Alcatraz escape attempts

In its 29 years of operation, there were 14 attempts to escape from Alcatraz prison involving 34 inmates. Officially, every escape attempt failed, and most participants were either killed or quickly re-captured. However, the participants in the 1937 and 1962 attempts, though presumed dead, disappeared without trace, giving rise to popular theories that they were successful.

Attempted escapes

April 27, 1936 - Joseph Bowers

Bowers was working burning garbage at the island's incinerator when he suddenly ran and began to climb a chain link fence in an apparent attempt to make for the shore. Quickly spotted by a guard in a watch tower, he ignored orders to desist and a warning shot before being hit by rifle fire. He then fell 10-20 meters to the shore below and died from his injuries. The apparent hopelessness of his attempt led many Alcatraz inmates to believe that Bower's attempt to escape was more likely a deliberate suicide attempt.

December 16, 1937 - Theodore Cole, Ralph Roe

Cole and Roe had gradually filed through iron bars in the prison's mat shop in the industries building and escaped on a very foggy day which prevented them from being spotted by guards in the watch towers. The two were never seen again but the severe weather conditions at the time have led to a consensus that they were swept out to sea by the strong current in San Francisco bay. However, they were listed as nos. 1 and 2 on the FBI "most wanted" list and there were several unconfirmed sightings of the pair.

May 23, 1938 - Rufus Franklin, Thomas R. Limerick, James C. Lucas

The trio attacked and killed a guard with a claw hammer in the woodwork shop in the industries building and then proceeded to the roof, where an armed guard shot Franklin and Limerick. Other guards arrived at the scene. Lucas was cornered and surrendered to the guards.

= January 13, 1939 - Arthur 'Doc' Barker, William Martin, Rufus McCain, Henri Young=

The four were inmates of the prison's supposedly most secure unit, D-Block, when they managed to escape the cell house and reach the shore on the night of January 13, 1939. As they were putting a makeshift raft together they were spotted and fired on by a guard in a watch tower. Barker was killed, Stamphill wounded and the others recaptured and sent to solitary confinement.

= May 21, 1941 - Joe Cretzer, Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle, Lloyd Barkdoll=

The four prisoners were working in the industries area when they jumped the guards on duty and attempted to saw through window bars to reach the shore. The toolproof bars foiled the attempt and they surrendered when this became apparent. Both Cretzer and Shockley would try to escape again in the Battle of Alcatraz.

September 15, 1941 - John Bayless

Bayless was working on the garbage detail and managed to elude the guards and reach the Alcatraz shore. He jumped into the water and tried swimming to San Francisco but quickly gave up the attempt.

April 14, 1943 - James Boarman, Harold Brest, Floyd Hamilton, Fred Hunter

The four escaped from the industries area after overpowering and binding two guards. However the escapees were not long in the water before one of the captive guards managed to free himself and raise the alarm. The fleeing prisoners were fired upon, Boarman was killed and his body was never recovered. The others were all recaptured, although Hamilton spent two days freezing in a small cave before climbing back into the industries building, where he was discovered by correctional officers.

James Boarman (January 1, 1919 - presumed dead April 14, 1943) took part in Alcatraz prison's 7th escape attempt on April 13, 1943.

At 9:30 a.m., in the model building at the northwest end of the island, the four convicts, with "shivs" (prison-made knives) in hand, overpowered Custodial Officer Smith and bound and gagged him. Shortly afterwards, Captain of the Guards, Henry Weinhold, noticing that Smith was not on guard entered the room and was also overpowered. Then the convicts leapt out a window, clad only in their underwear and covered in grease, and plunged 30 feet down a sheer cliff into the water. They had left behind two of four cans that were designed to stay afloat and had army uniforms inside.

Smith managed to get his whistle loose and into the mouth of Weinhold who blew it. At the same time, Officer Frank Johnson outside saw the convicts escaping and sounded an alarm. The tower guards trained their guns on the convicts in the water and began shooting. A prison launch pulled alongside Brest who was holding onto the unconscious Boarman. As Brest reached up for the guard's grip, he let go of Boarman who disappeared beneath the water. The guards were convinced Boarman was shot dead and sank.

Hunter, injuring his back and cutting his hands, gave up on swimming and sought refuge in a nearby cave. The guards took a boat over to the entrance of the cave. One of the guards ordered him to come out. When he didn't respond, the guard fired a pistol shot. Hunter then came out. The hunt was continued throughout the day in the hope of finding the bodies. Hamilton, assumed to have been dead, had been hiding in the same cave as Hunter. Three days later, on Friday night, he climbed back up the cliff and through the same window he had jumped. He then hid under a pile of material in the store-room of the model building. Weinhold, while searching for implements used in the escape, discovered Hamilton the next morning. Hamilton was not wounded by gunfire. Warden James A. Johnston made an interesting, conclusive statement the day after the escape: "We're positive that Hamilton is dead. He was shot, and we saw him go under." Hamilton's brother Raymond worked as driver for Bonnie and Clyde, and committed crimes with them, before being executed in 1935. Floyd Hamilton lived until 1986.

The body of James Boarman has never been found; he is presumed drowned.

August 7, 1943 - Ted Walters

Escaped from the laundry building Alcatraz but was captured on the shore before he could enter the water.

July 31, 1945 - John K. Giles

Giles was working on the docks and, by pilfering over the years, had managed to gradually put together a full U.S. Army staff sergeant uniform. When the prison launch docked he managed to change into the uniform and board the launch. Shortly after its departure for Angel Island Giles was found missing on one of Alcatraz's many unscheduled head counts. He was met at Angel Island by prison officers and returned to Alcatraz.

= May 2–4, 1946 - Clarence Carnes, Bernard Paul Coy, Joe Cretzer, Marvin Hubbard, Sam Shockley, Miran Edgar Thompson=

Bernard Coy, a Kentucky bank-robber and a cell house orderly on Alcatraz managed to take the gun cage in the main cell house and seize the two firearms held there. However, due to a breach of regulations by a prison officer the key to the yard door, from which the inmates planned to gain access to the prison launch, was not in its place and inadvertently doomed the escape attempt. The prisoners refused to surrender and Coy, Cretzer, Hubbard and two prison guards died in the fighting which ended two days later on May 4, 1946.Carnes survived the "battle" and was spared the death penalty because of his youth and because he refused to kill guards when ordered to do so by his colleagues, and instead got a life sentence. Shockley and Thompson were sentenced to death and executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin in 1948.

July 23, 1956 - Floyd Wilson

Wilson disappeared from his job at the dock but was discovered after hiding for several hours among large rocks along the shoreline.

September 29, 1958 - Aaron Burgett , Clyde Johnson

Johnson and Burgett were working in the garbage detail when they overpowered a guard. Both jumped into the water trying to swim off the island. A police launch intercepted Johnson but Burgett disappeared until his body was found floating in the bay two weeks later.

June 11, 1962 - Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, Frank Morris

The most famous and intricate escape attempt saw Morris,and the Anglin brothers burrow out of their cells, climb to the top of the cell block, cut through bars to make it to the roof via an air vent. From there they climbed down a drain pipe, over a chain link fence and then to the shore where they assembled a pontoon-type raft made of raincoats and then vanished. The trio are believed to have drowned in the San Francisco Bay and are officially listed as missing and presumed drowned. However, they may have made it and gone to a place where people did not know them.

December 16, 1962 - John Paul Scott, Darl Parker

John Paul Scott and Darl Parker pried apart bars in a kitchen window in the cell house and reached the shore. Parker was found 100 yards from the main island on the rock formation known as "Little Alcatraz" but Scott reached "Fort Point" on the mainland where he was found by teenagers. Suffering from hypothermia, after recovering in the hospital, he was returned to Alcatraz. It is the only proven case of an inmate of Alcatraz reaching the shore by swimming.

See also

* "Escape from Alcatraz" (book)
* "Escape from Alcatraz" (film)

References

[http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/sfoealc8.htm San Francisco Genealogy website]