[stewart fillmore] you know, no one gets off of alcatraz, right?
-Right. -You can try, but you're not gonna be successful.
[josh] wow, look at this.
This is the cell.
This is amazing.
-This is where they tunneled through. -[stewart] yup.
Right here.
[stewart] and somehow these... These three guys
Might've just pulled off the impossible.
All three of them made it off that island...
...And made it ashore.
100%?
100% sure.
This is a photo of john and clarence in brazil.
It's gettin' real muddy.
[bleep]
I got a good hit here.
-[men] oh, oh! -[josh] we got a coin!
Hey, come here, we got a coin!
[josh speaking]
[man] hang on!
[bleep]
Alcatraz federal penitentiary,
The rock,
America's most secure prison,
Where the worst of the worst did hard time.
A former military fortress
Surrounded by the frigid san francisco bay.
Alcatraz was said to be escape proof.
But on June 11th, 1962,
Three men attempted the impossible.
Plotting for months,
Car thief frank morris...
...And bank robbers john and clarence anglin...
...Brazenly tunnel out if their cells
And flee the prison on a makeshift raft,
Never to be seen again.
According to the fbi, no one could survive the treacherous crossing.
And morris and the anglin's must have drowned.
Or did they?
Legends have swirled for 60 years
That the three inmates made it to the mainland
And slipped into the fog of history.
Some say they vanished into south america
With a stockpile of mob money.
Now new evidence has emerge
And a former fbi agent is re-examining the case.
Working with members of the convict's family,
A controversial photo is igniting a manhunt
In the remote jungles of brazil.
Proof that the convicts survived
Would shatter the rock's reputation
And elevate the trio into the pantheon of criminal masterminds.
But the only way to solve the case
Is to retrace their steps,
Follow the clues,
And escape from alcatraz.
The only question is: Are you in or out?
My name is josh gates.
Hello!
Explorer...
...Adventurer...
Amazing.
Help!
...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.
[bleep] woo! That was exciting.
With a degree in archeology
And a passion for the unexplained...
Yeah!
...I travel to the ends of the earth
Investigating the greatest legends in history.
Okay, let's punch it.
This is expedition unkno.
My manhunt for america's most infamous escaped convic
Is kicking into high gear behind the wheel of a true icon.
This is a 1968 mustang fastback in highland green.
Whoo!
This is the car that steve mcqueen raced through the streets
Of the city by the bay in the movie bullitt.
It's 460 horsepower v8 engine, is pure american muscle.
Just like mcqueen, I do all my own stunts.
Here we go.
Big hill.
Bigger hill! Ha ho ho!
And I just stalled it.
[engine starts]
[engine revs]
I got it now.
[clears throat]
All right, so maybe I'm no steve mcqueen.
Let's face it, no one is.
But in a few hours I'll be starting my own investigation
Into the great escape.
Immersed in fog well before sunrise,
I head to the docks to meet retired fbi agent stewart fillmore.
-Stewart! -Hey, josh.
-How are you, my friend? -I'm great, how are you?
Great to see you.
Last time I saw you, we were in jail together.
[laughs] we were. On the john dillinger case.
I've always wanted to say that!
[both] yeah.
Stewart was a collaborator
In my hunt for the infamous gunslinger john dillinger's lost loot.
His latest passion project
Involves the most infamous prison of all time.
-You've work a lot of cases over the years. -I have, yeah.
What got you interested in the alcatraz--
So, you know, even before I was in the fbi,
This is a case that had fascinated me.
Partly because, you know, I've... I've always, you know,
Been into gangsters and gunfighters, right?
-Right. -And, I mean, this is alcatraz.
This is the rock. It had the worst of the worst.
But the thing, really, about alcatraz is this famous escape.
You know, no one gets off of alcatraz, right?
-Right. -You can try but you're not gonna be successful.
And somehow, these... These three guys
Might have just pulled off the impossible,
You know, and... And made the escape.
So let's talk about these guys.
They... They were not criminal kingpins.
They were not, no. They were really small time crooks, really.
[josh] since their adolescence, brothers john and clarence anglin,
Teamed up to pull small job like break-ins and robberies
Until they got busted shortly after a bank heist.
They were sentenced to 35 years behind bars.
Frank morris had a high iq,
But a low career in small-time crime.
With a rap sheet starting at age 13,
Frank's habit of breaking and entering eventually landed him a 10 year sentenc
In the louisiana state penitentiary.
They were just run of the mill crooks.
But they were exceptional escape artists.
-So they had busted out of places before. -Absolutely.
So when these guys were arrested again, the thinking was...
..."put 'em in a place they can't get out."
Exactly. Put 'em in escape-proof alcatraz.
-Got it. -Yup
And I guess technically speaking
They did escape alcatraz, right?
They did, yes.
-They got off the rock. -Correct.
We just don't know what happened to them next.
We don't know what happened after that.
[josh] the fbi has steadfast maintained since 1962
That the three inmates drown attempting to cross the san francisco bay.
But stewart is taking a second look.
Josh, this case may not be, as cold as you think.
-Okay. -There's new leads, there's new evidence
That could break this case wide open.
Let's start at the scene of the crime.
-To alcatraz. -Alcatraz.
[josh] out of the darkness comes a tugboat
That stewart has arranged to take us across the bay
Before alcatraz opens to the public.
That is, if we don't end up on the rocks.
All right, into the fog.
-A big part of what makes alcatraz so formidable-- -yeah.
...Is this, right? It's the bay.
[stewart] it's the water, absolutely.
Even once you get through the prison walls,
You still have a mile and a quarter swim
-To... To dry land, right? -Right.
Alcatraz sits far from shore on a small rocky island
More than a mile from the waterfront of san francisco.
There's no bridge or tunnel to the rock.
The only way on or off is by boat,
Or a lethal swim.
Uh, I mean, the water's freezing cold,
So you're gonna have to fight hypothermia,
And then, believe it or not, you... You have to watch out for sharks.
Don't forget the sharks.
That's right, sharks.
Eleven different species in the bay,
Including the occasional great white.
So all... All told, how many escape attempts happened at alcatraz?
So there were a total of 36 escape attempts
Over the 30 years that it was a prison.
-And how did those work out? -Well, not too good.
Over 20 were captured before they ever got to the water.
-Right. -[stewart] okay.
Six were shot and killed, two drowned,
And then there are several unaccounted for that are presumed dead.
-Including our three guys? -Including our three guys.
[josh] all right, we got a... We got a light coming out of the fog.
Josh, that's alcatraz.
-That it? -That's it right there.
[josh] the island of alcatra was utilized as a u.S. Army fortress in the mid-1850s.
And from there evolved into a full-time military prison,
Before being turned into a civilian super priso
For the country's worst criminals.
Including high profile mobsters like machine gun kelly,
Al capone,
Whitey bulger and mickey cohen.
And yet, somehow, three small time hoods
May have beaten the prison' supposedly insurmountable defenses.
Over a six month period,
They chiseled their way out of their cells
And made papier mâché heads to camouflage their absence
They built a raft and life vests
Before escaping the rock and disappearing without a trace.
Josh, here we are. Do you want to say or do you want me to say it?
I mean, is it okay if I say it?
It's your show, go ahead.
[imitates sean connery] welcome to the rock!
It's not a great connery but it's all I've got.
It's... It's pretty good.
It's better than my nicolas cage believe me.
-Okay. Let's go. -Come on, let's get into it.
As the sun begins to break and the fog lifts,
We revisit the preserved scene of the crime 60 years later.
-Woah! -Yeah.
So, josh, welcome to alcatraz.
We're in the main cell house here...
...Between cell block b and
Uh, and this long corridor is known as, uh, broadway.
Okay, so other than the water out there, which is pretty lethal,
What were these guys up against?
Well, I mean, it's... It's right before you.
-Steel and concrete. -Right.
I mean, when this place was built.
It was the... The largest steel reinforced concrete building in the world.
-Wow. -Okay.
Designed with one purpose and that's to keep you in.
And I'm imagining it was also pretty well guarded?
It had 6 guard towers with over 60 guards.
It had the ratio of guards to prisoners of any prison.
Wow, okay, so let's talk about our three guys.
-Where were they? -Let me show you.
Just around here.
[josh] the first cell we vis belonged to the mastermind of the escape.
[stewart] here's the cell of frank morris.
-[josh] okay, so we've got o of our guys right here. -Yup.
[josh] the cells have been preserved to look just as they did
On the night of June 11th, 1962.
And then what about the anglin brothers where were they?
Okay, so they're a little further down, same row.
-Oh, so they're not right next to each other. -Not right next to each other.
Although the brothers are.
[josh] okay.
-So here we are, this is... This is john anglin's cell -okay.
And brother clarence right there.
-Wow, so they're side-by-side. -Side-by-side.
You wanna take a closer look?
Can we?
Open up cell block b, level one.
Perks of being a former fbi agent?
It has its perks.
Wow, look at this.
This is the cell.
This is amazing.
Close up cell block b!
What now?
What? No, stewart.
-Stewart. -Josh, you knew it would end up like this.
It was inevitable.
[josh sputters] I have to say,
-Though, now that I'm in here... -Yeah?
...It's incredibly small.
I see in the back of all three of these cells, a big hole in the wall.
-Each of these guys had to tunnel out of their cell -right.
-How? -There was a ventilation hole there.
-Okay. -With a... With a small ventilation grate in it.
-But they had to widen that. -They had to widen it.
They noticed that the concre was somewhat brittle.
And could be chipped away.
So for six months they are carefully, quietly toiling away at this.
Yes.
And then what, where... Where does that hole lead?
That leads to a utility corridor, so let me take you there now.
Don't make me crawl through.
Will you open this thing up please?
-Get me out of here. -[laughs] open cell block b, level one.
I see the governor got my letter.
[stewart laughs]
-All right, come on. -Let's go.
[josh] we're about to walk the exact escape path
The prisoners took from their cells.
Do not expect to see this on your standard tour of the rock.
Riding with stewart has gotten me exclusive access.
After half a year of meticulous preparation,
The prisoners exited their cells through the vent shafts
And ejected into a seldom visited maintenance corrido
Where the guards would not have been patrolling.
This is crazy, there's just this maze.
Passages behind cell blocks
[stewart] okay, this is the backside of one of the vent holes.
-[josh] so this is where they tunneled through. -Yup.
Right here.
[whispers] look at that!
That's unbelievable.
So, once they punched through this,
Where do they go from here?
So they go up.
-Up? -Yup.
[josh] the prisoners climb the pipes of the utility corridor
To punch through into a large raw space above the cell block.
We come up here and we're gonna take a lift.
Okay.
[stewart] as you can see...
...Kinda at the top of the cell block.
[josh] yeah, we've above everything here.
[stewart] yes.
So they climbed up from the utility corridor where we were earlier.
There's a tarp up here that just gave them cover
And they turned it into a workshop.
-A workshop? -A workshop.
What are they working on up here?
So up here's where they're making the raft and life jackets
Out of, uh, stolen raincoats
-[josh surprised] okay. -Yeah.
There were steam pipes up here that had enough hea
That allowed them to fuse the rubber together of these life jackets.
And after they made the dummy heads that we saw in the cells earlier,
They would put those down and it would appear that they were sleeping
And they had all the time in the world to do this.
It's really, really clever.
It's ingenious.
These guys were dialed in, I... Okay.
But all of this was child's play
Compared to what they had ahead of them.
So, josh, if you look at... At the ceiling
Just across there, there's a hole.
Oh, that's their escape tunnel.
[stewart] that is the escape tunnel.
That leads them to the roof.
-And then they're outside? -Then they're outside.
When they made their way to the roof,
They walked along this way all the way down,
And then there was a drain pipe
That was at the end of the building that's no longer there.
Thirty, forty feet, they work their way down this drain pipe.
And it's the middle of the night?
Middle of the night, pitch black.
Carrying all the gear they got with them, right?
The raft, their life jackets.
-Right. -You know, they make their way down.
And then they work with all this gear.
Then they work downhill toward the water.
[josh] after climbing down the vertical pipe,
And with most of the guards inside the prison after lights out,
The men most likely scurry down the southside of the island
Toward the water and ferry dock.
From there? Who knows.
The story of how three men fled alcatraz
Has grown beyond history into legend.
But in the archives of the rock,
I'm being given rare access to actual items from the escape.
Josh, this is amanda williford.
She's a curator with the park archives.
-Great to meet you. -Me too.
And these are original evidence items from the alcatraz escape.
-You're kidding. -I'm not kidding.
-This is the real deal? -The real deal.
-Yup. -Wow.
These are original evidence items from the alcatraz escape.
-Get out of here, these are the actual items? -Actual items.
[josh] I'm with retired fbi agent stewart fillmore
Investigating the infamous 1962 alcatraz prison escape
As we examine actual evidenc
Left behind at the scene of the crime.
-The real deal, wow. -[stewart] yup.
[josh] this is one of the actual fake vent grates,
Hand made from cardboard, layers of soap and paint.
It was used to cover the eroding concrete surrounding the air duct.
They matched the paint color...
-...Of the prison wall? -Sure did.
[josh] crazy.
This is prison diy crafting at its finest.
We talk about these guys working on it for, like, six months.
-I mean, you can see it. -You can see it right there.
-Yeah. -It's evident.
[josh] spoons and discarded blades used for months to chisel aw
At the concrete in their cells.
A handmade periscope to discretely check for guards.
These guys are so macgyver it's... It's ridiculous.
In here there is a small mirror.
-[josh] right. -[williford] if you can look inside there.
Oh, right, so they would have looked through here
And it's literally a periscope for them to see around the corner, I guess,
-Out of their cell? -Yeah.
What we think is that they wanted to see on top of the roof,
When they made the final push out,
They wanted to make sure that no one was on that roof.
Incredible.
A vacuum cleaner motor converted into a drill.
And many of the ideas, like the life vests,
Came right out of the prison library,
From old issues of popular mechanics like this one.
I love that one of the key items for their escape
They learned how to make from literature that was in the prison.
Right in their hands. It was like a handbook for escape.
It's unbelievable.
See? Further education...
...It'll set you free.
-[stewart laughs] -it really will.
These men were bold smart and meticulous planners,
Who took their shot when the moment presented itself.
There are a couple of items right over there
That I think you're gonna want to see.
All right, intriguing.
-Let's go. -More... More goodies, what do we have?
[chuckles] oh, my word.
Wow.
So we partnered with the fbi to create these 3d scanned replica heads
Made from the original dummy heads used in the 1962 escape.
[josh] wow.
[stewart] and, josh, looking at these heads
Is there anything that jumps out at you?
[josh] um...
...There are four of them?
Exactly.
So why are there four of them?
Well, there was a fourth conspirator
In the escape plan.
[josh] a fourth inmate, allen west,
Had been working with morri and the anglin brothers.
But west was unable to get past his vent that night,
And the three others left without him.
In exchange for not being charged,
West gave up what he claime
Was the escape plan to the fbi.
According to his confession
The three inmates were goin to paddle the raft 2.4 mile to angel island.
And from there, cross the ba to the city of marin.
But there's just one problem
The waters around san francisco
Are as tough as any prison.
When the tide goes out, as it was the evening the inmates escaped...
...Billions of gallons of water rush out of the ba
And funnel under the golden gate bridge.
The fbi maintains
That the men must have been swept out into the pacific.
The evidence in this room shows that the convicts covered every single angle
Of their escape.
So it's hard to imagine that they didn't have a pla to deal with the bay
And get to shore.
Where do these life jackets turn up?
[stewart] well, one of them was found on angel island.
Which is about, maybe, two and half miles north of alcatraz.
-[josh] okay. -[stewart] okay.
The other one was found on the ocean side, past the golden gate bridge
At fort cronkhite.
-Pretty far away. -Yeah, pretty far away.
And what about the raft that they escaped in?
It was also found on angel island.
So we've got the raft on angel island.
-One of the life jackets is there. -Yup.
Did they make it to angel island?
The truth is I don't know.
But I know someone who might.
Stewart and I catch a ferry back to the mainland.
We jump in my whip, and head for the docks.
Josh, remember, steve mcqueen wrecked the car in the movie.
I can't hear you, stewart.
Engine's too loud.
[both chuckling]
Near fisherman's wharf we met up with two men
Who have been relentlessly studying the alcatraz escap for decades,
Experts mike lynch and ken widner.
When it comes to the alcatraz escape no one knows more
-Than these two guys right here. -[josh] all right.
Yeah, and ken actually has a... A very personal connection to the escape.
What's that?
Well, john and clarence were my uncles.
The anglin brothers are your uncles!
John and clarence are my uncles, that's correct.
What! Does that mean you know what happened to them?
I think it's time we share the real story with the public.
All right, I'm all for that. So when it comes to the real story
Let's start with the rock right over there behind us.
-[mike] yep. -[josh] it's out of the fog now.
-[mike] yep. -What happened to your uncles?
Did they make it off that island?
All three of 'em made it off that island and made it to shore.
-[josh] 100%? -100% sure.
-Now, the fbi's official take here is... -Missing and presumed dead.
-We don't share everything with the fbi. -[josh] oh, there we go.
These guys withholding evidence. All right.
What a lot of people don't realize
Is that there was a prison boat
Docked on the other side of the island
That shuttled inmates and family members,
Driven by the prison guards, at regular times.
And then on that night, at 11:15,
The last boat went out.
One thing that's overlooked in the fbi report
Is that there was 125 feet of electrical cord missing that night.
They wanted to hitch a ride with the boat that was leaving at 11:15.
What a perfect way to hook to that boat using that cord.
That's really intriguing
-Because if you're paddling out of there -yeah.
-In this tiny homemade raft -right.
Why are you gonna carry something as heavy as 125 feet of cord?
[josh] ken and mike are convinced
That the inmates secretly tethered their makeshift raf to the departing boat
And caught a free ride across the bay.
What do they do?
They get towed out into the bay here
And just let go at some point?
We know for a fact that there was a boat out there to pick them up
Because there was an eye witness,
A police officer at the time by the name of robert ...,
Who witnessed them being picked up by that boat.
... Reports this happening and seeing this boat around midnight.
So this matches up to the 11:15 boat leaving.
-You've heard of this guy? -I have heard of him, yeah.
And what do you make of this?
Why do you think the fbi didn't take his account more seriously?
Josh, I really don't have an answer.
I don't know why they didn't. I actually find his story very credible.
But he was kind of disregarded in all this?
-[stewart] he was, yes. -Okay.
-Yep. -Well, you're building a good case here.
But there is a question here
Which is that these three guys were relatively small-time crooks.
Could they really have arranged a pickup boat out in the harbor that night?
[mike] not without help.
You think they had help?
-Mmm-hmm. Yes. -Yes, they did.
-Help from who? -Mickey cohen.
-From mickey cohen? -The famous mob boss from los angeles.
[josh] mickey cohen was a gangster, racketeer,
And one-time enforcer for al capone.
But, when convicted of tax evasion in 1961, he was sentenced to alcatraz
According to ken, prior to their stay in alcatraz,
John and clarence bragged of working for mickey cohen in la.
Ken thinks mickey was willin to bankroll their escape.
But even with help from the mob,
The men still had to make I across the bay,
Something experts have long doubted was possible to survive.
-Could these three guys in a half-inflated raft -yeah.
Really be towed behind a prison boat
And not have the whole thing rip apart and fall apart?
There's only way to find out, right?
-No. Get in the water? -[ken] yes.
-[josh] you think this is possible? -100%.
-I'll put money down on it. -Definitely.
[ken] let's go do it.
-We need a boat. -I've got a boat.
Of course you do. All right, come on.
[josh] so, to test whether the raft could handl being towed against the tide
We're going to recreate the conditions
By towing a similarly sized raft as the inmates
Behind a similarly-powered vessel.
Okay, wind is howling, tide is headed out.
-Tide is headed out. -Yep.
Right. So we're most likely matching the tidal conditions of when they escaped?
-Correct. -Right.
-So, we're near the spot where your uncles were -right.
-60 years ago. -60 years ago.
So what are we doing next?
-We have a raft right here. -Oh, boy.
We need to get it inflated and into the water.
I was afraid you were gonna say that.
[josh] not only is it incredibly dangerous
To get into this water in a raft,
But with six foot swells and a small craft advisory
We shouldn't even be out here in this boat.
What do you think the temperature of this water is?
-High 40s. -Perfect. That's what I was hoping you were gonna say.
-High 40s. -[all laugh]
I've done a lot of stupid things in my life and this is one of 'em.
[josh] but that's never stopped me before.
We tether to the tow boat and prepare for our escape.
Okay, raft's going in.
[josh] ken and I will attempt to use
Replica homemade paddles in the bow
While stewart tries to rudder in the stern
I'm doing my best not to think about the waves, temperature,
And, oh, yeah, sharks.
-Get ready. This is gonna get nuts. -Okay, here we go.
[josh] the raft reels out 100 feet behind the boat...
Woo.
And we're at the mercy of the bay.
Ah.
Oh, [bleep].
[josh] the raft is nearly impossible to steer into the surf.
Ah.
[josh] half way across the bay,
And we are clinging for dear life
As icy way after icy wave washes through us.
Woo, that boat is...
Yes.
Yeah.
No.
[josh] in fact, conditions are so dangerous
That mike, and the camera crew, and the support vessel
Aren't doing much better than we are.
I'm okay.
-[man] all right? -I'm okay.
[josh] this might be one of the crazier things I've ever done.
[bleep]
[josh] in the middle of san francisco bay
I'm recreating the infamous escape from alcatraz.
[josh] it's not going so wel
[indistinct shouting]
-Hold on. -[indistinct shouting continues]
[josh] the guys reel me back in like a prize fish,
And the experience didn't come without a cost.
[josh] our boat is wounded and rapidly deflating.
[josh] but, miraculously,
The raft holds together long enough to get across the bay,
Which means ken and mike's theory still hold water.
Our ride not so much.
All right, I got the boat.
Whoa.
-Woo. -There we go.
You gonna survive?
-All right. Good job. -[laughs] did we make it?
-Did we make it? -We made it.
-Are we free? We're free. -Yeah. Yeah. All right.
-Nice work, man. Woo. -[laughs]
Kids, do not try that at home.
[josh] we limp back to port
Now knowing that the convicts
Could have made it from alcatraz to shore
Exactly as ken and mike suggest.
And, after changing into dry clothes,
They're anxious to reveal where they think the men went from here.
All right, well that was fun.
-That was an adventure. -That was a lot of fun.
I really do think there's a chance
-They could have made it. -[mike] yeah, I do too.
I totally agree.
-So where'd they go? -Brazil.
-Brazil? -Brazil.
Well, that is not the answer I was expecting.
-They went to brazil? Why... -They went to brazil.
-How do you know that? -Because we have proof that they made it.
Let's see it.
-What is this? -This is a photo of john and clarence
In the early seventies in brazil.
-This is them? -That's them.
That's john, that's clarence.
And they are standing next to... Is it a termite mound?
-[mike] it's a termite mound. -[ken] yes.
Okay. In front of a river near a termite mound.
Where did this photo come from?
This came from an individual
By the name of fred brizzi.
He was a drug runner
Running drugs out of south america for quite a while.
The brothers were actually participating with him
Before they got caught and went to alcatraz.
[josh] remember mickey cohen
According to ken and mike, the mobster not only bankrolled the trio's escape
With the help of his associate, fred brizz
He set the fugitives up for their new lives in brazi
With some significant seed money.
And so fred brizzi gives this photo to who?
This went to my mother in 1992 when he came to meet with the anglin family
And tell them what happened to their brothers.
[josh] after decades of wondering about john and clarence's fate,
Fred brizzi emerged from the shadows
To spill a tale that shocked the anglin family.
And what story does he tell your mother?
They bought a farm, started raising crops and cattle,
And they had a really good life.
If this is true this is a bombshell.
-It changes history, yeah. -Right.
-Yeah. -Not only do these guys survive the escape,
You're telling me they go on to lead full lives
-In south america? -Full lives, married, children.
Do you have any idea where this is?
Yes, this is a village just north of são paulo.
Okay. So now the question is where is this?
-Exactly where is this, right? -Yeah, mmm-hmm.
-Maybe there's some evidence that they were there. -Right, right.
So have you been down to try to figure out exactly where this is?
I have not been down there yet but I am planning to go.
-Planning to go when? -Soon as your bags are packed.
[josh] I need zero arm twisting
To follow the fugitive's tra to brazil.
Stewart will stay back in the states,
Using his connections to see if he can positively the men in the photo,
While ken, mike, and I jet from san francisco to são paulo.
Home to over 22 million people,
This is the largest city in the americas.
A bustling metropolis brimming with enough art, food, and culture
That it practically vibrate to its own samba beat.
Needless to say,
It's certainly a place wher getting lost in the crowd would be fairly easy.
Ken and mike have been worki with a local investigator, caio vilela,
Who thinks he may have cracked the case.
We arrange to meet him at a nearby bar.
-Caio. -Ken, how are ya?
-How you doing, man? How you doing? -I'm doing good.
-Hey, josh, this is caio. -Josh, good to meet you.
-Hey, how are you? -All good, and yourself?
I'm great. Is this your office?
Yeah, very much, every day.
What's going on here? What is this?
Oh, happy hour, Friday, brazil.
-I got to move to brazil. -[all] yeah.
Okay, so, they tell me you got some hot leads in this case.
-Yeah, absolutely, yeah. -Yeah?
-Have a drink first. Have a caipirinha. -Yeah, yeah.
-Let's have a drink. Don't worry about it. -Oh.
You made a huge mistake. Yes, okay.
[josh] caipirinhas in hand, we should probably get down to business.
-Hey. -Cheers. Cheers, guys.
All right.
I'm sorry. Hey, I'm sorry. I was born to dance, caio. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
[josh] samba, like brazil itself, is a melting pot.
A blend of african, european, and native instruments and rhythms.
Huh, turns out the country that invented carnival likes to party.
One blast of an evening and a few aspirin later,
Caio is directing us 80 mile north east of the city,
Following clues from the pho purporting to be the anglin brothers,
As well as stories told by the mobster fred brizzi.
And one of those clues is coming up right now.
Guys, you see this on our righthand side?
-[ken] yeah. -[josh] is it a gm plant?
[caio] exactly.
So, josh, believe it or not, 50 years ago this was a chevrolet plant.
-Okay. -And the reason why that's important
Is that fred brizzi even said
That there was a chevrolet plant very close to where they lived.
And were there a bunch of chevy plants in brazil back then?
There were only two in the whole country,
And this is the only one in the whole area.
Okay. So maybe we're heading in the right direction?
-I think so. -All right.
I believe so.
[josh] using the gm plant as a starting point,
Caio searched the surrounding area
For any visual indicators from the photo.
[caio] josh, please pull over just here.
-Pull over here? -Yeah, we have to go through the bamboo.
[josh] through the bamboo?
Okay.
-[caio] thank you. -[josh] let's do it.
-This way, please. -Here?
Where are we going?
[josh] turns out we're going to see some evidence.
Mounds of it.
Oh, my word.
Where are we going?
[josh] outside of são paolo,
I'm looking for evidence that the three men who escaped alcatraz in 196
May have survived and fled to brazil.
Oh, my word.
[ken] there are termite mounds everywhere.
Just like the photo. Look at this.
It's like a spot on match, caio. Incredible.
-Truly amazing. -[josh] so we got termite mounds.
[mike] I mean, josh, look at this photo
And you tell me we're not in the right area.
It's really compelling.
I mean, obviously, this termite mound from the photo
Would be long gone, right?
-These things wash away. -Exactly. Correct, yes.
But here we are, standing in front of one that looks just like it,
And cutting right through the scene here in the background
We've got a river.
I mean, the case is getting strong.
So think about it, 50 years ago they were standing somewhere in here,
River behind them, and their best friend's taking a picture of 'em.
-[josh] in much cooler shirt than any of us have on. -[mike] in much cooler shirt
Right? So where do two guys on the run
Set up a farming and ranching operation?
What's the closest farming town around here?
-Well, that would be monteiro lobato. -Monteiro lobato.
That's the place we need to go to next.
-To monteiro lobato. -To monteiro lobato.
-Come on, boys. Let's go. -Let's go.
[josh] the anglin's trail has led us to monteiro lobato,
A sleepy community a few miles away.
If they and frank morris set up a nearby farm after escaping alcatraz,
This is where they would have done busines
All right. Let's go find some fugitives.
[josh] and now for what we call in the investigator's world
"a little leg work."
Canvasing the area with flyers,
And talking to the town's more seasoned citizens
To see if they can recall two or three americans living in the area
In the early to mid-seventie
-So not familiar? -No.
-No? Okay. [speaking foreign language] -[speaking foreign language]
-[in english] thank you, guys. Thank you.
[josh] of course, it doesn't hurt to talk
To the younger residents as well.
Have you seen this man? No?
-Are you free for dinner? No? -[laughs]
-Okay. Here we go. -Not free for dinner.
[josh] historically, fugitives have used brazil as a haven from the law.
From bank robbers and politicians,
To nazis fleeing justice after world war ii.
But no one in monteiro lobat has seen our guys yet.
-Thank you, sir. [speaking foreign language] -thank you.
[josh] we've spoken to half of monteiro lobato without any leads.
Until one resident points u towards the outskirts of tow
[speaking foreign language]
[josh] there she has a friend with a story
He's been waiting decades to tell.
Here we go.
Hello.
[josh] vincente, who has lived in monteiro lobato his whole life,
Says he remembers three english speaking men in this area
From when he was a teenager
So, tell us what you remember about these guys.
First of all, there were three of them?
[speaking foreign language]
[caio] there were two guys,
And they were hiding out up in the hills
Near a natural shelter.
What do you mean, a natural shelter?
-Well, they were hiding out near a big rock shelter. -A rock shelter. Okay.
And where was this?
[speaking foreign language]
-Uh-huh. -In the hills?
[vincente speaking foreign language]
What, ultimately, happens to these guys?
[speaking foreign language]
[caio] the local sheriff decides to check on them.
But as he hiked up and talked to these guys,
Instead of throwing them ou
He ended up on a deal with them.
They hired the local sherif to bring food for them,
As they were camping out for about two months he said
-Sorry, the sheriff is bringing them food? -Yeah.
This is now getting more and more interesting, right?
I mean, when was the last time you heard about a sheriff
Turning into a meal delivery service for somebody?
-This is crazy. -[josh] it's crazy.
-Yes. -Right?
Is it an easy place to reach?
-[speaking foreign language] -not an easy place to reach.
Vehicles can't there, it's up in the jungle,
-And the sheriff would use a mule to bring supplies. -Okay.
Can you describe how to reach this place though?
[speaking foreign language]
Yeah, he can tell you how to get there.
You guys feel like a hike?
-[caio] I'm ready for a hike. -Let's do it.
-Yeah. -Let's do it. Okay.
[speaking foreign language] [in english] thank you.
[josh] vincente's memory lines up perfectly
With the timing and the description
Of the story told by fred brizzi.
But to get confirmation,
We're going to need climb hi into the mantiqueira mountai above monteiro lobato,
And it's not a smooth trip.
-Wow. -Okay. This ain't much of a road.
[ken] not much.
Okay.
We're alive, we're alive.
[josh] this steep ascent takes us far from the town
Into a wild environment with only two ruts in the ground to guide us,
Until finally there's no more road to ride
Woo, all right.
Here we are at the beginning of the hike.
-All right. -Yeah.
[josh] the end of the line is a remote home owned by a local farmer.
He kindly agrees to help us get to the rock shelter...
[speaking foreign language]
[josh] reachable via a narrow trail from his home.
Here you go. One more.
-Metal detectors. -Got it.
-You got that too? -Got it.
Okay, great.
[josh] to go deeper into the mountains,
We trade in our horsepower for some mule power.
[josh] okay, here we go. Let's get into it.
-This is it. -Yep, onward and upward.
[josh] this hike isn't exact a walk in the park.
We're climbing an elevation of 2,000 feet
And, judging by the foliage
I'm half expecting a velociraptor to jump out.
Look at this place. It's primordial.
[josh] it's hot, muggy, and the air is getting thinner.
Could be worse though. It could be raining.
Whew.
-[thunder rumbling] -[josh] and there it is.
Okay, it's gonna be a wet one. [sighs]
[bleep]
[thunder rumbling]
It's getting real muddy.
[josh] it's a hard, messy climb,
But at long last we reach our destination.
-Woo. I see the wreck. Come on. -[ken] there it is.
Okay, let's get the gear under. Come on.
[josh] this rock formation was described by our tipster vincente,
As where the fugitives originally made camp in the early seventies.
From one rock to another, I guess.
All right, well, we're soaked but we're alive, and look where we are.
I mean, how ironic is it that we took shelter under this same rock
-That, supposedly, gave shelter to these guys? -[ken] right.
If you're trying to hide from the fbi
This is the way that you would go.
And who's gonna find you up here?
[both] nobody.
[josh] this would be a perfect place to hide out.
I think we should see if we can find anything metal
That kind of proves somebody was actually here.
And, let's not forget, they might have had some money with them.
So the story is that they had 75 grand, 25,000 each.
Great, and maybe they hid stuff up here. Who knows?
-Exactly. We might actually find some of the 75,000. -Yeah.
If we do find any, you know, it belongs to the family, so sorry.
-Oh, there you go. -[laughs]
It belongs to whoever makes it out of these jungles first.
-[laughs] -[josh] are we ready?
-Yes. -Let's do it.
All right, let's look around.
[detector beeps]
Josh, I think I found something.
-Got a hit on something. -[beeping continues]
-Mmm-hmm. -Right there.
Okay, let's see.
Good?
[mike] what's that? What's that?
Oh, my gosh.
-What is that? -I don't know. Looks metal.
-What if it's a lighter? -It is a lighter.
-Look at that. -Oh, I see it.
-That is a [bleep] lighter. -Oh, my gosh.
Now that is something
That would have easily would've fallen out of his pocket.
[josh] totally.
-That is a very old lighter. -You can see the hinge.
Hinge is right here. It's broken.
-You can see that, right? The cap would be here. -Right.
And that's the hinge. It's busted off.
Somebody was up here a long time ago.
-[mike] decades. -Yeah.
-Let's keep looking around here. -[mike] all right.
[josh] we continue searchin near where we found the lighter.
This time, it's mike who comes up big.
I found something over here in the crack.
-What did you find? -[mike] take a look at this.
Oh, my god.
Look at that. That's a tool.
Head of, like, a spade. Head of, like, a farm tool.
-Right. -Wait, there's more of them?
There's one more. Here's another one.
That's a digging hoe right there.
-Is that it? -There's one more thing I can see.
-Oh, my god. -Look at that.
Sickle head. So we've got a bunch of farming implements here, basically.
-This is just in the crack in the wall? -They were just
In the crack right there.
Someone was living up here, for sure.
-They needed these tools. -Right.
Right. You could use this to clear a campsite.
The fact that they were hiding them in the crack in the wall..
Some point in time they might have wanted to come back for 'em.
-That's right, exactly. -Yeah, yeah.
You know, you hide something there
-Because you're gonna come back for it. -Exactly.
-Crazy. -Let's keep lookin'.
[josh] so far, we've found some intriguing artifacts,
But I'm holding out hope that something here will tie the anglins to this plac
[detector beeping]
-Right there. -You got something going over there?
-We do, josh. -[mike] yeah, we definitely got something.
-You got to come check it out. -Yeah, what have you got?
-See. -There's something in there, josh.
-We haven't quite... -[machine beeping]
-Yeah. -Still there.
It's deep. It is definitely deep.
-[machine beeps] -oh, okay.
-There's something right there. -It's here.
-There it is. -Right there.
-[all] oh! -We got a coin.
-Hey, come here. We got a coin. -Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa.
It's a penny. It's a us coin.
-[mike] mmm-hmm. -Look at that.
[josh] fisherman's wharf in san francisco
Is home to musée mécanique.
Part museum, part arcade, and all fun.
I'll be here all week.
[josh] inside is one of the largest collections
Of rare and unique vintage arcade games.
Oh, no.
Oof.
That is cutting edge entertainment right there.
What?
[josh] it's a very entertaining wa to spend a little time.
Hey, there's nude women in here.
[josh] and a lot of quarters
This place is amazing.
[josh] but hey, if you're really lucky
You can try to make a little money back.
I think your mom's calling you. She's right over there.
[groans]
Sorry, kid. Tough break. Wait, you owe me $100.
-We got a coin. -Oh.
[josh] I'm in brazil, and have just uncovered what could be a major clue
As to what really happened to the three men
Who escaped from alcatraz penitentiary in 1962.
-It's a penny. It's a us coin. Look at that. -[ken] yes.
That's a wheat penny, for sure. That's old. This is 1951.
-[ken] oh, my gosh. -[mike] whoa.
What the hell else would this be doing here? This is insane.
And this matches the story of the americans being here.
That's right. It totally corroborates this idea
-It does. -That three americans were camped out here.
That's correct.
[josh] this whole story that these three guys
Escaped from alcatraz and drowned in the bay,
I think we're rewriting that right now.
I think these guys made it.
Oh, no, I don't think, I know.
-Yeah. -No doubt about it.
[josh] I'll admit it, going into this mission
I was skeptical that the anglins and frank morris
Even made it to shore, let alone brazil.
Now, though, I can't wait to return to headquarters,
Where I share everything I've seen
With retired fbi agent stewart fillmore.
He's been working here in the us
To get a positive id on the photograph.
-Stewart, how are ya? -Josh, I am great. How are you?
I'm very excited, actually.
Man, I heard that you found some exciting evidence in brazil.
It was incredible.
First of all, the geography down there
-Really closely matches fred brizzi's description -okay.
Of where these guys went.
-We found a lot of termite mounds, -[stewart chuckles]
We found a location of an old chevy plant, which is very rare down ther
But the thing that really blew my mind
Is we did find a local in this town
-That had a distinct memory of three americans -right
In this era that were hiding up in the hills.
So it really matches up with the information and the intelligence we had.
-Totally matches up. -Yeah.
-It's amazing. -Totally.
So, I'm dying to know about the photo.
So, josh, I hooked up with some folks
From a multi-international company called identv.
And they take old photographs and make, effectively,
A facial fingerprint to try to find a match.
-And? -Rather than me tell you,
What I'd like to do is introduce you to the co-founder of identv
To tell you exactly what he found.
Okay, let's get him in here.
-[doorbell chiming] -hello. How are you? I'm josh.
-I'm amro. Nice to meet you. -[josh] nice to meet you as well.
So, tell me a bit about what you did with these photos.
So we did two things with those photos.
[josh] the first step was to scan into the compute
Both the mugshots of the anglin brothers
And the mysterious photo from brazil and compare them digitally.
[amro] so what the computer does
Is it actually creates different feature vectors from the face.
So if you think about it
It takes the face and it turns it into numbers.
And the closer the numbers match, the higher the score is.
So when you compare these fred brizzi photos with the mugshots
What happened?
-Well, why don't you take a look? -Okay.
[josh] with the faces and the photo
Converted to thousands of numerical values,
The computer meticulously calculates their similarity.
-99% match? -Yes, josh. It's amazing.
At 99%, I assume that is the person?
I'm not an investigator but I'll let the data speak for itself.
I'm already, like, jumping out of my chair here.
What's the second thing you did?
To remove bias, we gathered 1,000 photos from the same time period
-And... -Of just random people?
-Just random people. -Okay.
And then we inserted the photos from brazil into that data set,
-And the results were staggering. -Let's see it.
[josh] out of thousands of random photos,
The mugshots are picked up as matches for the photo in brazil,
Again resulting in 99% accuracy.
Can we close the case? I mean, is this a done deal?
So from a tech perspective you never say 100%.
-It's always 99.99. -Right.
And stewart, from your perspective?
I think this is as close to case closed as you can get.
We're now saying there is a 99% chance
That we just rewrote the history of alcatraz, the anglins, and this escape.
-It's a new story. -[both] yep.
It's awesome. All the best, stewart.
Thank you, amro, and thank you both so much.
-[josh] cheers. -Thank you.
[josh] it's incredible. 60 years after the fact,
We've shed new light on the mystery of the escap from alcatraz.
With 99% certainty,
Facial recognition experts
Agree with the eye witness accounts and mysterious photo.
Frank morris and john and clarence angli
Most likely crossed the san francisco bay
And eventually made it to brazil.
A year after their great escape,
The deteriorating prison was shut down for good.
Today, alcatraz has been faithfully preserved,
A global icon of incarcerati welcoming over a million visitors a year.
But because of three daring criminals,
There is now an asterisk
Next to its escape-proof reputation.
Sometimes it turns out the impossible is possible after all.