Troops Seeking Alcatraz Escapers

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29849, 15 June 1962, Page 9

Troops Seeking Alcatraz Escapers

(A.Z. Press Association —Copyright) SAN FRANCISCO, June 13. One hundred armed troops landed on a wooded island near Alcatraz prison today in a final “mop-up” operation in the search" for three escaped bank robbers.

The convicts escaped from Alcatraz yesterday by digging through a concrete wall with sharpened "all purpose" spoons used in the prison mess hall. Officials claimed their escape was made easier by the prison’s run-down condition.

If found alive off Alcatraz Island, the men will be the first known to have made it in the prison's 28-year history as the home of America's most dangerous convicts. The assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (Mr F. Wilkinson) told reporters that "their chance of having reached shore safely is very poor. But we don't even know what means they used to get off the island." The Sixth Army sent 100 troops, armed with carbines, by landing barge to join 35 military police already on 600acre Angel Island, two miles from Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. Although almost convinced that the men had gone into the water, guards continued their search of the rocky

caves around the base of Alcatraz. The island is a mile and a half from th* eity shore. The missing men are John William Anglin, aged 32. his brother. Clarence, aged 31. and Frank Lee Morris, aged 35.