MYTH BUSTERS ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ

ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ: The Story 10: The Real Escape

Quote from: Brendan on March 14, 2005, 01:31:03 AM

Alright, well I just finished watching the "Mythbusters" episode where Jamie and Adam attempt the escape.

Here's my breakdown:

Mission: To prove that the escape from Alactraz, done by Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers, is possible.

Now the whole purpose of this experiment was trying to determine whether or not the raft portion could be successful. They were not worried about the escaping from the cells since the prisoners did do that.

Now, Jamie and Adam studied the ebb and flow of San Francisco Bay by using the Bay Model, which was developed in the 50's to study the enviromental impact on a proposed developement deal. It's a perfect scale model covering two acres and replicates a full days movements in under fifteen minutes.

Using their scale boat they checked to see what would happen by dropping the boat in the water at the time of the hide tide (model time). The boat floated west in a rush and went under the Golden Gate Bridge and so they determined that there may be no way that the prisoners could have made it to Angel Island.

However, Jamie and Adem felt that Morris was smart enough to figure this out and actually decided to take advantage of the current and use it as a river and head towards the Golden Gate Bridge (specifically the north side) and then get to land. So they figure he used Angel Island as a diversion for the other prisoners.

So they're new mission is now to: Use the current to head towards the Golden Gate Bridge and then paddle to shore and make it to land.

The constructed the paddles using the FBI's drawings and files of the escape. The also constructed the raft using the same material the prisoners used. Based on the information they had available to them they felt as though the raft was very similar to then one used in the actual escape.

For the escape attempt they wore the same clothes the prisoners wore and they also had a third man aboard the raft. This man was wearing a wet suit and life jakcet in order to help Jamie or Adam is they went overboard or if they were in trouble. Jamie and Adam were also equiped with a strobe locator light so they could be rescued.

The Weather Conditions: The current was at about 3 knots, the water 60 degrees and the winds was at 5 knots. These conditions were roughly the same as the conditions the prisoners had when they were escaping.

And they're off!

After awhile they began to take on water and they lost their path. They eventually made it back on course and were headed in the right direction when they were geting cold and their legs were falling alseep. Every ten minutes they had to keep putting air into it by breathing into it. And the tidal rift kept getting rougher. 40 minutes went by and they were still at it. And of course when you start getting closer to shore your spirits would begin to lift, much like Adam's and Jamie's were. Three miles later, after travelling against a rushing tide, they made it to land landing just East of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Adam believes that it is possible that the prisoners could have made. His quote:

"Given a reasonable amount of intelligence I think it's entirely possible that they made it. Again, I think the most damning evidence that they didn't is that no one has heard from them since."

And Jamie:

"Unless they find any specific evidence that these guys you know, lived happily ever after or something after they did it... ah.. you know, we won't know whether it was true or not. But we know that it could have been done. Which is cool."

However... they mention at the end of the episode that the tide carried a paddle to Angel Island. And that tide came directly from Marin Headlands, so how did the paddle end up on Angel Island if not with escapees?

And this...

Quote from: Brendan on June 08, 2005, 07:51:26 PM

UPDATE on my summary of the "Mythbusters" episode where Jamie and Adam esacaped from Alcatraz. I was just watching an outakes episode where they showed clips that didn't make the final cut of the show. They showed a clip from the Escape From Alcatraz episode and it featured Adam and Jamie at the San Fran. Bay Model.

In the clip, Adam dropped three scale boats into the water where they ended up at the end of the segment and all the boats headed toward to the west side of Angel Island... where most of the prisoners gear was found. he then said that he felt they may have done this to throw the police off making them think they were washed out sea and drowned. He also mentioned that these guys (the prisoners) weren't stupid and in fact the lead one (Frank Morris) was actually very intelligent. So, how about that theory huh?

Seeing what these two guys did and now seeingt this clip just makes me think that maybe... just MAYBE they did make it after all.

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