Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gun
Gallery
Guards armed with pistols
and rifles patrolled along
the caged walkways at the
ends of the cell blocks.
Famous Inmates
Al Capone
The notorious
Prohibition-era gangster
“Scarface” Capone was
actually convicted, in
1934, for income tax
evasion! He spent much
of his 10-year sentence
on Alcatraz in a hospital isolation cell,
and finally left the prison mentally
unbalanced after contracting syphilis.
Robert Stroud
Stroud spent all of his 17 years on The
Rock in solitary confinement. Despite
assertions to the contrary in the film
The Birdman of Alcatraz
(1962), Stroud
was in fact prohibited from keeping
birds in his prison cell.
Carnes, Thompson, and Shockley
In May 1946, prisoners led by Clarence
Carnes, Marion Thompson, and Sam
Shockley overpowered guards and
captured their guns. The prisoners failed
to break out of the cell house, but three
inmates and two officers were killed in
the “Battle of Alcatraz.” Carnes received
an additional life sentence, and
Shockley and Thompson were executed
at San Quentin prison, for their part as
ringleaders of the insurrection.
Anglin Brothers
John and Clarence Anglin, along with
Frank Morris, chipped through the back
walls of their cells, hiding the holes with
cardboard grates. They left dummy
heads in their beds and
made a raft to enable
their escape. They
were never caught.
Their story was
dramatized in the
film
Escape from
Alcatraz
(1979).
Dining Room
Inmates were well fed, the better to quell
rebellion. Note the sample menu on
display at the kitchen entrance.
George Kelly
“Machine Gun” Kelly was one of The
Rock's most infamous inmates. He served
17 years for kidnapping and extortion.
1859
Fort Alcatraz
completed;
equipped with
100 cannon and
300 troops
1909
Army prisoners
begin construction
on the cell house
1972
Alcatraz becomes a
national park
1775
Spanish explorer Juan
Manuel de Ayala names
Alcatraz after the “strange
birds” that inhabit it
1962
Frank Morris
and the Anglin
brothers escape
1750
1800
1850
1900
1950
1848
John Fremont
buys Alcatraz
1857
Sally Port built
1963
Prison closed
1969-71
Island
occupied by
Indians of All
Tribes
1854
First Pacific
Coast lighthouse
activated on
Alcatraz
1934
Federal
Bureau of Prisons
turns Alcatraz into a
civilian prison
1850
Alcatraz declared a
military reservation by
President Fillmore
John Fremont
Sally Port
