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United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz ( English: / ˈælkəˌtræz /, Spanish: [ a l k a ˈ t ɾ a s] "the gannet ") or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the ...
- 312
- August 11, 1934; 89 years ago
- March 21, 1963; 60 years ago
Nov 4, 2020 · Punishments at Alcatraz were even worse than the code of silence. Shutterstock. Punishments on "Devil's Island" were particularly brutal. According to Crime Magazine, the prison's worst-behaved were sent to D Block, which contained 42 cells featuring varying degrees of punishment. The worst of these was most definitely the Strip Cell.
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Feb 1, 2024 · Alcatraz Island, located in San Francisco Bay, has a rich and complex history that extends far beyond its infamous stint as a federal prison. Known as “The Rock,” it has been a site of unparalleled security and isolation, but its story encompasses periods as a military fortress, a military prison, and later, one of the most notorious federal penitentiaries in American history.
- 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...
Cells at Alcatraz had a small sink with cold running water, small sleeping cot, and a toilet. Most men could extend their arms and touch each wall within their cell. The cells in D Block (segregation) were more spacious, but still the least popular. In D-Block, inmates were confined to their cells 24-hours per days, with the exception of one ...
Oct 27, 2009 · Robert Alexander/Getty Images. The federal prison on Alcatraz Island in the chilly waters of California’s San Francisco Bay housed some of America’s most difficult and dangerous felons during ...
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was a maximum-security prison located on Alcatraz Island off the coast of San Francisco from 1934 until it closed in 1963. Popularly known as “The Rock,” on average there were about 260 prisoners incarcerated on Alcatraz at any given time. Alcatraz was used to house problem prisoners from other…
