On 11 June 1962, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin vanished from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, using homemade tools, stolen raincoats, and soap dummy heads to execute one of America’s most audacious prison escapes. Whether they drowned in San Francisco Bay or reached the mainland remains unresolved to this day. The same date in 1920 gave us the phrase ‘smoke-filled room’, coined after Republican party bosses met in a Chicago hotel suite to select Warren G. Harding as their presidential candidate. In 2002, the US Congress belatedly acknowledged Antonio Meucci as the true inventor of the telephone, over a century after Alexander Graham Bell claimed the patent. And in 1770, Captain James Cook’s HMS Endeavour struck the Great Barrier Reef, forcing the crew to jettison cannons and spend weeks repairing the ship on the Queensland coast. This episode examines human ambition, historical footnotes, and the remarkable habit of turning up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

• Intro Clara introduces the episode, teasing an unsolved prison escape, a political cliché’s origin, and a famous maritime collision.
• The Alcatraz Escape On 11 June 1962, Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers escaped Alcatraz using months of covert preparation, homemade tools, raincoat rafts, and soap dummy heads. No bodies were ever found, leaving their fate unresolved.
• Smoke-Filled Room, Chicago Republican party bosses met in a Chicago hotel suite in the early hours of 11 June 1920 to select Warren G. Harding as presidential candidate, coining the enduring phrase ‘smoke-filled room’.
• Meucci and the Telephone On 11 June 2002, the US Congress acknowledged Antonio Meucci as the first inventor of voice communication technology, over a century after Alexander Graham Bell claimed the patent.
• Captain Cook and the Reef On 11 June 1770, HMS Endeavour struck the Great Barrier Reef. Captain Cook and crew jettisoned supplies to refloat the ship and spent seven weeks repairing it on the Queensland coast.
• Outro Clara reflects on the open-ended nature of the Alcatraz escape and invites listeners to follow, rate, and share the show.

• https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/alcatraz-escape
• https://www.nps.gov/alca/learn/historyculture/escapes.htm
• https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/harding
• https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-11/
• https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-resolution/269
• https://www.nla.gov.au/stories/blog/captain-cook/endeavour-reef