Video: 'Alcatraz 1934-1977 Part 5 of 6' (Scott escapes Alcatraz at 2:28)

(Sunday, December 16, 1962, just before 6:00 p.m. PST) — John Paul Scott, convicted of bank robbery and the possession of unregistered firearms, tonight became the first person confirmed to have escaped from the prison on Alcatraz Island and to have made it to the California mainland.

Scott, 35, and Carl D. Parker, 31, had used a makeshift saw to cut through the bars on a kitchen window in the cell house, then ran to the edge of the island and jumped into the San Francisco Bay with homemade flotation devices, but both became victims of hypothermia in the chilly December waters.

Parker was found alive 81 yards from the main island on the rock formation Little Alcatraz.

Scott reached Fort Point beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, where he was found by teenagers, suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion. After recovering in Letterman General Hospital, he was returned to Alcatraz.

It is the only proven case of an Alcatraz inmate reaching the shore by swimming.

Scott and Parker were the last two prisoners to attempt to escape from Alcatraz prison, which closed on March 12, 1963.