Issue 12.Pdf
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w Welcome This is issue twelve LPM has entered its third year of existence and there are some changes this year. Instead of releasing an issue every two months we are now a quarterly magazine, so a new issue is released every three months. We also are happy to welcome Annie Weible to our writing staff, we are psyched that she has joined our team. We will continue to bring you interesting articles and amazing stories. Paranormal - true crime- horror In this Issue The Legends of Alcatraz 360 Cabin Update Part two The Dybbuk Box The Iceman Aleister Crowley The Haunting of Al Capone Horror Fiction The visage of Alcatraz conjures visions of complete and utter isolation. The forlorn wails of intrepid seagulls beating against the craggy shore. A stoic reminder of the trials of human suffering, the main prison rises stark against the roiling San Francisco Bay. The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary began its storied history in 1910 as a United States Army prison before transforming into a federal prison in 1934. Since its inception, Alcatraz held the distinction of being one of America’s toughest prisons, often being touted as “escape proof”. During its time as an active prison, Alcatraz held some of the most problematic prisoners. Notable characters held in Alcatraz includes; Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelley and Robert Stroud, among just a few. Alphonse Gabriel Capone, also known as Scarface, was an American gangster. Scarface was known for his brutality following the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in which seven rival gang members were gunned down by Capone’s men. Brought in for tax evasion. Scarface served five years inside Alcatraz and played banjo in the inmate band there. Still, Capone had his struggles and ended up in “the hole”, or segregation, a total of three times during his stay at Alcatraz. George Kelly Barnes, also known as Machine Gun Kelly, was another significant American gangster during the prohibition era. Machine Gun Kelly pictured to the right. Kelly stayed in Alcatraz for seventeen years on kidnapping charges before being transferred to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Robert Stroud (pictured below), best known as the “birdman” of Alcatraz, was a convicted killer and diagnosed psychopath. Stroud was incarcerated at Alcatraz for seventeen years from 1942 to 1959. Stroud was nicknamed the “birdman” for a previous penchant for keeping birds at Leavenworth. Unfortunately, despite popular myth, while at Alcatraz Stroud kept no birds as the practice was strictly against the rules of the prison. Stroud was known as an aggressive and violent prisoner while at Alcatraz and spent most of his time in segregation from the other prisoners. Daily life in Alcatraz was intentionally structured for the prisoners it held. Prairie ghosts writes, “each of the cells in America’s "first escape-proof prison" measured 4 x 8 feet, had a single fold-up bunk, a toilet, a desk, a chair and a sink. An inmate’s day would begin at 6:30 in the morning, when he was awakened and then given 25 minutes to clean his cell and to stand and be counted. At 6:55, the individual tiers of cells would be opened, and prisoners would march in a single file line to the mess hall. They were given 20 minutes to eat and then were marched out to line up for work assignments. The routine never varied and was completely methodical.” Alcatraz was closed in 1963 and all current inmates were transferred to other, newer, prisons around the country. For a brief period, a federation of Native Americans named, “Indians of all Tribes” or IOAT, occupied Alcatraz, claiming the land as rightfully theirs. In 1972 the Federal government reclaimed the land and made Alcatraz a part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area, and officially opened the prison for tourism. Alcatraz is well known for their spooks and specters, possibly due to the long history of the island as well as the prison. The prison alone was known to have abysmal treatments for their more violent prisoners. A 2018 visit to the prison from The Confessionals Podcast’s Lindsay Merkel listed a few of these treatments, below: - The Spanish Dungeon: Located underneath Cellblock A are cells is known as “the Spanish Dungeon.” Reportedly used during Alcatraz’s military prison era, the dungeon cells were used for the more “unmanageable inmates,” who would be taken below and chained to the bars of the dungeon, allegedly without clothes and food on some occasions. - The single Strip Cell: Feared by inmates, the Strip Cell was a steel-encased cell with no sink or toilet where unruly prisoners would be locked, without clothes, in total darkness. Offenders were usually placed in the freezing cell for 1 to 2 days at a time. - The Hole Cells: The Hole cells were similar types of cells, where prisoners were isolated from others and provided with only the bare minimum to survive- bread, water, a low wattage light bulb- for sometimes up to 19 days. If these punishment methods weren’t enough evidence of the brutality borne from a “tour” in Alcatraz, Prairie Ghosts writes of several specifically gruesome incidences of prisoners choosing to die rather than spend another moment in Alcatraz. Prairie Ghosts writes, Rube Persful was a former gangster and bank robber who was working in one of the shops, when he picked up a hatchet, placed his left hand on a block of wood and while laughing maniacally, began hacking off the fingers on his hand. Then, he placed his right hand on the block and pleaded with a guard to chop off those fingers as well. Persful was placed in the hospital but was not declared insane. An inmate named Joe Bowers slashed his own throat with a pair of broken eyeglasses. He was given first aid and then was thrown into the "hole". After his release, he ran away from his work area and scaled a chain-link fence, fully aware that the guards would shoot him. They opened fire and his body fell 75 feet down to the rocks below the fence. Ed Wutke, a former sailor who had been sent to Alcatraz on murder charges, managed to fatally slice through his jugular vein with the blade from a pencil sharpener. It’s no big surprise that the spirits of former inmates may have never left. The book Ghosts of Alcatraz by Kathryn Vercillo recounts a particularly chilling experience by a former guard. Not too far away, just off Cell Block C, is the Utility Corridor where three prisoners who attempted to escape (Coy, Cretzer, and Hubbard) were ultimately captured and grenaded to their deaths. In this same corridor, a welded shut door muffles the eerie sounds of the spirits on this cellblock . A guard who was watching the area at night heard odd noises coming from behind the door. It sounded as though something was knocking around in the corridor down there, but when the guard opened the door, he saw nothing that could possibly be making the sounds. He closed the door and was going to continue on his security rounds, but as soon as the door shut behind him, the noises started up again. Thinking that someone must be in there playing some sort of joke on him, the guard opened the door again and looked around the area extensively. He never found the source of the noise. When he closed the door again, the noises again resumed . Since that time, this area has been blocked off and that particular door has been welded shut. Other night watchmen who have patrolled the cell house, after the last of the tourist boats have left for the day, say that they have heard the sounds of what appear to be men running coming the from the upper tiers. Thinking that an intruder is inside the prison, the watchmen have investigated the sounds, but always find nothing. One Park Service employee stated that she had been working one rainy afternoon when the sparse number of tourists were not enough to keep all of the guides busy. She went for a walk in front of A Block and was just past the door that led down to the dungeons when she heard a loud scream from the bottom of the stairs. She ran away without looking to see if anyone was down there. When asked why she didn’t report the incident, she replied "I didn’t dare mention it because the day before, everyone was ridiculing another worker who reported hearing men’s voices coming from the hospital ward and when he checked the ward, it was empty." Cell Block D is the most famously haunted cell block. In 14D, one of “the Hole” cells, a prisoner in the 1940s once spent the night screaming that a creature with red glowing eyes was killing him. In the morning, the inmate was found dead by strangulation, and no person was ever discovered to be responsible for his death. From May 2 to May 4, 1946, inmates attempted to take over the prison. The 3-day fight and standoff resulted in the deaths of 2 corrections officers and 3 inmates, and the injury of 11 officers and 1 inmate. Two convicts who participated in the takeover were later executed (at San Quentin) for their roles in the officers’ death. Several of the guides and rangers have also expressed a strangeness about one of the "hole" cells, number 14D. "There’s a feeling of sudden intensity that comes from spending more than a few minutes around that cell," one of them said.