ENGL SH SELF-GUIDING INFORMATION "YOU ARE ENTITLED TO EOOD, CLOTHING AND MEDICAL ATTENTION. ANYTHING H is A privilege; Number 5, Institution Rules & Regulations, USP Alcatraz I I " , SHELTER, ,SE YOU GET This rule was one of the realities of Ufe inside the walls of United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island. The subject of many movies and books. Alcatraz has become a symbol of America's dark side. From fiction rather than fact, we have stories of the prison and of some of . V the men who lived in its cells— ' • í • t Al "Scarface" Capone and Robert ' V'l.rMÍTii', • \f' V . Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz," for example. The truth of Alcatraz has often been overlooked, lost in the fog of its myths. Use this brochure to discover some of Alcatraz s true stories. I r^i Ul ALCATRAZ FORT For thousands of years, Alcatraz was a lonely In 1850, a military board proposed island, occasionally visited, perhaps, by a three-point defensive strategy for San Ohlone and Miwokindians. Between the Francisco Bay. This approach required that a time the Spanish settled the Bay Area (1776) massive brick fort be built on each side of the and the Yankees took over from the Mexicans Golden Gate. Alcatraz, directly in line with (1846), the island was noted on maps but was ships entering the harbor, was selected as otherwise unused. The last Mexican governor the site of the third, smaller fortification. An of California planned to erect a lighthouse army Board of Engineers surveyed the island on Alcatraz, but before it could be built, in 1852, and by 1853, construction had begun. California was annexed by the United States. By the time the Civil War broke out in Although the U.S. government had 1861, Alcatraz had 111 smoothbore cannon, begun to study possible uses for the island— rows of open gun emplacements carved out members of the U.S. Corps of Topographical of the island's slopes, and a fortified gateway, Engineers surveyed Alcatraz in 1847—it was or sally port, protecting the road to the brick the Gold Rush that spurred the building of citadel that crowned the island's highest the lighthouse and the fortification of its point. surface. The enormous wealth coming out The city and its rich port were tempting of the gold mines dramatically increased targets for Confedérate raiders, and Alcatraz, San Franciscos ship traffic as well as its along with Fort Point on the south side of population. By 1849, the city had ceased to the Golden Gate, was an important part of be a sleepy outpost of 300 souls and was a the U.S. Army's western defense plan. More bawdy, glittering home to more than 20,000 than 400 soldiers were stationed on the citizens. island, and cannon batteries guarded nearly every flank. The latest weapons, including smoothbore, 25-ton Rodman cannon that shot 15-inch, 440-pound cannonballs as Ijj farHowever, as three military miles, weretechnology installed advanced in 1864. quickly during the Civil War. Despite improvements, Alcatraz's defenses became obsoleta. In 1907, the army formally decommissioned Alcatraz as a fortification. A Rodman cannon dominotes this 1868 photograph by Eadweard Muybridge. 10,000 years aqo Thesmall 3,000 years aqo Bay-area native 1775 Spanish explorer Juan sandstone peak that would later be peopie paddie their reed canees to Manuel de Ayala salís inte San called Alcatraz rises above ocean waters Alcatraz, hunting fot birds' eggs Francisco Bay and ñames its flooding the valley that becomes San and perhaps fishing from its shores. islands. Francisco Bay. ALCATRAZ PRISON Alcatraz was a prison almost from the very Al "Scarface" Capone,"Doc" Barker, Alvin beginning. In 1859, 11 soldiers scheduled "Creepy" Karpis, George "Machine Gun" for confinement in the sally port basement Kelly, Floyd Hamilton, and Robert Stroud, arrived with the fort s first permanent i —I the "Birdman of Alcatraz"(who garrison. During the Civil War era, ^ actually conducted his famous bird soldiers convicted of desertion, theft, f studies when he was imprisoned assaulí, rape, and murder; citizens ^ ^ at Leavenworth). Most of the accused of treason; and the crew of inmates were men who had proved a Confedérate ship were imprisoned to be problems in other prison here. The army also used Alcatraz populations—escape risks and as a place of incarceration for Hopi, troublemakers. Apache, and Modoc Indians captured /Al Caponeie Of the 14 attempted federal prison- during the various Indian wars of era escapes, the best known occurred the mid- to late nineteenth century in June 1962, when Frank Morris and for military convicts during the 0 ^ and brothers John and Clarence Spanish-American War (1898). f A Anglin slipped into the water. They When the fort was decommissioned ,^ ¿A used raincoats as floatation devices in 1907, regular army troops were ^ M and were presumably bound for San replaced by soldiers of the U.S. ^ m Francisco. Although their bodies were Military Guard.Within a year, never found, they are assumed to the army had begun tearing down I I have drowned. the citadel and building a huge "Crefffiepy" Korpísorpis As part of its security, the Bureau concrete cellhouse. In 1915, Alcatraz of Prisons deliberately restricted was renamed "United States Disciplinary visitors to "the Rock." It may have been Barracks, Pacific Branch"; it wasn't long this isolation, this apparent secrecy, that before conscientious objectors to World War I fueled stories of the prison s miserable living joined the Alcatraz inmate population. conditions. Although few of these stories were During the Great Depression of the 1930s, true—the prison was clean and the food was the newly created Bureau of Prisons became good—Alcatraz was undeniably a maximum- interested in the island as a place for a security facility. high-profile, maximum-security facility. Increasing maintenance and operating costs Transferred from the War Department to the led U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice, Alcatraz reopened to cióse Alcatraz in 1963. Prisoners were in 1934 as a federal penitentiary. Of the transferred to other federal correctional 1,545 men who did time on Alcatraz, only facilities, and Alcatraz was left to the care of a a handful were notorious—among them. lone custodian. 1847 John Charles Fremont, 1853 The United States 1854 The first lighthouse military governor of California, begins fortifying Alcatraz. on the Pacific Coast begins purchases Alcatraz for the operation on Alcatraz. United States from the Mexican government. AMERICAN INDIAN OCCUPATION After the prison closed, Alcatraz was Interest in the occupation was fueled by managed as excess government property. Alcatraz's location and reputation as weli as During this time, a number of proposais by a growing national awareness of American for its futura use were discussed. One of Indian issues. Media coverage was generally these featured a commercial theme park in positive, and the occupation gathered celebration of space travel, public support. As time passed, however, suggested by wealthy this support began to Texan Lamar Hunt. Then, \ i erode. The struggle to raise money and the Indian poHtical activists eíFort required to keep selected Alcatraz as a place the occupiers supplied with food and water also caused the group's Alcatraz a total of three times, the first in 1964, — when they stayed for only t-f' four hours. Five years later,' on November 9, 1969, a p. small group landed on the ^|||M|B|Í|B^nH island and claimed it in the ñame of the "Indians of All Tribes," a landmark In the aftermath of the íneThe occupiers erected fnfhis feepee,e, symbolic of froditionGÍfroditioíiGl ^ inmtertr.balcooperat.on. , . I occupation, crews trom Nofíve Americon Ufe, os o sign oft their reclomafionreciomation ofor the , r > A full-scale occupation island. Photo,pfj JohnI/? Slovkek federal government s began 11 days later, on General Services November 20, and lasted for 19 months. Administration carne to the island and Echoing the 1626 purchase of Manhattan began bulldozing buildings into rubble piles, Island, the Indians of All Tribes offered to starting with the former correctional officers' buy Alcatraz from the federal government for residential apartments on the oíd parade $24 in beads, colored cloth, and other trade ground. Fortunately for future generations, goods. In "The Proclamation to the Great this stopped when Congress created the White Father and All His People," they noted Golden Gate National Recreation Area in that Alcatraz reminded them of an Indian 1972 and made Alcatraz a part of GGNRA, reservation because, among other things, "it administered by the National Park Service. is isolated from modern facilities, the soil is rockyand unproductive, and the land does not support game." 1892 Advancing mililary 191S Alcatraz formally becomes 1934 After transfer from the Wat technology makes Alcatraz's "Pacific Branch, U.S. Disclpiinary Department to the Department fortiíications obsoleie. Barracks." a military prison. of Justice, Alcatraz reopens as a federal penitentiary. ALCATRAZ NATURE Salt-laden cold wind, rocky ground, and a trees. Aíter the federal prison was closed, scarcity of fresh water originally limited the the untended plants began to take over— number and types of plants on Alcatraz. today, they spill out of the gardens' original Covered with the thinnest skin of soil, boundaries, over cement walls, and down the it supported only sparse grass and a few slopes. shrubs. Tlie absence of four-footed predators, Modern Alcatraz is an evolving ecological however, made Alcatraz a haven for blrds, preserve. Now, the plants provide food and and they built nests and reared their young shelter for mice, slender salamanders, and here in great numbers. insects, which, in addition to the plants When military development began ¡n the themselves, attract birds.