Sam Shockley

Samuel Richard Shockley (12 January 1909 – 3 December 1948) was an inmate at Alcatraz prison who participated in the Battle of Alcatraz in 1946.

Shockley was the son of Richard Dick Shockley. He was born in Arkansas. Shockly was arrested for bank robbery and kidnapping in Oklahoma and sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1938. Examined by prison psychiatrists, Shockley was found to have an unstable character, he was mentally retarded with an IQ of 54, and prone to violent rages. He was transferred to Alcatraz from Leavenworth as it was felt the strict routine there would better manage him but even here was felt to be uncontrollable and spent much of his time in the prison's isolation unit, D-wing. In May 1941 he attempted escape from one of the island's workshops along with Joe Cretzer, Arnold Kyle and Lloyd Barkdoll. During the escape attempt the men held a number of guards hostage, but gave up when they failed to cut through the tool-proof bars.

On 2 May 1946, Shockley played a central role in the planned Alcatraz Blastout or the "Battle of Alcatraz" by causing a prearranged diverson on D-wing to draw the gun-gallery guard away from the main block. This enabled an inmate Bernard Coy to climb in and seize weapons. The escape attempt failed due to the jamming of the recreation yard door and turned into an armed confrontation which lasted two days and was the bloodiest escape attempt witnessed on the island. Two prison guards, Bill Miller and Harold Stites and three inmates, Coy, Cretzer and Marvin Hubbard were all shot dead. Shockley, along with Mirian Thompson and Clarence Carnes, was found guilty at his subsequent trial. 19-year-old Carnes escaped the death penalty after some corrections officers who had been taken hostage, testified that he had refrained from following instructions to kill them. Although Shockley pleaded insanity, he and Thompson both received death sentences. They were executed in the San Quentin gas chamber on 3 December 1948.