New information could help solve a big decades-old mystery. Did they or didn't they survive the escape from Alcatraz?
The Georgia family of the two brothers who escaped from Alcatraz is releasing a name that connects the escape directly to the mob.
The family believes it knows how the men escaped the dangerous waters surrounding Alcatraz and where they’ve been living ever since.
This photo they're sharing purports to prove the brothers' connection to a mob boss.
The family believes it was taken of John and Clearance Anglin in Brazil in 1972.
That’s ten years after their escape.
They say a well known gangster, Mickey Cohen, helped get the men out of San Francisco bay and eventually to South America.
It was Freddy Brezzi, a convicted drug smuggler, who they say delivered a photo to their home after meeting the escapees in a bar in Rio.
But there’s one more player in all of this: a mob boss who sent the family the latest in a string of letters written from jail just a few weeks ago.
This is something the family has never discussed.
David and Ken Widner are nephews of the John and Clarance Anglin, the Georgia-born brothers who escaped from the country’s most infamous prison.
The Anglins were presumed dead in the turbulent current of San Francisco Bay, but their bodies were never found.
“We are starting to understand what really happened," David Widner said.
The family has uncovered a deep connection between the escape, their survival, and the mob.
“All of these big named people – Mickey Cohen, Whitey Bulger – they all wanted somebody to try it and make it," David told 11Alive's Jeremy Campbell. "If somebody made it, they would all get out.”
Decades after the escape, the family says they still receive appreciation from the mob.
“Whitey Bulger has been writing us for the last three years. He thinks a lot of John and Clarence because he feels like these boys saved all of their lives by getting Alcatraz shut down so they could all leave." David said. "He tells us things without telling us things. He gives us clues that only we would know what he's talking about. He knows they were all involved.”
The family showed several letters to Campbell. All were postmarked with a return address of a Federal Prison in Florida, but Bulger’s attorney has not responded to requests to validate the letters.
Bulger writes he’s going a little stir crazy in federal prison and hopes John and Clarance “would be safe from extradition” if they're still alive.
"He thinks a lot of john and Clarence because he feels like these boys saved all of their lives by getting Alcatraz shut down so they could all leave,” David said. “He tells us things without telling us things. He gives us clues that only we would know what he's talking about. He knows they were all involved.”
One of the letters read, "I saw John walking across the yard and he just reminded me so much of Steve McQueen," and, "The movie would have you believe that Bumpy Johnson had the men pick them up. I could name men who were aware and a part of it, but I won't.”
The family believes someone else did.
They say a retired U.S. Marshal revealed a name redacted in the Alcatraz file. That name is Mickey Cohen, a gangster sent to Alcatraz by Robert Kennedy for tax evasion and racketeering.
“This was the only man to ever bond out of Alcatraz and come back," explained Ken Widner. "This man bonded out of Alcatraz on a bond with an ACLU lawyer. He's out for six months. He comes back to Alcatraz 28 days before the escape and goes back to work with John in the clothing department.”
The family believes that’s where Cohen told John a boat would be waiting for them in San Francisco Bay after their escape.
“He basically gets it set up," Ken said. "He had the means to do it. He comes back to the prison just a few days before the escape. It’s too coincidental.”
The men said they haven't told the U.S. Marshals that information yet, saying 11Alive is the first to know.
11Alive's Jeremy Campbell contacted the retired Marshal’s investigator who confirms he revealed Mickey Cohen was in the file. However, he says the Marshals have been aware of the Cohen connection for some time and have recently been alerted to something else.
"The photo changed everything,” explained David Widner.
The family believes it is of John and Clarence Anglin, taken at their home in Brazil in 1975. They say the photo was delivered along with several others to by Fred Brizzi, a convicted drug smuggler. They called him a family friend. He became friends with the Anglin brothers when they were all living near Tampa and in 1992, just before Brizzi died. The family says he left a packet of photos with them of his trip to Brazil.
"This is a picture of Fred Breezy in 75' when he was down there," Ken said. “This was a picture of their farm. He says there is a river that goes through the farm. this was kind of a grainy photograph of the compound. This was their house, part of their house.”
But there’s something else: "Something that has not been told is, in 92' when he has been telling this story, he had, in October of that same year, had contact with them," he said.
The family considers that proof that the Anglins were still alive in 1992.
“This Brazil lead is probably one of the more intriguing leads we’ve had,” said Arthur Roderick.
Roderick spent twenty years working with the U.S. Marshals fugitive unit. He managed several leads on this case. Roderick says this photo is too grainy to confirm. A forensics exam had conflicting results. One report backs up the possibility. The other says it’s not a match. However, Roderick still considers the photos a lead.
“We’re actually working those photographs through Interpol connections at the US Marshal service, so that’s what’s intriguing about this particular lead is that there is actually something to actually confirm or un-confirm," he said.
It’s not the first mention of Brazil.
A redacted FBI file on Clarence Anglin concludes that there was at least a possibility he was living in Rio under an assumed name three years after his escape.
But there is one big question: Why is the family talking now, after all these years?
"The one thing I hope we profit out of this is to find those boys and to reunite them back with their sisters before they die and my mom dies," Ken said. "I've heard people say you are doing this for the money and the fame. I could care less."
“We want somebody to be willing to take this case on and help us. We would like to have a time-served verdict. We would like for them to be able to come home,” David said.