Will this photo crack the Alcatraz prison escape mystery?
Alcatraz prison authorities have long claimed that the two brothers who escaped prison never made it to land and drowned in the San Francisco bay.
Now they claim that not only did the brothers survive the escape, they may still be alive today, after a photo has been discovered showing the escaped brothers John and Clarence Anglin in Brazil in 1975.
New evidence has been presented in a History channel special named ''Alcatraz: Search for the Truth’’, turning this cold case over after garnering attention from authorities 50 years on.
According to The History Channel, the photo suggesting the brothers survived was allegedly taken by an Anglins’ family friend Fred Brizzi.
He claims to have run into the brothers in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s and gave the photo to the Anglin family in 1992.
Ken and David Widner, the nephews of the Anglin brothers, handed the photo and Christmas cards from 1962 over to retired US marshal, Art Roderick, who was the lead investigator on the case for 20 years.
Christmas cards sent from the brothers to family members in 1962 are also being investigated by Mr Roderick after a handwriting expert claims they are legitimate.
“When you work these types of cases, there’s a feeling you get when stuff starts to fall into place,” Roderick told The New York Post.
“I’m getting this feeling now.”
Mr Roderick concluded that the photo was "highly likely" and believes Mr Brizzi may have helped the brothers escape.
The retired marshal is looking into the new evidence and has investigators lining up new interviews to search South America for Alcatraz's first prison escapees.
The Anglin family case was strengthened after DNA of a third brother, who died trying to escape prison in Alabama, was checked against skeletal remains found north of San Francisco in 1963 which prison authorities said may have belonged to one of the three escapees.
Checks found no DNA match to the Anglin family.
The remains could be Frank Morris, but there is no way to check.
It was reported that the Anglin brothers tucked dummy heads into their bed sheets and snuck into an unused utility corridor through holes they had crudely drilled through their cells.
Then, from the prison roof, they shimmied down the bakery smoke stack and climbed over the fence.
From the north-east shore of the island, they floated away from the prison on a small raft made from more than 50 stolen raincoats that were inflated with a musical instrument that was converted into a pump.
Even the FBI still calls the plan "ingenious" on its website.
Morning news break – October 14
