None Shall Escape: Alcatraz

During the 29 years (1934-1963)  Alcatraz operated, 36 men (including two who tried to escape twice) were involved in 14 separate escape attempts.

Twenty-three were caught, six were shot and killed during their escape, and two drowned. Two of the men who were caught were later executed in the gas chamber at the California State Prison at San Quentin for their role in the death of a correctional officer during the famous May 2-4, 1946, “Battle of Alcatraz”  escape attempt.

Whether anyone succeeded in escaping from Alcatraz depends on the definition of “successful escape.”

Getting out of the cell, reaching the water, making it to land is one thing. Escaping and not getting caught is another.  

 Officially, no one ever succeeded in escaping from Alcatraz, although to this day there are five prisoners listed as “missing and presumed drowned.”

These are the 14 escape attempts:

1. April 27, 1936 – While working his job burning trash at the incinerator, Joe Bowers began climbing the chain link fence at the island’s edge. Refusing orders to climb back down, Bowers was shot by a correctional officer stationed in the West road guard tower, fell about 50-100 feet to the shore below and subsequently died.
2. December 16, 1937 – Working in the mat shop in the model industries building, Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe had, over time, filed through the flat iron bars on a window. After climbing through the window, they climbed down to the water’s edge and disappeared into San Francisco Bay. This attempt occurred during a bad storm when the Bay’s currents were especially fast and strong – most people believe Roe and Cole were swept out to sea. Officially, they are listed missing and presumed dead.
3. May 23, 1938 – In the woodworking shop in the model industries building, James Limerick, Jimmy Lucas, and Rufus Franklin attacked unarmed correctional officer Royal Cline with a hammer (Cline died from his injuries). The three then climbed to the roof in an attempt to disarm the correctional officer in the roof tower. The officer, Harold Stites, shot Limerick and Franklin. Limerick died from his injuries. Lucas and Franklin received life sentences for Cline’s murder.
4. January 13, 1939 – Arthur “Doc” Barker, Dale Stamphill, William Martin, Henry Young, and Rufus McCain escaped from the isolation unit in the cell block by sawing through the flat iron cell bars and bending tool-proof bars on a window. They then made their way down to the water’s edge. Correctional officers found the men at the shoreline on the west side of the island. Martin, Young, and McCain surrendered, while Barker and Stamphill were shot when they refused. Barker died
5. May 21, 1941 – Joe Cretzer, Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle, and Lloyd Barkdoll took several correctional officers hostage while working in the industries area. The officers, including Paul Madigan (who later became Alcatraz’s third warden), were able to convince the four that they could not escape and they surrendered.
6. September 15, 1941 – While on garbage detail, John Bayless attempted to escape. He gave up shortly after entering the cold water of San Francisco Bay.  Later, while appearing in Federal court in San Francisco, Bayless tried, again unsuccessfully, to escape from the courtroom.
7. April 14, 1943 – James Boarman, Harold Brest, Floyd Hamilton, and Fred Hunter took two officers hostage  in the industries area. The four climbed out a window, made their way to the water’s edge. A hostage alerted other officers and shots were fired at Boarman, Brest, and Hamilton, who were swimming away from the island. Hunter and Brest were both apprehended. Boarman was shot and sank before officers able to reach him; his body was never recovered.  Hamilton, initially presumed drowned actually hid for 2 days in a small cave, then made his way back to the industries area, where he was discovered.
8. August 7, 1943 – Huron “Ted” Walters disappeared from the prison laundry building. He was caught at the shoreline, before he could even attempt to enter San Francisco Bay.
9. July 31, 1945 -  John Giles took advantage of his job unloading army laundry sent to the island to be cleaned. Over time, he stole an entire uniform. Dressed in the uniform, Giles calmly walked aboard an army launch thinking he was on his way to freedom. He wasn’t. The launch was headed for Angel Island, not San Francisco and as Giles stepped out he was met by correctional officers.
10. May 2-4, 1946 – Known as the “Battle of Alcatraz” and the “Alcatraz Blastout,“  six prisoners overpowered the officers, gained access to weapons and keys -  taking control of the prison.  They did not have the key to unlock the main gate.  Instead of giving up, Bernard Coy, Joe Cretzer, Marvin Hubbard, Sam Shockley, Miran Thompson, and Clarence Carnes decided to fight it out. Eventually Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes returned to their cells, but not before the officers taken hostage were shot at point-blank range by Cretzer. One officer, William Miller, died, a second, Harold Stites (who stopped the third escape attempt), was shot and killed. About 18 officers were injured during the attempt. The U.S. Marines were called in and on May 4 it was over with the discovery of the bodies of Coy, Cretzer, and Hubbard. Shockley, Thompson, and Carnes stood trial for the death of the officers; Shockley and Thompson received the death penalty and were executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin in December 1948. Carnes, age 19, received a second life sentence.     
11.  July 23, 1956 – Floyd Wilson disappeared from his job at the dock. After hiding for several hours among large rocks along the shoreline, he was discovered and surrendered.
12. September 29, 1958 – While working on the garbage detail, Aaron Burgett and Clyde Johnson overpowered a correctional officer and attempted to swim from the island. Johnson was caught in the water, but Burgett disappeared, his body found floating in the Bay two weeks later.
13. June 11, 1962 – The events of this attempt were immortalised by Clint Eastwood in the movie Escape from Alcatraz.    Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin vanished from their cells and were never seen again. A fourth man, Allen West, believed to have been the mastermind, was in his cell the next morning when the escape discovered.

An investigation revealed an intricate escape plot that involved homemade drills, false wall segments, and realistic dummy heads placed in the beds. The escapees exited through vent holes in cell which they had enlarged, climbed utility pipes to the top of the cellblock, to the roof through an air vent they had previously compromised, down a drainpipe, into the water. It is believed they left from the northeast side of the island near the powerhouse/quartermaster building.

They used prison-issued raincoats to make life vests and a raft to assist in their swim. A cell search  uncovered the drills, dummy heads, wall segments, etc. The sea search found two life vests (one in the bay, the other outside the Golden Gate), oars, and letters and photographs belonging to the Anglins that had been carefully wrapped to be watertight.

No sign of the men was ever found, save that several weeks later a man’s body dressed in blue clothing similar to the prison uniform was found up the coast from San Francisco, but the body was never conclusively identified.

Morris and the Anglins are officially listed as missing and presumed drowned.

•  December 16, 1962 – John Paul Scott and Darl Parker bent the bars of a kitchen window in the cell block basement, climbed out,  down to the water. Parker was discovered clinging to a small rock a short distance from the island. Scott attempted to swim towards San Francisco, but the currents began pulling him out to sea. He was found by several teenagers on the rocks near Fort Point (beneath the Golden Gate Bridge) and was taken to the military hospital at the Presidio Army base before being returned to Alcatraz.

One of the many myths about Alcatraz is that it was impossible to survive a swim from the island to the mainland because of sharks. There are no “man-eating” sharks in San Francisco Bay, only small bottom-feeding sharks. The main obstacles were the cold temperature (averaging 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit), the strong currents, and the distance to shore (at least 1-1/4 miles).

It is possible to swim from Alcatraz to the mainland, In 1934, a teenage girl swam to the island to prove it was possible.

If one understood the tides and the currents and was in reasonably good health, escaping from Alcatraz was possible.