Zone 7: Alcatraz’s Most Notorious Escape

In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum, talks with guest Michael Essligner.

Together, they peel back the layers of the notorious prison, Alcatraz, from its reputation as an impenetrable fortress to the infamous 1962 escape. Sheryl and Michael explore the psychology of Alcatraz inmates and discuss the prison’s impact on rehabilitation. With firsthand accounts and meticulous research, they offer a nuanced view of the inmates’ ingenuity and the prison’s security lapses.

About the ‘Zone 7’ Host

Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award-winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnline, a forensic and crime scene expert for “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,” and a CSI for a metro-area Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook, “Cold Case: Pathways to Justice.”

McCollum is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students, and the criminal justice community. They come together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.

You can connect and learn more about McCollum’s work by visiting the CCIRI website https://coldcasecrimes.org

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[Feature Photo: This is a view of one of the three cell tiers with individual cells at the main block of the federal prison for dangerous criminals at Alcatraz island, San Francisco, Calif., on March 15, 1956. (AP Photo)]