ALCATRAZ-THE HOME OF THE FAMOUS CRIMINALS

Once the temporary home of famous criminals like Al “Scarface” Capone, Born, Alphonse Gabriel Capone on January 17, 1899 and died on January 25, 1947)he was popularly known as Al "Scarface" Capone,an infamous Italian-American gangster in the 1920s and 1930s'. A Neapolitan born in New York City to Gabriele and Teresina Capone, he began his career in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago and becoming Chicago's most notorious crime figure. By the end of the 1920s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had placed Capone on its "Most Wanted" list. Capone's downfall occurred in 1931 when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income tax evasion. Remember the UNTOUCHABLES starring Sean Connery? “Doc” Barker, The public enemies of the Thirties were farmboys from the heartland, men reared in the ethic of doing it all for themselvesled by Arthur "Doc" Barker. They emulated Jesse James and his one-time Confederate irregulars, riding the plains in their steel steeds; striking against the rich; spitting lead into the hearts of interfering guards, meddlesome bystanders, and intrusive police with their machine guns; and then zipping across state lines to enjoy the spoils. Barker and his gang had kept the Feds guessing for years. They knew how to hit banks, leaving no one knowing who had done it. Sometimes others got the blame. Like many Depression-era bandits, they earned for themselves quiet support and admiration from an agrarian public which hated the banks. Farmers used to sharing their crop failures with those close to them found that loan officers would not starve and sacrifice for them. Lenders kept themselves fat by foreclosing on cultivators during bad years. If a villain knocked over a poorly guarded small-town depository, he might see a close-mouthed smile on a man who'd just lost everything on a mortgage. Exploiting this kind of gratitude and laying down careful plans had enabled the Barker-Karpis gang to confound federal and local law enforcement and work almost anonymously. Robert Stroud — the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” and Stroud was born in Seattle, Washington, on January 28, 1890, to Elizabeth and Ben Stroud. He was convicted for killing an F. K. "Charlie" Von Dahmer who according to him raped and viciously beat his lover Kitty O'Brien, a 36-year old , a dance-hall entertainer and prostitute. According to the police, Van Dahmer was killed because he refused to pay Stroud for a session with Kitty. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to twelve years in the federal penitentiary on Puget Sound's McNeil Island on August 23, 1909. Stroud stabbed and killed a the guard and was sentenced to execution by hanging on May 27, 1916, and was ordered to await his death sentence in solitary confinement. His mother appealed to President Wilson, who ordered a halt to the execution. He earned his nickname the birdman when he started raising and caring for birds, which he sold to support his mother. Admiring the possibility to present Leavenworth as a progressive rehabilitation penitentiary, the new warden furnished Stroud with cages, chemicals, and stationeries to conduct his avian activities. Visitors were shown Stroud's aviary and many purchased his canaries. Over the years, he raised nearly 300 canaries in his cells and wrote two books, Diseases of Canaries and Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds. He made several important contributions to avian pathology, most notably a cure for the hemorrhagic septicemia family of diseases. He gained respect and also some level of sympathy in the bird-loving field. In 1933, however, Stroud took out an advertisement to publicise the fact that he had not received any royalties from the sales of Diseases of Canaries. In retaliation, the publisher complained to the warden, and as a result, proceedings began to transfer Stroud to Alcatraz, where he would not be permitted to keep his birds. Stroud, however, discovered a legal loophole, which would allow him to remain in Kansas if he were married there. He therefore married Della Jones in 1933, though he infuriated both prison officials, who would not allow him to correspond with his wife, and his mother, who cut off all contact with him for the rest of her life (she died in 1937). However, Stroud was able to keep his birds and his canary-selling business until after several years it was discovered that some of the equipment Stroud had requested for his lab was in fact being used to create alcohol with a home-made still. Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz on December 19, 1942. While there, he wrote two manuscripts: Bobbye, an autobiography; and Looking Outward: A History of the U.S. Prison System from Colonial Times to the Formation of the Bureau of Prisons. The judge ruled that Stroud had the right to write and keep such manuscripts but upheld the warden’s decision of banning publication. Robert Franklin Stroud died in Springfield on November 21, 1963 after 54 years of incarceration, 42 of those years in solitary confinement. Alvin Karpis Alvin Karpis was a member of the notorious "Ma Barker Gang," also known as the "Barker-Karpis Gang," which terrorized the Midwest in the early and mid-1930s with bank robberies, kidnappings, and murders. Karpis was arrested by J. Edgar Hoover himself. Karpis served 26 years on Alcatraz -- more than any other inmate. Alcatraz Island now harbors nesting birds in such numbers that the Park Service limits access to parts of the island during nesting season. Many people are familiar with the Alcatraz Island Prison from movies made about it including Birdman of Alcatraz and Escape from Alcatraz. There is even an annual Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. travel and places,Alcatraz,San Francisco

ESCAPES FROM ALCATRAZ

Alcatraz, surrounded by treacherous waters, outfitted with the latest security technology, and strictly managed, was reputed to be “escape-proof.” A successful escape has never been confirmed. There were 14 separate escape attempts involving 36 inmates. Of those, 23 were recaptured, 7 shot and killed as they fled, and at least 3 drowned. Five inmates involved two separate escape attempts, two in 1937, and three in 1962, remain unaccounted-for. 1938 Attempt Some escape attempts were violent. In 1938, three inmates working in the prison factory killed Officer Royal C. Cline with a hammer, broke through a window, and climbed to the roof. Before they could escape, an officer in a guard tower opened fire on them, killing one and subduing the others. 1945 Attempt In 1945, an inmate took advantage of the fact that Alcatraz did the laundry for West Coast military bases. Considered a minimal escape risk, he was assigned to dock duty unloading vessels transporting military laundry to the prison. Over time, he stole one article of clothing at a time from the shipments, until he had assembled a full military uniform. Then he hid under the dock, put on the uniform, and jumped on a boat that was casting off. Officers noted the inmate’s absence immediately. They radioed the ship to return to Alcatraz, and the escape attempt was foiled. Another inmate worked for most of 1962 to loosen a bar in a storage room window. He greased himself with lard so that he could squeeze through the opening. He swam from Alcatraz to the mainland. He was so exhausted that he collapsed on rocks near Golden Gate Bridge and slept soundly until he was discovered an hour later and recaptured. 1946 Attempt In 1946, the Alcatraz “Blastout” occurred when six inmates overpowered an officer and stole his keys. They broke into a barred “gun gallery” and captured weapons. Once they realized that the keys didn’t work on any doors leading out of the prison, and that other inmates wouldn’t help them, they took several officers hostage. This set off a gun battle that lasted nearly 2 days before prison officers, aided by U.S. Marines, retook the cell house. Officers Harold Stites and William Miller, and three inmates were killed during the siege. The three recaptured inmates were tried for murder. After their convictions, they attempted escape. Two were executed and one sentenced to 99 years in prison. 1962 Attempt The only three inmates not accounted for after trying to escape were John Anglin, Clarence Anglin, and Frank Morris, who broke out together in June 1962. They, with Allen Clayton West, spent several months fashioning crude electric drills and other tools from objects stolen from the kitchen, workshops, and other parts of the prison. They bored holes into the utility corridors behind their cell walls. They built rubber rafts out of raincoats, and used toilet paper, cardboard, cement chips, and human hair from the floor of the barbershop to create fake human heads. On the night of June 11, they placed the dummy heads in their cots to make it appear as if they were present and sleeping. West never made it out of his cell in time. The Angwins and Morris crawled through the holes in their cell walls, climbed up the pipes of the utility corridor to the ceiling, and, carrying their rafts and homemade paddles with them, escaped through a ventilator shaft to the roof. Then they made their way down the wall of the cell house to the beach, and plunged into the water. source: Alcatraz Island travel and places,Alcatraz,San Francisco