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March 20, 2015

Strange But True!

Q. How did three convicts escape from the “inescapable” Alcatraz Island prison in 1962 using just a crude makeshift raft? Did they make it to shore?

A. On the night of June 11, 1962, the three bank robbers “escaped from their cells through holes they had dug using sharpened spoons, then inflated a raft made from a patchwork of stolen raincoats and cast off into the night, never to be seen again,” reports Thomas Sumner in Science News magazine. According to researchers using computer simulation of the Bay, whether the convicts' escape was successful depended on the time and tides: If they cast off between 11 p.m. and midnight, they could have reached a beach just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, as the outgoing tide slackened; if, however, they set off before 11 p.m., strong tidal currents could have swept them into the Pacific Ocean.


 
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