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Alcatraz -
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Robert
Stroud, known as the Birdman of
Alcatraz,
received very little notoriety until he gained attention in the 1962
movie "The Birdman of
Alcatraz.” Stroud, who was convicted of manslaughter in 1909, was initially sent
to McNeil Island to serve a 12 year sentence. While there, he
was difficult to manage and after attacking an orderly, he was sent to
Leavenworth. After less than four years at the
Kansas
prison, he killed a guard, and was later sentenced to hang. After his
mother appealed to President Wilson, the sentence was commuted to life. It was during Stroud’s thirty years as a
prisoner at
Leavenworth that he began to study birds, which gained him
international attention. When Stroud began to openly violate
prison rules to continue his birding experiments and communications
with bird breeders, he was sent to
Alcatraz
in 1942, where he never again was permitted to continue his avian
studies.
The "Birdman” occupied a cell in D Block for approximately six years,
before he was moved to the prison hospital in 1948, for the purpose of
segregating him from the rest of the population. After he genuinely
became ill, he was transferred to a Federal Medical Facility in
Springfield,
Missouri
in 1959. Four years later, Stroud died of natural causes.
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Robert
Stroud was known as the Birdman of
Alcatraz,
though he never handled birds at the prison.
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Though the prison was heavily fortified
and it was assumed that the "treacherous waters” of the San
Francisco Bay would prevent any escape, several attempts were made throughout
the years.
From a total of 1,545 prisoners that spent time at the prison, 36 men
attempted to escape in fourteen 14 separate attempts. Of those, 20 were
captured, seven were shot and killed, two drowned, and five were never
found, assumed by prison authorities to have drowned.
Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe were the first disappear from
Alcatraz on
December 16, 1937. While working in one of the workshops, Cole and
Roe had, over a period of time, filed their way through the flat iron bars
on a window. After climbing through the window, they made their way
to the water’s edge and disappeared into San
Francisco Bay. Prison
authorities declared them to have drowned but four years later, a San
Francisco Chronicle reporter reported the men were alive and well in South
America.
The bloodiest escape
attempt occurred over a three day period on May 2-4, 1946. In this
incident, known as the "Battle of
Alcatraz,”
six men by the names of Bernard Coy, Joseph Cretzer, Sam Shockley,
Clarence Carnes, Marvin Hubbard and Miran Thompson, took control of the
cell house. Overpowering officers and gaining access to weapons and
keys, they planned to escape through the recreation yard door. However, when they found they didn’t have the key to the outside door,
they decided to fight rather than giving up. During the next couple
of days, the prisoners killed two of the guards they had taken hostage. Eventually Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes returned to their cells, but
Coy, Cretzer and Hubbard continued to fight. The U.S. Marines were
eventually called out to assist and the escape attempt ended. In the
melee, Coy, Cretzer and Hubbard were killed, and 17 guards and one
prisoner were wounded. Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes later stood
trial for the death of the officers; Shockley and Thompson received the
death penalty and were executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin in
December 1948. Carnes, just 19 years old at the time, received a second
life sentence.
On
July 11, 1962, Clarence Anglin, his brother John, and Frank Morris also
disappeared from
Alcatraz. Their escape was made famous by Clint Eastwood's movie, "Escape From
Alcatraz.” |
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The three escapees, along with another man by the name of Alan (Clayton)
West, made plaster heads with real hair swept from the barber shop floor. On the night of the escape, they left the heads on their beds and crept
through the ventilators in their cells, which had been widened with stolen
spoons from the kitchen, into the utility corridor. West could not fit
through his hole and remained behind. From there, they made their way to
the roof, then down to the water’s edge. Though prison authorities
believed the men had drowned, no bodies were ever recovered. During the last escape
from Alcatraz
on December 12, 1962, John Paul Scott, 35-years old, swam from the island
to Fort Point, under the southern part of the Golden Gate Bridge, proving
that it could be done. Along with another prisoner named Darl Parker, the
pair bent the bars of a kitchen window in the cell house basement and
escaped. Parker was discovered on a small outcropping
of rock a short distance from the island. However, Scott, a better
swimmer, made it to Fort Point beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. Collapsing from exhaustion and hypothermia, he was soon found by two
teenage boys who called for help. He was then taken to the military
hospital at the Presidio Army base. After being treated for shock
and hypothermia, he was returned to
Alcatraz.
Continued Next
Page
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Scars from the "Battle of
Alcatraz"
can still be seen on
the floor, July, 2009, Kathy Weiser. |
One of the heads used in the escape of the Anglin brothers and Frank
Morris,
is still on display in a cell, July, 2009,
Kathy Weiser.
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From the Rocky Mountain General Store
Native
American Guides & Books -
Legends of America and
the
Rocky Mountain General Store has collected a number of
Native American Guides & Books for our readers of history and
Native
American lore. For many of these, we have only one available.
To see this varied collection, click
HERE!
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