Original subtitles

Narrator: A spoon proves mightier than the bars

at supposedly escape-proof Alcatraz prison.

Hoes: It's one of these myths that go around for decades already...

that everyone wants to be solved.

Narrator: It's the most iconic prison escape in American history.

On the night of June 11, 1962,

3 Alcatraz inmates set out in a raft made of raincoats

into the treacherous waters of San Francisco Bay.

They were never seen again.

Babyak: They disappeared,

so you couldn't ask for a better ending, right?

Keep it going forever.

Narrator: Now Dutch scientists Olivier Hoes,

Rolf Hut, and Fedor Baart want to determine

what happened to the escaped convicts.

Man: New science on an old mystery.

Woman: They claim they solved the mystery of Alcatraz.

Narrator: They've come to San Francisco...

Hut: You don't want to have to, like, paddle for your life

in a last bid while you're dragged out there.

Narrator: to test their theory.

And ride their own raincoat raft to freedom.

Humphreys: They have one shot at it, and it's gotta work.

Most people want them to make it.

People want people to be a hero.

And so you have a very difficult challenge.

You make it...

that's a hero story.

Announcer: "Secrets of the Dead" was made possible in part

by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

Narrator: In Holland, 10 million people live below sea level,

a precarious setting that's made the Dutch

world leaders in flood management.

So when coastal engineer Olivier Hoes

was called to San Francisco to predict how rising sea levels

will impact that city in years to come,

it was just another job.

The actual bay is, what, a shallow, just 4-5 meters deep.

But in the center, it gets much deeper,

It's about 20-30 meters deep.

Every time when that when the tides go in or out,

there's one big valley of water flowing in and out every time.

Using state-of-the-art hydraulic software,

Olivier created one of the most sophisticated flow models of San Francisco Bay ever built.

Hut: So I saw his screen with all the little arrows for the water movement,

and then Alcatraz, bang, in the middle,

and I thought, this is a story

and a research waiting to happen.

Narrator: Colleague Rolf Hut realized

if you could use 3-D computer modeling

to forecast future bay conditions,

you could also use it to look into the past.

Hut: Science is about finding stuff out.

So this is a historical study.

Normally we study future scenarios...

What could happen if...

And that's where we build all our models for.

Science is about using expertise in research

that's actually relevant for policy-makers and the future,

but it helps us understand something

as cool as the escape from Alcatraz.

Narrator: Alcatraz, "The Rock."

This Civil War fort turned maximum security prison

was said to be unbreakable.

The men sent here, men like Whitey Bulger and Al Capone,

were just as tough.

Babyak: You're talking about 25,000 men

in those days in federal prisons and 250 on Alcatraz.

So they were the most aggressive, most assaultive,

sometimes the most mentally ill 1%.

Narrator: Jolene Babyak was just 15 the night of the escape.

Her dad was acting warden.

In 1962, she called Alcatraz Island home.

Babyak: The siren woke me up.

I was late for school,

and you know, my first thought obviously was,

"That can't be an escape attempt."

But of course I knew that in my heart that it was.

I met my mother on the stairs,

and she was all kind of pumped up,

and she said, "Get dressed, there's been an escape."

Narrator: At sunrise the next morning,

it became clear that "The Rock" had been broken.

Convicts Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin

had used sharpened spoons to dig through their cells.

They left false grills and dummy heads behind as cover.

Climbed up a 3-story utility corridor,

punched through a ceiling ventilation shaft,

and ran across the cellblock roof.

Then they scrambled down a 4-story stove pipe,

evaded guard towers,

made their way down an embankment,

and slid into the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay...

leaving behind a handful of artifacts

and one of America's most enduring mysteries.

Mahoney: If they made it, why, one hell of an achievement,

I'll tell you that.

Babyak: Everybody was rooting for Morris and the Anglins,

and they still are.

Narrator: Unlike many at Alcatraz,

Morris and the Anglins weren't violent offenders.

They were low-end bank robbers

sent to "The Rock" after repeated escape attempts

at other prisons.

Babyak: Morris was an interesting character.

He'd been in prisons almost every day since he was 13.

Dyke: He also had what was listed on the test

as the highest I.Q.

Narrator: John and Clarence Anglin grew up sharecropping

alongside 14 brothers and sisters.

They'd robber their bank using a toy gun.

Babyak: Morris kept the Anglins in line

because I think they were boisterous and cocky

and wanted everybody to know that they were cool.

Baart: It's the best way to escape,

but the question is

the best place is still to go here because...

Narrator: To tackle the mystery of what happened

to Morris and the Anglins,

the Dutchmen used old tidal charts

to build a 3-D model

that re-creates the currents from the night of the escape.

Baart: The tide is taking all the water out and...

Narrator: They then called in friend and colleague

Fedor Baart, an expert in particle tracking.

Hut: Particle sounds really technical,

but in this case, that would just be a raft with 3 people in it

and what would happen given the tides,

where would it go?

Baart: I took the computer model from Olivier here and put a...

Asked the computer model that simulates human behavior.

And actually adds battling behavior.

That's the thing that I created.

Narrator: The resulting model enabled them

to track the paths of 50 virtual rafts

launching from Alcatraz on the night of the escape.

What they discovered is the first scientific proof

the men could have survived.

Hoes: Our study revealed that the timing was crucial

to get to the shore on the other side.

That is actually dependent enormously on when they left.

Narrator: To escape and survive,

the inmates would have had to launch during a narrow window

between 11:30 p.m. and 12:00 midnight.

If they did, the findings suggest the inmates could have ridden the outgoing tide

to an unexpected place.

For decades, common wisdom said that the escapees

headed for the landmass nearest Alcatraz...

Angel Island.

But the Dutchmen think this would have been a fatal mistake.

Based on the currents,

that trajectory would have swept the men out to sea.

Hoes: The actual finding is that they could use the tides

to leave Alcatraz just on time

so that they didn't have to paddle that far.

So Horseshoe Bay was the most likely destination

according to our research and not Angel Island.

Narrator: The first morning of their investigation.

The team is headed to Horseshoe Bay,

near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

5 days from now, the tides and currents will match

what the inmates faced back in 1962.

Fedor, Rolf, and Olivier plan to launch their own homemade raft

and put their theory to the ultimate test.

Hut: So they launched over there,

near the chimney, right?

And the tide would have taken them here into Horseshoe Bay.

Baart: Yeah, the currents would take you

right into this bay.

Yeah, but if you time it wrong,

you got this funnel...

Baart: Being sucked out.

You're being pulled out

and you just die of hypothermia over there.

Or sharks.

Hoes: I'm actually more concerned about these boats.

Hut: Oh, you mean the big cargo boats.

Exactly. Because if we are in the middle of the shipping lane...

Then we have the right of way

because we don't have power.

That's how it works, right? Uh-huh.

I'm more concerned about the boat,

actually putting the boat into the water

and having it stay afloat for an hour.

Baart: If you look at the San Francisco Bay,

it's actually a quite interesting bay

because it sucks in all this water

and spits it out through this narrow channel

just below the Golden Gate Bridge.

Narrator: A deep underwater canyon

cuts right in front of Horseshoe Bay.

It creates a narrow, 300-foot-wide wall of water

flowing in and out through the Golden Gate.

This intense band of current

poses the biggest risk to the team.

Hoes: It looks more or less like a highway of water

that's going in and out every time.

And one of the things that we have to take care of

is that we have to pass that highway as soon as possible

when we leave Alcatraz.

Otherwise we will be taken out to the ocean.

Narrator: Fedor believes that even if they hit the wall of water,

the human urge to survive will generate the power needed

to paddle through it.

Baart: We knew that it would be

the hardest part of the survival.

I estimated that people would make a leap of faith.

And so the last 100 meters, paddle really fast.

But I'm wondering now if it's even possible

if you have that urge to survive to make that last 100 meters.

Narrator: If Morris and the Anglins did hit the bay

in the Dutch team's timeline,

would their raft have stayed afloat

for the hour the computer model says it would have taken

to reach Horseshoe Bay?

The only way to find out is to build

the most historically accurate raft possible

and launch in the same tidal conditions.

Hut: And at that time, the raft needs to be done.

So that creates a limited timeframe

to actually build it and let it dry.

It puts some tension on the team,

which may have not been representative of what the inmates had

because they had 6 weeks,

but it puts some tension on the team to get it done on time.

Narrator: To build their raft,

the team has called on Eric Humphreys.

A longtime Nantucket boat builder,

he's now chief of animatronics

for the shop that creates Macy's magical Christmas window displays

in New York City.

I made this the other day.

Look at that, huh?

Sparks.

Narrator: Still, Eric's first love is the sea.

Humphreys: My day job currently is, I, uh...

I make glittery elves.

But I've always loved boats.

I've always been a sailor since I was a little kid.

Narrator: The raft needs to be more than just buoyant.

They want to build a raft as close to the original as possible.

Hoes: It would be nice to see how they made their raft,

whether they stitched it or not.

What kind of glue they used.

Exactly.

Narrator: So before they launch into construction,

Eric and Olivier need to see the artifacts

the escapees left behind.

So here is photographic documentation

from the escape.

Humphreys: "Various tools

made or stolen for escape."

This is a whole treasure trove of things.

Narrator: After the escape,

the FBI recovered more than 80 homemade tools

and other items the inmates spent months constructing.

Female guard: Including files,

spoons to chisel things away.

Humphreys: Hey, look, and drill bits.

Man, these guys liked building stuff.

Have you ever made your own wrench?

I have nev... I've made so many things in my life,

I've never made my own wrench.

Humphreys: The thing that struck me about those artifacts

was the attention to odd details.

Maybe if I was sitting in prison all day

contemplating this, they would seem normal to me.

What is that, a periscope?

The thought was they stick the periscope

out the little holes in the ventilator

to see if anyone's looking.

Hoes: The periscope is not something

that you really need if you tried to escape,

and they put a lot of effort in making this periscope.

And the same counts for the other tools.

Guard: This is one of two paddles.

One was found on the cellblock top roof,

the other one was found floating in the bay.

Hoes: The thing that strike me most

was that the paddles had large bolts on the backside.

I can imagine that in the dark if you did not pay attention

and you have these bolts sticking out to your raft,

then you might make a leak in your raft

without even having left Alcatraz.

Well, what could be used as a cutting board?

Humphreys: I bet you they cut the raft pieces on that.

Look, those are knife marks.

Narrator: Above all, Eric and Olivier want to confirm

what the raft was made of

and gather clues about how it was constructed.

They've already found a vintage raincoat

based on archival photos.

The question is, will it match the real thing?

Humphreys: Oh, here it comes. Here it comes.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think we nailed it on the raincoat.

The buttons are the same, the sleeves are the same.

What was that label?

Yeah, there should be a label right there.

Yep, that's it.

Hoes: Ours is the 18561.

Humphreys: Our label seems to match.

Look at that.

This is where he goes crying now.

Look at that, there's your brother, baby.

Narrator: Raincoats like these were common on "The Rock,"

even on sunny days.

Ha ha! The joke on Alcatraz was that the birds were better shots than the guards.

So guys would sometimes wear their raincoats out to the yard,

and it would be a simple matter of wearing your raincoat out

and then taking it off and somebody else picking it up.

Oh, and the inflator.

That's what I was curious about.

A straw. A straw. Look at that.

You can actually see their teeth marks on it.

Narrator: Incredibly, the inmates crafted more than just the raft.

They also made life vests.

Humphreys: I'm thinking about getting out of prison.

I'm just gonna build that raft and go.

I'm not gonna screw around with a life jacket.

So this is a pontoon from the raft

that wasn't actually used, correct?

Correct.

The pontoon remnant had what was clearly hand stitching.

I don't know.

I get the feeling like this was, like, some kind of test.

So I'm wondering if they just wanted to see

what was the best construction technique

given the materials they had.

The ingenuity kind of goes counter to what you hear about a lot of these guys.

Some of these guys are claimed not to be,

you know, the sharpest pencils in the box,

and here they are, they're making their own tools,

they're making periscopes, they're making,

you know, rafts in prison attics

and somehow not getting caught.

And I don't know if that speaks

to these guys being really clever

or everyone watching them being really, you know,

not so clever.

Babyak: It became so elaborate, right?

A raft and then life jackets and, you know,

paddles and masks.

It just got bigger and bigger, right?

There's safety in that sophistication.

And that's often the case.

The exciting fun part is the inside the prison,

the bragging rights, the ego,

the fun, the hope.

But once they hit land, not so fun.

Narrator: The visit has offered up interesting clues.

The inmates may have stitched the raft and used straws or hoses to inflate it.

But how they glued the raincoats together remains a mystery.

I'm interested in this glue.

It's liquid plastic for book repair.

Humphreys: I don't know what that means,

but somebody knows what that means.

Narrator: Day two of constructing the raft.

Eric and Olivier have asked adhesives chemist Bill Leach

to come by and help them figure out

what kind of glue might have been on Alcatraz in 1962.

Leach: What they used

and would the prisoners have something similar to it.

You're gonna be dealing with materials

that don't absorb water or solvent,

so it's gonna have to be a surface bond.

It's going to have to bond materials

that are likely to stretch a little bit.

Narrator: Glue that stretches

normally serves an industrial purpose.

It makes sense they'd have access to it

because "The Rock" wasn't just a prison;

it housed Alcatraz Industries,

cranking out furniture, shoes, and gloves

for the U.S. Army.

Humphreys: My understanding is they had carpentry,

they had some sort of boot shop for rubber boots,

and some sort of furniture shop.

So they may have been fairly bright guys

who had connections,

and somebody would have told them,

"Don't go to the furniture department for your adhesive;

go to the shoe department."

Narrator: There they would have found a waterproof glue

perfect for the job.

Leach: Yes, here we go, here we go. Poly...

polychloropene. Bingo.

Narrator: polychloropene,

otherwise known as contact cement.

Humphreys: And the contact cement,

which seems the most likely that they would have,

because not only do they need lots of it to make a raft,

there needs to be so much of it

they can steal this large quantity of it

without people going, "Where's all the glue?"

Narrator: But according to at least one Alcatraz guard,

stealing glue on "The Rock" might have been easier than it seems.

Mahoney: They really didn't keep track.

The other penitentiaries I was at

we kept track of the contact cement.

But at Alcatraz, we really didn't.

My recollection was one-gallon cans,

and they might have gotten some of that old used glue, too,

in those cans.

Narrator: With stolen contact cement,

the inmates would have needed more than 50 raincoats

to build their raft.

But for Eric and Olivier,

vintage raincoats aren't an option.

Humphreys: We've looked at making the raft

out of the actual jackets that the prisoners used,

but one, they're kind of, you know, very difficult to find,

and two, the material seemed to be after, what is it, 50 years?

It seems to be rotting.

I think this is the closest we can possibly find

for modern equipment.

It's the same thickness.

It says it's PVC.

Leach: PVC.

That's important

because that's what it would have been

in 1962.

You gonna come with us?

Oh, I'm busy that day.

We'll get you a little drink umbrella.

Narrator: With glue and materials set,

they have 3 days left to craft a historically accurate design

and get the job done.

Humphreys: I think some people are slightly nervous about the timing of it.

I'm not. In my job, there's always a deadline,

and it's always something that no one's done before

and there's always problems, but in the end, it gets done.

It's kind of like an all or nothing, you know?

If you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly.

Well, raincoats? Humphreys: Raincoats.

That this is the actual raincoat that they used.

I've got some documentation.

Humphreys: Yeah, right here. Oh, here.

OK. "The conspirators realized

"that once they had reached the water's edge,

"it would be no mean feat

inflating a 14x6 foot life raft by mouth."

That's a really big raft.

5 jackets. 5 jackets.

Two jackets.

And 10 jackets for the floor.

So that's 22 jackets at least.

I'm gonna use the sleeve here for our test.

We're gonna make a tiny, miniature pontoon out of this.

Ugh, this is fumes some.

I don't know about you, buddy,

but I am feeling them.

How do you want to seal it

after the straws are in there?

Hoes: So I kept folding backwards

and put it under, for example.

Humphreys: Pretty clever.

Wow. And it's holding air.

Briefly.

Uh.

Yeah, right here.

This is what I was worried about.

Narrator: Making the pontoons airtight

is turning out to be a challenge.

There's your leak.

This seam's no problem.

This is filled up...

It had nothing to do with the straw.

It was leaking through all the seams.

That is, um... disappointing.

Baart: And so if you look at how Olivier and Eric built a raft,

there's a lot of choices you can make

to make it better.

And all these choices that you can make

try to stick to the historical accurate side of them,

and that makes the raft less floatable.

But it makes it much more realistic.

We're gonna have to figure a better way of sealing that.

Narrator: Although the actual raft was never found,

the stitched life vests recovered after the escape

were surprisingly well built.

Humphreys: After the escape, they found these life vests.

They wanted to test them, so they put weights on them,

inflated the life vests

until it lifted the weights off the floor,

and they held air for hours, which is kind of amazing.

Narrator: Eric now thinks the stitching on the life vests

was probably critical to the evolution of the raft itself.

Who knows how many life vests they made?

That could have been the, you know, 400th life vest,

and the first one didn't work.

It looked like our bags that we tried,

and I assume once they've got that worked out,

they transfer that knowledge

and use it to build a large, ocean-going raft.

And at first everyone just kind of ignored it

because, you know, stitching's kind of a pain in the butt,

and we're hoping it was, like, a mistake,

but it's becoming clear that the stitching is necessary

to keep the air in.

Narrator: As Eric pushes ahead with building the raft,

the others are meeting someone deeply interested in their work.

That thing gets sucked into this current.

It's really strong.

Narrator: More than 50 years after the escape,

the U.S. Marshals Service is still hunting Morris and the Anglins.

Mike Dyke has been on the case for the past 13 years.

Dyke: Every piece of evidence that comes up,

every lead that comes up is evaluated,

even if something coming up this long after the escape

could determine whether we need to continue to focus efforts

on looking for live people

or try to find remains of people who might have washed ashore,

you know, 50 years ago.

Narrator: They're excited to share their own findings,

but they really want to gather details from Marshal Dyke

about the time the raft hit the water.

Dyke: There's no way to know for sure.

That's a big variable, when they left.

There was a noise at 10:30, so that's assuming...

That's what time we assume that they finally were able go get out the top.

Yeah, and then they had to go over the roof

and down that pipe.

Humphreys: Over a fence.

Over the fence. Over the fence.

And they would have had to get the raft over the fence

without puncturing it on the barbed wire.

And then inflating it.

So you're at least looking at an hour.

Dyke: It could have been. It could have been that long.

Yeah, so then the 11:30 window.

Hoes: If the escape is this time,

then it actually ends up here.

This is our current scenario to go with.

Dyke: The 3-D model was really useful

because previously there was a couple cartoon-type drawings of it.

Other than that, you don't see an actual live view

of what the currents were doing that night.

So this is helpful in understanding what happened that night

and hopefully come up with a more viable answer

to what I've been doing for the last 13 years.

Hut: So at 10:30 a noise was heard.

That's what the marshal told us.

That gives us an anchor point.

So it's really important that we know

what happened step by step

so we can determine when they entered the water.

Narrator: To accurately re-create the timing of the escape,

the Dutch team is heading back to "The Rock"

for expert insight.

Hut: Our research really focused

on re-creating the tidal situation

that these escapees experienced,

but to know that, we need input from the historians at Alcatraz

to know what happened step by step

so we can determine when possibly they could have entered the water.

Narrator: Rolf and Olivier are meeting Alcatraz historian John Martini...

Martini: That's where Clint Eastwood and the others come down

in the movie "Escape From Alcatraz."

Narrator: who will help them retrace the path of the escape.

Martini: This is the access to the cell house.

So this was the cell of Alan West,

who some people consider to have been the fellow

who came up with the whole concept.

Narrator: Of all the characters involved,

Alan West is the least known but arguably the most important.

Babyak: West didn't get mentioned in the newspapers

because he didn't go.

You know, he got stuck behind.

Narrator: Unable to punch through his cell

in time to join Morris and the Anglins,

it was West who told the FBI the details of the plan,

including the fact

that the men intended to paddle to Angel Island.

Dyke: There was a misconception

that Morris was the mastermind of the whole plan.

More than likely, West at least initiated it.

He was the most dangerous.

I mean, a prisoner had told me West didn't walk,

he slithered.

That's the hole that they excavated to get out.

They drilled a great big rectangular perforation

in the wall,

and then once they had weakened the wall,

then they were able to break out large

and relatively rapidly.

Narrator: Chiseling through a foot of concrete

was a tough and potentially noisy job.

But thanks to the prison reform movement of the early '60s,

Alcatraz was now offering art classes and music hour.

Babyak: The music hour then just became a cacophony of sound...

and probably when they did a lot of their digging.

Oh, lonely in there.

The concrete up here is really bad.

Narrator: Despite "The Rock" 's fearsome reputation

for being inescapable,

by spring 1962, the aging prison was falling apart.

Babyak: The toilets in the cell house

were plumbed with saltwater.

So saltwater was coursing through those pipes for over 50 years.

Plumbers would go in there to fix them,

and they would disintegrate.

Martini: So you were constantly having flooding saltwater.

And that would destroy your concrete and your rebar.

Martini: Want to go into the...

Corridor? Corridor? Sure, let's do it.

Baart: Wow.

The actual weakest spot in the concrete

is close to the vents where they got through.

Narrator: Saltwater erosion and shoddy construction along the base of the wall

meant that convicts were digging through the weakest spot of their cells.

Martini: Once they got out here into the utility corridor,

basically it's like a jungle gym of pipes

and supports straight up 3 stories plus

to a flat, open area at the top of the cell block.

Narrator: Every night for 6 weeks,

the inmates climbed 3 stories through this web of pipes

to a hidden walk.

Martini: We're standing on the roof of the top tier of cells,

and then above us is the roof of the actual cell house.

This is just a void.

This is where they set up their workshop.

Narrator: Here they would build the raincoat raft,

periscope, drills, life vests,

and tools that would make theirs

the most sophisticated escape in American history.

West had convinced the guards

to let him work unsupervised in the loft

during daytime hours.

Part of Alan West's whole cover story

for being up here

was that he was painting, and he indeed was.

If you look right here at the ceiling,

this is where Alan West left off painting.

You can actually see the brush strokes.

Narrator: West wasn't just looking for a place to build a raft.

He was looking for a way to get out of the cell block

and onto the roof.

Mahoney: They volunteered to do this cleanup

up on top of the cells.

Well, because they knew that if they could get up there,

maybe look at those holes in the ceiling

that they could maybe go out of there,

and they were certainly... could figure it was old and rusty, and it was.

It was right on target, mm-hmm.

Narrator: The holes in the ceiling were old ventilation shafts.

And the one above the loft workspace wasn't just rusty,

it was the only one not cemented in place.

Martini: And they hit on the idea of...

convincing the guards that they needed to put blankets

to close this area off.

Babyak: That was one of the things about Alcatraz,

was it was spotlessly clean.

I mean, they polished those floors.

If you look at pictures of it, they were shiny.

One day West goes up to the top of the block,

and with a little broom he, you know, moved some dust down, you know.

And it didn't take long for the lieutenant to walk over there

or for a guard or for a prisoner to complain...

"Hey, there's dust in my cell! What's going on up there?"

And so West just doubles back and he says,

"You know, I got to work up there and it's really dusty.

Maybe we could hang some blankets."

Mahoney: Normally we put a guard with 'em at all times,

but he said, "Oh, just go and check on them now and then."

Not a good idea,

not with an Alcatraz convict.

Everyone was under the gun 24 hours a day.

Hut: But then there was no guard here watching him.

Martini: No. The feeling seems to have been

once he was let up here and he was locked in,

you know, what could he possibly do?

Where could he possibly go?

Hut: I mean, they're on Alcatraz.

What could possibly happen?

What could possibly go wrong?

Narrator: On the night of June 11, 1962,

it was go time.

By 9:30, West was having trouble breaking through the last bits of his cell

when Frank Morris appeared, asking for water.

Dyke: He was thirsty, wanted a glass of water.

So he handed him a glass of water

through that little hole in the back of his cell

that he was still working on, and that was about 9:34.

Narrator: It was the last time

anyone would see Frank Morris alive.

Martini: There was a giant crash sometime around 10:30,

which is apparently when the ventilator cap was pushed off.

So at 10:30, a noise was heard,

and everybody goes with the story

that that is the vent cover that falls onto the roof.

Martini: And this is the footprint of the pipe.

This is the route down,

and the FBI photographs show little black footprints

running around down here

as they were waiting for the other guys to come down.

It's almost like a Bugs Bunny or something.

Except this was deathly for real. Hut: Yeah.

Essentially what they were doing

is they were following their nose towards the water.

Hoes: What's your best guess

for them leaving Alcatraz?

11:15, 11:30?

And that's just a guess.

That would fit really nice with our model result.

So then... because that is really in the time frame,

that if they went into the water,

they had the best chance to reach Horseshoe Bay.

Narrator: Back at the shop, time is running out,

and they haven't even successfully inflated their first pontoon.

Humphreys: I went shopping.

Black tape like they had.

Hoes: All right.

I got hoses and tubes.

It's gonna be like a raft hookah.

Narrator: They know the inmates used stitching.

Whoa.

You can hardly tell I've never sewn before in my life.

All right, first pontoon.

Think it's gonna hold air?

Let's inflate. Let's do it.

Narrator: The moment of truth.

If it doesn't hold air, they'll never make their tidal window.

If I pass out, leave without me, man.

Save yourself.

Narrator: The stitching, it seems, was the missing element.

Hoes: I don't see bubbles for air.

Humphreys: All right,

I think we've built a raft...

I think it's gonna leak like a freaking sieve,

and we're gonna spend the entire time pumping it up.

Hell, you can probably even blow into it fast enough.

I have more respect for them

after attempting the work myself

in, you know, relatively ideal conditions.

If I need more glue, I can go get more glue.

I don't have to sneak it in from the cafeteria,

and no one's gonna shoot me... probably,

so... and I'm having trouble.

I don't think we're fitting 3 people in this thing.

If they were my size, it will fit.

What are you saying?

Saying too much pizza?

All right.

Narrator: With the pontoon design set,

it's a scramble to get the rest of the raft built,

leaving just one day for the contact cement to dry.

Across town, Rolf and Fedor have one last place to test their theory

before facing the bay itself.

This swimming pool

is representing the entire Pacific.

Kendall: Yeah, yeah.

So this is a large physical model

of the San Francisco Bay and delta system.

Hut: The tidal cycle over there is only 15 minutes.

So what if I go out one hour after low tide?

And then 15 minutes later, you can test

what if I go out two hours after low tide.

Kendall: It's used in missing person cases in particular.

When a body washes up on shore somewhere,

the question is often asked,

"Well, where did this person enter the water?"

And so the ability to go through a 12-hour tidal cycle in 15 minutes

and watch where things go is one of the beauties of this tool.

Hey, guys, look what I built.

A little boat, a little release mechanism.

Kendall: Uh-huh.

Some tape, some Super Glue, some office supplies.

But I think the tide is going out right now,

which would be when we said that they went.

I'm just gonna put it in.

This is my kind of science.

Kendall: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Hut: We just had our floaty going with the tides.

So this would be without paddling.

If they just let the raft take them where it would take them.

Yeah. So this is the tidal slack point.

It should be. Slowing down

Narrator: Slack tide is the brief window of slowing current

that happens between the incoming and outgoing tides.

Kendall: You've got to really time it around the slack water.

If it's not slack water,

everybody goes out the Gate.

Yeah, I think if they went out the Golden Gate,

it was probably history for them.

Narrator: On the first attempt, without paddle power,

the raft is swept out to sea.

Hut: And you see exactly the same thing as in the model.

You go straight into the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge,

out into the Pacific and die.

What we did in our computer model

is we looked at the difference between

what if you just go with the flow

versus what if you paddle.

But then of course, I cannot put paddling mice

or I think even ants at that scale on it.

So we did a final attempt, and in the final attempt,

Fedor was holding an office fan

that mimicked the northwards effect

that paddling could have.

Kendall: Yeah, so this is when I think they had a chance

because the currents are not that strong.

Hut: It's not that strong.

Narrator: The second time, Fedor uses an office fan

to simulate the forward motion of men paddling the raft.

So I'm just going to give a bit of northern movement.

Baart: In the last hundred meters,

I had to turn up the knobs to full speed.

Narrator: When the raft approaches the strong band of current

blocking it from Horseshoe Bay,

Fedor cranks up the fan.

Hut: As if that last rush of adrenaline

and, "Oh, my God, we're gonna die" rush of adrenaline

gave them enough energy to do a final paddle and make it.

Baart: Oh, nice!

Kendall: Oh!

Hut: Nice!

Hey, there you go.

There we go!

That's how you do it.

Baart: It was interesting to see that this float

actually ends up exactly where we predicted.

Hut: Yeah, I want to see you do that in two days.

For real.

If you've got any kind of speed

and the vessel doesn't sink,

looks very doable to me.

Would you be able to make it?

Given that the boat holds and that there's no freight,

whatever going in between.

But from just a flow and water movement perspective,

doable.

We might live. Ha ha!

Narrator: What they've seen here

suggests their computer model is right.

If the escapees were able to get past

the invisible current of water blocking Horseshoe Bay,

they could have survived.

It also may have solved another mystery.

After the escape, searchers found paddles and other debris

near Angel Island,

which gave rise to the theory the men made landfall there.

But the Dutch model shows that when the tide's reversed,

items dropped in the surf off Horseshoe Bay

are pushed right back to Angel Island.

Hut: Oh, here, yeah, look.

This is, uh... this is...

Narrator: As they wrap up,

the team gets a text from Olivier

over at the tech shop.

Hoes: So these are the pontoons.

So the final thing is that the floor

has got to be glued on top like that,

and it's got to all be inflated,

and it holds 3 men.

There's gonna be 3 chambers:

a stern, aft chamber, and two large chambers in front,

and they'll have their own inflator hose.

So this way, each individual paddler can have their own hose,

and you blow into it to keep ahead of any leaks that may occur.

Narrator: With the raft finally done,

they've asked Marshal Dyke to come by and take a look.

Hut: That seems smallish. Dyke: Wow.

It gets bigger.

Wow. That's pretty big.

Hoes: That would fit the 3 of us.

I have 100% confidence there will be zero leaks.

Dyke: You know, they used a similar-type glue.

The dimensions we believe were accurate.

I believe it was a very realistic portrayal

of, you know, how things would've ended up.

So you think you'd get in this thing?

I don't believe I would.

Oh, come on.

Given the trailing boat and...

If I was desperate, I would get in it.

Humphreys: I think if anything's gonna fail on the raft,

it's gonna be a seam or it's gonna get ripped

on some unforeseen piece of metal someplace.

Hoes: I don't think that's gonna happen.

Humphreys: There's gonna be some huffing and puffing

into those tubes,

but I really do think it's gonna make it.

Narrator: By 7 p.m. the next evening,

they're headed to Alcatraz.

The window to launch is between 8:00 and 8:30,

a rare interval when the bay's complex tidal conditions

will match those from the night of the escape.

Dines: Usually around sundown when the inland valley pulls off,

this strong onshore breeze, you know, fades,

and it gets nice.

This year is an El Nino Year

and the weather is a little bit unusual,

so the prevailing conditions may not prevail.

As a result of what we're noting

is that the wind is a little bit more south than usual,

from the south, with an early bit of the ebb kicking in,

the chop is getting a lot rougher.

Narrator: The water is rough.

Winds are blowing at 25 knots.

The team worries their raft won't stand a chance.

Hut: Those are pretty big waves,

like some 60 centimeters to a meter waves

with foam caps on,

and it's pretty scary for a little boat like us.

So we're gonna wait as long as we can

within that tidal window.

Hope that the sun going down,

temperature difference between the sea and the land going down a bit

that the wind would ease so that we have conditions

that are as near as we can achieve today

to what happened back in the day, '62.

I think it's a fair test of the concept.

You know, the guys that made the escape originally,

you know, maybe they were able to pick a night where it was calm.

I don't really know.

But I think that if they're able to pull this off today

with all the challenges that are present,

it really is a strong affirmation

that, yeah, absolutely this could be done.

Narrator: San Francisco Bay isn't known for calm waters.

With winds now hitting 30 knots,

this will be the most realistic attempt ever.

Dines: I think that that's the problem

with a lot of re-creations

is they kind of pick a perfect day.

This is a very typical day, and the challenges are real.

Hut: Well, it's now 10 to 8:00,

but it's still pretty rough out here.

Yeah, like 8:15 we'll probably go into the water.

We got to start filling up the raft then.

When you guys first get into the boat,

just give us an OK, so international OK.

Any type of major medical emergency,

fist up in the air.

Fist up in the air for me means end of this mission,

it failed, get back into the boat.

Hut: When I saw the raft coming together

and being inflated for the first time,

I grew more confident.

But just before we launched our little raft,

all that confidence went away when I saw these big waves.

How are we gonna do this, guys?

It's not that we can change anything now,

so let's just do this, see where we end up.

Go.

Careful. Don't let go.

We're going!

Go, go, go!

Narrator: Like Morris and the Anglins,

their raft has never been tested.

Hut: Can I go in?

Narrator: Will it hold up or disintegrate

under the weight of 3 grown men?

OK, guys.

All right, it's 10 past 8:00.

All clear! We're in the boat!

Let go! Let got!

Humphreys: And they're off!

Good luck, guys!

See you in an hour!

Looks like it's holding air.

I mean, they're huffing and puffing,

but they're going the right direction

and they ain't sinking.

Their hair's dry.

What more could they want?

Narrator: According to their model,

they will have to hit Horseshoe Bay around 9 p.m.

That's when the tidal slack will slow the outgoing current

and give them the best chance

to paddle through the underwater torrent blocking their way.

Baart: When we were floating in the bay,

I really felt this is a great thing we're doing,

putting science into reality.

Humphreys: We're about, what, 15 minutes in, 10 minutes in?

They're a good long ways from Alcatraz,

probably 20% there.

There's a little bit of water in the boat, they said,

and that's only from when they got in.

I think the thing's holding up.

It looks like getting out of Alcatraz is easy.

Hut: Yeah, everything is leaking, but we are holding up fine.

Humphreys: They only got one guy paddling, though.

The other two people are inflating the raft constantly

to keep up with the leaks that are in it.

Narrator: As darkness sets in,

the seas don't calm, they get rougher.

Humphreys: They're about to hit some pretty good swells,

the biggest we've seen so far.

I'm not sure if it's wake from a ship

or it's just current going through this part of the channel,

but I think they're gonna get a little bit wetter now.

Narrator: At 50 minutes in, they're hitting the wall of current they feared.

Tidal slack hasn't slowed it nearly as much as they'd hoped.

The Dutchmen are at risk of being drawn out to sea.

Humphreys: 6-0 minutes.

Waves are getting a little stronger,

and I believe they are starting to get sucked

towards the Golden Gate,

so if they want to make land, they have to, uh,

they have to paddle like crazy right now.

According to the captain, if you're gonna make it,

y'all got to paddle that way

because we're starting to drift towards the bridge.

Narrator: If they do get pulled under the bridge,

this experiment could turn deadly.

Humphreys: I think they're getting tired.

Olivier had a cramp in his leg or his arm,

had to rest a little bit.

And you know, it's not over yet, but these guys...

These guys got to paddle.

You guys see this boat over there, they got their light on?

Aim for that light over there, that bright one!

Narrator: Horseshoe Bay now lies less than 200 yards ahead.

Humphreys: So we're about an hour and 5 minutes in.

According to GPS, we're making about 2.5 knots

mostly from the current.

Unfortunately it's all towards the bridge

and not towards land.

It looks they're still trying to keep up the inflation.

They just have one guy, Olivier, paddling.

I can see their destination, very, very close.

And they have stopped paddling and have just gone to inflating.

I don't know if that means they're just getting tired

or the leak is getting more serious.

You are losing ground.

If everybody can't paddle, I think...

Humphreys: We're about an hour and 10 minutes in.

We just had a chat with them

and told them they all need to paddle.

We just don't want them too close to the bridge.

And if they get too close to the bridge,

it's kind of game over.

Narrator: Exhausted and accelerating toward the Golden Gate,

an upheld fist signals it's time to turn back.

Humphreys: We're gonna go over and pick 'em up now, I think.

We're coming!

Hut: Pick us up!

Humphreys: We're coming for you guys!

Pull yourself in.

Fedor's in!

It's stuck in the raft.

Hold the rim!

I'm holding it, OK?

There you go.

All right.

Hoes: Get the raft in!

Jesus!

Hut: Look, I'm calling it, we are dead!

Dines: We got 'em all aboard.

Everyone's safe. We got the raft.

The raft's feeling light.

Hut: They could have done it.

It's just that one guy paddling, two guys blowing

is not enough to get the speed to the north.

And you can see that in our model.

It's like a big calm going in,

and then... and we should have been maybe to the north

of that current before it went so narrow.

Like if you, uh, if you just get south of it,

then, uh, then basically you are basically doomed.

Humphreys: And that's what science is all about,

you just learn more.

If you just have one data point, one story,

that's not really science.

You need to have multiple data points

so that you can see what the influence of different factors is,

so what we just did is given the exact tidal circumstances,

our data point says they would have drifted to the Gate.

Baart: We tried to believe this would take over an hour,

so that was correct,

but I thought we, uh, we would have a bit more time

to get in here.

So the things we computed actually happened,

but I think we are mainly missing this leap of faith

and the spirit to survive,

and I think if you are really escaping,

you have much more adrenaline.

So now this comes to this experience,

I still think they would have been able to make it.

Ah, so, um, a bit unfortunate.

But, uh, look what we did.

We managed to do it for 95%.

We were approximately 50 meters from the Golden Gate.

Hut: 95% is usually scientifically significant, right?

Humphreys: These guys were very capable.

I think the raft could have theoretically made it,

but I don't think it did.

I think they're dead.

I think they're floating out there or on the bottom...

for the same reason everyone else says, "Where are they?"

Narrator: For the team, it's been a disappointing

but insightful night.

For former prison guards,

the results reinforce a gut instinct they've had

for over half a century now.

Based on the smallest of evidence pulled from the bay

just days after the escape.

Mahoney: I was given authority to go out and start looking for them.

You're going around and around and around.

They'd see these items floating,

and then they would retrieve it and bring it in

and try to dry it out.

And we got surprisingly enough quite a few correspondence

that they had maybe with their parents or loved ones,

things that were very dear to them.

It could be a photograph of their father or mother

or a loved one, maybe their girlfriend.

It's items that they would really want to keep with them,

but I think they had to give it up.

Narrator: More than 50 years ago 3 men took a desperate gamble.

Mahoney: And I've talked to many, many people,

and they really hope they made it.

Interviewer: How do you feel?

Oh, hell, I...

Well, I wouldn't mind.

It would be all right.

I'd like to know what happened to them.

Narrator: But tonight the bay is holding its secrets close,

and the mystery of Alcatraz continues.

"Secrets of the Dead"

was made possible in part by

the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

and by contributions to your PBS station

from viewers like you.

Thank you.