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4 days ago · To visit Alcatraz is to step back in time, into a story that continues to captivate and confound us six decades later. The island prison turned national park endures as a monument to America‘s justice system, and to the indomitable human spirit. [^1]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, "A Byte Out of History: Escape from Alcatraz," June 8, 2007.
Aug 11, 2020 · Following its designation as a Federal prison, Alcatraz was reinforced with tougher iron bars, and a series of strategically positioned guard towers. Along with strict rules on inmates behaviour which included multiple checks each day of the prisoners, it was the ultimate maximum security prison.
- Amy Irvine
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. List of notable prisoners.
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Over nearly thirty years, they all dreamed of escape and some actually tried. This programme takes a fresh look at the facts with never-before-seen interviews with inmates, guards and even the families of Alcatraz correctional officers. Plus, a newly discovered letter has surfaced that may reveal the fate of the Rock’s most infamous escapees.
- Inmate #85: Al 'Scarface' Capone
- Inmate #110: Roy Gardner
- Inmate #117: George 'Machine Gun' Kelly
- Inmate #325: Alvin 'Creepy' Karpis
- Inmate #594: Robert 'Birdman' Stroud
- Inmate #1428: James 'Whitey' Bulger
- Inmate #1518: Meyer 'Mickey' Cohen
Conviction:Tax evasion Time Served at Alcatraz:5 years (1934–1939) Post-Term:mental illness, death from syphilis By the time Al Caponearrived at Alcatraz on the morning of August 22, 1934, he was past his peak as a crime kingpin. He had been sentenced to an 11-year term in 1931 after several lengthy court cases that focused more on his errant decla...
Conviction: Armed robbery Time Served at Alcatraz:2 years (1934–1936) Post-Term:author, suicide Alcatraz was repurposed by the federal government from a military prison to a general federal prison in 1933 expressly to deal with criminals like Roy G. Gardner, the man who was nicknamed “King of the Escape Artists.” Gardner seemed to be an outlaw from...
Conviction:Kidnapping Time Served at Alcatraz: 17 years (1934–1951) Post-Term: died of a heart attack in jail It couldn’t be said that many of the criminals who ended up in Alcatraz were from good families, but Machine Gun Kellywas raised in a well-off Memphis household and even attended some college. A sudden marriage led him to drop out of school...
Conviction: Kidnapping Time Served at Alcatraz: 26 years (1936–1962) Post-Term: author, pill overdose Like "Machine Gun" Kelly, Alvin Francis Karpowicz saw kidnapping as an easier way to make large sums of money than bank robbing. Known as “Creepy” by fellow gang members for his unsettling grin, the native Canadian became the brains behind the Bark...
Conviction:Murder Time Served at Alcatraz: 17 years (1942–1959) Post-Term:death by natural causes in jail Possibly the most famous inmate in the history of Alcatraz is Robert Stroud, the so-called "Birdman of Alcatraz." This is due to a very successful 1962 movie (loosely) based on his life starring Burt Lancaster. The title of the film has given r...
Conviction:Armed robbery Time Served at Alcatraz:3 years (1959–1962) Post-Term:killed in prison Most people think of Alcatraz as a relic of past times, a chapter in a long-closed history of crime in America, but there are former inmates of Alcatraz who are still alive today. One of the most notorious is James “Whitey” Bulger, a man who began his ca...
Conviction:Tax evasion Time Served at Alcatraz: about a year, on and off (1961–1963) Post-Term: prison pipe attack, natural death Alcatraz wasn’t very far from closing when Meyer Harris “Mickey” Cohen made his two brief visits. Convicted of tax evasion for the second time in 10 years, Cohen served his time at Alcatraz in two parts – he was actually...
Which famous inmates stayed in Alcatraz? According to Alcatraz History, most of the 1,576 prisoners who spent time incarcerated on Alcatraz were not well-known gangsters, but simply prisoners who got into trouble in other federal prisons.
Most of the prisoners were notorious bank robbers, counterfeiters, or murderers. Among the first inmates were also 14 men from McNeil Island, Washington. On August 22, 1934, 43 prisoners arrived from Atlanta Penitentiary and 10 from North Eastern Penitentiary, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
