Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay was the site of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary between 1934 and 1963. There were a total of 14 escape attempts from the prison made by 34 prisoners during this time.[1] Two men tried twice, making for a total of 36 individual escape attempts; fifteen were caught, eight gave up, seven were shot and killed, one was confirmed to have drowned and five are listed as "missing and presumed drowned".[2] Faced with high maintenance costs and a poor reputation, Alcatraz closed on March 21, 1963.
It had seemed impossible to escape from Alcatraz by swimming.[3] The seasonal water temperature in the San Francisco Bay is about 53°F (12°C) in December[4] and the current can exceed 6 knots.[5] Citing these facts, as well as occasional visits from great white sharks and razor-sharp rocks, prison officers had discouraged most escape attempts.[citation needed]
Attempted escapes
April 27, 1936
The first attempt to escape the prison was made on April 27, 1936, by Joseph Bowers (Prisoner AZ210), who was assigned the duty of burning trash at the incinerator. He was working burning garbage at the island's incinerator during duty hours when he suddenly ran and began scaling a chain link fence at the edge of the island in an apparent attempt to make for the shore. When he was caught in this act and refused orders of the correctional officer located at the West Road guard tower to come down, he was shot. He was seriously injured in the fall from over 15m (50ft) and consequently died.[6]
The incident termed Bowers' "Desperate Escape" was variously deemed by inmates to have been an actual escape attempt, a deliberate suicide (Bowers had made multiple suicide attempts, and was deemed by some prisoners to be criminally insane), an attempt to climb up to grab garbage wedged in the chain link fence (Bowers was assigned to the garbage incinerator detail), or an attempt to climb the fence to feed a seagull. However, regardless of Bowers' initial motive, it is indisputable that Bowers ignored the guards' forceful signals to halt and he kept climbing even after the guards began firing, such that he fell on the outside of the fence.[7][8]
December 16, 1937
Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe (Prisoners AZ258 (Cole) and AZ260 (Roe)) had gradually filed through iron bars in the prison's mat shop in the industries building and escaped on a very foggy day, preventing them from being spotted by guards in the watch towers. The two jumped into the water and were never seen again, but the severe weather conditions at the time have led to a consensus that they drowned in the bay and their bodies were swept out to sea by the strong current in San Francisco Bay. However, they were listed as #1 and #2 on the FBI Most Wanted List.
May 23, 1938
Rufus Franklin (Prisoner AZ263), Thomas R. Limerick (Prisoner AZ335) and James C. Lucas (Prisoner AZ224) attacked and killed a guard named Royal Cline[9] with a claw hammer in the woodwork shop in the industries building and then proceeded to the roof, where an armed guard shot Franklin and Limerick (who ultimately died). Lucas was eventually cornered and surrendered to the guards.
January 13, 1939
Arthur 'Doc' Barker, William Martin, Rufus McCain, Henri Young, and Dale Stamphill were inmates of the prison's supposedly most-secure unit, D-Block, when they managed to escape the cell house and reach the Alcatraz shore on the night of January 13, 1939 (Friday). As they were putting a makeshift raft together, they were spotted and fired on by a guard in a watch tower. Barker was killed, Stamphill was wounded, and the others were sent to solitary confinement.
May 21, 1941
Joe Cretzer, Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle, and Lloyd Barkdoll were working in the industries area when they jumped the guards on duty and attempted to saw through window bars to reach the shore. The tool-proof bars foiled the attempt and they surrendered when this became apparent. Both Cretzer and Shockley would try to escape again in the Battle of Alcatraz.
September 15, 1941
John Richard Bayless (May 16, 1915 – July 30, 1981) was working on the garbage detail and managed to elude the guards and reach the Alcatraz shore. He jumped into the water and tried swimming to San Francisco, but quickly gave up the attempt.[10]
April 14, 1943
James Boarman (January 1, 1919 – April 14, 1943), Harold Martin Brest (January 2, 1914 – May 31, 1979), Floyd Garland Hamilton (June 13, 1908 – July 24, 1984), and Fred John Hunter (October 13, 1899 – November 30, 1982), managed to cut window bars in the industries building's mat shop without being noticed and assemble four cans that contained army uniforms and could serve as flotation devices. They then overpowered two guards, bound and gagged them and escaped out the window, leaving behind two of the four cans. One of these guards managed to get his whistle loose and the other managed to slip his gag and blow the first guard's whistle, alerting the tower guards who opened fire on the prisoners.[11][12][13][14]
Boarman was shot but floated in the water unconscious, supported by Brest. As a prison launch picked up Brest, he let go of Boarman, who sank and was never recovered. Hunter, who had injured his back and hands in the escape attempt, gave up on swimming and sought refuge in a nearby cave. He was discovered two hours later due to bloodstains at the entrance of the cave; he surrendered after the guards fired a warning shot into the cave.[15][16][17][18]
Hamilton was wrongly assumed by the guards to have been hit by gunfire and sunk (like Boarman), but he had actually been hiding in the same cave as Hunter under a pile of tires. Two days later he climbed back up the cliff and through the same window from which he had jumped, then hid under a pile of material in the storeroom. He was found there the next morning.[19][20][21][22]
August 7, 1943
Huron Ted Walters, who was serving a sentence of 30 years for robbery, assault, and auto theft, noticed that on weekends, fewer guards were on duty, and their attention tended to be focused on the recreation yard. On Saturday, August 7, he took advantage of the situation to slip out of the New Industries building, where he was working in the laundry. His plan was to cut through the two security fences that separated him from freedom, make his way to the water, and swim the 1.4 miles to San Francisco.[23]
His plan went sideways early. The contraband wire cutters failed him, so he had to climb both fences, which cost him valuable time. Then, he fell from the second fence onto the rocks and injured his back. Although he made it to the island's shoreline, he could go no farther, and was picked up by Captain of the Guards Henry Weinhold and Associate Warden E. J. Miller. He was returned to the cell house, where he spent some time in the prison hospital, then in solitary.[24]
July 31, 1945
John K. Giles, a prisoner working at the Alcatraz wharf, managed to assemble a U.S. Army technical sergeant's uniform (probably from pieces stolen from bags of army laundry sent to the island to be cleaned) and board a ferry that provided service between government facilities around San Francisco Bay. Shortly after the ferry's departure for Angel Island, headcounts on the Alcatraz wharf and aboard the ferry revealed the discrepancy, and Giles was apprehended at Angel Island and returned to Alcatraz.[25]
Bernard Coy, Marvin Hubbard and Joseph Cretzer were killed in the Battle of Alcatraz.Carnes, Shockley and Thompson on way to court for trial in the Battle of Alcatraz
The most violent escape attempt occurred on May 2–4, 1946, when a failed attempt by six prisoners led to the Battle of Alcatraz, also known as the "Alcatraz Blastout". It was carried out by six prisoners: Bernard Coy, Joseph Cretzer, Sam Shockley, Clarence Carnes, Marvin Hubbard and Miran Thompson. They daringly took control of the cell house by overpowering correctional officers, and were able to enter the weapons room and obtain the keys to the recreation yard door.[6][26]
Their aim was to escape by boat from the dock, but when they failed to obtain the keys to the outside door, they decided to battle it out. In the fight that ensued, they managed to hold two correctional officers hostage whom they eventually killed after two days. Prompted by Shockley and Thompson, Cretzer shot the hostages at very close range. One of the guards, William Miller, succumbed to his injuries while the second guard, Harold Stites, was also killed in the cellhouse by friendly fire from outside.[27] Although Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes returned to their cells, the other three, Coy, Cretzer and Hubbard, persisted with their fight.[6][26]
The U.S. Marines intervened to help the correctional officers and killed the three prisoners. In this battle, apart from the guards and prisoners killed, 17 other guards and one prisoner were also injured. Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes were tried for the killing of the correctional officers. Shockley and Thompson were sentenced to death through the gas chamber, an action which was carried out at San Quentin in December 1948.[28] Carnes, who was only 19 years old, was given a second life sentence.[6][26]
July 23, 1956
Floyd Wilson disappeared from his job at the dock but was discovered after hiding for 12 hours among large rocks along the shoreline after giving up on his plan to make a raft out of driftwood.
September 29, 1958
Aaron Burgett and Clyde Johnson were working on the garbage detail when they overpowered a guard. Both jumped into the water, trying to swim off the island. The two men attempted to use inflated plastic bags as flotation devices, and Burgett tied wooden boards to his feet to serve as swim fins. A police launch intercepted Johnson, but Burgett disappeared. He perished in the attempt and his body was found floating in the bay near Alcatraz, two weeks later.
Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin successfully carried out one of the most intricate escapes ever devised, on June 11, 1962. Behind the prisoners' cells in Cell Block B (where the escapees were interned) was an unguarded 3-foot (0.91m) wide utility corridor. The prisoners chiseled away the moisture-damaged concrete from around an air vent leading to this corridor, using tools such as metal spoons and forks soldered with silver from a dime and an electric drill improvised from a stolen vacuum cleaner motor. The noise was disguised by accordions, played during music hour (about an hour and a half), and their progress was concealed by false walls, which, in the dark recesses of the cells, fooled the guards.[6]
The side view of a model head found in Frank Morris's cell
The escape route then led up through an air vent, a shaft large enough for a man to climb through. Stealing a carborundum cord from the prison workshop, the prisoners had removed the rivets from the grille and substituted dummy rivets made of soap. The escapees were given over 50 rubber raincoats from other inmates to use as a raft for the trip to the mainland, which they prepared on the top of the cellblock, concealed from the guards by sheets which had been put up over the sides. Leaving papier-mâché heads in their cell bunks, they escaped through a vent in the roof and departed Alcatraz.[6][26]
The official investigation by the FBI was aided by another prisoner, Allen West, who also was part of the escapees' group but was left behind. West was unable to fit through his hole so he had to keep chipping to break through. When Morris and the Anglin brothers (John & Clarence) accelerated the schedule, West desperately chipped away at the wall; however, by the time he made it through the wall, his companions were gone. Hundreds of leads and theories have been pursued by the FBI and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced favoring the success or failure of the attempt.[citation needed]
The FBI's investigation from 1962 to December 1979 was finally treated as closed.[29] The official report on the escape concludes that the prisoners drowned in the cold waters of the bay while trying to reach the mainland, it being unlikely that they made it the 1.25 miles to shore due to the strong ocean currents and the cold sea water temperatures ranging between 50–55 degrees Fahrenheit (10–13 degrees Celsius).[6][26]
The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active, however. Morris and the Anglin brothers remain on its wanted list.[30] Circumstantial evidence uncovered in the early-2010s seemed to suggest that the men had survived, and that contrary to the official FBI report of the escapees' raft never being recovered and no car thefts being reported, a raft was discovered on nearby Angel Island with footprints leading away, and a car had been stolen on the night of the escape by three men, who could have been Morris and the Anglins, and that officials then engaged in a cover-up.[31] Relatives of the Anglin brothers presented further circumstantial evidence in the mid-2010s in support of a longstanding rumor that the Anglin brothers had fled to Brazil following the escape; a facial recognition analysis of a photograph purported to be of John and Clarence Anglin in Brazil in 1975, 13 years after their escape, concluded that it was not the two men.[32][33]
December 16, 1962
John Paul Scott and Darl Lee Parker were the last two prisoners to attempt to escape from Alcatraz. Scott and Parker 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 water. Parker was found alive 81 yards from the main island on the rock formation Little Alcatraz.[34] Scott reached Fort Point beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, where he was found by teenagers, suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion.[35] After recovering in Letterman General Hospital, he was returned to Alcatraz.[36] It is the only proven case of an Alcatraz inmate reaching the shore by swimming.[37][38][39]
Alcatraz Island is a small island 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. In 1934, the island was converted into a federal prison, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. The strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures made escape nearly impossible, and the prison became one of the most notorious in American history. The prison closed in 1963, and the island is now a major tourist attraction.
Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 American prison action thriller film directed and co-produced by Don Siegel, written by Richard Tuggle, and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Patrick McGoohan, Fred Ward, Jack Thibeau, and Larry Hankin with Danny Glover appearing in his film debut.
A prison escape is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture them and return them to their original detainers. Escaping from prison is also a criminal offense in some countries, such as the United States and Canada, and it is highly likely to result in time being added to the inmate's sentence, as well as the inmate being placed under increased security that is most likely a maximum security prison or supermax prison. In Germany, and a number of other countries, it is considered human nature to want to escape from a prison and it is considered as a violation of the right of freedom, so escape is not penalized in itself.
Samuel Richard Shockley, Jr. was an inmate at Alcatraz prison, who was executed for his participation in the Alcatraz uprising or Battle of Alcatraz in 1946.
Bernard Paul "Barney" Coy was an American bank robber and federal prisoner best known as the planner of a failed escape attempt from Alcatraz, on May 2, 1946, which turned into a bloody two-day armed confrontation leaving Coy, two fellow would-be escapees and two prison guards dead.
The Battle of Alcatraz, which lasted from May 2 to 4, 1946, was the result of an escape attempt at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary by armed convicts. Two Federal Bureau of Prisons officers—William A. Miller and Harold Stites—were killed. Three inmates were also killed during the incident. Fourteen other officers and one uninvolved convict were also injured. Two of the perpetrators were executed in 1948 for their roles.
The United States Penitentiary, Marion is a large medium-security United States federal prison for male and female inmates in Southern Precinct, unincorporated Williamson County, Illinois. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses minimum security male offenders.
Joseph "Dutch" Bowers was the first man to attempt an escape from Alcatraz prison. He was born in Rohrbach, Austria. Bowers was arrested for robbery of mail with a firearm.
Miran Edgar Thompson was an inmate of Alcatraz whose participation in an attempted escape on May 2, 1946, led to his execution in the gas chamber of San Quentin. At the time of the Battle of Alcatraz, Thompson was serving life plus 99 years for murder of Texan police officer Detective Lemuel Dodd Savage, 52. He also pulled armed robberies in New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. He had notoriously bad luck when getting caught, but extremely good luck at escaping from jail. He had been arrested eight times and held in small jails, and had escaped every time. Thompson had a record of eight escapes from custody by the time he was transferred to Alcatraz in October 1945.
Clarence Victor Carnes, known as The Choctaw Kid, was a Choctaw man best known as the youngest inmate incarcerated at Alcatraz and for his participation in the bloody escape attempt known as the "Battle of Alcatraz".
Henri Theodore Young was an American convicted bank robber and murderer who, while serving one of a series of prison terms, attempted to escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary with four other inmates in 1939. During the escape attempt two inmates, Dale Stamphill and Arthur "Doc" Barker, were shot, the latter fatally. All survivors were quickly recaptured. Two of the men, Young and Rufus McCain, were sentenced to solitary confinement and served the terms at Alcatraz for a period of three years. Eleven days after re-entering the Alcatraz general prison population in 1942, Young murdered McCain.
Joseph Paul "Dutch" Cretzer was an American bank robber and prisoner at Alcatraz who participated in and was slain in the bloody "Battle of Alcatraz" which took place following a failed escape attempt between May 2 and May 4, 1946.
John Paul Scott was an American criminal who is noted as the only escapee from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary known to have reached the San Francisco shore by swimming. He was recaptured almost immediately.
In June 1962, inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, California, United States. Late on the night of June 11 or early morning of June 12, the three men tucked papier-mâché heads resembling their own likenesses into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via ventilation ducts and an unused utility corridor, and departed the island aboard an improvised inflatable raft to an uncertain fate. A fourth conspirator, Allen West, failed in his escape attempt and remained on the island.
Theodore "Ted" Cole and Ralph Roe took part in the second documented escape attempt from Alcatraz, in 1937. Although officials were quick to conclude they died in the attempt, their remains were never found and their fate remains unknown, making the incident the first to challenge Alcatraz's reputation as an "escape-proof" prison.
United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built in 1910–12 as a U.S. Army military prison.
Rufe Persful was an American criminal, convicted of murder, kidnapping and robbery. He was considered one of the most dangerous criminals of his era by the authorities.
Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story is a 1980 American television film about Clarence Carnes, the youngest ever inmate of Alcatraz Prison. It screened over two nights, from Monday, July 10 to Tuesday, July 11 on NBC. It was written and co-produced by Ernest Tidyman.
↑ "BookletChart Gulf of the Farallones NOAA Chart 18645"(PDF). NauticalCharts.NOAA.gov. NOAA. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 21, 2013. Retrieved October 13, 2015. Outbound tidal current is strongest about 4 hours after high water at the Golden Gate Bridge and attains a velocity in excess of 6 knots at times.
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