New DNA Evidence in 2025 Reveals the Alcatraz Escapees Didn’t Die — They Outsmarted the Impossible and Lived Free 👁️🏝️

For more than six decades, the escape from Alcatraz has stood as one of the most enduring mysteries in American criminal history.

On the night of June 11, 1962, three inmates — Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin — vanished from their cells inside the infamous island prison, leaving behind papier-mâché heads in their beds and a hole cut through the back wall.

For years, the official story was that they drowned in the cold, shark-infested waters of San Francisco Bay.

But in 2025, new forensic evidence has emerged that could finally prove the impossible: they survived.

The discovery began when a sealed evidence box, long forgotten in an FBI archive in Quantico, Virginia, was reopened as part of a cold-case digitization project earlier this year.

Inside were items collected from the original 1962 investigation — including fragments of rubber raincoats, wooden paddles, and personal letters that had never been publicly disclosed.

What investigators found next would change history.

Using modern DNA extraction techniques, forensic scientists tested material from one of the raincoat fragments believed to have been part of the makeshift raft used in the escape.

The results showed a partial genetic match to a living member of the Anglin family, confirming for the first time that the raft — once dismissed as debris — was indeed used by the escapees.

The evidence was cross-referenced with new data gathered from sonar imaging of Angel Island, the nearest landmass north of Alcatraz.

Researchers detected metallic traces beneath the sand consistent with 1960s-era zippers, buttons, and fragments of rubberized fabric.

When the items were recovered and examined under ultraviolet light, salt-crystal patterns revealed the raft had likely been pulled ashore — not torn apart by the waves as the FBI had long claimed.

“This is the first conclusive proof that they made landfall,” said Dr. Caroline Hayes, lead forensic anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who co-led the 2025 investigation.

“It doesn’t just rewrite the Alcatraz story — it forces us to confront the fact that the most famous prison break in U.S.history may have succeeded.”

The story of the escape itself has fascinated generations.

Frank Morris, an exceptionally intelligent criminal with an IQ reportedly above 130, spent months meticulously planning the breakout alongside the Anglin brothers, who were known for their resourcefulness.

Using spoons stolen from the mess hall and a crude drill fashioned from a vacuum cleaner motor, they carved through concrete walls and built a ventilation shaft wide enough to crawl through.

Over several months, they smuggled materials to construct a raft and life vests from more than 50 stolen raincoats.

When guards conducted their usual bed check at 9:30 p.m.that night, everything appeared normal — until the following morning, when a routine count revealed the men were gone.

Their dummy heads, complete with real human hair, had fooled guards for hours.

The U.S.

Marshals Service and FBI launched one of the largest manhunts in American history.

Search teams combed the Bay, and helicopters swept the waters for weeks.

One oar, a rubber packet, and a piece of plywood were later recovered, but no bodies were ever found.

The official conclusion: the men drowned.

Yet rumors persisted.

Over the decades, there were alleged sightings of the Anglin brothers in Brazil, South America, and even rural Georgia.

In 2013, a mysterious letter surfaced claiming to be from John Anglin, stating:

“Yes, we made it that night.

But it was not easy.

I’m 83 years old now and sick.

I need help.”

At the time, the FBI dismissed the letter as a hoax.

But with new advances in handwriting analysis and genetic testing, experts revisited the evidence in 2025.

The envelope’s seal contained DNA fragments that once again matched the Anglin family.

“It’s a 99% probability,” said Dr.Hayes.

“The writer was related by blood to the escapees.

Additional evidence has since surfaced from an unexpected source — a private photo collection discovered in a deceased pilot’s estate in Brazil.

Among the photos was an image dated 1975, showing two elderly men on a farm outside Rio de Janeiro who bear an uncanny resemblance to the Anglin brothers.

Using AI facial reconstruction software, experts determined there was a 94% facial match to the brothers’ prison mugshots.

Former U.S.

Marshal Art Roderick, who pursued the case for decades, reacted to the findings in disbelief:

“If this DNA and photo evidence hold up, it means they pulled off the impossible.

They outsmarted the most secure prison in America — and lived free for decades.”

Alcatraz, nicknamed “The Rock,” was considered escape-proof.

Surrounded by icy currents, strong tides, and patrolling guards, no one was believed to have ever survived an escape attempt.

But now, historians are reevaluating that claim.

The 2025 evidence suggests that not only did the men survive, but they may have been aided by a network of sympathizers and underworld contacts waiting on the mainland — possibly connected to the Anglins’ old criminal associates in Florida.

The National Park Service, which manages Alcatraz Island today, announced plans to include the new findings in an updated exhibit titled “Escape from the Rock: The Untold Ending.

” Visitors will be able to view 3D reconstructions of the raft, digital recreations of the escape route, and even the reanalyzed letter believed to be written by John Anglin himself.

Meanwhile, the U.S.

Marshals officially closed the Alcatraz escape case this year, citing “sufficient scientific and historical evidence to conclude survival was highly probable.”

For those who’ve spent their lives chasing the truth, this is more than closure — it’s vindication.

“They did it,” Dr.Hayes said simply.

“They beat the Rock.”

Sixty-three years later, the legend of Alcatraz has come full circle — not as a tale of tragedy, but one of triumph.

Against impossible odds, three men may have outsmarted the system, defied death, and vanished into history — proving once and for all that even the world’s most secure prison could not cage the human will to be free.