Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years

by Michael Esslinger

  Inmates Miran Thompson, Sam Shockley, and Clarence Carnes being transferred to court under heavy guard. All three were arraigned on murder charges for the death of Officer Bill Miller.

  An affidavit from Alcatraz Physician Louis Roucek, stating that Shockley was mentally competent for trial.

  Sam Shockley during his trial for his role in the death of Officer Miller.

  Prior to the trial, Dr. Roucek had conducted extensive evaluations of Shockley. In one interview performed on November 5, 1946 in the prison hospital, Shockley complained of hearing voices. This transcript was taken directly from Roucek’s handwritten notes:

  Roucek: Do you hear voices?

  Shockley: Yes, I hear voices.

  Roucek: What do they say?

  Shockley: I’ve heard so many that it’d be a long story. On May 4th when the officers came into “D” Block with guns, three officers had guns pointed at me. One had his thumb on the trigger and the voice said, “Let it go off.”

  Roucek Note: When asked more questions the patient stated, “I’m not in a thinking mood this morning because the radio irritated me before coming up this morning.”

  Roucek: What type of words does the radio use?

  Shockley: Evil words; murder and hung.

  Roucek: Has there ever been any change since the break?

  Shockley: Not so many evil words used and the minerals in the food has been cut down.

  Roucek: Are any of the inmates insane?

  Shockley: We are all insane at times.

  Roucek: Are the voices men or women?

  Shockley: Always men voices.

  Roucek: What is your trouble?

  Shockley: It’s the minerals in the food here that gives me pains all over my body, and the rays of light shot at me.

  Roucek: Who puts them in the food?

  Shockley: Put there by the prison hospital for treatment when we come into the institution.

  Roucek: What rays shoot at you?

  Shockley: The rays from the lights in the cellblock have shot at me ever since I’ve been here. It is arranged automatically. In bed at night the lights flash... flash... flash.

  Roucek: Where do you feel these rays?

  Shockley: On my head. When I came up here today I felt them on my head. Sometimes I can feel them on my shoulders.

  Roucek: Do you have any sickness?

  Shockley: Yes... I have cancer in the lower part of my stomach.

  Roucek: Do you eat all your meals?

  Shockley: No, can’t eat breakfast. Milk is too cold and acid and doped up to make you crazy.

  Roucek: Do you plan to eat dinner?

  Shockley: Yes... I’ll eat dinner. The food around here is better since the break. The more you eat the more you want.

  Roucek: What do the minerals do to you?

  Shockley: They give me marks on my body all over.

  Roucek Note: Showed doctor a reddish area in his groin area which he claims to scratch.

  The trial continued for over a month, and people across the nation followed its progress in the newspapers. Despite the efforts of several inmates who provided favorable testimony, Shockley, Carnes, and Thompson were convicted of the first-degree murder of William A. Miller on December 21, 1946. On the same day, Shockley and Thompson were given the death penalty for their role in the crime, and sentenced to die in the gas chamber at San Quentin on September 24, 1948. Carnes was spared the death penalty, and was instead given an additional life sentence due to mitigating factors, as he had shown leniency toward the officers held hostage, which ultimately saved their lives. Shockley and Thompson were transferred from Alcatraz to San Quentin State Penitentiary across the Bay.

  A court order for Shockley’s death sentence.

  The prisoners’ time on San Quentin’s “Condemned Row” was not spent idly. In October of 1947, Thompson and another inmate were discovered to be making a contraband key, as part of what was thought to be a plot to escape. San Quentin Warden Clinton Duffy had warned Warden Johnston that Shockley and Thompson were apparently plotting a “spectacular dash out of the Condemned Row.” Thompson wrote several letters to Duffy claiming that officers were trying to exploit him. In one specific letter he wrote that pictures from his cell had been confiscated following the May ‘46 events, and had been published in a detective magazine. He wrote frequently to his brother Horace in Alabama, and in nearly all of his letters he commented that he was the victim of a “frame-up.” The two inmates were afforded minimal interaction with each other while on Condemned Row. Most of their time together would transpire during the appeals of their death sentences.

  The sentences of both Shockley and Thompson were appealed to higher courts. On March 10, 1948 the Ninth Court of Appeals confirmed the convictions, and on June 17, 1948, the Supreme Court denied their petition and ordered their execution. Nevertheless, Thompson continued to vehemently deny any role in the death of Miller. In a letter written to President Harry Truman on August 11, 1948, he pleaded that he had not had proper resources to defend himself, stating that he had only been educated to the third grade level, and thus that he was ill-prepared to deal with legal matters. Thompson added that even though it had been proven that Joseph Paul Cretzer had murdered the guard, he himself “was somehow found guilty” of the same crime.

  On December 2, 1948 the Death Watch Squad moved inmates Shockley and Thompson into two adjacent holding cells on Death Row. It is documented that Shockley did not appear to fully comprehend his fate and that Thompson was nervous and spent much of his time with the San Quentin Chaplain. He had little appetite in his final hours, and reportedly chain-smoked throughout the night. Shockley refused any religious support, and spent his time meeting with a few relatives, including his niece Anna, who had supported him during the trial and lived close by in the town of Richmond.

  On the morning of December 3, 1948 at 7:00 a.m., two years after the violent escape attempt, the two prisoners were seated in adjacent cells for their final meal. At 9:35 a.m., the cyanide pellets were fastened into place inside the gas chamber. At 9:50 a.m., visitors started to line the witness room facing the airtight octagonal steel chamber. There were three officers from Alcatraz in attendance to witness the execution. The two inmates were walked side by side into the chamber, with Shockley seated first, followed by Thompson. Ironically the next person to enter the chamber was Dr. Leo Stanley, who had helped to treat the injured officers during the events of ‘46. He affixed a remote tube stethoscope to each of the prisoners’ chests, and then exited to monitor the proceedings from outside the chamber. The two prisoners were seated in adjacent steel chairs, with leather straps pulled tightly around their wrists, ankles, and chests. Judge Goodman had ordered U.S. Marshal George Vice to carry out the execution of both men, and he stood in the doorway with Warden Duffy, who asked the men if they had any final words. Shockley uttered angry slurs, and Thompson sat quietly. The steel door was swung closed, and a guard turned a mechanism that resembled the hatch of a submarine, pneumatically sealing the chamber.

  Thompson and Shockley were both sentenced to die in the gas chamber at San Quentin. They were executed seated side-by-side on December 3, 1948.

  At 10:04 a.m., Warden Duffy nodded the signal to allow the small fluid wells under each man’s chair to begin filling with sulfuric acid. As the curtains were opened, the men peered at the witnesses sitting outside the chamber. One minute later, the cyanide pellets were dropped into the sulfuric acid pans. It was later stated that both men strained violently against the straps as they breathed in the deadly gas. At 10:12 a.m., the two men were pronounced dead. At 10:15 a.m. the eyewitnesses left the witness room, and the five-man execution team started to clear the gas from the chamber in order to remove the corpses. The sulfuric acid was neutralized by flushing the seat wells with distilled water. A powerful blower fan connected to a large duct on top of the chamber was used to dissipate the residual gases. The bodies of the prisoners were carefully pulled from the seats, and their clothing was remov
ed and incinerated.

  Thompson was shipped to Harry M. William’s Mortuary in San Rafael, and when his brother Horace was unable to claim his body, he was buried in grave plot #235 at the Marin County Farm Cemetery on December 9, 1948.

  Miran Thompson was buried in this peaceful unmarked graveyard, located in the foothills of Marin County. His grave is just a few feet from the tree seen in the foreground.

  Miran Thompson’s death certificate.

  Shockley’s remains were taken to Kenton’s Mortuary for embalming, and then shipped back to his sister Myrtle in Oklahoma. As an interesting endnote, Warden Duffy, who had overseen the execution of the two inmates, had long opposed the death penalty. But while he opposed the practice of execution, he did believe that the inmates executed were unquestionably guilty of the crimes for which they were convicted. He later wrote: “I have never presided over the execution of an innocent person, although several of the ninety whose deaths I ordered... claimed innocence right up to the last minute. The evidence against these people was so convincing that I seriously doubt miscarriages of justice.”

  Following the trial of the inmates, Clarence Carnes was returned to Alcatraz, and he remained in segregation until 1952. Carnes was celled next to Robert Stroud, and he would develop a lasting relationship with the “Birdman of Alcatraz.” Stroud took fondly to his new pupil, and taught him to play chess. By the time Carnes had integrated back into the normal prison population, he had been the titleholder of the institution’s chess championships for over ten years. After years of imprisonment, Carnes became a model inmate, and began to thrive in the prison environment. He would remain at Alcatraz up until a few months before its closure in 1963, when he was transferred to the Federal Prison Medical Adjustment Center in Springfield Illinois to undergo gallbladder surgery. Following his recovery he would be transferred to Leavenworth, and then paroled on Christmas Eve of 1973. Carnes moved in with his sister in Kansas City, but he found life outside of prison confusing and difficult. After having spent the majority of his life incarcerated, he found freedom overwhelming, and he took to heavy drinking and habitual drug use. He eventually violated parole, and was sent back to Leavenworth for a short period.

  In late 1978 Carnes’ life story was dramatized in a screenplay, which was later produced as a made-for-television movie entitled Alcatraz – The Whole Shocking Story. Carnes worked as a consultant on the production, and a fellow inmate reported that he was paid $20,000 for the story. Carnes lived a short interlude of luxury and fame, which in the end would lead him only to a harder fall. He spent a brief period back at Alcatraz after it was opened as a national park, meeting with the public and talking about his experiences. The movie aired on the NBC Television Network on November 5-6 in 1980, featuring some of Hollywood’s most accomplished actors, including Academy Award winner Art Carney in the role of Robert Stroud. But when the money from the film finally ran out, Carnes found himself homeless on the streets of Missouri. He suffered from ill health, and eventually found his way back to prison after purposely violating parole in order to get off the streets. He died in 1988 at the Springfield Facility at the age of sixty-one. His story would again be told in another made-for-television special, based on the book Six Against the Rock by Clark Howard. The feature presentation was aired on NBC-TV, on May 18, 1987.

  Ed Miller retired less than a year after the incident, and moved back to Leavenworth, where he had begun his career with the Bureau of Prisons. He died in March of 1967 at age seventy-seven. Robert Baker finished out his career at Alcatraz and later retired to Napa, California, in the heart of the wine country; he died in March of 1978 at age sixty-seven. Robert Bristow took a custodian job for a school district in Sacramento, where he lived throughout his retirement. Ernest Lageson became a schoolteacher in nearby Pittsburg, California, and died tragically of cancer at the young age of forty-two. Lieutenant Joe Simpson died on January 31, 1960, and was buried at Fort Leavenworth.

  Cecil D. Corwin recovered from his wounds, and returned to work in the prison system. He continued to have medical problems as a result of his injuries, including blindness in his left eye, and was declared permanently disabled in May of 1948. Cecil and his wife Catheryn moved to Stockton, California, where he undertook studies in psychiatry. He later moved to Pomona, California, and worked as a psychiatric technician for the remainder of his career. He retired to Long Beach, California, and suffered a fatal heart attack in July of 1967. Joe Burdett retired to Woodland, California, and died in October of 1983 at age eighty-seven. Carl W. Sundstrom retired to Alameda, California, directly across the Bay from Alcatraz, and died in March of 1973 at age sixty-seven. Irving Levinson retired to Lake Ellsinore in Southern California, and died in 2002. Officer Elmus Besk remained in San Francisco following his career at Alcatraz, and passed away at the age of sixty-one, before reaching his retirement, in March of 1972. Ed Stucker remained in the Bay Area and retired to Palo Alto, California; he died on March 11, 1990, at age eighty-six. Isaac Faulk also remained in the Bay Area following his departure from Alcatraz, and sought other employment opportunities. He retired to Novato, California, and died in December of 1986 at age eighty-seven.

  Henry H. Weinhold was classified as permanently disabled due to his injuries, and lived out his retirement across the Bay from Alcatraz in Marin; he died in April of 1967 at age seventy-six. Bert A. Burch moved to Arizona and retired in Coconino; he died in November of 1974 at seventy-three. Emil Rychner remained in San Francisco following his long career on The Rock and passed away in January of 1980 at age eighty-six. San Quentin Warden Clinton Duffy retired and successfully authored two books about his life as the Warden of San Quentin. Duffy and his wife Gladys retired to Walnut Creek, California, where he died in October of 1982 at eighty-four. Cretzer’s brother-in-law Arnold Kyle was paroled in his senior years and died in November of 1980 in Lynnwood, Washington at age seventy-one.

  After a lifetime of rebellion, James Quillen changed course and began the long journey to bettering himself and preparing for his transition back to free society. He began taking extension courses through the University of California, and earned a trade certification as an X-ray technician, while working in the Alcatraz Prison Hospital. Once released from prison, he lived a quiet life, later retiring as the Chief of X-ray at the Rideout Hospital in Marysville, California. He later authored a compelling memoir of life on the Rock entitled Alcatraz from the Inside and appeared frequently as a guest author on Alcatraz following its opening as a National Park. Jim died on October 6, 1998, following a short illness and was buried at the Vacaville-Elmira Cemetery in Northern California.

  Clifford Fish had one of the most prominent careers on Alcatraz, serving from August of 1938 until March of 1962. In total he worked for twenty-four years on the island, serving the majority of his time in the Control Center. Fish retired to Grass Valley, California, until his passing in November of 2002. He remained an extraordinary historian of 1946 events.

  Phil Bergen led a remarkable career navigating his way up the promotional ladder of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and enjoyed a sixteen-year term of service at Alcatraz. Following the escape events of ’46, he received a promotion to Captain of the Guards. In 1955, he accepted the position of Associate Warden in La Tuna, Texas, and then was promoted to Correctional Inspector for the Bureau in Washington D.C. In this capacity, he would help to investigate the 1962 Morris-Anglin Escape at Alcatraz. Bergen remained as one of the great Alcatraz historians until his death on June 16, 2002. His legacy continues...

  * * *

  The Battle of Alcatraz endures as one the most significant events in the entire history of criminal imprisonment. Of all the inmates who participated in escapes over the years at Alcatraz, Bernie Coy was the only one who successfully devised a workable plan to secure weapons, and then managed to use them in his break for freedom. After the escape attempt, the correctional staff would look differently upon some of the more trusted convicts. Even the men who held the roles of “passmen”
were restricted from work until stricter measures were implemented. The question of why the three inmates chose death over life in their final hours will forever remain as one of the true mysteries of Alcatraz.

  Fifty years after the Battle of Alcatraz, former inmate Jim Quillen, who was barricaded inside D Block during the incident and officer Phil Bergen, who led the assault teams into the West Gun Gallery, met with the author in 1997 to recount the 1946 events from the inside perspective. They are seen here looking up at the West Gallery where Phil Bergen was positioned during the events. At the time, it would have been unthinkable that fifty years later they would become friends and reflect on the events together. Both men have since passed away.

  ESCAPE ATTEMPT #11

  Date:

  July 23, 1956

  Inmates:

  Floyd P. Wilson

  Location:

  Prison Dock

  Floyd P. Wilson

  Born in Chilhowie, Virginia on March 22, 1915, Floyd P. Wilson’s life would begin with a hard luck story which would eventually lead to murder. In the cold winter of 1947, Wilson was a jobless carpenter when he set out to steal seventeen dollars for a ton of coal to heat his near-freezing home in Maryland. He was allegedly trying to support his wife and five young children, and as he would later testify, he was “trying to keep them from freezing to death.” Distraught and cold, he decided to prey upon a young food market messenger who was driving to a local bank with a cash deposit of $10,162 from the store where he worked. The messenger apparently resisted, and Wilson would later testify that everything seemed to move in slow motion as he opened fire on the innocent man. Floyd stated that watched in horror as his victim dropped to the ground in a pool of blood. He was quickly identified as the perpetrator of the crime and soon found himself in a Washington, D.C. jail cell awaiting trial for the slaying.