We have read ,heard and have seen TV  footage and documentaries about Alcatraz and prisoners escapes.

Famous of those escapes are the one which recalls the escape of three prisoners but ......did they made it or did these three men lost their lives in this daring escape.

This  recent article is interesting to read:

https://a.msn.com/r/2/AAyx7mT?m=en-gb&ocid=News



Dirk

I had heard of the Birdman of Alcatraz. There was a film (based on a book by a prisoner, Robert Stroud who became something of an expert on birds). The film may have given something of a sanitised version of Mr Stroud's character because he had been a violent person before he was imprisoned at Alcatraz.  That's not to do with the possibility of escape from Alcatraz though.  On the balance of probabilities I think it's more likely that the escaping prisoners in the article cited by Dirk did drown but I would like to think that they were successful.  I guess we'll never know unless either (a) remains were found which could be shown to belong to the escapees or (b) one of the prisoners were to confess on his deathbed and a test of his DNA could be performed after death.

Even DNA may have its limitations - I have insufficient scientific knowledge to speak in depth about DNA but I do remember nordmann saying something about the DNA tests done to "prove" that the skeleton in the carpark in Leicester belonging to Richard III (as in King of England) not being completely foolproof.

Dirk,

yes there was a lot to do about these three men. And they mentioned it too when we were there (my father and I).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alcatraz_escape_attempts
And the Dutch made even a study about it:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30349106
And the tour that I made with my father:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK6HsOreF7c
I have even some 8mm footage about that trip.
The guide asked if there was a candidate to let him close in and my father did it. A bit a frightening experience he said, although he was a soldier during the Belgian 18 days campaign in 1940...
But all such things did my father...as licking at the moonstone in the Washington museum...I am not saying I am that bad, but somewhere...

Kind regards from Paul.

I listened to an interview recently on The Opperman Report - a non-mainstream channel that I came across on Youtube though it is actually composed of recordings of an American radio show.  The eponymous Mr Opperman had interviewed a lady who believed some relations of hers were two of the escapees from Alcatraz after she had gone through some probate documents for her late mother.  I wasn't convinced though it might have been that the lady didn't naturally have the gift of the gab and come over well.

Thinking of Paul's father braving being locked up at Alcatraz - it would be over 40 years ago now but some children from the primary school where my mother taught were shown round the local police station (since knocked down and rebuilt in another part of town) and one of the policemen asked for volunteers to go in the cell and then locked the children in and then couldn't unlock it.  Fortunately somebody did eventually manage to open the cell door and the children went home to their families that evening.