Once they had squeezed through the ventilation shafts, the men scaled a series of pipes to reach the roof. From there, they descended a fifty-foot kitchen vent to the ground and moved toward the water’s edge. Their primary vessel for the crossing was a masterpiece of improvisational engineering: a six-by-fourteen-foot inflatable raft and accompanying life vests meticulously constructed from more than fifty stolen rubberized raincoats, heat-sealed together with the warmth of steam pipes. At approximately 10:00 PM, they launched into the San Francisco Bay, a treacherous expanse defined by bone-chilling temperatures and currents that could sweep even the strongest swimmers out to the Pacific.
When the ruse was finally discovered the next morning, the resulting chaos was unprecedented. The FBI and the Coast Guard launched one of the largest manhunts in history, scouring the coastline and every inch of the bay. They found fragments of the raft and a single paddle, but no bodies were ever recovered. Authorities eventually officially concluded that the men had succumbed to hypothermia and drowned, citing the impossibility of surviving the crossing in such primitive gear. The case was closed by the FBI in 1979, but for the U.S. Marshals Service, the warrant remains open to this day.
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