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Sep 29, 2020 · Prisoners who were uncontrollable at other penal institutions were at last tamed by the severity of life at Alcatraz, while restless inmates who made a habit of breaking out of other prisons...
- Aaron Randle
- 11 min
- The Hopi Nineteen. In 1894, when Alcatraz was still operating as a military prison, the U.S. government arrested 19 Hopi men for refusing to send their children to American assimilation boarding schools almost 1,000 miles away from their reservation in Oraibi, Arizona.
- Frank Lucas Bolt. Little has been documented about Alcatraz’s LGBTQ+ prisoners, but gay men did play a role in the infamous prison. In fact, it was a queer man, Frank Lucas Bolt, who served as the prison’s first official inmate.
- Al Capone. For notorious Chicago-based mobster Al Capone, doing hard time before Alcatraz was rarely that hard. During earlier stints in Atlanta and other prisons, Capone had recruited guards to work on his payroll and enjoyed special privileges—from home-cooked meals and cushy bedding to unlimited access to the warden.
- Robert Stroud, a.k.a. the 'Bird Man' of Alcatraz. By the time Robert Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942, he had already established himself as one of the most dangerous—and notorious—prisoners in America, with a rap sheet already decades long.
An inmate register reveals that there were 1576 prisoners in total which were held at Alcatraz during its time as a Federal Penitentiary, between 1934 and 1963, although figures reported have varied and some have stated it to be 1557.
Sep 23, 2021 · Probably the most famous Alcatraz inmate, Capone was one of the most ruthless gang bosses of the early 20th century who was finally arrested on charges of tax evasion. He was moved to Alcatraz in 1934, but by that time syphilis was eroding his brain at an alarming rate. Age: Dec. at 48 (1899-1947) Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York.
- Alfred E. Neuman
- James “Whitey” Bulger. Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger grabbed headlines when he was captured in Santa Monica, California in 2011 after more than 15 years on the run.
- Al Capone. Undoubtedly the most famous criminal of the 20th century, even kingpin Al Capone was broken down by the desolate hopelessness found at Alcatraz.
- Alvin “Creepy” Karpis. Other than a brief six-month stint at Leavenworth in 1958, Alvin Karpis called Alcatraz home from August 1936 until April 1962. Karpis was born in 1907 in Montreal, Canada and was raised in Topeka, Kansas by his parents, immigrants from Lithuania.
- Mickey Cohen. Mickey Cohen had a promising career as a featherweight boxer in the 1930s before he embraced a life on the fringes of society and became the most notorious mobster on the west coast.
Famous Inmates. While several well-known criminals, such as Al Capone, George "Machine-Gun" Kelly, Alvin Karpis (the first "Public Enemy #1"), and Arthur "Doc" Barker did time on Alcatraz, most of the 1,576 prisoners incarcerated there were not well-known gangsters, but prisoners who refused to conform to the rules and regulations at other ...
He was relatively popular among inmates and guards, known as "Old Saltwater" to the inmates, and is credited with challenging the barbaric tactics used in the prison when he was there, including strait jackets and solitary confinement in darkness and working towards the general improvement of the lives of prisoners.
