Prisoner #AZ1441, Frank L. Morris, arrived at Alcatraz on January3, 1960 (the day after href="http://ghostsofdc.org/tag/john-f-kennedy/">JFK announced hiscandidacy for president). The most significant one was published in January when the Sentinel reported that a 71-year-old Rayville, Louisiana man was involved in the arson, according to relatives, who also said that no one was supposed to be there that night; the perpetrators were shocked to see Morris. On the morning of June 12, 1962, guards discovered the three inmates missing from their beds. This forced Morris to run through the flames to get out of the building, emerging in an alleyway where he was spotted by two police officers. Nelson said people constantly ask him what he devoted more than a decade to finding out the truth about what happened to Morris and others who were killed during that time. Unfortunately for West, the vent coveringhis hole was stuck and he was unable to get out, so Morris and theAnglins left him. He also said that when their father died, two mysterious bearded men turned up at the funeral, weeping quietly as they stood looking at the casket, before leaving again. West managed to reach the prison roof before giving up and climbing back down to his cell. At the same time, he was working with several universities to obtain FBI documents, including some that no one had ever seen. Tommy Pigage, the young man who caused the fatal crash, still gets a lot of attention from the Morrises. But you can't rule out the fact that they lived.". Morris made those shoes last. A photograph taken of two bearded men in 1975 hints strongly that they eventually made it to Brazil. The three convicted bank robbers escaped from "The Rock" in June of 1962 by climbing through the prison's vent systems. At the end of the film Escape From Alcatraz, Patrick McGoohan, as the Prison Governor, is heard insisting that they had drowned. I needed to forgive Tommy to save myself.. For 10 years, Nelson investigated a string of Civil Rights-era murders committed by the Ku Klux Klan in southwest Mississippi and northeastern Louisiana. Just the suggestion that a black man was involved with a white woman was trouble in 1964. Less thana year after his release, he was incarcerated in Florida StatePenitentiary for breaking and entering. We have to keep the case open since no bodies have been found, but about a month after they escaped in July 1962 a Norwegian freighter saw a body floating in the ocean 15 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. Relatives of the Anglin brothers claimed to receive letters, postcards and Christmas cards from the elusive men over the years. IMDb RATING. Pigage spent three months behind bars before defense lawyers asked that he be freed again on probation. Alcatraz Prison itself closed down a year later in 1963, largely due to the ruinous costs of keeping it going, and the salt water damage caused to the buildings. I dont think people realize what theyre playing with when they drink and drive.. Rate. Frank Morris, second from right in center group, in front of his shoe shop in the 1950s. He said that his brother died in 2011 and Morris died in 2008. I can't close the case. We'd love to hear eyewitness Marshals Service sent the letter to the FBI for analysis and the results came back inconclusive. They used spoons as well as a homemade drill made from the motor of a broken vacuum cleaner to widen the air vents in their cells and squeezed through to a utility corridor, the FBI said. Our office was burglarized. Then came the phone call from Williams, who told Nelson she learned more about what happened to her grandfather from the first article he wrote than in the previous 40 years. They made their escape off the island in a 6-by-14-foot, homemade rubber raft that was made from raincoats. In addition to stand-up and game show hosting, Nicotero, 54, sometimes works as a warm-up comic for game show tapings. Investigated by the US Marshals. Remnants of the raft were found washed up on a nearby island, but the men were never seen again. Frank Lee Morris (born September 1, 1926) was born in Washington, D.C. His parents abandoned him when he was 11, so he spent the rest of his childhood in foster homes, an orphan. And their conversation made Nelson think about that night and the car engulfed in flames many years before. In 1979, the three were declared legally dead and the FBI closedthe case. He escaped but was caught again for a burglary in 1960. She later drove by his apartment and saw him drinking, a violation of his probation. Daughters and sons of Klansmen contact me, as do victims of racial violence and elderly women who recount their experiences during those racially turbulent days. Click here for more from Around the Web -->, Livingston Parish Court News December 2020, Livingston Parish Court News November 2020, Click here for more Court News, Felony Arrests -->, Public Notices published Thursday, April 27, 2023. Phil Dollison was living on Alcatraz island when three men escaped. Also available on other Amazon sites. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, BUT if they did survive, how did they live? They drive him to church twice a week and often set a place for him at their dinner table. I was 9 years old in December 1964 when Frank Morris, a 51-year-old African-American businessman, was murdered in Ferriday, Louisiana. According to FBI files, he served time in the Louisiana StatePenitentiary between November 19, 1945 and July 12, 1948. In 1945,he was returned to D.C., as an inmate in the National Training Schoolfor Boys. The bureau said if we published the story the case would be jeopardized and asked us to hold it indefinitely. He hated Negroes and was determined to see that they did not vote, integrate or achieve. Guards doing their rounds periodically checked on the faces of their prisoners. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. He was married and divorced in Kansas City. Although Pigage was not imprisoned, the terms of his five-year probation were unusual enough to get statewide publicity. Infectious Diseases: Common cold or the flu? We knew some would be angered to read about the parishs ugly racial past. Id go by the jail myself and make sure he was there, she said. They were expecting swift justice but had much to learn about how courts work. For the next 6 months they used a variety of tools, such as discarded saws, a drill fashioned from a vacuum cleaner, and spoons taken from the mess hall, to widen the ventilation ducts beneath the sinks in their cells. person will not be tolerated. Read about our approach to external linking. Then in her mid-50s, she called me from Las Vegas. "He had on prison clothes - a navy pea coat and a light pair of trousers - similar to what prisoners wore. According to Nelson, Morris awoke in the middle of the night when he heard glass breaking in the front of his shop. Even if by some miracle you managed to chisel your way out of your cell and the fortress building itself, you would still have to brave the icy shark-infested waters and strong currents of the bay. As part of their plan, each of the men had fashioned dummy headsout of plaster, toilet paper and hair from the prison barber shop. Also available on other Amazon sites. He went on to say Im 83 years-old and in bad shape. He rebuilt shoes and sold dry goods., An early member of the NAACP, Morris was also an usher in the Mercy Seat Baptist Church and was known for his patriotism and support of the community. For Morriss granddaughter, what happened on that December night remains a painful symbol of injustice yet to be rectified. His intelligence likely helped him and his fellow prisoners orchestrate an escape from Alcatraz.He was portrayed by actor Clint Eastwood in the 1979 film, Escape from Alcatraz. Clint Eastwood played Frank Morris in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz. WebEventually, Morris landed in Louisiana State Penitentiary, sentenced to a 10-year incarceration for a bank robbery. I lost several jobs because of it, and the last couple of years, I would just sit home with a bottle, usually of whiskey. He was convicted in the 1970s in federal court of police brutality. The local Klan asked an outside Klan unit to beat Morris for allegedly flirting with white women. Side note: in 1951, Charles Manson was an inmate at theschool. One reader wrote: If all of the wicked, hate crimes could be taken out of the secret places and stand in the light, this country could be healed!. As they navigated the dark roads, the family came upon a wrecked Volkswagen Beetle that they later found out had been hit by a drunk driver. Copyright20062023,Somerightsreserved. One of the men outside pointed a shotgun at Morris and refused his exit to safety out the front door just as the building erupted in flames. Due to the conditions they would have to have endured, it has been theorised that they probably drowned before they reached the shore. Don't knowingly lie about anyone He would be willing to turn himself in if 2023 BBC. Morris tried to exit the front door, Nelson said, but the man with the shotgun pointed it at Morris head and told him to go back inside. The grand jury handed them their first disappointment, reducing the murder charge to second-degree manslaughter. The only traces of them that were found were a paddle floating south of nearby Angel Island, a wallet wrapped in plastic containing details of the Anglins relatives, shreds of raincoat material, and a deflated life jacket. To further add to the mystery, footsteps were seen heading awayfrom the raft on the beach. Share with Us. By the 1950s inmates had been granted various privileges not known to previous residents, such as being able to have musical instruments in their cells, and Frank would use an accordion to cover up any noise made by their work. They made it- but what happened next is shocking. Transylvanian Sky and other stories is now available for Amazon's His son, ex-wife and ex-brother-in-law, a former Concordia Parish deputy, contend that he is lying. The owners of the Concordia Sentinel never hesitated in following the story. The group was named for the coin each individually-recruited Klansman was given after joining. The three men brothers John and Clarence Anglin and fellow inmate Frank Morris grabbed makeshift paddles and plunged an escape raft they made of stolen raincoats into the dark waters of San Francisco Bay. Alcatraz officials have long stated that the men drowned, maintaining the prisons bragging rights of no escapees. For 10 years, Nelson investigated a string of Civil Rights-era murders committed by the Ku Klux Klan in southwest Mississippi and northeastern Louisiana. They concealed their work with cardboard and paint every morning. He began his life of crime at the tender age of 13, and embarked on a low-life existence of possession of drugs and armed robbery. At 6 feet, 4 inches and 250-plus pounds, DeLaughter was a Klansman and a suspect in many crimes. Freedom did not last long for Frank as he violated it within a yearand was back in reform school at Chillicothe, Ohio in 1943. Perhaps its because of this never-ending Lockdown we are in here in the UK, but very recently I found myself watching Escape From Alcatraz, a 1979 film starring Clint Eastwood, and based on the true story of the only men who ever managed to escape from the infamous Rock, the island prison of Alcatraz, in the bay of San Francisco. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. each comment to let us know of abusive posts. We wanted the worst to happen, added her husband, 44, a United Parcel Service driver. Posted by: sjhstrangetales on: February 3, 2021. Frank was very much the brains of the outfit. Mysteries, murders and other tales of the Unexplained from my blog entries, According to the FBI, Morris, a bank robber and burglar, was sent to Alcatraz where famous inmates including Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and the Birdman of Alcatraz served time in 1960. Morris investigation eventually led him to Olson who, at the time of his death, was a bacteriologist and biological warfare scientist working for the CIA. Morris was born on September 1, 1926 at href="http://ghostsofdc.org/tag/gallinger-hospital/">GallingerHospital in Washington, D.C. (more recently known as D.C. GeneralHospital near RFKStadium and closed in 2001).