.

• 21:59Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  All four members of the Dillinger gang were placed in separate cells in the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Indiana, where they were awaiting trial. For more than a month, Dillinger was kind of a star in the jail, where reports from all over the country were desperate, or reporters were desperate to interview him.

• 22:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:17Speaker 01

  Since his incarceration, the local police had touted the jail as, quote, "escape-proof."

• 22:22Speaker 00

  Oh, that's like calling the Titanic unsinkable.

• 22:25Speaker 01

  Unsinkable ship. But on March 3rd, John Dillinger proved them wrong.

• 22:29Speaker 00

  Had a feeling.

• 22:30Speaker 01

  That morning, Deputy Sam Cahoon.

• 22:33Speaker 00

  Great name.

• 22:34Speaker 01

  I know. Arrived in the cell Dillinger shared with another inmate, Herbert Youngblood.

• 22:39Speaker 00

  Herbert Youngblood.

• 22:40Speaker 01

  Turn it was to mop the cell in the hallway. Now Cahoon set the bucket of soapy water down on the floor and called out to Youngblood. But when he straightened up, he found himself looking down the barrel of a pistol held by Dillinger, who instructed him to unlock the door.

• 22:55Speaker 00

  Have you looked up a picture of John Dillinger?

• 22:58Speaker 01

  I don't think I have.

• 22:58Speaker 00

  He is exactly what you think.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  Show me this man. Oh, oh, yeah, I've seen that.

• 23:04Speaker 00

  He's exactly what you think.

• 23:05Speaker 01

  That's, I've seen that picture.

• 23:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:08Speaker 01

  Honestly, good for him.

• 23:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:09Speaker 01

  Good for him having that kind of smirk with what he's doing.

• 23:12Speaker 00

  He's really killing it.

• 23:14Speaker 01

  I'm kidding, everybody. By the way, I know he's a bad guy.

• 23:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:18Speaker 01

  Just gotta make sure.

• 23:20Speaker 00

  Also, it looks like he has spider webs on his, on his tie.

• 23:24Speaker 01

  Maybe he does.

• 23:25Speaker 00

  Don't those look like spider webs?

• 23:26Speaker 01

  It does, actually. He's got a very cleft chin.

• 23:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, he got a booty chin.

• 23:30Speaker 01

  No.

• 23:30Speaker 00

  And I can say that because I have a booty chin.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  No, outside the door that led to the cells, the civilian cleaning detail was finishing up their work for the morning. And Dillinger politely rounded them up and locked them in his former cell.

• 23:43Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 23:44Speaker 01

  Then he nodded to Cahoon, indicating that he was to be his hostage. He was like, "Come with me."

• 23:50Speaker 00

  Oh, no.

• 23:50Speaker 01

  From there, Dillinger went through the jailhouse slowly, rounding up all the deputies and the warden, taking their guns before locking them in the cells.

• 23:57Speaker 00

  And the warden? Fuck.

• 24:01Speaker 01

  Inescapable, this jail. Before leaving the jail, Dillinger grabbed two silver submachine guns from the warden's office.

• 24:09Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 24:10Speaker 01

  Once they're outside, he located the nicest car in town, a brand new Ford F8 or V8 that belonged to none other than Sheriff Lillian Holly, and took it and drove off towards Chicago.

• 24:21Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 24:22Speaker 01

  So he escaped the inescapable jail.

• 24:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:27Speaker 01

  Took two silver submachine guns from the warden.

• 24:31Speaker 00

  And then stole the sheriff's brand new car. I mean.

• 24:36Speaker 01

  I mean.

• 24:38Speaker 00

  You gotta, you gotta do that thing the kids do where they tap their little fingers.

• 24:41Speaker 01

  Tapping the finger thing.

• 24:43Speaker 00

  I'm like, I know, I know it's wrong, but like, that's dedication.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  It's just hearing it now, so many years later.

• 24:48Speaker 00

  Don't try this at home.

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Now, the news of Dillinger's escape came as a shock to some and a delight to others.

• 24:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  Especially those who'd come to see the man as kind of a depression era hero.

• 24:58Speaker 00

  I mean.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  But to Lillian Holly, the sheriff, and the deputies at the jail, it was a national embarrassment.

• 25:05Speaker 00

  Ah, yeah, I'd say so.

• 25:07Speaker 01

  Holly had colorful things to say. He said, "If I ever see John Dillinger, I'll shoot him through the head with my own pistol."

• 25:14Speaker 00

  Do you still have your pistol?

• 25:15Speaker 01

  I said, "Did he take it though?" Is it in your car?

• 25:17Speaker 00

  What if he shoots you with your own pistol?

• 25:19Speaker 01

  Of course, the question on everyone's mind was, how had he managed to escape from a supposedly escape-proof prison or jail? There is some debate about how Dillinger managed to execute this escape from Crown Point, but most everyone agrees it starts with Dillinger's lawyer, notorious mob lawyer, Louis Paquette. With his trial scheduled from March, for March 12th, there was a good chance Dillinger would be found guilty and executed for the death of a police officer that occurred during one of his robberies.

• 25:49Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 25:50Speaker 01

  A few days before the prison break, Paquette paid a visit to his client, where it's believed he either slipped him a wooden gun, or he gave him the tools to whittle it himself. Yes, you heard that right. It was a fake gun. Once Dillinger had carved the gun or received it, he painted it black with shoe polish.

• 26:11Speaker 00

  Stop.

• 26:11Speaker 01

  And no one could tell the difference.

• 26:13Speaker 00

  Stop it right now.

• 26:15Speaker 01

  It should be said that while the wooden gun is the widely accepted version of events, there are some who believe that he gave him a real gun.

• 26:22Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Either way, once he forced the deputy to open the cell, he took the man's weapon and was legitimately armed at that point. But this could have started with a wooden gun.

• 26:31Speaker 00

  That's insane.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. Now, with Dillinger on the run, the sheriff formed a massive posse and began the hunt for the escaped criminal, who had by then already traveled across the state line into Illinois and on to Chicago.

• 26:43Speaker 00

  I love to think, I love to think of the sheriff just like running deep with his posse.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  Right.

• 26:47Speaker 00

  Just deep.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  He's formed a posse.

• 26:49Speaker 00

  Deep with his posse.

• 26:50Speaker 01

  The pussycat dolls. Well, and on the way to Chicago, he picked up his girlfriend, Billy Frichette. Dillinger did.

• 26:57Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  In doing so, he violated the Federal Motor Vehicle Theft Act, which puts his escape into the jurisdiction of the FBI, who wasted no time mounting their search for him. Now, following his escape, he and Frichette, his girlfriend, traveled to Minneapolis, where they set themselves up in an apartment. And Dillinger began assembling a new gang that included his old fellow prisoners, John Hamilton, Homer Van Meter, and new acquaintance, Lester Gillis, better known as Babyface Nelson.

• 27:26Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  In the three months that followed, Dillinger and the new gang robbed several more banks across South Dakota and other parts of the Midwest.

• 27:34Speaker 00

  It is remarkable that they still were able to pull off these robberies.

• 27:38Speaker 01

  Kept going.

• 27:38Speaker 00

  Not good, but I'm just like, holy shit.

• 27:40Speaker 01

  Pretty remarkable. Dillinger's reign finally came to an end on July 22nd, 1934, when federal agents tracked to Chicago's biograph, tracked him to Chicago's Biograph Theater, and a shootout ensued. In the firefight, Dillinger was shot four times with the fatal bullet entering the back of his neck and traveling into his brain before exiting just under his right eye.

• 28:04Speaker 00

  Ooh. I mean, how do you think that's gonna end?

• 28:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:09Speaker 00

  I think those, I think criminals like him just live so fast.

• 28:13Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. They just know that it's gonna end in a blaze.

• 28:15Speaker 00

  And I don't even think they like, like, think of it.

• 28:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:19Speaker 00

  You know?

• 28:19Speaker 01

  Well, I think they just don't care. They're gonna, they're here for a good time, not a long time.

• 28:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:23Speaker 01

  Is there a straight up mono? Like, I really think that.

• 28:26Speaker 00

  And I think they think that they're all smart.

• 28:28Speaker 01

  They do. Yeah, they always think they're smarter.

• 28:30Speaker 00

  That's an insane story.

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Now, given that John Dillinger was able to walk out of the Lake County Jail by simply wielding possibly a wooden gun, it's hard to take their claims of an escape-proof prison very seriously.

• 28:42Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 28:43Speaker 01

  But about 2,000 miles to the west, there was another prison where the claims of being escape-proof were considered by most to be entirely accurate.

• 28:51Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 28:52Speaker 01

  Established in 1859 as a military prison, Alcatraz Penitentiary.

• 28:57Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 28:58Speaker 01

  Was transitioned to a civil, civilian federal prison, prison, goddamn, in 1933.

• 29:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think I've heard of it.

• 29:05Speaker 01

  And it was almost immediately America's most notorious prison.

• 29:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:10Speaker 01

  It housed some of the nation's most infamous criminals, including Al Capone.

• 29:14Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  George Machine Gun Kelly Barnes.

• 29:17Speaker 00

  My distant relative.

• 29:18Speaker 01

  Yep. And Alvin "Creepy Carpus" Karpovitz.

• 29:21Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 29:22Speaker 01

  Situated on an island about a mile and a half from the shore in San Francisco, Alcatraz was entirely self-contained penal system that was, because of its location, believed to be escape-proof. When the federal government took over operation of the prison in the early 30s, it was with the intention of housing notorious gangsters and acting as a deterrent to the crime wave that had really gripped the country at that point.

• 29:46Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:47Speaker 01

  In addition to the high number of guards relative to the number of inmates, the cell blocks were not positioned against an outer wall, meaning that even if a prisoner was able to get through the cell wall, they would still be inside the prison.

• 29:59Speaker 00

  That's crazy.

• 30:00Speaker 01

  And also, in the highly unlikely event that the prisoner somehow managed to get through the walls and walls and then past the guards and over the razor wire fences, San Francisco Bay still presented a pretty insurmountable problem.

• 30:13Speaker 00

  I was gonna say, you are surrounded by water.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Not only is the water freezing cold and prone to strong, fast currents, but the area is also home to several species of sharks.

• 30:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:24Speaker 01

  Making it almost impossible for someone to successfully swim across.

• 30:27Speaker 00

  Which is so interesting, because sharks usually like warm water, don't they?

• 30:30Speaker 01

  I guess so. I don't know. I don't know if they're different, like, uh.

• 30:33Speaker 00

  Different species, yeah.

• 30:35Speaker 01

  Now, despite the odds being very much against a successful jailbreak, in its 29 years as a federal prison, 36 prisoners attempted to escape on 14 different occasions.

• 30:45Speaker 00

  Damn.

• 30:45Speaker 01

  In nearly every case, they were either captured or shot down before they even reached the water. And those that managed to get to the bay were later determined to drown. But there is one case in which the re-escapies not only made it to the water, but were able to get away from the prison and remain unaccounted to for, to this day.

• 31:05Speaker 00

  That's insane to me.

• 31:06Speaker 01

  This one's crazy. So born and raised in Georgia, John and Clarence Anglin had a pretty difficult childhood. As two of 13 children.

• 31:15Speaker 00

  Holy shit.

• 31:16Speaker 01

  Seasonal farm workers, their early lives were just full of chaos, a lot of poverty. They were dragged from one place to the next as their parents searched for work. By the time they were in their early teens, John and Clarence had begun engaging in.

• 31:30Speaker 00

  Petty crime.

• 31:30Speaker 01

  Exactly, petty crime. And within a few years, they graduated to bank robbery.

• 31:35Speaker 00

  Big crime.

• 31:36Speaker 01

  Bigger crime. And in January 1958, they were arrested and sentenced to 35 years at Leavenworth Penitentiary.

• 31:44Speaker 00

  Fuck.

• 31:45Speaker 01

  From the moment they arrived at Leavenworth, the Anglin brothers began scheming a way to escape. Including one escape attempt in which the brothers hid inside a large bread box and covered themselves with bread loaves that were to be transported out of the prison. And that is how I would like to escape from prison. Yeah. Should I ever enter. The brothers' attempt was almost successful. The box was loaded onto the truck and almost made it out, uh, out of the prison grounds, but then the unusually large shipping container caught the eye of a supervisor who stopped the truck. Boo. And checked the cargo and found John and Clarence inside. Said, hey, you're not red. Both men were returned to their cells, but tired of their repeated attempts to escape, the warden had them transferred to the one prison he knew they could never get away from. He said, fuck y'all.

• 32:30Speaker 01

  Alcatraz. You're going to Alcatraz. It was at the prison that John and Clarence met their future co-conspirator, Frank Morris. Like the Anglin brothers, Morris had been a criminal for pretty much all of his life. Orphaned at age 11, when his mother handed him over to the foster system. Morris spent seven years bouncing from one foster home to another until he was finally discharged on his 18th birthday, by which time he had already been arrested for a variety of crimes from narcotic possession to robbery. Yeah. In April, 1955, Morris was sent, serving a 10-year sentence at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is also not to be ignored. Not to be fucked with. For robbery, when he and another inmate managed to escape that prison.

• 33:14Speaker 01

  The two convicts managed to hitchhike to Baton Rouge, then made their way to New Orleans, where they laid low for a few months. In that time, they planned and eventually executed a robbery of a bank in the nearby town of Slydell. Uh, then they fled the state for Kansas City and, uh, Kansas City, Missouri. Now, having made it out of the state, it's possible Frank Morris could have stayed free. But after a year on the run, he robbed a bank in Kansas City and was eventually arrested. That'll do it. Serving time in the Missouri prison before being sent to Alcatraz in January 1960. Okay. Now, it's unknown who actually planned the escape, but what is clear is that it

• 33:53Speaker 01

  was not an impulsive act. It was a long time coming, very much in the works before they made the ultimate break. I mean, you would have to plan that forever to be successful. A few weeks after arriving in Alcatraz in January 1960, Frank Morris was moved to B Block and placed in a cell next to Allen West, a criminal with a very violent past. For at least a year, Morris, West, and John Anglin began talking about how they might go about escaping. After one of the other prisoners told Morris a story about a former prisoner finding a ventilation shaft in B Block that led all the way to the roof. So they were like, after hearing about that, they were like, this is possible. I think we can get out of here.

• 34:35Speaker 01

  If they had been planning to make the break earlier, their plans were interrupted when West was thrown in solitary confinement for a bit. Shit. After orchestrating a small riot during which one of the other prisoners was stabbed. Oh, fuck. By the time West was released from solitary in early 1962, Clarence Anglin had been transferred to B Block, and there was no way John would leave his brother behind. Yeah. Now, over the course of six months, the four men used spoons, old saw blades, and any other metal items they could find to dig through the wall of their cells to reach the ventilation shaft on the other side of the wall. I fear we can't move past the fact that as prisoners, they had access to saw blades. Old saw blades. Old saw blades. Where'd you guys get those? Yeah. Hello?

• 35:19Speaker 01

  No, what's funny about this is you're probably like, didn't anyone hear them digging through a wall? You would think, especially a saw. West would play the accordion to cover the nose and the noise of digging. Iconic. Yeah. So he gave him an accordion? I don't know. I would think that in, like, prison, that would be the last thing that you would have is an accordion. I don't know. I, I mean, I've never been, so. I've never been. I don't know if they, maybe they hand you one when you come in. Do something. Uh, but during the day, when they weren't confined to their cells, they covered the hole in the wall with thin pieces of cardboard that had been painted to resemble the wall. They had access to so many materials. They were illusionists as well. They were mind freaks. They were illusionists.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  They were mind freaks as well. Uh, after several months of digging, they'd widen the hole enough so they could get through into the shaft. When they climbed a large pipe up to the top floor of the cell block, which was not in use at the time. Having more space to move, they used the abandoned portion of the, uh, cell block to construct a raft in life preservers out of dozens of raincoats and other waterproof items they'd managed to collect over the course of six months. This is like a weird, like, eye spy collection. It is.

• 36:41Speaker 00

  A home break-in leaves a mark, even if nothing is taken, because it marks the moment home stops feeling safe, and Simply Safe gets that. While other security systems react once a break-in has begun, Simply Safe is built to keep threats away from your door in the first place. When an intruder even steps foot onto your property, Simply Safe's AI-powered cameras detect the threat and alert a live US-based agent who intervenes to stop them before they ever even get to your door. You have to think about all the people, the pets, the things in your house that you are protecting, and why it's so important that everything can just be monitored outside before anything ever gets to a really scary place. I absolutely love having a Simply Safe

• 37:24Speaker 00

  system. I also love that when I'm not home, but like my animals are, I know that they're safe even if I'm not there. I love Simply Safe so much. I've been a user forever. Join the more than 6 million people who entrust Simply Safe with their home security. Right now, save 60% off with professional monitoring when you visit simplysafe.com/morbid. That's simplysafe.com/morbid. And when you order, please write morbid in the checkout survey. It lets them know that we sent you, and it really helps support the show. Simply Safe, ahead of crime in real time.

• 37:56Speaker 00

  Halloween costumes are all about the details. You can't be a wizard without a wand. You know who else lives for details? Southern New Hampshire University. SNHU's online programs are constantly updated for the needs of today's workforce, so you can build the skills that matter most. Plus, there are no set class times or live lectures, just flexible online learning that works for you. It's not magic. Learn more at snhu.edu/morbid.

• 38:24Speaker 00

  This is a paid ad by BetterHelp. Mental health initiatives like World Mental Health Day are so important, but you also have to remember that your mental health should be priority every single day, 365, baby. For some people, therapy can be one way to support their mental well-being. And remember, therapy isn't just for big life choices either. It can be a place to talk about relationship problems, work issues, or simply the sense that something feels off. With over 30,000 therapists worldwide, BetterHelp is one of the leading online therapy platforms, having served millions of people globally. BetterHelp therapists have at least three years and 1,000 hours of hands-on experience. Plus, BetterHelp makes it easy to fit therapy into your routine with flexible ways to connect that work for different schedules and lifestyles.

• 39:09Speaker 00

  Your mental health doesn't need a special occasion or anybody else's permission to matter. BetterHelp can connect you with a therapist who gets you, so you can make space for what matters to you. Visit betterhelp.com/morbid to explore your payment options. That's betterhelp, H E L P, dot com slash morbid.

• 39:32Speaker 01

  Now, given the high security of the prison and the frequency with which the guards did their rounds and checked the prisoners in their cells, it seems entirely impossible that four men could have tunneled out of their cells night after night. Yeah. And their absence wouldn't have been noticed by the guards. You're probably like, no. Maybe, maybe they were homies with the guards. They were going up every night. No way were they, nobody's homies with the guards at Alcatraz. No. It was only later, after they escaped, that prison officials realized the men had used plaster heads made lifelike with painted faces and hair, contrived from the bristles of paintbrushes, to disguise their absence. I remember this. That's straight up, like, made little mannequins of themselves.

• 40:15Speaker 01

  They were crafters. Crafters at heart. Crafters. Truly crafters at heart. And another time, given, given somebody sitting them down and being like, let me really tell you what you're good at, they could have had Etsy shops. Bitch, they would kill at Flea Market Flip. They would. Wow. A farmer's market? Get out of here. Laura Spencer would love them. Yeah. But no, they had to do this. Now, using paint from the maintenance department and discarded hair from the barber shop, they each constructed the base from papier-mache. They were using papier-mache and designed them in each of their likenesses. Like, so they both had a special project of like making their own license.

• 40:54Speaker 00

  Rafty kings.

• 40:55Speaker 01

  In the dark, with the blankets pulled up tight around the necks of the dummies and the head slightly obscured by the pillow, the guard on the other side of the cell door couldn't tell that it wasn't a person. It just looked like someone was sleeping.

• 41:06Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 41:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:08Speaker 00

  They like low-key deserved this escape.

• 41:10Speaker 01

  They kind of did.

• 41:11Speaker 00

  I'm gonna go on record.

• 41:12Speaker 01

  I'm not saying they're good guys, but they kind of, they did their big one with this.

• 41:16Speaker 00

  You were, they really worked for, I'm like, damn, just like, go into the arts.

• 41:20Speaker 01

  Use it for good.

• 41:21Speaker 00

  Go into the arts, brothers.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  On the evening of June 11th, 1962, just after lights out was called at 9:30 PM, the men put their plan into motion.

• 41:29Speaker 00

  Period.

• 41:30Speaker 01

  Once the guards were out of sight, Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers piled clothing and towels under the blanket and placed the papier-mache head on the pillow.

• 41:38Speaker 00

  Also, like, did we not do cell checks back then?

• 41:40Speaker 01

  No. Then they disappeared into the hole that led to the ventilation shaft. West had planned to do the same, but when he went to crawl through the hole, he discovered that the temporary plaster he'd used to obscure the damage to the wall had hardened. And the hole was now too small for him to climb through.

• 41:57Speaker 00

  No.

• 41:59Speaker 01

  Now, unaware that Alan West was stuck in his cell and not wanting to waste any time, the three men climbed up the drainpipe, so they just abandoned him, in the ventilation shaft until they reached the exhaust fan that led outside to the roof. Using tools stolen from the machine shop, they removed the bolts that secured the fan and were able to access the roof of the block. Then they shimmy down a kitchen vent that led to the prison yard. Under the cover of darkness and carrying their makeshift raft, the three men somehow managed to make it across the yard and over two large fences topped with razor wire before they reached the northeast edge of the island.

• 42:40Speaker 00

  This is bonkers.

• 42:41Speaker 01

  Using a concertina borrowed by another inmate, which they'd fashioned into a kind of makeshift pump, the three men inflated their raft, donned their homemade life jackets, and set off from Alcatraz Island.

• 42:56Speaker 00

  And they left their homie.

• 42:57Speaker 01

  They left their homie. By the time Alan West managed to get through the hole in the cell wall and climb up to the shaft to reach the utility room where the boat had been constructed, the other three were long gone.

• 43:08Speaker 00

  Oh, that's so sad. There's no, why do I feel so bad for this criminal?

• 43:12Speaker 01

  Here.

• 43:13Speaker 00

  No.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  In the room, he discovered that they'd left behind materials that he could use to make his own escape. But when he finally made it to the roof of the cell block, the enormity of what he was doing washed over him. And terrified to make the run on his own.

• 43:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:28Speaker 01

  He climbed back down the ventilation shaft and returned to his cell.

• 43:30Speaker 00

  He said, you know what? Prison is all right.

• 43:32Speaker 01

  He said, I'll just stay here.

• 43:33Speaker 00

  Damn.

• 43:34Speaker 01

  Now, at 7:15 AM, a guard dog, do, or a real guard, I don't know why I said that.

• 43:41Speaker 00

  A guard dog.

• 43:42Speaker 01

  I'm tired. A guard, doing his rounds, approached Frank Morris's cell and attempted to wake him. When Morris didn't move from his bed, the guard stepped closer and noticed that something about Morris's head seemed off.

• 43:54Speaker 00

  He was like, fuck, this guy's real sick.

• 43:56Speaker 01

  The guard stuck his hand through the bar and touched the head that lay on the pillow, and his heart sunk when he realized it was nothing more than papier-mache.

• 44:04Speaker 00

  Or a nor.

• 44:04Speaker 01

  Pulling his hand back quickly, the head rolled off the bed and landed on the floor.

• 44:08Speaker 00

  Stop it.

• 44:09Speaker 01

  A piece of the nose breaking off in the process.

• 44:11Speaker 00

  Stop it.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  He broke his project. It was in that moment that the jailbreak was discovered and the alarm was sounded across the entire 12-acre prison. The news of the escape made national headlines from coast to coast, even occupying a prime time spot on the cover of the New York Times.

• 44:26Speaker 00

  I mean, I would think.

• 44:27Speaker 01

  It was not as though no one had ever heard, or had ever attempted to escape the escape-proof Alcatraz before, but it was the first time anyone had succeeded. And when he was asked whether he believed the men were still on the island somewhere, Warden Allin Blackwell, Allin Blackwell, exasperatedly replied, I don't know. I just don't know.

• 44:47Speaker 00

  He's like, you know what? Fuck them.

• 44:49Speaker 01

  He was, he's me this morning. He was like, I don't know. Maybe. I love that they're like, do you think they're still on the island? He's like, fuck, if I know, like, I don't give a shit.

• 44:59Speaker 00

  He's like, I don't know. Did you see their fucking projects? They were crafty as hell.

• 45:02Speaker 01

  A few hours later and after the entire island had been searched by a massive team of law enforcement officials and dogs, dogs were there.

• 45:10Speaker 00

  Dogs came back.

• 45:11Speaker 01

  Blackwell's opinion changed, and he reported that he was, quote, "virtually sure they were off the rock."

• 45:17Speaker 00

  Fuck.

• 45:18Speaker 01

  Oh, like, you don't say.

• 45:19Speaker 00

  Thanks, Warden.

• 45:20Speaker 01

  Details of the escape were quickly ascertained when Blackwell and the investigators questioned Alan West.

• 45:26Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 45:26Speaker 01

  Who claimed the plan had been devised by Frank Morris. He was like, I didn't do it. As for what could have happened to the men once they left the island, no one knew. That night, the current was moving at 2.7 knots, which meant that even in a raft, the three men would have struggled considerably to navigate their way to shore.

• 45:45Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 45:45Speaker 01

  In their search of the area, the authorities found no sign of the raft or any evidence of the men in the water or on land.

• 45:52Speaker 00

  Huh.

• 45:53Speaker 01

  In the days that followed, countless tips were called in from citizens who, of course, believed they had seen Morris and Anglin, but none amounted to anything more than really mistaken identity. In the meantime, questions began to roll in as how three prisoners had managed to execute this crazy elaborate plan and escape, again, escape-proof Alcatraz.

• 46:16Speaker 00

  Right.

• 46:16Speaker 01

  The biggest factor, it seemed, was the age of the prison itself. In addition to being more than 100 years old and having not really had any major repairs in like decades, exposure to the elements and the saltwater, because it's on an island.

• 46:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  Had weakened much of its infrastructure.

• 46:33Speaker 00

  That makes a lot of sense.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  Blackwell said, I would say erosion made the escape easier. How much easier? I don't know. Again, I don't know.

• 46:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, who knows?

• 46:41Speaker 01

  He just doesn't know. The authorities searched for the three escapees for months, but aside from one of the oars and a makeshift life preserver found floating in the bay, which does tell me something.

• 46:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:52Speaker 01

  There was, there wasn't any other sign of Morris or the Anglins. And in time, the escape from Alcatraz achieved legendary status, inspiring novels and films and becoming one of San Francisco's most enduring mysteries.

• 47:04Speaker 00

  Do we think they died?

• 47:05Speaker 01

  I don't know. The Marshal Service spokesman, Dave Branham, said, although we never found the bodies, we presume they've drowned, but we think they, but we think there's a possibility they're alive.

• 47:18Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 47:18Speaker 01

  So they're kind of like, it could go either way.

• 47:19Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, those are the two possible outcomes.

• 47:22Speaker 01

  They either died or they lived.

• 47:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's crazy.

• 47:24Speaker 01

  I'm like, so they're not in purgatory. Okay, got it. They're not in a state of like arrested development. They're like.

• 47:30Speaker 00

  He's like, they actually got trapped in a parallel universe.

• 47:33Speaker 01

  Like, this isn't a Twilight Zone episode, but, that was in 1993. And apparently, like, according to the FBI website, there was a plan, they thought, where they were gonna like rent a car or steal a car.

• 47:45Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 47:46Speaker 01

  Once they got off the island, and that's how they were gonna escape. And there was no reports in the area of cars being stolen in the area or a rented car.

• 47:54Speaker 00

  Rented by three prison escapees.

• 47:56Speaker 01

  Also, if you go on the FBI website and look up this escape, they show you a picture and we'll post a picture of it if, if, like, you know, because that's easier.

• 48:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:07Speaker 01

  You don't have to go to the website, I guess.

• 48:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, we'll post it.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  I'm like, you know what? That's easier as I spoke. I was like, you know, I'm just gonna do that. There's a picture of the, like, plaster, the papier-mache heads they made.

• 48:17Speaker 00

  Crazy.

• 48:18Speaker 01

  When I tell you, they were artists. Like, I couldn't be me. I couldn't have made that good of a plaster head, I don't think.

• 48:27Speaker 00

  I'm also just like, you guys could have found careers.

• 48:30Speaker 01

  And that was straight up hair.

• 48:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:32Speaker 01

  Like, they collected from the barber shop. And also, if you've ever watched SyFis Face Off, you know how hard it is to lay hair on, on a, like, makeup?

• 48:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:42Speaker 01

  They laid hair. That looked real.

• 48:44Speaker 00

  Good for them.

• 48:45Speaker 01

  I was impressed by that.

• 48:46Speaker 00

  They, they were determined for the cause.

• 48:48Speaker 01

  They were.

• 48:49Speaker 00

  But I kind of hope they lived.

• 48:52Speaker 01

  It would be.

• 48:52Speaker 00

  I don't think they did, but.

• 48:54Speaker 01

  I know. I don't know. But damn, it would be crazy if they did.

• 48:58Speaker 00

  I mean, you never know. crazier things have happened.

• 49:00Speaker 01

  Well, the investigations into the escape exposed the considerable administrative and structural problems at Alcatraz, all of which would have required considerable money to fix.

• 49:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:10Speaker 01

  And on March 21st, 1963, the prison was closed for good.

• 49:14Speaker 00

  Dang.

• 49:15Speaker 01

  In the years since, it's become a national public park and a popular tourist destination.

• 49:20Speaker 00

  It's supposedly haunted.

• 49:22Speaker 01

  Oh, it is. As for Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin, they were never seen or heard from again.

• 49:28Speaker 00

  Crazy.

• 49:29Speaker 01

  The Anglin's sister, May Widner, said in 2012, "I've always believed they made it, and I haven't changed my mind about that."

• 49:37Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 49:37Speaker 01

  And she isn't alone. When asked whether he believed the prison escape was successful, US Marshal Michael Dyke replied, "We have to operate under the assumption they made it."

• 49:47Speaker 00

  I mean, hey, that's a US marshal, so.

• 49:49Speaker 01

  And they're saying, like, yeah.

• 49:51Speaker 00

  I mean, they didn't find their bodies, but.

• 49:53Speaker 01

  They got off the island.

• 49:54Speaker 00

  Also, sharks.

• 49:56Speaker 01

  That's the thing.

• 49:57Speaker 00

  You know?

• 49:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, logic tells me they didn't, but, but my whimsical nature tells me that I would like them to have made. Then again, they're bad guys. So it's not like that we're, we're, we're sitting here being like.

• 50:11Speaker 00

  But you know what?

• 50:12Speaker 01

  Maybe they made it. And I'm like, but, oh, I guess if they did make it, they didn't really cause a stir after that.

• 50:17Speaker 00

  That's the thing. They, they rehabilitated. And here's what I think happened. They opened up a studio altogether and they taught pottery and papier-mache and fucking art.

• 50:29Speaker 01

  If you're in the San Fran, if you're in that area and you took art classes around this time.

• 50:33Speaker 00

  It's an artsy area.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  And you had your life transformed by your art teacher. That art teacher was one of these guys.

• 50:40Speaker 00

  It was. They became art teachers.

• 50:43Speaker 01

  And that's a fact. So.

• 50:46Speaker 00

  Do with that what you will.

• 50:47Speaker 01

  So, you're welcome.

• 50:48Speaker 00

  So, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

• 50:50Speaker 01

  It's true.

• 50:51Speaker 00

  I'm obsessed. I think, they were mostly just like bank robbers, right?

• 50:54Speaker 01

  I think so.

• 50:55Speaker 00

  Like, I'm not telling you to rob banks.

• 50:57Speaker 01

  I think their bank robberies included.

• 50:59Speaker 00

  Moita.

• 51:00Speaker 01

  Guns and moita sometimes.

• 51:01Speaker 00

  Okay, well, I don't, I don't condone that.

• 51:03Speaker 01

  But then they made crafts.

• 51:05Speaker 00

  Crafts.

• 51:05Speaker 01

  And they were your art teacher.

• 51:07Speaker 00

  Period.

• 51:08Speaker 01

  They changed your life.

• 51:10Speaker 00

  I want to do, I've never done paper mache. I've never done. I saw this girl on TikTok and she made the coolest paper mache pumpkin head. Hell, yeah. I'm gonna find it and send it to you later. I want to do that. And I'll shout her out once I, once I find her, but I, I'll never find her. I'm on TikTok far too frequently. I'll never find her. Never find her right now anyways. If it's you, let us know. Did you make a really cool pumpkin head out of paper mache? It was like vintage. Oh, yeah. Somebody tagged me in it so that I can shout them out. Do it. Please. Do the work. Do the work for me, so I don't have to. No, I, if I tried to pull up a TikTok from. Yeah. Couldn't be me. It's bad. I have, I have a scrolling problem. I probably am going to get carpal tunnel. Anyways, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you. Keep it weird.

• 51:55Speaker 00

  But not so weird that you don't get super crafty if you go to prison and reform your life and become an art teacher. Yeah. Bye. They were your art teacher.

• 53:34Speaker 00

  Marina Baccarin is back as straight shooting sheriff Mickey Fox in Sheriff Country, season two. Mickey investigates crime while patrolling the streets of small town Edgewater, contending with her ex-con father, while also dealing with personal battles and an ever-growing criminal threat. Don't miss Sheriff Country, all new CBS Fridays and streaming on Paramount Plus.

• 53:54Speaker 03

  Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie, and one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update and renovation, it becomes a little more your own. So you need all your jobs done well. For nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter. From plumbing to electrical, roof repair to deck upgrades. So leave it to the pros who will get your jobs done well. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your project at angie.com.