Escaping Alcatraz: The History of the Prisoners' Attempts to Get Off the Rock

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*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of Alcatraz written by prisoners *Profiles the most famous escape attempts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "You were a number, you weren't a name; I wasn't Jim Quillen. Hell, I was Number 586 and nobody wanted that." - Jim Quillen "It's mighty good to get up and leave. This Rock ain't good for nobody." - Frank Weatherman, the last prisoner to leave in 1963 Alcatraz Island has been home to a lighthouse, a military fort, a national park, and gatherings of Native American protesters, but say the name Alcatraz to any American and they will immediately associate it with prison. This is somewhat ironic since the island, just a mile and a half away from San Francisco in the Bay, was a federal prison for only three decades, but in that time, "The Rock" became notorious for being the most secure prison in the nation. In addition to harboring the legendary likes of murderous names such as Robert Stroud and "Whitey" Bulger, to public enemies Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, "Machine Gun Kelly," and mob boss Al Capone himself, this was a last resort for inmates who plain refused to abide by prison rules. It would seem even the private cells and gourmet meals of baked meat croquettes, puree mongole, and bacon jambalaya were not enough to wheedle some inmates to submission. Many found themselves serving what they believed to be ridiculous sentences for relatively menial crimes. Among all of the 1,545 inmates ever housed in Alcatraz, a total of 36 men made 14 separate attempts to escape the highest maximum-security prison of its time. Just two years into its grand opening, inmate Joe Bowers climbed the fence while on incinerator duty. He was shot on the brink of semi-freedom and fell over 80 feet to his death. This was the beginning of a string of desperate escape attempts in the nearly 29 years of the prison's operation. Some chose to band together to incapacitate or keep officers hostage. A few inmates and officers would lose their lives along the way - the most deadly of which claimed the lives of two officers and three inmates in the "Battle of Alcatraz." Then there was John Giles, who patiently collected a complete set of army fatigues and snuck onto an army launch. Unluckily for him, the ship was bound for Angel's Island instead of San Francisco, where correctional officers swooped in on him the minute he stepped foot on land. Perhaps the most awe-inspiring of these escapees was a trio of inmates by the names of Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin. Their elaborate scheming and ingenious tactics to avoid detection continue to be immortalized in multiple books, documentaries, and was even given the Hollywood treatment with big-named actors Clint Eastwood and Fred Ward. The treble-threat managed to make it off-land and disappear into the night, resulting in one of the largest manhunts in American history. Many still debate their fates to this day. In this book, we dive into the lives of these three men and explore the meticulous planning that led to what many believe to be the greatest prison break of all time. These efforts, which included the "Battle of Alcatraz" and some of the most complex plots ever made to bust out of jail, have helped cement the Rock's legacy, but nobody ever successfully escaped The Rock, and several died trying. As one commenter poignantly put it, "You break the rules, you go to prison. You break the prison rules, you go to Alcatraz Prison." Another writer echoed this sentiment, calling Alcatraz "the great garbage can of San Francisco Bay, into which every federal prison dumped its most rotten apples." Escaping Alcatraz: The History of the Prisoners' Attempts to Get Off The Rock chronicles the history of the efforts to escape America's most notorious island.

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