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Alcatraz Island: How first prisoners landed 86 years ago, who was 'Birdman' and all the dangerous escape stories

There were a total of 14 escape attempts from Alcatraz made by 36 prisoners during Alcatraz's 29-year run, of which, two men tried twice
PUBLISHED AUG 11, 2020
Alcatraz Island (Getty Images)
Alcatraz Island (Getty Images)

On August 11, 1934, a group of federal prisoners who were thought to be the "most dangerous" people in the United States of America's prison system, arrived by boat at Alcatraz Island -- a small island of about 47 acres that was off the coast of San Francisco by less than two miles. The maximum-security federal prison was once the country's most fortified and most guarded prison until it was shut down in 1963 after Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered Alcatraz closed, citing the high expense of its maintenance.

In fact, Alcatraz was so secure that many believe it is unlikely that any survived or went on to live happy lives as escapees after -- but then again, they might just have been very good at hiding themselves. There were a total of 14 escape attempts from Alcatraz made by 36 prisoners during Alcatraz's 29-year run, of which, two men tried twice. Of the 36 prisoners, 23 were caught, six were shot and killed, two gave up and five are listed as "missing and presumed dead." Those that are listed as missing are believed to have drowned in the cold waters of the San Francisco Bay.

Of those 14 prison attempts, some stand out due to the ingenuity of the convicts or even at how dramatic they became. Let's take a look at some of the most daring and impossible escape attempts and who may have potentially survived.

It is Robert Stroud who could be considered the creepiest of Alcatraz's inmates. He was made famous when Hollywood released a film called 'Birdman of Alcatraz' where he was portrayed as a kind, gentle soul who raised birds in his cell. Stroud brutally murdered a bartender in 1909 after the latter allegedly failed to pay for a prostitute whom Stroud was pimping in Alaska. After killing the bartender, Stroud took his wallet to ensure he and the prostitute would be compensated for her services. In 1911, Stroud was convicted of manslaughter and was incarcerated at a Federal penitentiary in Washington State.

While he served time in Leavenworth prison, Stroud developed a keen interest in canaries after discovering an injured bird in the recreation yard. He was allowed to breed birds and maintain a lab inside two adjoining segregation cells since the authorities thought it would be a productive use of his time. From his studies, Stroud authored two books on canaries and their diseases. He raised nearly 300 birds in his cells, carefully studying their habits and physiology. He even developed and marketed various medicines for bird ailments. Contrary to what the movie depicted, Stroud studied birds in his cell at Leavenworth Prison in Kansas and was not allowed to do so at Alcatraz. There, the other prisoners and guards feared and hated Stroud. Attorney General Biddle said, “Stroud loves birds and hates men.” When 'Birdman of Alcatraz' came out, many people begged for Stroud’s release. When an officer asked him what he’d do if he was set free, Stroud replied that he had a list of people to kill.

Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin, John Anglin

Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin (Getty Images)

In July 1962, inmates Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin were able to escape the island and the federal penitentiary after intense planning. A fourth inmate, Allen West, was supposed to join them, but technical difficulties prevented him from doing so. This escape attempt is thought to have been planned by Morris, who was said to have been ranked in the top 2% of the general population in intelligence, as measured by IQ testing, displaying an IQ of 133. 

Morris's plan saw the prisoners widen the ventilation ducts beneath their sinks using discarded saw blades found on the prison grounds, metal spoons smuggled from the mess hall and an electric drill improvised from the motor of a vacuum cleaner, over a period of six months. While they used the improvised drill, Morris would play the accordion to mask the sounds. 

Once the holes were wide enough to pass through, the inmates would visit a utility corridor behind their cells' tier that was left unguarded and set up a clandestine workshop. There, with the use of fifty raincoats and other materials, they made life preserves based on a design they came across in the publication, Popular Mechanics, as well as a rubber raft carefully stitched by hand and sealed by heat from steam pipes. 

The men hid their absence by placing dummies of their heads made from a papier-mache-like mixture of soap, toothpaste, concrete dust and toilet paper. They used paint from the maintenance shop and hair from the barbershop floor to make them more realistic. After Morris and the Anglins climbed up to the roof, they inflated the raft, boarded, launched it and departed for Angel Island.

The FBI closed its case in 1979, concluding that the escapees were unlikely to have survived a treacherous swim of more than a mile of frigid waters to the mainland. However, in 2018, CBS San Francisco published an extract of a letter addressed to the FBI that told an altogether different story—and claimed that the criminals had been at large since the 1960s. “My name is John Anglin,” it read. “I escape[d] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes we all made it that night but barely!”

Battle of Alcatraz

Bernard Coy, Marvin Hubbard, and Joe Cretzer (Getty Images)

The Battle of Alcatraz took place from May 2nd to 4th in 1946 and was the result of an unsuccessful escape attempt at the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary by armed convicts. The plan was led by Bernard Coy, who had been watching the guards for weaknesses until he found one. The gun gallery was caged off with bars, but Coy realized he could pry the bars apart and push himself through to reach the weapons. To do so, he began to lose 20 pounds so that he could make through the tight space.

When a prison guard, Ben Miller, opened the gate to another inmate and conspirator, Marvin Hubbard's cell, Coy and Hubbard grabbed the guard and beat him unconscious. Coy took Miller's keys and freed three more inmates before climbing to the top of the unguarded gun gallery. There, he used pipes and pliers to spread the cage bars and get through. Coy raided the gun gallery for weapons. Now armed, the inmates moved on to the next step -- using the guards as hostages to negotiate their way onto a boat to San Francisco.

However, their plan started to fall apart. One of Miller's keys began to open the cellblock door -- Miller had cleverly hidden the key in the toilet of the cell where he was being held. Later, the emergency siren was sounded as the battle unfolded.

Coy had opened fire with his rifle on the guards gathering outside the cell block. One of the other escapees, Joseph Paul Cretzer, panicked and decided he had to kill the hostages so they wouldn't be able to testify against them. With a stolen revolver, he shot into the cell containing the captive guards, fatally wounding Miller. Then the police, military, and prison guards began the assault from outside, attacking the cell block with rifle-launched grenades.

Two days after the attack started, the guards stormed the cell block and they found three dead conspirators (Cretzer, Coy, and Hubbard) and three survivors who surrendered. The two guards captured by the conspirators had also been killed.

Alcatraz's best-known inmates

Al Capone (Getty Images)

Because the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was hard to escape, many dangerous and most wanted convicts were held there. Some of the most infamous criminals were held at the island before the prison shut down, including gangster Al Capone aka Scarface. In Alcatraz, he played the banjo in the Rock Islanders Band when they gave regular Sunday concerts and he worked in the laundry room and the library.

Another dangerous inmate was George "Machine Gun" Kelly -- no, not the millennial rapper -- who was gifted a machine gun by his wife, Kathryn and was introduced by her to notorious gangsters. Kelly robbed banks and was deemed an "expert machine gunner." Like Capone, Kelly was much more toned down at Alcatraz and served his time quietly, even serving as an altar boy in the prison chapel. 

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