USP Alcatraz was the nation's first "super-max" facility, a prison within the prison system, designed to be escape-proof. But was it? During the Rock's 29-year history, the federal Bureau of Prisons documented fourteen escape attempts. Driven men broke out of solitary confinement, slipped away from the dock, used improvised tools to saw through steel bars, created decoy dummy heads from soap and human hair. When it came to ways to get out of their cells and off the island, these men, many of whom had long records and long histories of trying to escape from other institutions, hatched some remarkably daring getaway plans. Based on the official files of the Bureau of Prisons and packed with photos and original documents, this book is the ultimate record of how far desperate men will go to be free.