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Alcatraz: John Anglin

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Alcatraz: John Anglin

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Auction Date:2018 May 09 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Rare ALS signed twice, “John" and "John. William. Anglin. 25034,” one page, 8 x 8.75, no date. Letter to his mother, written while incarcerated at the US Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, in full (spelling and grammar retained): "How is everyone? I got Pat’s letter, and I’m a little late answering it. Just want you to know that I’m OK, and I hope that all of you are to, I had a letter from Al and he seams to be doing Ok, to. I’m gona write them this week. Well…looks like Summer is coming again, it rains quit a bit but we are having a few warms days out of each week now, sure has been a long Winter and I'm glad to see it warm up for a change. Tell everyone hello for me, give my best to all the kids, sure do miss everyone, if, your wondering why I’m not writing verry often it’s pretty simple, it makes me lonesome when I write, I get to thinking of everyone and that’s the way it goes. Don't worry about me, I'm looking for a letter from Mearl any day now. It's about a week over due. Guess Ruskin is growing up now, that sure is some Town, guess everyone is planning on going up North this Summer. How about Carson, where is he going this year? How is Hill doing? Well take it easy and don’t worry, guess I’ll close for now.” In fine condition, with possibly trimmed edges. Accompanied by a copy of a letter of provenance from Anglin's sister, Marie Widner, addressing her plans to sell the letters: "The money will go to help my 2 Grandsons, who need it."

John and Clarence Anglin were two of thirteen children raised by farm workers in Donalsonville, Georgia. Purportedly inseparable, the brothers began robbing banks and other establishments in the early 1950s, and were eventually arrested in 1956. They received 15- to 20-year sentences and served time at Florida State Prison, Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, and then Atlanta Penitentiary. They made attempts to escape from each, but it was only after another failed attempt from the Atlanta facility that the brothers were transferred to Alcatraz, with John arriving on October 21, 1960, and Clarence on January 10, 1961.

Along with fellow inmates Frank Morris and Allen West, the Anglin brothers patiently concocted an ingenious plan to escape from ‘the Rock.’ Working at night over the course of six months, the men, who shared adjacent cells, gradually set up a small workshop hidden in an unguarded utility corridor. Moving to and fro through widened ventilation ducts, the inmates assembled a variety of stolen and donated goods (including more than 50 raincoats) that they would makeshift into life preservers, a 6 x 18 foot rubber raft, paddles, and a bellows created from an old concertina.

On the night of June 11, 1962, the men made their move, but West, who lingered in an attempt to properly reset his cell’s ventilation grill, was left behind. The other three made it to the roof, descended a kitchen vent pipe, scaled two barb wire fences, and on the northeast shoreline—a searchlight and prison tower blind spot—inflated their raft and departed two miles north to Angel Island. The men were never seen again, but members of the Anglin family insist that the brothers had made contact on various occasions. The Anglins’ remarkable escape from Alcatraz was later made into a popular 1979 film starring Clint Eastwood.