Inseparable: An Alcatraz Escape Adventure

by David Kruh

Tommy knew the right thing to do was turn them in to the cops. But that wasn't the adventurous thing to do! What happened to the three men who escaped from Alcatraz prison in June 1962? Did they meet the same watery fate as dozens who preceded them into the cold San Francisco Bay? There is credible evidence two of them - brothers John and Clarence Anglin - not only survived but lived for years in South America. Inseparable is a fictional account of how a 13-year-old boy named Tommy helped them to freedom. Tommy O'Conner was an only child whose mother, a widow of the Korean Conflict, had been left to make it on her own. She passed her independent, sometimes lonely spirit, to her son. But Tommy was also, in many ways, no different than other boys his age who dreamed of adventure. Then, one June day in 1962, his daydreams were interrupted by the real thing when he came face to face with John and Clarence Anglin - two of the Alcatraz escapees - and made the decision which would change all their lives.

314 pages, Paperback

Published June 21, 2022

About the author

David is the published author of several books, notably the only two written exclusively about Boston's erstwhile entertainment district, Scollay Square.

This year saw the publication of Little Mister Victory, the story of co-author Tina Drzal's decades-long search for the woman who abandoned her father on VJ Day. Using cutting-edge DNA analysis and good-old-fashioned detective work (burrowing into newspaper archives, ecclesiastic and government documents) we found the mother, along with a surprise; abandoning her newborn baby was not the most shocking act of her life.

David's 2022 novel is based on the audacious 1962 escape by three inmates from Alcatraz. INSEPARABLE tells the story of a thirteen year-old Sausalito boy who discovers two of the escapees near death on a Sausalito beach. The adventure begins when he decides to help them to freedom. His writing has also appeared in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, History Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Boston Magazine and elsewhere. A published and produced playwright, his musical about the Boston Red Sox (The Curse of the Bambino) premiered at Boston's Lyric Stage in 2001 and still ranks among the most successful productions in this equity theater's history.