- San Quentin is synonymous with doing hard time--
a site of deadly escape attempts.
- The department of inspections and the guards
called San Quentin the most violent prison in America.
- But in 1979,
San Quentin made headlines
for the most ingenious escape
in American history.
- Forrest Tucker, in spite of all the places
he had escaped out of,
he even agrees that one of his best escapes
was from San Quentin--
his masterpiece.
[dramatic music]
♪
- Some of the greatest stories ever told
start behind bars...
♪
Locked up in the most notorious prisons
in the world,
spied on by guards
and fellow prisoners.
It takes a devious mind to find a way out.
♪
It could lead you to freedom...
♪
Or it could cost you your life.
- [grunts]
- But wouldn't you try
when you have nothing left to lose?
♪
[rock music]
♪
San Quentin prison.
Inmates call it "the arena"
or "gladiator school"
because of its reputation for sheer violence.
Inmates lashing out against each other,
the guards,
or really anyone.
It's California's oldest prison,
a home to desperate men,
and the country's largest death row.
- In San Quentin, you will find murderers
robbers, rapists,
child molesters, burglars, larcenists,
and people who have committed every variety of offense
known to mankind.
Amongst the notorious persons
who have been housed in San Quentin
are Charles Manson,
Sirhan Sirhan--
almost every really terribly bad person
that has been in prison in California
has spent some time in San Quentin.
- And all those people
had to, in some kind of way,
figure out how to navigate
and fit into that little space.
- This massive medieval-like structure
is considered impregnable
with 20-foot stone walls
and a ring of guard towers manned by crack shots.
- San Quentin is bordered on three sides
by a massive wall.
That's in addition to a variety of interior walls
within each of the various cell blocks.
But on the fourth side,
you just have the San Francisco bay,
which is believed to be,
as was the case of Alcatraz,
a natural barrier,
a kind of impenetrable watery barrier--
one that would mean almost certain death
to any prisoner who thought they could try
to swim to safety.
- While the authorities brag
about the prison's impenetrability,
that doesn't mean prisoners haven't put it to the test.
- When prisoners did try to escape,
it was usually by violent means.
- In the history of San Quentin,
there have been a number
of escape attempts
that have ended very violently.
The most violent was the escape attempt
that occurred in the courthouse
in Marin County.
In the ensuing gunplay, the prisoners were killed,
a Marin County judge was killed,
and a deputy district attorney
was shot and paralyzed for life.
- But eight years after this notorious escape attempt,
in 1979,
one inmate masterminds
San Quentin's most ingenious breakout ever.
The architect of this bold plan
is a 59-year-old bank robber,
Forrest Tucker.
[dramatic music]
♪
Forrest Tucker spends decades robbing banks
and breaking out of jails.
It's a living, I guess.
In October 1978,
pushing 60,
he's once again busted and pleads guilty
to a Modesto armed robbery.
Having escaped
from 17 different detention facilities
since he was a teen,
Forrest Tucker enjoys the growing notoriety
of being an escape artist.
- Some explain Tucker's compulsion
to not only rob banks,
but escape from prisons as his own desire
to tell the world-- show the world
that he was a somebody.
[gunfire] And he was, like,
the types of Depression-era gangsters
that he had grown up reading about--
that he was a larger-than-life American hero
in a sense. [jail bars slam]
And a Robin Hood figure.
Forrest Tucker never went into a prison
not thinking about escaping.
Even at moments in his career,
when he was on the precipice of being released,
he would still try to escape.
It was just in his blood.
- Forrest is already thinking
about how to get out of this jail jam.
Once an escape artist,
always an escape artist.
But this time, the stakes are higher
than they have ever been.
After all,
he isn't getting any younger.
- So in October of 1978,
he was sentenced to San Quentin
to serve ten years.
- At 30, ten-year term doesn't seem like too much,
but nearing 60, a ten-year term could be a life sentence.
The minute he was handcuffed,
he was trying to figure out how to escape.
♪
- Locked up in his damp concrete cell,
deep inside the bowels of the prison,
Tucker realizes his first obstacle
is just getting out of this dang building.
But just because something is a problem,
doesn't mean there isn't a solution.
- You know, people in prison are--
become ingenious out of necessity.
- No one escapes 17 times
just by using their brawn,
and Forrest doesn't have that much brawn left anyway.
He will have to use what he always used before--
his brains.
It is time to keep his mouth shut
and his ears and eyes open.
He eventually gets wind of something called
the prison industries workshop.
- San Quentin had a prison industries workshop
that made furniture
for state and other public offices
and workshops and stuff.
- The prison industries are located on the grounds
of the prison, but outside the main building.
Security there was less intense--
maybe even a little lax.
- He can get a job, for example,
in prison industries-- in essence, come and go
from the main prison facility
to workshops or other areas,
which were not as closely guarded.
- There are problems with this plan.
The old man is locked up for bank robbery,
not jaywalking.
Prisoners like him are not supposed to have
that much free reign around the wider premises,
but the old dog is always learning new tricks,
and his latest con is just that--
being old.
♪
Despite his reputation for slipping away,
Forrest uses his age and docile demeanor
to win over the prison officials.
He eventually gets himself assigned
to work near the wharf
where the workshops are located--
a spot on the grounds of San Quentin
with much lower oversight.
His first step towards freedom is taken.
But it is only a tiny step.
He's not sure, exactly,
what his escape route will be yet,
but being down here, away from the main building
during the day is a start.
Time to open the ears and eyes.
- Tucker has access to the wharf,
which is where the prison industries are.
This is exactly the place he wants to be
as he begins to think through
how to escape from San Quentin.
- But while Forrest watches what is going on around him,
someone is watching Tucker.
After all, he's not the only inmate
with a thirst for freedom.
♪
- John Waller was a lifelong criminal
and a self-styled bon vivant
and a traveling man,
and by his own description, not a working man,
and he was known as a rabbit,
and a rabbit is a prisoner who runs.
- Burgeoning escape artist John Waller
is familiar with the tales of old man Tucker.
Perhaps a young buck can learn a few tricks
from the old dog.
- They met.
One day, Waller was taking a break,
sitting on the bench, looking out over the bay,
and you have to see this scene
of the bay and the prison wharf
because there are pleasure boats out there,
and naturally enough, the conversation turns to,
"How do we get out of this place?"
- As the two men enjoy their view
of the sporty yachts from across the bay,
it seems to Waller
that Tucker nods at the water in front of them.
Is Tucker suggesting they swim out of this place?
That's crazy talk.
- Considering security
and considering their past history of escapes,
why would you put them on the prison wharf?
Well, the answer to that is because the authorities
did not believe that water escape was possible.
- Tucker agrees that swimming is not an option.
He's not really sure what he's thinking,
but there's something about that water
that just feels soft to Tucker.
- So they just kind of brainstorm and said,
"How can we get out of here?"
You know, and he said, "I know how to build a boat."
- For the first time,
Waller has the old escape artist's full attention.
This is a crazy idea,
and the old man loves crazy ideas.
- Tucker has devised a sort of philosophy
when it comes to escaping from prison,
and that is the more imposing the prison,
the more security you face,
the more bizarre the escape needs to be.
- "Let's use the water.
"We can build a boat.
Nobody would figure it out."
- Tucker and Waller might just be a perfect match
made in prison.
The two men agree
to sail out of San Quentin together.
Of course, there are a few more obstacles
they would have to figure out before they can set off
for a life filled with margaritas.
They've got the warehouse and the tools,
but how will they keep their plan secret?
The Pacific Ocean coming in and out of the bay
has strong tides.
If they don't set off at the right time of day,
they will never beat the currents,
and it's not like the guards in the towers
looming over them are blind to what happens at the wharf
or on the water.
How will they get the boat out there
without being spotted?
And no one is going to mistake them for a pleasure boat
in their prison uniforms.
But hell,
Forrest has gotten this far,
and the old escape artist can certainly work around
those problems--
or at least, he hopes he can.
If not,
he's doomed to spend the rest of his life
as a spectator,
looking out as the ships and his freedom
sail off into the sunset.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
- America's greatest prison escape artist,
Forrest Tucker, is planning to bust out
of maximum security San Quentin.
It's his most audacious scheme ever--
to build a boat
and paddle to freedom
in San Francisco Bay.
He knows he cannot do it alone
and agrees to join up with fellow inmate John Waller,
better known as The Rabbit,
a term used to describe a man
with multiple prison escapes.
♪
- They met in Waller's cell
and discussed what kind of boat
they might be able to build.
- And eventually, they settle
on the idea of a kayak.
It would have a double-bladed paddle,
which means they could build up a lot of speed
necessary to get across the choppy waters.
- During recreation time on the unit,
when inmates have more freedom to move about,
the two men spend some time away
from the prying eyes and ears
of the other prisoners in Waller's cell.
But while Tucker is confident in Waller's ability
to build a boat,
he believes they'll need an extra set of hands
to help build and move their escape vessel.
Tucker tells Waller
they will need someone with an escape-oriented mind
and the ability to keep their mouth shut.
♪
- William McGirk was a 38-year-old man
who had been arrested for armed robbery.
He had, in fact, escaped once from prison in 1970,
where he and some other inmates
had plugged the toilets in a San Francisco jail
and walked out during the ensuing aftermath.
That's what gets him sent to San Quentin.
- It's a risk.
The more people know about the plan,
the higher the chances
someone opens their mouth at the wrong time.
- Something like an escape, man, you gotta be very, very,
you know, clear about who you're dealing with,
how much they gonna talk, can they keep a secret,
and if you can trust them,
'cause you're talking about your life,
'cause not only could you get locked up in the hole
and be in the hole for some years,
you could literally get killed.
- Willie McGirk was an acquaintance
or friend of Forrest Tucker.
Waller respected Tucker, and when Tucker asked
if McGirk could come along, Waller acquiesced to that
and said, "That's fine. He can come along."
- Having established a crew,
the three men can now focus on the biggest obstacle--
how do you build a boat,
waltz it down to the shore,
and launch yourself into the bay
at a maximum security prison
all without the guards noticing you?
If Forrest and his accomplices
cannot find the chink in San Quentin's armor,
then all of their elaborate plans will be for nothing.
- Forrest knew what to be careful about.
His whole theme his whole life was "find the weak spot."
- After two days of reconnaissance,
Tucker realized that San Quentin's weak spot
was not just the prison industries'
warehouse access to the bay,
but the unmanned guard tower #4.
♪
- The particular reason that guard tower #4
might have been chosen to be unmanned
was because of the belief
that the wharf was safe, because after all,
nobody's going to be able to escape into the bay.
The bay, to the prison, was an iron wall.
- If the men can get the boat to the bay
underneath the unmanned guard tower
without being spotted,
then they should be able to get out some distance
from shore before anyone
in the manned guard tower #5 spots them.
But first things first.
They need a boat.
And building a boat requires,
well, boat-building stuff.
♪
- The next thing was,
"What are they gonna build it out of?"
Waller worked in the prison industries warehouse,
where all of the materials that are necessary
for the building of furniture
to supply to government offices
throughout the state of California
are stored in that warehouse.
- Prisoners that are allowed access to the workshops
have unbridled access to all the tools
a builder could ask for--
the perfect opportunity to repurpose the excess materials
without being detected.
After three days of collecting and hiding
the materials, Waller carefully assesses
whether he has everything they need.
- So Waller took inventory
of the supplies that were available
and reported back to Tucker immediately.
Lumber, Formica, plastic sheathing,
you name it-- everything we need is there.
♪
- Waller's not worried about any of the guards noticing
the supplies missing.
The volume of wood, nails, and Formica are huge,
but he and the other two co-conspirators know
that if anyone gets wind of their general plans
or catches them in the act of construction,
they will be locked up in this joint for even longer
than their original sentence.
♪
Tucker's blueprints call for a kayak that's 14 feet long.
The keel alone is to be carved from a 15-foot Formica sheet.
Waller sets up in a dark nook
near the back of the workshop.
He and Tucker come up with a two-part plan
to keep this work secret.
- In order to hide their progress from the guards,
Waller would play the radio very loudly,
but he would only work for about two minutes at a time.
He'd rush back to see if any of the guards were about,
then he'd go back to his work very quickly.
- It takes Waller 15 single-edge razor blades
and countless nicks and cuts
just to shape the 14-foot keel for the kayak.
But as the boat pieces begin to take shape,
the proverbial clock begins to tick.
- As the construction of the boat continues,
it becomes increasingly difficult to hide it.
The pieces become bigger.
- There's only so long a 14-foot keel can stay hidden
in a prison workshop.
The men realize this entire escape plot
will have to take place in record time.
Tucker gives them less than a week.
They'll need to work double time.
- We have Waller constructing the boat
according to Tucker's plans.
Tucker is going back and forth,
ferrying different items,
and McGirk is
keeping his mouth shut.
- But McGirk does have an important task--
figure out the tides.
He manages to steal the tide report for the bay
out of the local paper.
Studying the ebb and flow of the water,
he reports to Tucker that their best window
for escape is August 9, 1979--
three days away.
- They wanted to go as close to full high tide
as they could so that they would have the least chance
of running up against the mud on the side of the bay.
- But McGirk mentions that there is a huge problem
with that date.
It is also the day the Marin County Yacht Club
across the bay will be out in full force
for their bathtub regatta.
The prisoners will not be alone on the water.
- It's San Francisco Bay.
It's dotted with sailing ships
and things like the bathtub regatta.
They put streamers on 'em.
They don't wanna look like regular yachts.
It's like the idea being you're out there
in a bathtub, hence the name.
- The tides are right,
but the bay will have too many lookie-loos.
Waller says they'll need to wait for a later date.
Forrest knows that if they push back
the escape any longer,
the guards will certainly discover the boat,
and their escape plan will no longer be secret.
♪
[rock music]
♪
- Forrest Tucker and his co-conspirators
are desperately trying to get their getaway going--
and soon.
The best tides are only a few days off.
There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle.
One key element is that
they have to disguise themselves.
They came up with a plan
to pretend to be local yacht club members,
pilfering supplies to create their yachting outbase.
And of course, the biggest puzzle piece of all is,
will their boat snap together in a seaworthy fashion?
But Forrest Tucker did not escape 17 times
without knowing how to turn a problem
into a solution.
♪
They will paint the boat in the colors of the yacht club
and make some jaunty little caps to blend in
with the club members.
He insists the date is set--
of course, that is if Waller can get the boat built
without getting caught.
[dramatic music]
- The paddles for the kayak
were made out of just two things--
plastic tubing
and the tops of five-gallon plastic containers.
They covered the parts in a sheathing of plastic--
the kind of plastic that was used
to cover finished products at the warehouse
before they went out.
- That plastic was completely waterproof.
- After a few days,
it started to come together,
but not quite fast enough.
♪
The clock is ticking.
They need to leave soon.
As the boat pods begin to come together,
it becomes increasingly difficult
to keep their little project under wraps.
They're keeping the boat in pieces
so they can manage to hide it
till the day of the escape.
Of course, who knows if the boat will float?
If it doesn't...
♪
They are sunk.
♪
With the boat pieces finished,
it's time to put the final touches
on the whole project.
- The plan is always to assemble the boat
on the day of the escape,
but this is a large craft.
Even its components can't be easily hid forever.
So the clock is ticking.
♪
- There's no way of knowing ahead of time
if all the pieces of the boat
will fit together, if it will float,
or will it hold three grown men.
And still, there's that last nagging problem
that Tucker keeps chewing on--
even if all the other pieces of the boat
and the plan come together,
how are they going to get from the warehouse
to the shore carrying a boat
without being spotted?
The distance from the warehouse to the shore
is at least 75 feet.
Even at a brisk pace
with three men carrying the boat,
Tucker figures it will take at least 90 seconds
to get to the water.
♪
But that's a problem they'll have to worry about
on the day of the escape.
For now, it's time to focus on painting the boat
to match the local yacht club.
Tucker manages to smuggle in
some royal blue spray paint.
- As they begin to paint the kayak,
they quickly realize they will not have enough paint
to do the whole thing.
- This is a problem.
♪
A big part of the plan
is to make themselves look
as little like prisoners on a makeshift boat
as possible.
- This is where Forrest uses his brain.
He's really smart at this,
and in every one of his cases,
every one of his escapes,
he always had to improvise.
He had to come up with something
based on what was there.
- They will paint half of it--
the half that faces the shore.
- Just before they run through the last of the paint,
Tucker stops them and pulls out three prison caps.
- To blend in with the yacht club,
means not just the boat blue and yellow,
but even their clothing and a cap.
So they had their regular prison caps,
their prison jacket,
and they put the paint of blue and yellow on those too.
So anybody seeing that from a distance
would think, "Okay, these are the yachtsmen
in their boats."
- The men also know that the boat will be found
after the escape,
and Tucker's ego gets the best of him here.
After all, he's not without a certain amount of pride
when it comes to his ability to escape from anywhere.
- They wanted to give the boat a name,
and they wanted to give the prison officials
a little bit of a shot in the ribs,
and they named the boat Rub-a-Dub-Dub.
- Now think of this nursery rhyme
that goes back decades--
"rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub,"
and that's what they were--
three men in this tub, escaping San Quentin.
♪
- The day of the escape,
everything is a go.
Tucker and his comrades made inside the warehouse
to assemble the boat
and disguise their uniforms for the escape.
♪
- With the boat ready for assembly,
McGirk determines they must sail at 1:30 p.m.,
15 minutes before high tide.
The men will have one hour to get the boat
out of the warehouse, into the water,
and outside the confines of San Quentin
before the 2:30 roll call comes up three men short.
The sooner the three seafarers can get to shore,
the more time they'll have to disappear into the wind,
and they'll need every minute they can get.
- Waller gave Tucker a little nod
when he passed him on the wharf,
meaning everything's a go.
- Assembling a 14-foot boat
in the middle of a prison workshop
is bound to draw attention.
The men only have a matter of minutes
to piece the boat together
and sneak it out of the warehouse
and over to the water.
- McGirk and Tucker came into
the prison industries warehouse
where all the parts were
and they put all the parts together
like it was an IKEA bookcase.
- Boat in hand,
the men know there's no turning back now.
Everything seems perfect for the escape.
The tide's right,
boat looks seaworthy,
guard tower #4, the one at the edge of the water--
unmanned.
But now it's time to solve
the final piece of the equation.
How the hell are they going to carry a 14-foot boat
all the way from the workshop
to the water without being seen?
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
- San Quentin inmates Forrest Tucker,
John Waller, and Willie McGirk
are poised to make history.
They're readying a homemade boat
for a daring escape by water.
♪
- So on August 9th,
Tucker and McGirk put the boat together
from the exquisitely pre-manufactured parts.
Now they have to get the boat out of the warehouse
over to the water.
- This is the part of the plan
that Tucker has never been able to fully puzzle out--
the trip to the shore from the warehouse.
♪
- It's a long, long walk
off the proverbial short pier.
If they are spotted trying to escape,
they will be shown no mercy.
- So San Quentin, they have a thing that says,
"No warning shots," which means,
"We don't have to give you a warning
that we're gonna shoot you."
So they literally have the authority to shoot to kill,
and they have shot and killed several people.
- Even though guard tower #4 is unmanned,
there are inmates just waiting for any opportunity
to better their situation.
- You always wanna be aware of the fact
that somebody might tell,
because people are looking for favors in prison,
and then, there's just guys that are informants
for the police, and those guys
just lookin' for stuff to tell.
- But if Tucker has learned one thing over the years,
when it comes to skedaddling,
sometimes it's better to be quick and uppy
than to be deliberate and smart.
He and Waller both know this part of the plan
will require a bit of thinking on their feet.
♪
And now, August 9, 1979,
a lazy delivery driver has left his truck unguarded
at the loading dock to the warehouse.
Tucker tells Waller to check, and sure enough,
the keys are left right inside a warehouse drawer,
just begging to be stolen--
or at least, repurposed for a 75-foot journey
to the Pacific Ocean.
- John Waller decided
that he would create a blocking maneuver
while Tucker and McGirk transported the boats
over to the water.
♪
- Waller steals the keys, gets into the truck,
begins driving it slowly towards the water.
- Tucker can't believe it.
No one would think twice about him walking around a truck
with another inmate
as they carry some kind of heavy object.
It's what they do all day.
- It wouldn't be a surprise
to see a truck moving around in this area.
It would be a surprise to see 'em hauling a kayak
by itself, but not if it was shielded
from the guard by the truck.
- Incredibly, the plan works.
- On the opposite side of the truck,
hidden from the view of the prison guards,
are McGirk and Tucker.
[rock music]
- Tucker and McGirk scurry across with the boat
and put it in the water right below guard tower #4.
McGirk and Tucker stay low and hidden
while Waller drives the truck back up, returns the keys,
and then casually makes his own way
down to the water.
- They can't believe it.
If it happened in the movies, you wouldn't believe it.
But now it's time to answer their next big question.
Is the boat seaworthy?
[dramatic music]
- Tucker gets in first
because the gunnels were only 10 inches high.
There was some concern as to whether the boat
would be able to carry all three men.
- First man gets into the boat,
goes down a little bit.
Second man gets in,
boat sinks a little bit lower in the water.
Third man gets in,
gunnels are right at about water level.
Still good. Close.
It's still good, but again, it's now or never.
- The moment of truth is upon them.
They have to paddle away, so easier said than done,
because nobody knows whether this boat
is even going to last more than 30 seconds.
It might sink right there under guard tower #4.
That would be pretty embarrassing.
♪
- No one has ever escaped San Quentin by boat,
and so far, it's not looking like
their boat will keep afloat long enough
to take them to freedom.
They know that if they are spotted,
the guards will have their orders--
shoot to kill.
[dramatic music]
♪
- It takes less than two weeks
to plan and prepare,
but Forrest Tucker and his two accomplices now implement
an unbelievable scheme
to escape from San Quentin
in a handmade kayak.
They're willing to bet their lives
it will work.
♪
- And so when Waller finally gets into the boat,
there's still distance
between the water and the top of the sides of the boat,
and they start paddling away,
and there isn't a drop of water
coming in from the bottom.
Once they realize that, that this boat is not going to sink,
they paddled madly
to get out into what's called
the Corte Madera Channel, otherwise to get away
from the wharf and to get out into the channel
where other boats often were.
So that's the place where they might be seen
as just normal citizens out having a boat ride.
- The conditions in the water are not they have expected.
The wind is blowing more than 20 miles an hour.
The water is choppy.
- But the newest members of the yacht club
are now out in plain view of the manned guard tower.
♪
- And they know that
there's one final obstacle ahead of them.
They passed an unmanned tower,
but there's gonna be one manned tower left,
and they just hoped that their
counterfeit Marin County yacht club uniforms,
along with their boat, are going to pass muster.
- They're frantically paddling.
The boat is watertight,
but the water was coming over the sides,
and they had no means to bail,
so they're frantically, frantically paddling.
- The water is so choppy
that the boat begins to take on water.
♪
And begins to sink.
- This is their last choke point
in the shipping lane to freedom.
♪
- This one guard spotted them from the shore,
and thinking that it's one of the yachtsmen,
sees what's happening.
- He asked them if they're okay, and then McGirk,
who is really kind of a taciturn,
quiet type person, who you don't see
very much of this, had the greatest line,
because he looked at his bare wrist--
nothing on the wrist-- and he looked at the guard,
hailing them and said, "Everything's okay.
My Timex is still running."
♪
- As unbelievable as it might sound,
it works.
The guard assumes they are who they say they are.
He radios in to say that, "No,
"these are just some kayakers.
They're gonna be fine." Goes about his day.
- Just as they get outside
of the San Quentin property line,
the boat sinks.
They're too heavy.
♪
All three men desperately
cling to the boat and begin kicking furiously,
trying to get to shore.
♪
The men make it to shore--
tired, wet, freezing cold,
but now free.
So while the plan didn't go exactly as they had hoped--
they didn't sail all the way to Australia--
they made it as far as they needed to
just outside the wall of San Quentin prison.
- They are only a few yards from San Quentin,
but they are also only a few yards from freedom.
- San Quentin was on the water,
but San Quentin was also surrounded by Marin.
So you would go in the water,
go a few places down, jump out the water,
and you'd be right there on the city street.
- Standing on the beach with his two accomplices,
Tucker recognizes that this has been a team effort,
which is somewhat unusual for him,
but he also knows that
if he's going to finish this escape,
he needs to go it alone from here on out.
- Once the we-just-got-out- of-jail adrenaline kicks in,
Tucker reverts to his lone-wolf personality
and turns and runs.
It must have been a surprise for the other two men,
or maybe not.
We will never know.
But as far as Tucker is concerned,
San Quentin has been vanquished.
Escape #18 is in the books.
It's time to scram.
♪
- I do know where John Waller went.
He took himself right down to the Larkspur ferry terminal
and called a cab, and he jumped in the cab,
and he told the cabbie that his sailboat had sunk.
That's why he was all wet.
Incredible story.
- To this day, no one knows
where exactly McGirk got off to.
But with so much suburban Marin County nearby,
the three men managed to blend in quickly
and make their way out of the general area
before their escape was uncovered.
♪
- It's not until later in the afternoon
during roll call
that the prison guards realize that they are three men short.
- There had been that report from guard tower #5
to the control tower.
He began to put two and two together.
- [chuckles]
When the guards find a kayak named Rub-a-Dub-Dub,
no one laughs, especially the warden.
California state and local law enforcement
unleash a statewide manhunt.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
- The boat escape from San Quentin Prison
becomes a major news story
and a major embarrassment.
The authorities are not going to rest
until they catch and punish Forrest Tucker
and his accomplices.
- There is mass confusion
after they learn that these men have escaped.
This looks incredibly bad for the prison.
- They kept searching the prison
because they didn't wanna give up on the idea
that they were in the prison.
They searched the hills
just outside of San Quentin across the road.
They searched the brush.
- They begin a massive manhunt
while the warden begins talking about
the need to have some kind of barrier
to make sure no boats come in or out.
It's a debacle.
- Part of Forrest Tucker's genius was that
he could disappear into thin air when he needed to.
As for the other two sailors,
they lacked Tucker's imagination.
Neither of them ever leave California.
♪
- So McGirk was captured in October.
He was not out very long, obviously,
and he was captured in San Rafael
near the apartment of his then-girlfriend
just a couple of months after he escaped.
♪
- Waller was captured in April of the next year,
and he was captured in Gilroy, California,
which is maybe about a hundred miles
from San Quentin.
- Despite not having their ringleader captured,
the state is embarrassed enough
that they go ahead with the trial without Tucker.
But with more holes in the state's case
against the men than in their kayak,
the former escapees are absolved of their crimes
after two trials end in a hung jury.
- I don't know why the jury--
juries, the two juries, did what they did,
but they were apparently amused enough by the escape
that they refused to convict them.
And after... [laughs]
After two tries,
the Marin district attorney threw up his hands and said,
"Eh, I'm not doing it again."
- We love the underdogs,
and how we love people tweaking the systems,
and how we're willing to forgive people
who do things that are maybe not things we agree with,
but people who do them without violence,
with ingenuity, with a sense of humor,
and with incredible determination,
which is what Waller, McGirk, and Tucker did.
- Forrest Tucker makes his way east after the escape,
pulling a few grifts--
a five-finger discount here or there,
and maybe even a robbery or two.
But after that, trail goes cold.
He's not one of the greatest escape artists for nothing.
But he doesn't disappear forever.
In 1998, he bombs back up to the surface,
right where it all started in Florida.
Here, he pulls off one of his last great cons:
becoming a respectable member of society.
- He goes down to Florida, Palm Beach County,
which is just south of Martin County,
which he was familiar with.
- In the meantime, he had married a woman
who thought that he was an investment banker.
And when they'd go to the cocktail parties,
he'd dress nicely and talk well
and she just thought she'd married an investment banker
'cause he always had plenty of money.
- But can you teach an old dog new tricks?
The answer is no.
- This was not the life for Forrest Tucker.
And after a number of years with his very sedentary life,
he turned to robbing banks again.
- 20 years after his escape from San Quentin,
Forrest Tucker's life of crime comes to an end.
♪
He's arrested, and on October 20, 2000,
Forrest Tucker, age 80,
pleads guilty to armed robbery
and is sentenced to 13 years.
Because of his failing health,
he goes to Fort Worth Medical Center,
part of the federal correctional institution
in Texas.
Forrest Tucker suffers several strokes while incarcerated.
He dies May 29, 2004 in a Texas prison.
♪
- It's interesting to romanticize
characters like Forrest Tucker,
and there is something romantic about him.
There really is-- I mean, as a desperado.
- He was like a folk hero for getting out of prison,
you know what I'm saying, for escaping.
So that was one of those kind of things
that people talked about for a number of years.
And they probably still talk about it today.
- Forrest Tucker,
in spite of all the places he had escaped out of,
big, small, young and old Forrest,
that one of his best escapes was from San Quentin--
his masterpiece.
- It is estimated
Forrest Tucker steals over $4 million
and breaks out of various prisons
a record 18 times over his criminal career.
♪
I suppose, in some way,
that does make him the somebody he always wanted to be.
♪