Alcatraz

by David Ward

  —Your Brother Bernard Paul Coy no. 415

  3. Hubbard’s criminal career began when he spent thirty days on a Mississippi chain gang, followed by a three-year term for grand larceny in the Alabama state prison, from which he escaped and was returned. In 1943 he stole a car and was charged with a federal crime for taking the vehicle across state lines. He soon escaped from jail with two other prisoners by grabbing the night guard, taking his keys, and calling for a taxi to take them out of town; they forced the driver out of the vehicle and the three men drove to Tennessee. Several days later, a traffic cop noticed that the cab had an out-of-state license plate and signaled them to stop. When the officer approached their vehicle, he found himself facing a submachine gun and other weapons taken in the jail break. He was tied up and dumped in the back seat, and Hubbard and his associates drove south to Georgia, where they stopped at a barn and left their kidnap victim tied up. The officer was able to get loose and call from the farmhouse for assistance from local police. A road block was erected and after a gun battle in which one of his fellow escapees was shot and killed, Hubbard was taken into custody and transported to jail in Knoxville, Tennessee. An investigation by the United States marshal at the county jail indicated that after Hubbard and the other escapee were captured, they were beaten by law enforcement officers who had been alerted to the kidnapping of the traffic officer.

  4. The federal offense that brought Thompson to Alcatraz occurred while he was on escape status from the Alabama state prison but was in custody in the county jail in Paris, Texas. Thompson and four other inmates escaped and immediately went to a residence, where they forced the occupant to accompany them in his automobile to Clarksville, Texas, and then forced him out of the car; subsequently, the escapees stole cars in Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. On March 12, 1945, Thompson and one of his confederates, named Day, were taken into custody at Amarillo, Texas, by police officer Lem Savage as “suspicious characters.” On the way to city hall in the police car for questioning, Thompson drew a gun that he had concealed and shot Savage, fatally wounding him. The officer was then shoved out of the vehicle and Thompson drove out of town. On a road outside of Amarillo, by sounding the siren, Thompson and Day were able to stop a passenger car being driven by a woman accompanied by two employees from her ranch in New Mexico. Thompson brandished a gun, forced the woman out of the driver’s seat and into the back seat, and then he and Day drove the three hostages across the state line into New Mexico. Near San Juan, however, their vehicle was stopped by police and Thompson and Day were apprehended.

  5. State prison officials described Carnes as “bitter” over receiving such a long sentence when his age should have been taken into consideration. One foggy morning in February 1945, Carnes and two other prisoners on the rock-breaking crew escaped from the quarry on the grounds of the Oklahoma reformatory; they ran to a nearby farmhouse where Carnes forced the farmer, at knife point, to get in his car, and the four drove away. Subsequently Carnes and his compatriots stopped another car in order to get gas, and that driver and the farmer were tied up and left in the farmer’s vehicle. A few hours later, Carnes separated from the other two escapees and began looking for another vehicle to steal, which involved kidnapping the driver. He was apprehended while still in Oklahoma and joined the other two escapees in the Oklahoma County Jail, where they immediately went to work on a plan to overpower the jailer when he opened the door to their cell to hand over their food trays. In the scuffle that followed, Carnes hit the man with a shower head and toilet plunger until he was knocked unconscious. Carnes and the others tore mattress covers into strips, which they tied together in order to lower themselves through a window to the floor below. The three then broke through the windows of several doors and ran out of the jail. But the alarm had been sounded and Carnes, after shots were fired at him by pursuing police officers, surrendered several blocks away.

  6. William Radkay, interview with the author, April 24, 1981.

  7. “Alcatraz Siege Ended; All Felons in Custody,” Baltimore Sun, May 5, 1946.

  8. AP release, May 4, 1946.

  9. San Francisco Examiner, May 4, 1946; Washington D.C. Times-Herald, May 4, 1946.

  10. Lawrence E. Davies, “Marines Land on Alcatraz to Battle Armed Convicts in Attempted Prison Break,” New York Times, May 3, 1946.

  11. George Draper, “Weapons Being Used on Alcatraz—Everything up to Heavy Machine Guns,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 4, 1946.

  12. Draper, “Weapons.” “Toughest Killers and Gangsters Sent to ‘Rock,’ ” Times-Herald, May 3, 1946, a UPI release, listed Al Capone (transferred), Machine Gun Kelly, Harvey Bailey, Albert Bates, John Paul Chase, Norman Whitaker, Alvin Karpis, Dock Barker (dead), Volney Davis, Harmon Waley, Tom Holden, and several convicts who had tried to escape—Joe Bowers (dead), John Giles, and Floyd Hamilton.

  13. George Draper, San Francisco Chronicle, May 3, 1946.

  14. According to Stucker, all twenty-one inmates were transferred to other prisons when Director Bennett learned of their exemplary behavior during the battle.

  15. Al Ostrow, “Johnston of Alcatraz,” San Francisco News, May 31, 1946.

  16. San Francisco News, May 6, 1946.

  17. San Francisco Chronicle, May 12, 1946.

  18. W. H. Nichols, FBI, to D. M. Ladd, FBI, May 5, 1946.

  19. Handwritten note by H (J. Edgar Hoover) added to Nichols’s letter; original emphasis.

  20. From E. A. Tamm to the Director, May 3, 1946, file 70–12090–25. On the bottom of this memo Hoover added a note, complaining, “Only wish our representatives [in the Dept. of Justice] were more alert in championing FBI interests and less ‘Munich minded’ in appeasement of the Prison Bureau . . . in every situation in which the Bureau becomes involved with the Bureau of Prisons, we end up behind the eight ball and we never get full cooperation from any federal prison.”

  21. E. A. Tamm to the Director, May 3, 1946, file 70–12090–441. In a subsequent telephone conversation, Tamm told Hoover that he warned Bennett that the FBI would not undertake any investigation unless it could be conducted “without interference, opposition, or any of the other unpleasantness which always arose from our dealings with the Bureau of Prisons. Mr. Bennett made a whinny [sic] protest and I told him that I thought it was a mistake to be hypocritical . . . [because] in every case where we tried to do something for the Bureau of Prisons, we end up behind the eight ball.” Tamm went on to claim that all of the wardens “were hostile to us. . . . Bennett protested that he didn’t know of any situations where we had trouble with wardens and I told him that this was silly because in my sixteen years in the Bureau, I have prepared for you [JEH] many memoranda relating to refusal of the wardens to permit us to interview prisoners, to afford proper facilities, to try to review copies of statements which we take from prisoners, etc., etc. Bennett whined about this. . . . I told [him] that at such time as he obtained additional facts and desired to discuss the conditions of the investigations, I would be glad to talk to him about it.”

  22. James V. Bennett to J. Edgar Hoover, May 6, 1946, file 70–12090.

  23. E. A. Tamm to the Director, May 6, 1946, file 70–17090–14.

  24. Tamm to A. Rosen, May 7, 1946, file 70–12090.

  25. Tamm to the Director, ibid.

  26. “Attorneys Plan Probe of Alcatraz Brutality” and “Defense Counsel for Riot Trio Slate Exposure of Penal Treatment,” San Francisco Examiner, October 28, 1946.

  27. Handwritten note on memo from Rosen to Tamm, December 11, 1946, file 70–12090.

  28. Johnston to Bennett, November 22, 1946.

  29. San Francisco Examiner, December 5, 1946.

  30. San Francisco News, December 6, 1946.

  31. Johnston to Bennett, December 12, 1946; San Francisco Chronicle, December 12, 1946.

  32. San Francisco News, December 11, 1946.

  33. San Francisco News, December 13, 1946.

  34. “Lawyers Wind Up Cases in Rock Mutiny Murder Trial,” [newspaper’s na
me illegible], December 18, 1946, FBI file 70–12090.

  35. San Francisco Call-Bulletin, December 18, 1946.

  36. San Francisco Examiner, December 22 and 24, 1946.

  37. D. G. Schmidt, MD, to Warden Clinton T. Duffy [San Quentin], January 28, 1946. Because the West Coast had no federal prison in which executions could be held, the Alcatraz prisoners were housed and executed at this California state prison.

  38. L. B. Pilsburg, Chief Psychiatrist, Henry W. Rogers, Chief Psychiatrist Guidance Center, D. G. Schmidt, Acting Chief Medical Officer, to Warden Clinton T. Duffy, March 24, 1947.

  39. Frank J. Hennessy to Theron L. Caudle, Assistant Attorney General, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., May 23, 1947.

  40. On July 8, 1947, Dr. Johnson submitted the results of this examination to Director Bennett, stating that he regarded Shockley as sane and found no indication that he had been insane in the past; George S. Johnson, MD, to Director, BOP. David G. Schmidt, MD, Robert G. Houlihan, MD, Henry W. Rogers, MD, San Quentin, July 22, 1948.

  41. James V. Bennett to Daniel M. Lyons, Pardon Attorney, November 18, 1948.

  42. Captain Ralph Tahash to Warden [Edwin] Swope re execution Shockley and Thompson, Dec 6, 1948.

  43. “Alcatraz,” Newark News, May 4, 1946.

  44. William F. McDermott, “The Barbarism of Alcatraz,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, BOP 1946 riot file.

  45. Dillard Stokes, “The Rock, a Monument to Society’s Failure,” Washington Post, May 12, 1946.

  46. Don Fairbairn, “What About Alcatraz? Is It America’s Shameful Devil’s Island?” Philadelphia Bulletin, May 11, 1946.

  47. Leslie Cross, “Is Alcatraz a Relic of Medievalism?” Milwaukee Journal, May 10, 1946.

  48. Reno Gazette, May 10, 1946; Grand Rapids (MI) Press, May 7, 1946.

  49. Manchester Union, May 6, 1946; Portland Press Herald, May 4, 1946; Detroit Free Press, May 4, 1946.

  50. Josh Eppinger, city editor, San Francisco Examiner, to William F. Know-land, United States Senate, May 27, 1946.

  51. San Francisco Examiner, May 9, 1946. Yet another proposal, sent to California senators and congressional representatives, urged that the prison “be moved to an island in the Pacific hundreds of miles out from the nearest shore to discourage escape, although the location should be in a warm climate to relieve the prisoners’ feelings of desperation.” Gilbert Wales, Station KSAN, San Francisco, May 15, 1946. Former attorney general Frank Murphy visited Alcatraz “and came away declaring that the effect of the institution on the prisoners was sinister and vicious.” In his opinion, it was unjust to the city of San Francisco to have “that place of horror at its doorstep.” “Alcatraz Riot,” Washington Post, May 5, 1946.

  52. “California Wants Alcatraz Removed,” UPI release, May 23, 1946.

  53. In the book written after he retired from federal service, Johnston gave a view of the escape that differed little from the view he had held during and immediately after the event. He denied that Officer Stites had been killed by friendly fire, instead claiming that Cretzer “stood outside the floor door between C and D blocks and fired revolver shots,” killing Stites and wounding three other officers. The warden described himself as calm and in complete charge at all times during the three-day battle; no fault was found with the staff, with the prison’s riot and escape plans, or with the security arrangements in place when the trouble began. See James A. Johnston, “The Battle of Alcatraz,” in Alcatraz Island Prison, and the Men Who Live There (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949), 221–37.

  54. Bennett to Johnston, May 7, 1947.

  55. C. J. Shuttleworth, Warden, Federal Correctional Institution, Milan, Michigan, to the Director, May 12, 1947.

  56. Deputy Warden Edward Miller retired less than one year after the “mutiny”; Captan Henry Weinhold and Lt. Joseph Simpson, who had been injured, left federal service on disability retirements; Ernest Lageson, perhaps feeling he had his one piece of luck when Cretzer did not shoot to kill him, resigned from the federal prison system. The widows of Officers William Miller and Harold Stites received compensation from the federal government in the amount of $61.25 each monthly; at the time of their deaths each man had an annual salary of $2,600. Each of the officers’ five children were authorized to received $17.50 each month until the age of eighteen. Employees throughout the BOP collected $6,900 to cover funeral costs and to assist the officers’ families.

  57. Willard Edwards, “Alcatraz Steel Curtain Lifted for First Time,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 13, 1947.

  58. Albert Deutsch, “A Visit to Alcatraz, the Dreaded Isle of Dead-Enders in Crime,” Colliers Magazine, June 8, 1948. Albert Deutsch was not, however, satisfied with a one-day visit and when Warden Johnston’s book was published, he wrote to James Bennett saying that he was “shocked and really angry” that he had been denied information about individual prisoners when Johnston had freely described inmates, including those with mental health problems. Deutsch told Bennett, “I don’t think you have the right to deny first-hand access . . . by a reputable journalist writing for a reputable periodical.” Albert Deutsch to James V. Bennett, October 21, 1948. Bennett replied that Johnston’s book had been written after he had retired from the Bureau and if Deutsch was allowed “exclusive” access to information, all of the San Francisco newspaper reporters and other journalists who had requested permission over the years to do stories on Alcatraz would be outraged.

  CHAPTER 10

  1. James A. Johnston, Alcatraz Island Prison, and the Men Who Live There (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949), 24.

  2. Ibid.

  3. There were several inmates who violated the prohibition against informing on rap partners. Isaac Costner turned state’s evidence against his partner, a member of the Touhy gang, and spent his entire time at Alcatraz in constant fear of being killed by other gang members. Gordon Alcorn cooperated with federal prosecutors and testified against co-conspirators in the Boettcher kidnapping; at Alcatraz so many threats were made against Alcorn that he spent only fifty-six days on the island before the staff shipped him back to Leavenworth.

  4. The convict code in American prisons was the subject of dozens of sociological studies beginning in the 1940s. The best known of these include Donald Clemmer’s The Prison Community (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1958); and Gresham Sykes, The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958). Since the early 1970s, what researchers called “the prison community” has been fragmented into warring factions divided along the lines of race and ethnicity, with a corresponding reduction in the importance of the convict code.

  5. E. E. Kirkpatrick, Voices from Alcatraz (San Antonio: Naylor, 1947), 143. See chapter 11 for an expanded account of Kelly’s reaction to doing time at Alcatraz.

  6. Gresham M. Sykes and Sheldon L. Messinger, “The Inmate Social System,” in Theoretical Studies in Social Organization of the Prison (New York: Social Science Research Council, 1960), 6–9.

  7. In 1936 a hospital attendant was fired for smuggling out uncensored mail for several inmates, including Albert Bates. In 1937 Officer Eastin was indicted by a federal grand jury for taking out contraband letters and bringing in penicillin tablets, medicine bottles containing liquor, Benzedrine, and half pints of whiskey given to James Grove on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, even a box of snuff for William Dainard; Eastin was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison.

  8. For example, see Ben M. Crouch and James W. Marquart, An Appeal to Justice: Litigated Reform in Texas Prisons (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989); Thomas Murton and Joseph Hyams, Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal (New York: Grove Press, 1969); and David M. Oshinsky, Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice (New York: Free Press, 1996).

  9. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977); Erving Goffman, Asylums (Garden City, NJ: Anchor Books, 1961).

  10. See Lynn Goodstein, Dori
s Layton MacKenzie, and R. Lance Shotland, “Personal Control and Inmate Adjustment to Prison,” Criminology 22, no. 2 (August 1984): 343–69.

  11. Examinations of inmates’ reactions, adaptations, and mechanisms to cope with imprisonment include Maurice L. Farber, “Suffering and Time Perspective of the Prisoner,” Iowa University Studies in Child Welfare 20 (1943–44): 155–227; Edward Zamble and Frank J. Porporino, Coping, Behavior, and Adaptation in Prison Inmates (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1988); Robert Johnson and Hans Toch, eds., The Pains of Imprisonment (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1982); Roger Sapsford, Life Sentence Prisoners: Reaction, Response and Change (Thetford, UK: Open University Press, 1983); Stanley Cohen and Laurie Taylor, Psychological Survival: The Experience of Long Term Imprisonment (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1982); and Hans Toch, Kenneth Adams, and J. Douglas Grant, Coping: Maladaptation in Prison (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1989).

  12. John K. Irwin, “Sociological Studies of the Impact of Long-Term Confinement,” in Confinement in Maximum Custody, ed. David A. Ward and Kenneth F. Schoen (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books / D. C. Heath, 1981), 49–52. Also see Irwin’s description of “The Convict World,” in The Felon (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970), 61–85.

  13. Altercations between prisoners recorded as assaults were not those that involved simply pushing, shoving, wrestling around, or even throwing punches but those that involved the use of weapons or resulted in serious injury. Given the physical confines of the prison, the limited time and opportunities for movement outside their cells, and the large number of staff to observe inmates’ activity and evidence of injuries, these figures represent a fair approximation of the actual number of assaults and homicides. It should be noted that none of the voluminous files compiled by the staff recorded what prisoners would characterize as assaults on them by prison personnel. These incidents would be defined by staff as “using necessary force” to subdue a resisting prisoner. Some serious inmate-on-inmate assaults might have ended up as homicides in free-world settings where prompt, proximate, experienced medical care was not so readily available.