All language subtitles for The UnXplained S02E01 The Greatest Escapes 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DDP2 0 H 264-Kitsune_track4_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
A knick-of-time escape

- in front of nail-biting crowds.
- [crowd gasping]

A miraculous survival

in a mile-high death trap.

And a jail break that defies
impossible odds.

What is it about the act of
escaping captivity

that fascinates us?

Is it because we have
an innate fear

of being trapped
against our will?

Or could it be that we all
possess a collective desire

to run away
and change our lives?

Well...

that is what we'll try
and find out.

♪

SHATNER: A little-known
25-year-old Hungarian magician

and escape artist by the name
of Harry Houdini

makes an astonishing debut
at the Orpheum Opera House,

one of the country's premier
vaudeville theaters.

[excited murmuring]

[cheering]

ANNOUNCER:
The great Harry Houdini!

[applause]

Houdini's father was a rabbi

and when he lost his job
in Appleton, Wisconsin,

the family moved to Milwaukee
and later to New York.

And it was there he met a friend
who had a mutual interest

in magic and they formed an act
and they took the name Houdin

and they added an "I"
to the end: Houdini.

And that was really the
beginning of his magic career.

Houdini would come to town

and he would challenge
police officers and locksmiths

to bring their best locks.

He would put himself in these
locks and he would escape them

onstage in front of
a live audience.

Houdini's real power and his
gift was his-his showmanship,

his presentation, his ability
to mesmerize an audience,

to connect with them.

Because here was this
small immigrant man

that conquered all his fears,

that could do things
that nobody else could do.

And so, he would have this power
over his audiences

in a way that's never been
achieved since.

SHATNER:
Over the course of his career,

Houdini performed thousands of
death-defying escapes.

But of all his astounding feats,

one was considered more
dangerous and more impossible

than the rest.

Houdini depended on
publicity stunts to draw people

to the vaudeville theater
to see him.

The greatest of those
publicity stunts

was "the overboard box escape."

He started it in 1912
in New York.

COX:
He announced that he would be doing this escape from a pier

and a massive crowd assembled
to watch this.

And Houdini showed up
with his assistants,

with the reporters,
with his packing crate.

And the police also showed up
and they said,

"You can't do that.
There's laws against that."

Houdini decided to
rent a tugboat on his own

out to the middle of
the East River.

There they started the process

of locking him up
in the handcuffs,

locking him up in the leg irons,

tying him up
with the heavy rope,

putting him inside this
escape-proof wooden crate.

Nailing the lid on so it
couldn't be opened.

And even that wasn't enough.

Then they tied the packing crate
up with this heavy, strong rope.

Because the box had a number of
air holes all around it

and because it was weighted
on the outside

with 180 pounds of iron,

it would quickly sink
into the water.

The water would go inside
of the box

and, of course, Houdini with it.

Everyone who worked
with him knew

that it was a dangerous feat.

The story was that they used to
hold their breath with him

because they used to anticipate

how long he would be
under the water.

And about a minute later...

♪

...suddenly Houdini would bob
to the surface free,

completely free of the box
and the handcuffs.

And what's amazing about
the overboard box escape

is that when the box was
hauled up, it was still locked.

It was still nailed shut.

And when it was opened up,
the handcuffs were found inside,

also closed.

How did he escape
from this wooden packing crate

into the river

and nothing was touched,
nothing was damaged?

All in less than 60 seconds.

That is beyond belief.

SHATNER:
It was indeed beyond belief.

Over the next several years,

Houdini would repeat
this incredible escape

countless times, and for
audiences all over the world.

How did he do it?

It was such a great escape

and it mystified audiences
everywhere.

But Houdini had his skeptics.

They wanted to expose him.

They wanted to explain
how he did it.

They figured Houdini
would sneak in

during the middle of the night
and-and cut a little trap door,

or have an escape panel that he
could get out of it some way

that nobody knew about.

Let's just say for the sake
of argument

that he did use short nails
or trick knots

to escape his contraption.

How is it possible that he
got out of his handcuffs,

out of his leg irons,

put the box back together again,
tied it all back up,

all within 57 seconds
while holding his breath?

Houdini would invite anyone
on stage to examine the nails,

to handle the nails,
to put in your own nails.

And you might also suggest,

was Houdini ever in the packing
crate in the first place?

He was in that these
had holes in them,

and he would poke his finger out
and they would see

and even as he would be raised,

he would poke a little
American flag or something out.

So you could see from the time
that it went under the waves,

that there was someone inside
that-that packing crate.

SHATNER:
While there are many theories,

no one knows for certain

how Houdini pulled off his
overboard box escape.

Even master escape artists--
many of whom spent decades

studying Houdini's tricks
and techniques--

are still trying
to figure it out.

Often with deadly results.

GUNNARSON:
Many people have died doing this escape.

I mean, I was one of them.

I'm-I'm living proof of
how dangerous this escape is.

In 1983, I decided to do

my variation
of the Houdini packing crate.

[crowd cheering]

I got all chained up and locked,

I got put into a wooden coffin,

the lid was nailed on,

it was wrapped and chained,

and then the coffin was lowered
into an icy river in Canada.

[crowd cheering]

And I didn't escape.

I couldn't get out.

I was underwater
for nearly four minutes.

They pulled the coffin out
and my cold lifeless body

was still inside that coffin.

[crowd clamoring]

It was only the dedicated
paramedics that were on standby

that saved my life.

I was a very lucky
young escape artist on that day.

SHATNER:
For nearly a century since his death,

magicians have tried and failed

to figure out just how
Harry Houdini

managed this incredible escape.

But there are some who believe
that the reason

for their failure is simple:

they never considered
that Houdini

was capable of performing
"real magic."

One of Houdini's great friends
was Arthur Conan Doyle,

the author of Sherlock Holmes.

Conan Doyle believed
very strongly in spiritualism

and he saw a number of things

that he considered evidence that
Houdini was actually a psychic

and was dematerializing
out of his escapes.

He always chided Houdini
that he should

be honest with his audience
and tell them

not only that
he has these powers,

but that these powers exist
for everyone to share.

Sir Arthur firmly believed that
Houdini was supernatural

and he could not be talked out
of this by Houdini.

But Houdini went out of his way
to say,

"There was nothing supernatural
about my feats.

My brain is the key
that sets me free."

That was what Houdini would say
over and over again.

SHATNER:
"My brain is the key that sets me free."

Could the secret to Houdini's
incredible feats

really have been revealed
in that simple phrase?

Did the magician have such an
incredible control over his mind

that he could command his body
to perform the impossible?

We may never know.

On October 31, 1926,

Harry Houdini died of a ruptured
appendix at the age of 52,

taking many of his secrets
to his grave.

But whether his astounding
escapes were made possible

by clever devices,

impressive physical skill,

or what some might call
"real magic,"

Harry Houdini remains
the most mysterious,

and unexplained,
magician in history.

SHATNER:
After ten years of Fidel Castro's

tightfisted Communist rule,

the island nation's economy
is in chaos.

Food shortages,

and a government-mandated
seven-day workweek,

only serve to heighten
the Cuban people's

sense of desperation
and despair.

Many attempt to flee Castro's
oppressive regime,

only to be caught,
imprisoned or killed.

But for 17-year-old
Armando Socarras,

the chance for freedom
and a better life

are worth the risk.

The political climate
in Cuba, 1969,

was at the peak
of the oppression.

SHATNER:
The plan was indeed dangerous.

If they were caught,
it meant prison or worse.

If they weren't,
they might die trying.

But after some
careful reconnaissance,

Armando believed that he and his
friend could pull it off.

And on the morning
of June 4, 1969,

their bold plan
would be put into action.

Iberia Flight 904 was scheduled
to depart Havana at 6:30 p.m.,

arriving in Madrid, Spain
nine hours later.

The DC-8 airplane was already
taxiing to the end of the runway

when Armando and his friend
crawled through the tall grass

bordering the runway,
ready to make a break for it.

SHATNER:
Lodged inside the wheel well,

and dangerously outside

the pressurized sections
of the airplane,

Armando began falling
out of consciousness

as the air outside screamed by
at nearly 600 miles an hour.

JOHN NANCE:
Normally the cruising altitude

on a trip as far
as Havana to Madrid,

you'd probably be up
around 37 to 39,000 feet.

At 37,000 feet, for somebody
who has just experienced

a rapid decompression, your time
of useful consciousness

is as little as eight seconds.

At that altitude, you're going
to be around temperatures

that are in -45 to -50 degrees
Fahrenheit.

SHATNER:
Nine hours after taking off in Havana,

Iberia Flight 904
landed in Madrid.

And as the captain
stood on the tarmac

saying goodbye
to his passengers,

Armando's unconscious body
fell from the wheel well

onto the ground
with a sickening thud.

SHATNER:
Incredible as it seems, for Armando,

surviving in a mile-high death
trap was, indeed, possible.

But how?

Medically, you're not dead
until you're warm and dead.

Armando was found without
vital signs, he was hypothermic.

I think what happened is because
of the severe hypothermia,

his cardiac function decreased.

The blood flow to the brain
and organs decreased.

There are reports and cases
of people being found

in the snow and ice,

frozen without any vital signs,
that have made a full recovery.

TAYLOR:
There's a thing called the mammalian response.

If we reach certain
cold temperatures,

our bodies shut down
instead of degrading and dying.

It just goes into hibernation.

Well, this is what happened
to Armando.

When he gets up
to the 30,000-foot atmosphere

and he has no air to breathe,

or just a tiny amount of air,
he goes into hypothermia

and then when the plane lands,

his body starts to warm up
and then he comes back to.

SHATNER:
Could Armando's amazing story of survival really be attributed

to the act of being frozen
and then defrosted back to life?

Or might there be another
even more profound explanation?

SHATNER:
Was Armando's life saved by the simple act of falling asleep?

There are many who will tell you
that it's the very lack of fear

and panic
that can help us to survive

even in the most
life-threatening situations.

In any case, Armando
successfully cheated death

and lived to tell his story.

Not unlike the story
of a man who escaped

not high above the Earth
in an airplane,

but from deep underwater
in a submarine.

SHATNER: As World War II
rages throughout Europe,

British Royal Navy
submarine HMS Perseus

is patrolling the waters
off the coast of Greece.

With both German and Italian
forces occupying Greece,

and the threat of underwater
mines lurking,

it is a dangerous mission.

HMS Perseus
is a 260-foot submarine.

Uh, she's on a mission, sailing
from Malta to Alexandria.

HMS Perseuscarried 58 crew
and two passengers.

SHATNER:
One of those two passengers

is a sailor by the name
of John Capes.

He had hitched a ride
aboard the submarine

so that he could return
to his home base in Alexandria,

where the Perseuswas
scheduled to dock

after its mission was complete.

During the night,
the submarine comes up

to charge its batteries,

so that it can operate
underwater during the day.

And they go along very slowly,

keeping a very,
very sharp lookout.

SHATNER:
At approximately 10:00 p.m.,

the crew of the Perseuswas
awakened by a violent explosion.

And everyone on board
scrambled for their lives.

CLAYTON:
She hits a mine, which made

a big hole in the bowels
of the vessel,

so that it sank very, very fast

towards the bottom.

John Capes happened to be
in the safest place on the boat,

the place that was furthest away
from the explosion.

Capes is suddenly jolted awake.

He kind of gets
himself together,

realizes what's happened.

And he goes forward
to see what he can find.

SHATNER:
With only moments to spare, Capes has to act fast.

Fortunately, he finds
a potential lifeline

in the form
of an emergency escape suit,

which is designed
to protect sailors

against the effects
of water pressure.

Exiting the submarine
at a depth of some 170 feet,

Capes and one
of the crew's sailors

desperately attempt to make
their way to the surface.

As if surviving
both the explosion

and death by drowning
weren't enough,

the tremendous weight of the
water leaves them vulnerable

to a potentially fatal condition
dreaded by deep-sea divers

known as the bends.

The bends is similar
to opening up a can of soda.

When you open up a can of soda,
the gas that's in the liquid,

which is carbon dioxide, all
of a sudden starts releasing,

bubbling to the top
of the can of soda.

So, the nitrogen that's in
the body does the same thing.

So when you ascend too fast,
the nitrogen that's built up

in the body tries to escape,

and this can bubble out
into any of the organs,

including the heart,
the brain, the lungs.

It can cause malfunction.

It can also kill you.

SHATNER: Even though
his escape suit was not rated

to handle water pressure
deeper than a hundred feet,

John Capes's will to survive
was formidable.

In spite of everything,

including the bends...

...he made it
to the surface alive.

MALCOLMSON:
Capes made quite a swim.

I think it was
about six miles or so swimming.

He reaches a rocky beach,

manages to drag himself ashore,

and collapses.

It's amazing that

John Capes' lungs
did not explode,

or at least hemorrhage badly,
as he was surfacing.

Maybe this guy was
just lucky enough

that he was resilient enough
to survive.

SHATNER:
Against all odds,

John Capes escaped what should
have been a death sentence.

He defied everything we know
about both human physiology

and the laws of physics.

But how?

So, in the British Navy,
for a long, long time,

there had been
an alcohol ration every day.

And the rum was 95% proof.

And in order
to settle his nerves,

John Capes took a big swig
out of his rum bottle.

So I guess by the time that
John Capes was actually leaving

the submarine, he was
more than a little bit drunk.

TAYLOR:
Actually, drinking alcohol

might have helped him out--
it could have lowered

his blood pressure a little bit,

and it could have
actually kept him calm.

Both of those are things
that you may need

in this type of situation.

You need to remain calm
in an emergency,

and your blood pressure
was gonna get really high

at some point,
and so if you have a way

to artificially
bring it down some,

I suspect that helped.

SHATNER: Unfortunately,
John Capes's story

was so remarkable,
so inexplicable,

that many people
didn't believe it was true.

They even went so far
as to question

whether or not he'd ever been
on the submarine

in the first place.

CLAYTON:
People didn't believe that

you could survive that...

that escape from 170 feet,

so there were
all sorts of people

cast doubts on John Capes.

And it wasn't
until nearly 50 years later,

when divers discovered the wreck
of HMS Perseus,that...

there was the hatch, opened...

and John Capes's story was
at last validated,

and his... his behavior
and his courage was rewarded.

SHATNER:
Whether it was a swig of alcohol

or sheer willpower,

something enabled John Capes
to escape the fate that befell

the HMS Perseusand its crew.

We may never know
exactly what saved him.

Not unlike the case

of another man
who was able to escape

an even more perilous situation,

one that claimed the lives
of thousands of people...

on 9/11.

[distant screams]

SHATNER:
Brian Clark begins his workday

like any other.

He's an executive
at Euro Brokers,

located in the South Tower
of the World Trade Center.

But little does Brian know

that a hellish nightmare
is about to unfold.

BRIAN CLARK:
That particular morning,

at 8:46, I was typing away
at my keyboard...

...when I heard this loud...

boom-boom explosion.

- [explosion]
- As I looked up,

my peripheral vision
caught something behind me.

Right against the glass
were swirling flames.

And suddenly,
all those flames dissipated,

and out in the airspace,
lots of newspapers

and other computer papers
were floating in the air.

It was sort of a strange sight

that I-I
couldn't quite understand.

SHATNER:
Before he could even realize

that an American Airlines
767 airplane

had been deliberately flown

into the World Trade Center's
North Tower,

Brian immediately sensed that
this was no ordinary emergency.

I knew in an instant
it was terrorism.

I walked to our trading floor,

and all the brokers had gathered
at the north windows

and were looking up nine floors

at the 93rd floor next door,

and flames
all around the building.

Didn't know what it was,
'cause nobody had seen

the plane approach
the North Tower.

And I immediately called
my wife and said,

"Turn on the television.

"Something's happened next door
in the North Tower.

I just want you to know
that we are okay."

- [alarm blaring]
- The strobe lights

in our entire floor flashed,

and the siren gave
a little whoop-whoop,

and a familiar voice came over
the public address system.

MAN [over P.A.]:
Building two is secure.

There is no need to evacuate
building two.

Repeat: Building two is secure.

SHATNER:
At 9:03 a.m.,

United Airlines Flight 175

crashed into the South Tower
of the World Trade Center,

between the 77th
and 85th floors.

Which meant that
Brian Clark's office,

which was located
on the 84th floor,

was right in the impact zone.

[screams]

Everything fell apart--

ceiling tiles, the grid,

air conditioning ducts,
lighting, speakers,

everything rained down.

The air was immediately filled
with gritty, horrible stuff.

Our building moved,
and I could hear the steel

kind of "creak, creak."

I was afraid.

"Terrified" is perhaps
a better word.

[siren wailing]

SHATNER:
Amidst the chaos and confusion

in the moments after impact,

Brian was sure
he was going to die.

But as the building finally
stopped trembling and swaying,

he suddenly heard a strange,

and oddly calming,
voice in his head.

[voice whispering indistinctly]

Not my voice
and not somebody else's voice.

Just a feeling: "Brian,
you're going to be fine."

[man coughing]

And I kind of sobered up
and entered the hallway.

My intention was to turn
to the right, to Stairway C.

As I got to that intersection,
however--

and I can't explain this--
there was a push

on my right shoulder.

There was nobody there,

but there was
this feeling of somebody

pushing me to the left.

Stairway C was to my right,

Stairway B was ahead of me,
and Stairway A to my left.

But with this push,

I just went with it,
and I went to Stairway A.

- [alarm blaring]
- SHATNER: Following the urging

of this uncanny push,
Brian chose Stairway A,

and proceeded to try and escape
by walking down the stairs.

It was the most fateful decision
of his life.

CLARK:
As I stepped off the stair

onto the landing
of the 81st floor,

- I heard a banging noise.
- [clanking nearby]

As I strained a bit,
I then heard this strange voice

yelling,
"Help! Help! I'm buried!"

As I got closer to the voice,
he was like,

"Can you see my hand?
Can you see my hand?"

And suddenly,
down near the floor,

my light picked up
this waving hand,

and that person said,
"Hallelujah!

I've been saved!"
And I put my hand out

in front of him and said,
"I'm Brian."

He said, "I'm Stanley.

We'll be brothers for life."

I put my arm around Stanley and
said, "Come on, let's go home."

As I shone the light
down the stairs,

I only saw smoke
sort of rolling up the stairs--

there was no flame--

and I took the first step down.

And we continued on down.

Down, down, down.

We got all the way down
to the Plaza Level.

It was ashen gray, like a...
an archeological site

that had been abandoned
for hundreds of years.

Not a pleasant sight.

GARRETT GRAFF:
Brian Clark's story

is one of the most remarkable
of 9/11.

He was one of just four people
who survived that day

from above the impact zone
in the South Tower.

And what is all the more
remarkable about his story

is the way that,
of the three stairwells

that he had to choose from,
two were blocked and impassable

and would have resulted
in his death,

and he ended up picking
the one staircase

that was free and open
and led to safety.

♪

SHATNER:
Ever since that day,

a single question has seared
itself into Brian's mind.

Why him?

The way the two airplanes
came into the building,

uh, had a lot to do
with the pattern of survival

or lack of survival.

In the South Tower,
the airplane came in

at a bit of an angle and was
adjusting up to the last second,

and that meant
that the structural pieces

that were disintegrating
as they came through

did not do a complete job of
scything off all the stairways.

♪

SHATNER: What was it
that compelled Brian Clark

to choose the right stairwell,

and to take it down
instead of up?

Was it his survival instinct?

Blind luck?

Or could it have been
that mysterious "push"?

CLARK: Years later,
when I think back on it,

I say, "Thank you very much,"
to whatever it was.

It got me out
of the building safely.

Had I turned right
to go to Stairway C,

who knows
what I would have found?

So was Brian Clark's survival

merely because of luck,

a twist of fate?

Or was it some kind
of spiritual force

that guided him
to escape certain death?

Well, this much is certain:

in spite of impossible odds,
Brian lived.

And while some might be
reluctant to call it a miracle,

nobody could argue that
what Brian Clark experienced

was anything short...

of miraculous.

SHATNER:
A little over one mile offshore

stands what was at one time

the most secure penitentiary
in the United States.

Alcatraz.

Or, as it is
more famously known,

The Rock.

Formerly a military stockade,

it was converted to a
maximum security prison in 1934

by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover,

who wanted to house the nation's
most dangerous criminals

in a place from which
there was no escape.

DYKE:
Alcatraz was Hoover's baby.

And he wanted it for
his public enemy number ones

and supposedly
nobody could escape from it.

The island is out in the middle
of the water,

the water's 52 degrees
on average

throughout the whole year,

and there's sharks in the bay.

SHATNER:
Since it first began operations in 1934, until 1962,

a total of 31 prisoners
attempted to escape Alcatraz.

23 were caught.

Six were shot and killed.

Two drowned in the frigid waters
of San Francisco Bay.

ESSLINGER:
With Alcatraz, you had America's

most security safe prison in the
middle of the San Francisco Bay.

When it first opened,
they had what was called

the silence rule.

They couldn't talk
to each other.

There was no news coming in.

But they had the sights,

even the smells of the
Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory

across the bay.

They could hear the tour boats
in the bay kind of going around

and the laughs
and the parties going on.

So it was more of
a psychological torture for them

than it was actually
physical torture.

SHATNER:
In 1960,

an inmate named Frank Morris
was admitted to Alcatraz,

followed by three others--

Allen West,

and brothers
John and Clarence Anglin.

ESSLINGER:
Allen West, Frank Morris

and the Anglins had all served
time in Atlanta Penitentiary.

I think that at least,
you know, by sight,

they would have
known each other,

probably met for certain.

DYKE:
Frank Morris was known to be of a fairly high IQ.

You could call him hyperactive.

He was always looking
for something to do

and his-his mind would get
very bored quickly so he would

escape or try to escape.

He had numerous,
numerous escape attempts.

So they determined it was best
to move him to Alcatraz

to keep him from escaping.

SHATNER:
Together, the four men

hatched an elaborate plan
to succeed

where other potential escapees
had failed.

Allen West
was on the cleaning detail.

He was up on top
of those cell blocks sweeping up

when he saw that there was
a vent in the roof

that didn't work.

And West, the Anglin brothers
and Morris noticed

that the cement inside the backs
of the cells was crumbling

because of the salt air.

ESSLINGER:
So, what they would do is they would take

the ends of these steel spoons

and use them to route out
these holes through the cement.

And they recreated the grates
using cardboard,

cutting out the exact pattern.

When you actually compare
the grill itself,

the fake ones that they made,
to the real grill, uh,

they're pretty
convincing, actually.

SHATNER:
The men now had access to the roof of the prison,

but in order to hide the fact
that they were working there

every night, they needed
to fool the guards into thinking

they were still asleep
in their bunks.

So they devised
an ingenious solution.

They created dummy heads
in their likenesses

and placed them in their beds
while they worked.

DAVID WIDNER:
Each one of them had a part.

They knew that they needed
to make dummy heads.

So they took up painting

to paint these two portraits
of their girlfriends.

That gave them access
to the flesh-colored paint

that they needed
for the dummy heads.

Clarence took up haircutting.
He was a barber.

And so while
he was cutting hair,

he would walk it back to the
cells and that's where they got

the real hair
that's on the dummy heads.

SHATNER:
After 18 months of digging and planning,

the men were finally ready
to make their escape.

There was just one more problem:

surviving the more than one mile
of treacherous waters

between the island
and the mainland.

They were able to go to all
these other convicts at the time

and acquire all these
different raincoats.

And then Clarence actually
stitched a raft together.

And then they created this
valve, kind of like an air stem,

where they would blow it up.

They were creating things
that they would be able to use

in the success of their escape.

SHATNER:
On the night of June 11, 1962,

at approximately 9:45 p.m.,

the men put their plan
into action.

As they crawled from their cells
and headed up to the roof,

Allen West elected to stay
behind, fearing capture.

It was the last verified time
anyone would see Frank Morris

and the Anglin brothers again,

because their elaborate
escape plan worked.

ESSLINGER:
This massive manhunt is initiated.

You've got the FBI, uh,
the U.S. Marshals Service,

the Coast Guard, everybody is
searching for these three men.

The warden of the prison
comes out and says

that the water conditions
were too extreme.

He didn't feel
that they could have made it.

J. Edgar Hoover comes out,

he indicates that, you know,
they certainly drowned.

It was a big embarrassment
to them.

Alcatraz was supposed
to be escape-proof.

DYKE:
I still, to this day,

will never 100% say
whether they lived or died

because there's
no bodies recovered.

Once they left the island,
nobody knows

what happened except them.

WIDNER:
Digging through the FBI files,

there's no doubt in my mind

that John and Clarence
survived that escape.

Every year on Mother's Day,
my grandmother received roses.

And the card would always
say "Joe and Jerry."

Well, she didn't know anybody
named Joe and Jerry,

but she did know
who those flowers came from.

SHATNER:
Did Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers survive

their treacherous journey
across San Francisco Bay?

Or, did they fall prey to the
rough, shark-infested waters?

One thing is certain:
they made it off The Rock.

And there are many who believe

that not only did they make it
to the mainland,

they did so
with the help of mysterious

and unexplained forces.

SHATNER:
On June the 11th, 1962,

Frank Morris, John Anglin
and his brother Clarence

pulled off what is arguably
the most daring

and difficult prison break
in history.

And if the rumors are true,
it's because they knew

the precise moment to attempt
to get off Alcatraz Island.

Long before Alcatraz
became a prison,

it was actually used
by local indigenous tribes

who used the island
for the same purpose.

They sent
their own undesirables there,

their own criminals there,

and they essentially
left them there to die.

Most did die, and many of them
were buried on the island.

And that led to speculation
that their spirits

still inhabit the island
right up to this day.

ESSLINGER:
Certainly, there were Native American inmates

who were on the island.

Some of the Native Americans
believed that if--

you know,
they could actually tell,

that if the birds
were circling the island

and they refused to land,

that there was some type
of negative energy.

Clarence Carnes was a Native
American who was on the island.

He was very close friends
with Frank Morris

and with the Anglins.

Maybe it's something
that he brought up to them,

but certainly it could've been
one of the stories out there.

SHATNER:
On the day of the escape, while out in the prison yard,

Frank Morris reportedly noticed

the birds were
particularly calm.

According to local legend,
Morris believed

that this was the island's
spirits sending him

and his accomplices an omen
that it was safe

to put their escape plan
into motion on that day.

But not everyone believes
the tale to be true.

I've heard that rumor, but
I've-I've never seen any proof

that Frank Morris actually knew
about premonitions

or anything to that effect.

I don't think, when the birds
were flying or their activities

or anything like that
had any bearing

on what day they were
gonna make the escape.

They'd worked
on their escape for months

and they hadn't been caught
up to that point,

and I think they were
starting to get worried.

They left when it was
their opportunity to leave

and they thought
they had the best chance.

WIDNER:
When my grandmother passed away, I was about ten years old.

At the funeral, there were
several FBI agents there.

And they were very noticeable.

I mean, you could tell that
that's who they were.

After the funeral,
there was a lot of talk

about the two women
that showed up.

They sat up front,
they didn't talk to anybody.

And they were very tall women.

And from what we understand,
the FBI actually noticed that

and they was wanting to question
these two individuals

that actually were men
dressed up as women.

But they disappeared
before they had a chance.

There's no doubt
that it was John and Clarence.

But my question to them was,
well, if y'all really believed

that these guys
died in that water,

why are y'all still
looking for them?

Close the case.

So, what do you think?

Did Frank Morris
and the Anglin brothers

really live
through a perilous swim

in the frigid waters
of San Francisco Bay?

And, assuming they did, could
they have lived out their lives

without being found out
and recaptured?

Perhaps that's why these stories
of great escapes fascinate us.

They satisfy our curiosity
to find out

how the impossible
can be accomplished.

And that's the same curiosity

that compels us to seek out
the answers to...

...the unexplained.