June 13, 1962 - Three convicts who dug escape hatches with spoons through cell walls on Alcatraz Island were aided by the erosion and debilitation of the Federal penitentiary. This was indicated today by prison officials while an intensive search continued for Frank L. Morris, 35-year-old Louisiana bank robber; John W. Anglin, 32, and Clarence Anglin, 31, bank-robbing brothers of Florida. A force of 200 armed soldiers was swarming over Angel Island, two miles north of Alcatraz, in pressing the search. A fourth prisoner, Allen C. West of Atlanta, was reported to have dug an escape hole in his cell, next to that of Morris. He did not join the others in fleeing, however. Warden Olin Blackwell said there was “a remote possibility” that the three were still on the island. The extent of the search coordinated by the FBI, however, indicated a general view that the prisoners had sought refuge on the mainland or another island in San Francisco Bay.
