Inside 'escape-proof' Alcatraz Island 'haunted' by Al Capone where punishment was 'The Hole'

dailystar.co.uk:

prison.The heavily-guarded jail, set on a rocky island just over a mile from San Francisco, was considered “escape proof”. The strong currents in the cold, shark-infested waters of San Francisco Bay made swimming to freedom almost impossible.Only one person is known to have completed the swim – John Paul Scott successfully escaped 1962, after squeezing through cell bars covered in lard.

But he ­collapsed, exhausted, on the mainland and was swiftly returned to The Rock.These days Alcatraz is a tourist attraction and there is even an Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon in which people compete to swim back to the mainland.But it was once home to the most feared criminals in the United States.In the same year as John Paul Scott’s ill-fated swim to the mainland, inmate Frank Morris with brothers John and Clarence Anglin escaped the island by digging through the prison’s rotting concrete wall using sharpened spoons.They fooled guards by leaving dummy heads in their beds.The wound-be escapees’ possessions were later found floating in the sea, but no bodies were ever found.

A forensic expert said it is 'highly likely' that a photo taken in 1975 showed the Anglin brothers alive and living in Brazil.The daring bid was immortalised the 1979 Clint Eastwood movie Escape From Alcatraz.Over 29 years, 36 inmates made a total of 14 escape attempts.

Of these 23 were captured, six were shot dead, two drowned with five missing presumed dead.But despite the harsh conditions, some prisoners requested transfers to Alcatraz because the lags’ individual cells made them feel safer and it reputedly offered better food than other jails.Over the years, over 1,500 convicts were locked up in The Rock’s 9ft x 5ft calls.