FBI makes replicas in ’62 Alcatraz escape

SAN FRANCISCO — A halfcentury after a notorious prison escape from Alcatraz Island, the FBI has created replicas of decoy heads that inmates used to distract guards from a plan that still captivates researchers and tourists.

Authorities unveiled Thursday 3Dprinted copies of the decoys that inmates Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin constructed with soap, plaster and human hair in 1962.

Morris and the Anglin brothers placed the decoys in their beds and climbed through a wall to escape the island prison in San Francisco Bay. The men were never found. Inmate Clayton West also created a head but never made it out of the maximum-security prison..

Authorities said they made the replicas to share with the public because the original decoys are fragile and are evidence in the still-open investigation into the escape by the U.S. Marshals Service. “We understand the original items can’t be out here — they’ve got to be archived,” said John F. Bennett, FBI special agent in charge in San Francisco. “But we recognize that those items are also part of the rich and historic fabric and the landmark of this city.”

Bennett said a team from the FBI’s laboratory in Quantico, Va., traveled to San Francisco to scan the original decoys. Employees at the lab donated their own hair to accurately re-create the original masks, which included human hair that the inmates had collected from the prison barbershop.

“The hair and the paint on here is exactly what the prisoners did,” Bennett said, showing the replicas brought to the island in black, waterproof cases.

The FBI investigated the prison break, which was featured in the 1979 movie “Escape from Alcatraz” starring Clint Eastwood, for 17 years before it was turned over to the Marshals Service.