The gang boss Al Capone had spent five years here, the multiple murderer Robert “Birdman” Stroud 17 years, the temporary “Public Enemy No. 1” Alvon Karpis even more than a quarter of a century: on the rocky island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay, the America’s worst criminals imprisoned.
On March 21, 1963, the last 27 inmates of the US federal maximum-security prison left the island called “The Rock” by boat for transfer to other prisons. The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper described them as “pale, silent” men who walked ashore, handcuffed and ankles tied, heads bowed.
Among the last prisoners was Darwin Coon, prisoner number 1422. He had been held here for about four years since 1959 for armed bank robbery; later he worked as a tourist guide on Alcatraz and published a book about it in 2002 – “The True End of the Line”. The worst thing that happened to him on the prison island was “29 days in Block D, in a bitterly cold dark cell without a ray of light,” he reported.
A total of 1,576 men were locked away here between August 11, 1934, when it was officially opened as a high-security prison, and March 21, 1963, but never more than 300 at a time. Their cells were only 1.5 meters wide, 2.7 meters long and 2.1 meters high; all were locked with barred doors: there was no privacy for prisoners at Alcatraz. The cells had a bunk, a desk and a foldable seat board; on the back wall was a washbasin and a toilet.
The eight-hectare, up to 500-meter-long rocky island in the bay north of downtown San Francisco has belonged to the federal government since 1850. Soon the first modern lighthouse on the west coast was built here, later a fort, which was pretty useless due to the lack of enemies from the west and was therefore used for captured southerners during the Civil War and then as a US military penitentiary.
For this purpose, a new cell block was built between 1909 and 1912 in accordance with the latest regulations at the time. After the US Department of Justice acquired this building on October 12, 1933 to set up a high-security prison here, the building, which was just two decades old, was slightly modernized; the sum invested was just $260,000. In today’s purchasing power, that would be around $6 million—not a lot for a 150-meter-long building.
The cell building was divided into four areas, the A to D blocks. In the latter, the worst inmates were imprisoned. At its end were special cells nicknamed “The Hole” by prisoners. Unruly inmates often had to spend days there, sometimes weeks to months – as punishment within the prison. “The Hole” also included the dark cell in which Darwin Coon was imprisoned for 29 days.
The dining room and kitchen were outside the cell block. Prisoners and staff ate three meals a day – together. Alcatraz’s infirmary was above the dining room. Most of the inmates stared day in, day out, because work in the laundry, the workshops for minor repairs, or the kitchen, for example, was a privilege at Alcatraz that was only enjoyed by inmates who caused no trouble to the staff.
Due to the poor condition of the cells, a major renovation took place in 1939/40 while the prison was still in operation. 1.1 million dollars have now been invested, that is at least 23.6 million according to today’s purchasing power. However, the toilets in the cells were still supplied with salt water, which was pumped up from the bay. Not a good idea, because the salt corroded the reinforcements of the reinforced concrete walls and made them porous.
Three career criminals benefited from this: Frank Morris and the brothers John and Clarence Anglin began planning their escape in December 1961. First they widened the ventilation openings under their sinks with metal spoons from the canteen and a home-made drill; they placed cardboard painted to match in front of the increasingly larger holes. Once the openings were large enough to climb into the ventilation shaft behind, they climbed up to the now unused top level of the cellblock, where they set up a secret workshop.
Here they sewed a raft, two by one and a half meters in size, from more than 50 raincoats that had been stashed away and other material. They vulcanized the seams with hot steam from the heating system, making them waterproof. They made several paddles out of old wood. Eventually they found a way onto the roof, also through the ventilation shaft – all they had to do was unscrew the fan.
On the evening of June 11, 1962, they began their escape. The three climbed onto the roof with their raft, slid 15 meters down a gutter, scaled several fences around the cell block and a wall. Soon after 10:00 p.m., they “put out to sea” from the northeast corner of Alcatraz—ahead of them were 2.2 miles of icy water with treacherous currents.
Morris and the Albin brothers were never seen again. Remains of the raft were found ten days later near the Golden Gate Bridge. The US authorities assumed that the three men drowned and their bodies disappeared in the Pacific. Despite this, the US Marshals, in charge of searching for prisoners who had escaped from federal prisons, put all three on their wanted list.
The escape was the final impetus for the closure of Alcatraz: the operating costs had become too high anyway. All drinking water and all food had to be brought to the island. In addition, the buildings, which are now half a century old, were falling into disrepair in the rough sea air. After all, the prison conditions were now considered inhuman. So Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered the closure, which was implemented on March 21, 1963.
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