rushed to the cellblock an escape alarm blared throughout the prison and all across the island indoors and out Adding to the commotion another prisoner was calling out to the guards from his cell I planned the entire escape Allen West cried out In his hands he held what looked like a vent cover only it was made of cardboard Meanwhile officers climbed up on top of Cellblock B which was constructed of prison cells stacked three-high Looking up they saw a roof vent that had its bars removed The prisoners had gone through there The vent shaft led to the roof and was capped by a rain hood But when officers got to the roof they saw that the rain hood had been knocked aside On the north side of the building barbed wire had been cut from the fence Outside the fence the grass was matted down as if people had been there The officers could hardly believe their eyes The Rock the impenetrable fortress of Alcatraz had been breached Dozens of officers fanned out all over the island They searched the cell house the workshops storerooms and
other buildings They checked an old dungeon below the cell house They scoured the beaches tramped through shrubbery and inspected the caves along the shore By boat they patrolled the water around the island looking for bodies in the cold churning sea At this point Alcatraz officers realized that Frank Morris John Anglin and Clarence Anglin were most likely not on the island anymore They called the San Francisco office of the FBI and informed them of what had happened The FBI alerted the local police the California Highway Patrol the U S Navy the U S Coast Guard and all the sheriffs offices in the area A search was begun by land air and sea It was 7 55 a m about 40 minutes after the morning head count and a federal investigation was underway Back in Cellblock B officers questioned other prisoners including Clarence Carnes and Allen West Years later Carnes claimed to know a lot about the escape He said he had helped Morris and the Anglin brothers with several details But he kept his mouth shut at the time and
hoped others would too Many prisoners had learned about the escape They had heard the men digging in their cells at night But nobody said a word to the officers The situation was different for West In the back of his cell where there should have been an air vent was a gaping hole He had chipped away the concrete around the vent and knocked it out and he had created a fake vent cover from cardboard It was obvious that West was supposed to escape with the others but something had gone wrong for him He knew he could not hide his involvement with the plan so he gave short answers to the officers questions But he was careful not to reveal too much Chances are he didn’t want to sabotage his friends shot at freedom While West was being questioned in the warden’s office the rest of the cell house was searched Up above Cellblock B investigators noticed that blankets had been hung from the bars that enclosed the area between the top of the cellblock and the ceiling What they found behind the blankets was stunning a secret workshop full of tools including a homemade wrench a foot-long file a stapler a
mirror a flashlight three spoon handles and more They also found a rubber raft and a life preserver both of which the prisoners had made out of raincoats and left behind for West There was even a vacuum cleaner motor that the prisoners had used to power a drill In Frank Morris’s cell they found magazine articles that explained how to make rafts and life jackets John Anglin’s cell contained art supplies and the paint that had been used on the dummy heads Clarence Anglin’s cell had knots of human hair left over from the dummy heads and more paint One of the more interesting things the investigators found was in Allen West’s cell a road atlas of North America with the pages for Mexico removed His cell also contained three hacksaw blades three more spoons and a chisel The scope of the escape was incredible and complicated All those stolen or improvised tools A virtual hardware store hidden behind blankets Holes dug through 8 inches of concrete with spoon handles and other rigged utensils It
