Alcatraz Bilateral Commission on Prison Reform - Positions Prisoners Position A: Bernard Coy Coy was sentenced to 25 years for bank robbery with a sawed off shotgun in 1937. He turned to robbery when he fell on hard times during the Depression. He was moved to Alcatraz from Atlanta in 1938 and was given the job of cell-house orderly, which gave him a relatively large amount of freedom around the cell block. He is more intelligent than the average prisoner at Alcatraz, with understanding of basic security systems and lock breaking. His skills as a bank robber mean that his relative “freedom” is closely watched by the guards, who are suspicious that he could attempt an escape. Hopefully for the guards, he will be as bad at breaking out of places as he is breaking into places. He did get caught, after all. Position C: Joseph Cretzer West Coast gangster and member of the Cretzer-Kyle Gang. By 1939 he had risen to Public Enemy No. 4 for his robbery and gang activities. He was sentenced to 25 years for murder in 1940 and was transferred to Alcatraz after two escape attempts in the first few months of his sentence, one of which resulted in another murder charge. In 1941 he along with Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle, and Lloyd Barkdoll attempted an escape from Alcatraz from one of the island’s workshops. For this attempt, he was sentenced to serve five years in the high-security D Block, where prisoners were confined to their cells most of the time. He is one of the more brutal and cunning prisoners, and has proven to have a habit of attempting unsuccessful escapes. It seems that five years in confinement did nothing to curb his temper, and he has a deep hatred of law enforcement officers and “the system” in general. Position E: Marvin Hubbard Hubbard pled guilty in 1942 to kidnapping a Chattanooga police officer and transporting him across state lines. In the process, he also stole a Tommy gun, two revolvers, and a car. In September of 1942 he escaped from the Knoxville county jail and was moved to Atlanta, where Bernard Coy had been a few years prior. There he participated in a mutiny and was sent to Alcatraz in 1944. He was given the job of kitchen orderly and was seen as one of the less dangerous prisoners and more of a follower than a leader. However, he has an almost reckless disregard for both the law and his own life, and has a habit of relieving people of their possessions without their knowledge (pickpocketing). His sticky fingers might put the talks in jeopardy if he takes the wrong thing from the wrong person. Position G: Sam Shockley was arrested in 1938 in Oklahoma on charges of bank robbery and kidnapping. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. When examined by prison psychiatrists, he was found to have an IQ of 54, an unstable character, and was prone to violent rages. He was then transferred to Alcatraz where the strict routine would be more able to manage him. However, even there he was deemed uncontrollable and spent most of his time in D Block. He joined in on the escape attempt in 1941 with Joseph Cretzer, Arnold Kyle, and LLoyd Barkdoll. His violent rages make him the most unstable of the prisoners invited to the talks, and nobody is even really sure why he was included Rumor was he threatened to “remove” another inmate if he was not given a seat at the table. Shockley does not need a gun or a weapon to inflict damage or even kill someone who triggers his temper. It seems that only his former co-conspirator Cretzer, who is also predisposed to violence, is able to keep him under any sort of control. Birds of a feather flock together, or so the saying goes. Position I: Clarence Carnes Also known as “The Choctaw Kid”, Carnes best known as the youngest inmate incarcerated at Alcatraz. He was sentenced in 1943 to life in prison at age 16 for murdering a service station attendant during an attempted hold up in Oklahoma. Two years later he attempted to escape from the Granite Reformatory with a few other prisoners, commandeering a truck with an elderly couple inside while on the run. Kidnapping and escape charges were added to his sentencing, adding 99 more years. He was sent to Leavenworth after the attempt, but tried to escape again while in the custody of the U.S. Marshals. He was transferred to Alcatraz with another 5 years tacked onto his sentence for good measure. He was assessed by psychiatrists at Alcatraz and was found to have a psychopathic personality, emotional instability, and an IQ of 93. He has no real skills aside from committing criminal activity, but his youth made his participation in the talks important and necessary. Position K: Miran Thompson Thompson is an escape artist of the worst kind - he has been arrested at least eight times and been held in small jails, and has escaped every time. However, Thompson doesn’t have as much luck staying out of jail as he does getting out of jail. When he was transferred to Alcatraz, he was serving a life sentence plus 99 years for kidnapping and the murder of a Texas police office. He also committed armed robberies in New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. At Alcatraz, he is under almost constant surveillance for his past successful escapes and his time outside or in the main cell block is limited. However, he seems to have accepted his lot in life and seems eager to discuss reforming conditions within Alcatraz. Position M: John K. Giles Giles is famous among the Alcatraz prisoners for his almost successful escape attempt early in 1945. He was sentenced to the US Penitentiary in 1935 for the attempted robbery of the Denver and Rio Grande Western mail train. That crime was committed while he was on the run after escaping from an Oregon prison, where he was serving a life sentence for murder. He began serving his sentence on McNeil Island, but due to his escape record and length of his sentence, he was transferred to Alcatraz a few months after his initial sentencing. While working in the laundry that was contracted to clean army uniforms, Giles was able to steal an entire Army uniform one part at a time and attempted to board an Army ferry leaving Alcatraz. However, he was apprehended on Angel Island and sent back to Alcatraz. Giles is one of the more intelligent prisoners, his craftiness surpassing even Coy’s. He is somewhat of a loner, as shown by his solo escape attempt, but he is a valuable asset and a clear head that the prisoners can rely on to convey their needs and wants during the talks. It is likely, however, that Giles may try to advance his own interests at the expense of the prisoners as a whole if he believes it will benefit him. Position O: Huron Ted Walters Walters, better known by the moniker “Terrible Ted”, is a former member of the Hamilton gang that terrorized the Southwest in the 1930s. He spent time in Leavenworth before being transferred to Alcatraz in the early 1940s. During the hunt for him and his partner Floyd Hamilton, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote: “The operations of Floyd Hamilton and Huron Ted Walters are similar to those of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. They are heavily armed and have stated that they will not surrender without a fight.” In 1943 he made an attempt at escaping from Alcatraz by scaling a fence and hiding in a tidal cave. Initially presumed dead by prison officials, he was found a few days later and returned to Alcatraz. Four months later he tried to escape again, climbing a fence by the laundry. He fell from the fence and injured his spine, and was thus unable to finish the escape. He was subsequently sent to solitary confinement. His escape attempts put him in contact with Giles in the laundry and the two have become good friends. He has also regularly commiserted with Miran Thompson about their failed escape attempts and bad luck. Walters is known as a loose cannon that has sworn that once he gets out of prison, he would rather died in a shootout rather than be taken by the cops. Position Q: Alvin “Creepy” Karpis You know you’re a bad man when your fellow inmates call you “Creepy”. Creepy was one of the three leaders of the Ma Barker-Karpis Gang and was America’s last Public Enemy No. 1 and was personally taken down by J. Edgar Hoover. Earning his nickname due to his sinister smile , he was accused of ten murders, six kidnappings, and a bank robbery. He was personally taken down by Hoover and was known for mocking the director for being unable to catch him. He was sentenced to life in prison and has been behind bars at Alcatraz since 1936. He has had the most time of any of the inmates to learn how the prison works and any security flaws that may have been overlooked. He is intelligent, reckless, psychopathic, and utterly without a moral compass. Though some may consider him a loose cannon, everything he does is done with surgical precision and calculation. You don’t avoid J. Edgar Hoover for that long without being at least one step ahead at all times. You can assume that both Creepy and Giles have some sort of ulterior plan and have other reasons for participating in the reform talks.