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When the ruse was finally discovered the next morning, the resulting chaos was unprecedented. The FBI and the Coast Guard launched one of the largest manhunts in history, scouring the coastline and every inch of the bay. They found fragments of the raft and a single paddle, but no bodies were ever recovered. Authorities eventually officially concluded that the men had succumbed to hypothermia and drowned, citing the impossibility of surviving the crossing in such primitive gear. The case was closed by the FBI in 1979, but for the U.S. Marshals Service, the warrant remains open to this day.
The legend of the Alcatraz three refused to be buried at sea. Over the ensuing decades, a steady trickle of evidence emerged to challenge the official narrative of death. In 2013, the debate reached a fever pitch when a letter, purportedly written by John Anglin, was delivered to the San Francisco Police Department. The author claimed that all three men had successfully reached the shore and had lived under assumed identities for decades. He stated that Clarence had passed away in 2011 and Frank Morris in 2008, and that he, John, was now suffering from cancer and was willing to surrender in exchange for medical treatment. While handwriting experts found the results to be inconclusive, the letter added a haunting layer of possibility to the mystery.
This new evidence aligns with long-standing rumors from the Anglin family, who claimed to have received postcards and signed Christmas cards from the brothers for years after the escape. Relatives have consistently maintained that the men did not drown, but rather relocated to a place where the reach of American law was thin. If they were indeed in Brazil in the 1970s, it would mean they had achieved what the government had declared impossible: they had conquered “The Rock” and outlived the very system designed to break them.
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