Very desirable set of three original 10.5 x 15.75 ‘Wanted’ posters issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary escapees Clarence Anglin, John William Anglin, and Frank Lee Morris. Each poster features mug shots of the escaped convicts, their background, physical description, criminal record, fingerprint classification, and a statement of caution citing each man as “Extremely Dangerous.” The posters were issued on June 14, 1962, and are identified as “Wanted Flyer No. 305,” “306,” and “307,” with lower right corner of each bearing a facsimile signature of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. In overall very good condition, with some toning, tears, and areas of paper loss.
Along with fellow inmates Frank Morris and Allen West, the Anglin brothers, John and Clarence, patiently concocted an ingenious plan to escape from ‘the Rock.’ Working at night over the course of six months, the men, who shared adjacent cells, gradually set up a small workshop hidden in an unguarded utility corridor. Moving to and fro through widened ventilation ducts, the inmates assembled a variety of stolen and donated goods (including more than 50 raincoats) that they would makeshift into life preservers, a 6 x 18 foot rubber raft, paddles, and a bellows created from an old concertina.
On the night of June 11, 1962, the men made their move, but West, who lingered in an attempt to properly reset his cell’s ventilation grill, was left behind. The other three made it to the roof, descended a kitchen vent pipe, scaled two barb wire fences, and on the northeast shoreline—a searchlight and prison tower blind spot—inflated their raft and departed two miles north to Angel Island. The men were never seen again, but members of the Anglin family insist that the brothers had made contact on various occasions. The Anglins’ remarkable escape from Alcatraz was later made into a popular 1979 film starring Clint Eastwood.
