Battle of Alcatraz
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The Battle of Alcatraz was an unsuccessful escape attempt at the Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary that lasted between May 2-4, 1946. Two guards and three inmates were killed in the "battle", with another 11 guards and one inmate injured. Two of the surviving convict participants were also later executed for their roles in the escape attempt turned revolt.
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[edit] The Takeover
At approximately 1:40P.M. on May 2, 1946, while most convicts and guards were in outside workshops, Bernard Coy, a bank robber serving a 26 year sentence at Alcatraz with fellow would-be escapees Marvin Hubbard, Joseph Cretzer, Mirian Thompson and Clarence Carnes, seized control of the cell-house floor. They then managed to penetrate an elevated gun gallery previously assumed to be impenetrable. Coy, as cell-house orderly, had over the years spotted a flaw in the bars protecting the gun gallery which allowed them to be widened using a bar-spreading device consisting of a nut and bolt with client metal sleeve which moved when the nut was turned by a small wrench.
Coy had planned on the absence of the gun gallery guard by arranging for an escape accomplice, Sam Shockley to fabricate an incident in the prison's D Block which was separated from the main cellhouse by a concrete wall. Coy managed to spread the bars and squeeze through the widened gap into the temporarily vacant gallery and to overpower and bind the surprised guard on his return. Coy kept the Springfield rifle in the gallery, and lowered a .45 automatic handgun, keys, a number of clubs and gas grenades to his accomplices below. However, the real objective was to secure the key to the yard door of the prison from which the convicts expected to make their way to the island's dock to seize the prisons launch. The boat docked daily between 2:00 P.M. and 2:30 P.M. and the plan was to use the hostage guards as cover to make their way to the dock, then San Francisco and freedom.
[edit] Escape fails
Bill Miller, one of the hostage guards, had held on to the yard door key, contrary to the prison's regulations, so that he could let out kitchen staff without having to disturb the gallery guard at lunch. The escape attempt was thus inadvertently foiled from the outset as the prisoners were trapped in the cell house. Although they eventually found the key by searching the captive guards and the cell in which the prisoners had placed them, the door would not open because the lock had jammed as the prisoners had tried several other keys in the lock while searching for the correct key.
[edit] Response
When other guards learned of the attempted escape and hostage situation, they sealed off the prison and began a massive security response, with armed prison guards preparing to retake the prison. Units of the San Francisco Police Department, U.S Coast Guard, FBI, Air Force and the Marines all provided personnel and assistance. Prisoners bloodily fought against the first attempt to take back the gun cage, killing or wounding five of a seven-man team of prison officers. Prison officials put all further attempts on hold until darkness, and then cut the electricity. They retook the gun cage and freed the hostage guards, but not before Joe Cretzer attempted to murder the captive guards by shooting them in the two cells where they were held. Marines also began firing grenades into D-wing where they believed armed convicts were holed up. Robert Stroud the "Birdman of Alcatraz" played an important role in stopping this attack by informing guards that no guns were in D-Block and offering to shield officers entering to establish this.
[edit] End
Attempts to end resistance were hampered by the long-standing rule at Alcatraz that no guns be allowed in the cell-house and by prison officials' desire not to have further guards injured or killed. Consequently, they called upon the expertise of two platoons of Marines under the direction of General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell to guard the general population of convicts and to take the cell house from the outside.
Security forces adopted a plan to drive the armed convicts into a corner with tactics perfected against entrenched Japanese resistance during the Pacific War. They drilled holes in the prison roof and dropped in grenades into areas where they believed the convicts were in an attempt to force them into a utility corridor where they could be cornered. The plan succeeded, and squads of armed guards rushed into the cell house and repeatedly fired into the narrow corridor. At 09:40A.M. on May 4th, the guards entered the corridor and found that Cretzer, Coy, and Hubbard had been killed. The other three break participants, Carnes, Shockley, and Thompson, had returned to their cells shortly after the failure of the escape attempt, and guards seized them and placed them into the dungeons.
[edit] Aftermath
Mirian Thompson and Sam Shockley were executed together in the gas chamber at San Quentin December 3rd, 1948 for their role in the "Battle of Alcatraz". Carnes was given an (additional) life sentence but was eventually released from prison in 1973. The increased security measures applied in the wake of one of the bloodiest prison uprisings in American history meant that were no further escape attempts from Alcatraz until 1958.
[edit] Film depictions
Several versions of the events of the Battle of Alcatraz have been depicted on film;
- Brute Force (1947) - a fictionalised account of a failed prison break starring Burt Lancaster and unusual at the time for the level of violence it portrayed.
- Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) - Again starring Burt Lancaster, the film briefly depicts a largely fictional version of the events where Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz" is given unwarranted credit for stopping the break.
- Alcatraz - the whole shocking story (1980) - factual based TV drama of the events incorporated into larger narrative of the history of Alcatraz as seen through the eyes of its youngest prisoner, Clarence Carnes.
- Six against the Rock (1987) - Based on semi-fictional book by Clark Howard.
[edit] Sources
- Escape From Alcatraz (1963) - J. Campbell Bruce ISBN 1-58008-678-0
