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It's June 11, 1962, at Alcatraz, the maximum security prison in San Francisco Bay. Thirty-five-year-old prisoner Frank Morris grips the bars of his cell and listens as the

prison guards make their final rounds for the night.

Then one of the guards barks lights out.

The moment the cell block is plunged into darkness, Frank leaps into action.

He slips out of bed and crouches by the sink on the back wall.

As his eyes adjust to the darkness, Frank runs his fingers along the bricks till he finds a small

grate under the sink. Then just to the side, he pushes his hand through the wall. It's not

brick. It's cardboard, painted like bricks. Hidden behind is a small hole, just large enough for a man

to squeeze through. On his hands and knees, Frank crawls

into the tunnel that runs behind the cells. It's a dusty utility corridor, dominated by a maze

of ancient pipework that spiderwebs up the walls to the ceiling 30 feet above. Frank quickly scales

the pipes, twisting his body past the rusting metal, up towards a ventilator cover on the ceiling.

As he reaches the top, he can feel a breeze blowing in off the ocean.

He can see the stars in the night sky above.

And with one big heave, Frank pushes the cover aside.

He freezes for a moment as the sound echoes through the corridor beneath him,

but no guards shout, no alarms Blair. All is quiet, so Frank pulls himself up through the hole.

Frank Morris will be joined in his escape attempt by two other prisoners. The men have spent

...