The Man Who Turned Back in the Bay

Name: The Man Who Turned Back in the Bay
Genre: Documentary

With doors proving as deadly as walls, prisoners gamble on the water surrounding Alcatraz and discover its brutal cost.

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Transcript

John Bayless entered cold Bay water, then abandoned his escape almost immediately.
Alcatraz Island is a 22-acre rock outcropping 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay.
Its federal prison held dangerous, infamous, incorrigible, or high-flight-risk prisoners.
In 1946, six prisoners had weapons, cellhouse keys, not the recreation-yard door key.
The locked door left the six prisoners with no route forward.
In 1941, John Bayless gave up soon after entering San Francisco Bay's cold water.
The official record lists Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe as missing and presumed dead.
Bayless made the calculation in his body: the cold water was worse than the cell.
In 1958, Aaron Burgett and Clyde Johnson tried that water after overpowering an officer.
Clyde Johnson was caught in the water, while Aaron Burgett disappeared.
Across Alcatraz escape attempts, 36 prisoners took part, five remained unaccounted for.
Aaron Burgett disappeared and was found floating in the Bay two weeks later.
Later researchers modeled the route: a narrow window let a raft reach land without paddling.
Rolf Hut said it was very plausible that the escapees made landfall.
The researchers warned that a possible route still did not prove anyone survived.
A search light swept the Bay, then slipped beyond the dark water.

Two weeks after Aaron Burgett vanished, his body was found floating in San Francisco Bay.

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