9/27/2023 0 Comments Escape from alcatraz movieIn 1979 the FBI officially concluded, on the basis of circumstantial evidence and a preponderance of expert opinion, that the men drowned in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay without reaching the mainland. ![]() Numerous theories of widely varying plausibility have been proposed by authorities, reporters, family members, and amateur enthusiasts. Hundreds of leads were pursued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced favoring the success or failure of the attempt. A fourth conspirator, Allen West, failed in his escape attempt and remained on the island. Late on the night of June 11 or early morning of June 12, the three men tucked papier-mâché heads resembling their own likenesses into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via ventilation ducts and an unused utility corridor, and departed the island aboard an improvised inflatable raft to an uncertain fate. In June 1962, inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. For a work of fiction, a 10/10.Alcatraz, with Angel Island (the fugitives' intended destination) in background, San Francisco Bay, March 1962Īlcatraz Island, San Francisco, California, U.S. The only thing I'd add is I wonder what the producers who decided to tell this story in such a favorable light, including the writers would have thought if Stroud had been paroled, and then started killing again. Lancaster, Malden, Brand, even a young Telly Savalas did a masterful job. Frankenheimer's direction is superb, with a wonderful score and high accuracy in what life in prison was like in the early half of the last century. It is a great movie, and even Academy Award material. Have I seen the movie since I read the truth? Sure, but now I watch it for the acting, the cinematography, the drama, not the fiction. Actually, a tiny blurb is all he deserved. I have an old San Jose Mercury News, from Novemwhich on the fhird page has a small article entitled: "Autopsy Performed on Birdman Stroud.' His death in Springfield would have been front-page news but for the JFK Assassination. He was dangerous and would have probably killed even as an old man. Bureau of Prisons knew what it was doing keeping Stroud in captivity. The story generated piles of mail pleading for Stroud's release. He'd smuggled bits and pieces of his 'autobiography,' heavily slanted in his favor, to Tom Gaddis, his own little gullible ghostwriter. Stroud was alive when the movie was made. No reputable bird breeder uses his remedies today. it's been proved now that most of Stroud's writings were plagiarized from other bird books, and even his remedies were nearly as dangerous as they were healing. When he was up for parole, he openly stated he wanted to get out before he was too old, because 'there were some people who needed killing.' His birdwork, too, was a fabrication. He was also a savage homosexual rapist who wrote child pornography and had absolutely no regrets about it. He was kept in solitary because he was too dangerous to keep with the regular prison population. He wasn't in solitary because of some misprint in his execution order. He was a vicious psychopath who had killed twice, and wanted to kill more. So there's a lot more to Stroud than Lancaster's gentle giant. I was stunned that we'd been so duped by the book and movie. When I confirmed the book's accounts from other sources. Until I read 'Birdman: The Many Faces of Robert Stroud' by Jolene Babyak. I believed I had the true story of Stroud. ![]() Tom Gaddis' book was wonderful I actually bought a copy at the Alcatraz gift shop years ago and read it eagerly. The movie is fiction from start to finish. ![]() But.and I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Hollywood doesn't always get it right. He becomes someone we can identify with, to care about, to wish he was free. Stroud, portrayed by Lancaster, is slowly pulled from a life of solitude, misery, hatred and violence by his love of birds. It's even capable of generating great empathy with a man who we'd all prefer not to marry our daughters. It's moving, emotional, stirring, and poetic.
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