A Brief History
On August 11, 1934, the Federal Penitentiary located on the island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay opened for civilian prisoners. Despite its exotic-sounding name, Alcatraz was a state-of-the-art maximum security prison designed to hold the toughest, most dangerous prisoners.
Digging Deeper
Some of the desperadoes held there included: Al “Scarface” Capone; “Doc” Barker; Robert Stroud (aka “The Bird Man of Alcatraz”); “Bumpy“ Johnson (aka “The Godfather of Harlem“); “Whitey” Bulger; Alvin “Creepy” Karpis; and “Machine Gun” Kelly. Apparently having a nickname was a good way to end up on “The Rock!”
Considered to be escape-proof, the prison could only hold 312 prisoners at a time. Over the years, 36 of them tried to escape in 14 separate attempts. Officially, none of those attempts were successful; it was simply impossible to survive the cold rough waters of the Bay while swimming to the mainland. A total of 6 prisoners were shot while trying to escape, 2 drowned, and 5 are assumed to have drowned. 3 prisoners were never seen again, as depicted in the 1979 movie Escape From Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood.
Assumed to have drowned, authorities do not really know what happened to the fleeing felons, and it is possible that they actually survived their escape. An escape attempt of 6 inmates in 1946 resulted in the death of 2 guards, and in a situation that became known as “The Battle of Alcatraz,” the Marines had to intervene in order to regain control. Three of the prisoners were killed and another was injured, while 17 guards had been injured in addition to the 2 who were killed.
Closed in 1963 after only 29 years of operation, Alcatraz had been under fire for the extremely high cost of housing each prisoner and for the inadequate conditions. Despite its relative newness, the usual cell measured only 9 by 5 feet! Crammed into that tiny area was a bed, a wash basin and a toilet. Five special cells designated for punishment were dubbed “the hole.” With a reputation as a brutal, miserable place to be held, Federal prisoners were often threatened to be sent to Alcatraz if they did not cooperate or behave well.
Today, a million-and-half people visit the island and prison, making it a major tourist destination. Some consider it the most haunted place in America; the Native Americans from the area had also considered the island haunted. (History and Headlines Note: Native Americans occupied Alcatraz for 19 months from 1969 to 1971 as part of a protest during a movement of Native American activism.) Other movies featuring Alcatraz include: The Bird Man of Alcatraz (1962), starring Burt Lancaster; The Rock (1996), starring Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage; and Murder in the First (1995). Even Dirty Harry, himself, had to rescue the mayor of San Francisco from terrorists on Alcatraz in The Enforcer (1976). Alcatraz has also been the subject of television shows, notably the 2012 series Alcatraz. It is featured in numerous video games, comic books, non-fiction works and in a surprising amount of songs and other assorted references. Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite Alcatraz movie? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more on Alcatraz in popular culture, please watch…
Bay, Michael and John Schwartzman, dir. The Rock. HOLLYWOOD PICTURES, 1997. DVD.
Siegel, Don, dir. Escape From Alcatraz. Warner Bros., 1999. DVD.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Don Ramey Logan (1961–) of Alcatraz Island, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
You can also watch a video version of this article on YouTube:
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="3699 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=3699">98 Comments
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I would have hated to be sent to this prison.
In general, the stories of escaping prisons are so attractive because prisoners are skilled and well organized in these types of missions. It is super hard to escape from prison like Alcatraz but the guy did escape successfully. If governments could use the talent of these prisoners to refine their attitude and create wealthy and safe country by using their magical talent to protect the country.
I would like to visit Alcatraz at some point in my life.
Since this is one of the most haunted places in America, I would also like to visit Alcatraz.
I would love to visit Alcatraz one day to see the living conditions of the prisoners. I can’t imagine being locked up in a cell that small.
Wow, a 9 x 5 room is like a third of how big the regular doubles are at Ashland, since they’re 9 x 15. I cannot imagine being in that small of a room. I mean, I guess they may have deserved it, but still could you imagine the psychological issues that would result?
Honestly I think a 9 x 5 cell is better than what could happen to a lot of these prisoners. They should be thankful they weren’t executed.
I would like to visit Alcatraz one day, I see it in many movies and I think it would be interesting to see in person the conditions that they had to live through.
I could not imagine living in a 9×5 cell. This would be very hard for me. I would like to visit Alcatraz.
I think I would like to visit Alcatraz and see how the living conditions were for those prisoners.
Alcatraz has always been on my list of places to go see one day.
One of my favorite older movies is Escape From Alcatraz! I find the story very interesting. I wonder if they are alive to this day?
I think Alcatraz would be a pretty cool place to visit someday.
I would like to visit Alcatraz some day. It is crazy how small those cells were.
Alcatraz is very interesting to me. I would love to visit it one day.
The government should reopen Alcatraz.
I think it would be really cool to tour Alcatraz and look at the historic place with my own eyes
There is a lot of history in Alcatraz.
it was good to learn of this place. would be somewhere cool to visit too
I find alcatraz and its story very interesting. I would love to visit the island someday.
I like the idea of prisoners being on an island. Even though it only held 312 prisoners I feel it is a safer place for them and when they escape they can’t hurt anyone and they mostly likely will die by drowning.
I did not realize that the cells were so tiny. I do personally like the idea of these prisoners (being the most dangerous) were held in maximum security on an island. The separation of the prisoners from the community probably made people feel extremely safer then if these prisoners were placed on the mainland. -ACL
I knew that Alcatraz had been known to be escape-proff which made it even more famous, but I never knew that the battle of alcatraz dealt with 2 guards dying to protect prisoners from escaping– yikes!
Alcatraz is the most popular prison because of its history and because of how protected and secluded it is.
I’m curious to know why people even attempted to escape from such a place that was surrounded by water all around.
I have heard of Alcatraz before, but I had no idea that it was a prison. I think that having a prison surrounded by water is actually a really cool idea.
My favorite movies were Escape from Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood and The Rock with Sean Connery. Putting that many dangerous criminal minds together, there is going to be trouble.
I love the history behind Alcatraz. I have yet to visit, but my parents have and they really enjoyed it. I remember hearing a story from my grandfather once about two inmates that broke free from Alcatraz and attached themselves to a mail boat that came back and forth from the shore every morning. Apparently officials had no idea of how these criminals could have successfully left the island. Weeks later, remains of humans were washed up on shore and they expected them to be the two escaped inmates, but they were not. The story has never been concluded to my understanding. Just something I find interesting!
I have heard of Alcatraz and knew it was for the worst criminals. Its location played a large role in prisoners never officially surviving an escape. Living in such a small space surrounded by extremely dangerous criminals would be enough of an incentive for me to not commit a crime. I find Alcatraz very interesting and enjoy watching movies about it.
It is incredible when a prison can become just as famous, or infamous, as the prisoners it housed.
I have heard many stories surrounding Alcatraz. I did not realize that it was a popular tourist attraction! I would love to visit and learn more about the prison.
Alcatraz is such a fortress but i think with all the prison escapes criminals respect a challenge
I have heard many stories around halloween time especially about Alcatraz, I have always wanted to travel to the west coast and visit this historical landmark. I think that it is facinaing that the prison can be as famous for the prisoners that it held as well.
I think it would be fascinating ti visit Alcatraz! I have watch most of the movie made about it, of course Escape from Alcatraz is my favorite because of Clint Eastwood.
I have always found Alcatraz so interesting to read about, whether it was the living conditions or attempted escapes that occurred. I would love to go to the San Francisco Bay someday and see Alcatraz!
Overall, I have always found prisons to be a sad epitome of how sins and hopelessness can take over people’s lives. I found it very significant that over ten percent of the people tried to escape. This just goes to show how bad the people’s lives truly were.
Alcatraz is a place that I have always wanted to visit and explore. It is interesting to see the history of the prison and the types of criminals that it housed. I agree with Ben in that the amount of people that tried to escape is saying something about how miserable the criminals truly were.
I have always wanted to see this for myself. I have seen both of the movies listed above. It was interesting to see that so many of the tried to escape. Makes you wonder what all happened inside those jail cells.
I would love to know what happened to the three prisoners who escaped, but were never seen again.
I did not know that the Native Americans were against the island being used as a prison. I also find it interesting that the Native Americans believed that the island was haunted even bore the prison was built.
I had never known that the Native Americans were against the island to function as a prison. I have heard that the island was haunted.
When I want to travel to the city of San Francisco, I saw the information of the island of Alcatraz. It is so interesting that a real prison can be a major tourist destination now.
I have seen documentaries in the past regarding Alcatraz and have never heard of the Native American protest. Oddly enough, the documentaries always seem to mention Alcatraz is haunted.
This would be super cool to visit. I also never heard of the Native Americans’ protests. I wonder if it was mostly because they held nature and land at high-value.
This was very interesting and I wonde what happened to the 3 missing prisoners. I also always feel bad for native Americans because of Europeans taking their land.
I’m not sure that I could live in a 9×5 cell and that it would be really hard for me.
312 prisoners were there at a time, and there was never a successful escape from prison. Very interesting.
I knew Alcatraz was known for brutal living conditions, but never knew that Native Americans occupied the prison for 19 months for a protest.
Alcatraz is such a famous name it’s hard to believe that it only stayed in operation for 3 decades.
What a magnificent structure, it surely was ahead of its time.
Why the government what build such a magnificent structure on a tiny little island and then shut it down only about 3 decades later is beyond me.
It’s interesting how the prisoners escaped but were never seen again. I wonder what happened to them.
I am not entirely surprised that the island has been shut down but there really has been anything that has taken its place.
I’m surprised that a new prison has not been rebuilt there for maximum security with proper conditions.
I would love to visit Alcatraz sometime in the future!
The prison is a piece of history now.
They need to open that prison back up and keep places like that away from neighborhoods, like most new prisons.
I’ve seen all those movies. I wonder how much revenue is earned off tourists. Pretty lucrative I imagine!
I think that we view Alcatraz as this massive establishment, but only having a capacity for 312 inmates at a time is minimal in comparison to other correctional facilities. To put it in perspective, Richland Correctional where I’m interning at has a capacity to hold 2,100 people at a time.
I agree it was supposed to be a massive place but I work at Mansfield correctional and we hold way more than that.
Alcatraz is a really cool place i couldn’t imagine trying to escape from there. Just when you think you are out you have to get through the rushing waters.
Alcatraz was an interesting prison and would love to see it. It was defiantly hard to escape from.
A inmate population of 312 hardly justifies the cost of operating a facility like that.
That is creepy to think if the there were prisoners that escaped and may have gotten away.
I loved the movie The Rock. Action packed with some cool actors. Hopefully one day I can visit the island. Pretty cool to think all of the top gangsters were there.
I hope to go there one day, but I think prisoners did make to shore and escaped. I just don’t think the prison wanted to claim the escape.
Some very famous criminals were held in Alcatraz. I had no idea that you could visit and tour the island/prison, I am going to have to see this iconic piece of American history someday.
Alcatraz has such a violet history, so much to the point were some think its haunted. What would be most interesting to me is to find out if those three really did escape.
Escape from Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood, is one of my favorite movies. Visiting the maximum security prison is on my bucket list.
The best story from Alcatraz is that the prisoners were fed lobster a lot, because it was an easy meal to catch being surrounded by water. It has been said, that prisoners grew tired of eating lobster. Who would’ve thought lobster dinners in prison.
I like the idea of putting everyone on an island that is bad. I think it would be a great idea to do it again.
There is such a history and reputation that goes along with Alcatraz, its surprising that it was only open for that short of a time.
As a person that works in a correctional facility, the concept of Alcatraz is fascinating. It is a shame that the prison service was not remodeled to continue operations. There was an inmate that just passed away in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections that was the last inmate to leave Alcatraz. He was kept there until the end to shut off all the electricity.
I would love to go out and visit Alcatraz. I also work in the field of corrections and think that it would be really neat to go and visit. I finally was able to visit Old Mansfield that is located in Ohio and also a place where Shawshank Redemption was filmed. Being in a place like that gives you the chills.
I’ve seen movies about Alcatraz and I think it would be very interesting to see in person.
Being that I work in corrections, I think it would be interesting to go and visit Alcatraz. Its Shocking it could only hold 312 prisoners, no wonder it didn’t stay open long.
I like the idea of putting criminals, such as murders, in a prison built on an island where it is nearly impossible to escape. The article states that the rooms were small only a 9×5 cell with a bed, sink and toilet. Personally if you committed such a crime then you should not have rights to much more than that.
This would have been a much more successful prison if it could have help more prisoners. The fact that it was on an island made it almost impossible to escape. The movie The Rock was filmed at Alcatraz, great movie it would be really neat to tour it.
I remember first seeing Escape from Alcatraz with my late great-grandfather years ago. Good movie. I also was one of the few that watched the show Alcatraz, a few back when it aired on Fox. Too bad it got canceled after a single season.
As for the prison itself, I think it has to be one of the more famous prisons in the world. With a name like “The Rock”, it made it sound a privilege for criminals to be sent there.
Interesting that the Native Americans thought this island was haunted before the prison was even there. makes it even more creepy!
I have heard of Alcatraz before but never the Native Americans being there for protesting purposes. Very interesting. I also watched the movie of the three inmates who were never seen again. Makes for a good story especially since no one really knows what happened to them.
I do not recall learning about the Native Americans being involved with Alcatraz! A very interesting piece of history!
I find places that are said to be haunted interesting, so given the opportunity, I would love to visit!
I have never watched a movie on Alcatraz, however, I would not be opposed to it. I love watching movies with Nicolas Cage. I wonder if the government knew that they would make more money as a tourist site than as a prison. If they had this insight, would it be too far fetched to say that they built it for this sole purpose in mind?
Visiting Alcatraz is one of my bucket list items. There is so much history to the penitentiary – it held the toughest, most dangerous prisoners our country had to offer. Hollywood has done a good job telling Alcatraz’s story.
Dear Kyle,
While I have not yet been to Alcatraz, I have spent the night with students on trips to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_Reformatory (twice!) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_State_Penitentiary
Sincerely,
Dr. Zarzeczny
Dr. Zarzeczny,
You are a brave man to spend the night at Mansfield! I have visited the penitentiary but I am too scared to even attempt to spend the night!
I am with you Kyle, I would love it visit Alcatraz. It possess an amazing amount of mystery and history. I am shocked to know the cells were so small and the fact it only house a little over 300 perps. Nonetheless, these were some of the baddest criminals!
Sometimes i feel they should still have something like this today where people should be able to go after committing such horrid crimes… I think it would be very interesting to have a tour of Alcatraz.
I’m surprised they were only in operation after just a short 29 years. The cells seem very small, but I guess it wasn’t suppose to be a fun time. I have always wanted to take a tour of Alcatraz.
I’m not entirely sure how we even consider the rights and living conditions of murders and rapists. In my opinion, once those types of crimes have been committed, your human rights are waived. They would make perfect drug tests participants. Who cares what happens to them?
I think it would be really interesting to visit Alcatraz as well!
I never knew about the Battle of Alcatraz. I would love to visit there.
It is interesting by knowing that prison was only can hold 312 people, but it was enlarging today for more criminals. It is sad by know murders were trying to get rid of the prison, then, they killed guards.
The opening up of the prison is a very famous activity. for instance, there has a prison at Mansield
I watched both The Rock, and Escape from Alcatraz with my parents when I was little. I remember being told they were based on true stories but I never knew the details.