Alcatraz Investigation “It looks like Alcatraz has got me licked.” Al Capone. In the beginning Alcatraz was almost like a prison. Alcatraz itself saw a lot; from military uses, prison filled with notorious killers to Indian community that settled on Alcatraz. It formed its own history along with the world which still stands today. Alcatraz is an approximately 19 acre island first discovered by Juan de Ayala in 1775 and gave its name, “La Isla de Los Alcatraces” meaning “Island of the Pelicans”. 73 years later in 1848, during the Gold Rush, thousand and thousand of ships came through the San Francisco Bay; therefore a lighthouse was made since the ship traffic expanded as well as the population. California began out as a 300 people town and by 1849 it expanded to over 20,000 citizens. After over 55 years of using the lighthouse, it was finally taken down so they could build the Alcatraz Prison in 1909. The second Alcatraz lighthouse now stands next to the cell house. During the American Civil War, soldiers that were convicted of desertion, theft, assault, rape, murder, desertion and so forth were locked up on Alcatraz. After the war in 1907, decommissioned regular soldiers were replaced with U.S. Military Guard. It took them a year to tear down and build a new building which will become the prison it once was. In 1915, Alcatraz was renamed, “United States Disciplinary Barracks; Pacific Branch”. Around the time of World War 1 people that refused to join or support the war were placed in Alcatraz. When the Great Depression hit in 1930s’, the Bureau of Prisons became interested in building a new prison facility on Alcatraz. Alcatraz transferred from the War Department to the Department of Justice and therefore a new prison with high profile, maximum security was opened in 1934. Over 1,500 men did time on Alcatraz, only a few numbers of them were notorious and dared to escape Alcatraz – one of the worse prison facilities in the world. Among them was Al Capone “Scarface”, “Doc” Barker along with Alvin “Creepy” Karpis of the Karpis-Barker Gang, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Floyd Hamilton and Robert Stroud who was the “Birdman of Alcatraz”. Most of the men served at least thirty years in Alcatraz. Some died before it closed down, some were freed but some survived but was transferred to another prison after Alcatraz closed down. Alcatraz being one of the top-notch prisons in the world, some men dared to escape, but most of the time it failed. The best known escape took place in June 1962 when Frank Morris along with brothers John and Clarence Anglin slipped out of prison using raincoat as a floatation to get across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco Bay. Their bodies were never found so they assumed that they drowned. During the Battle of Alcatraz in May 2-4, 1946, six men tried to escape, but five of them were executed for killing the officers while only one did not touch a single fire-arm and killed anyone, but he was given a life sentence in Alcatraz for being part of the crime. Living on Alcatraz was total isolated. Prisoners weren’t allowed to do certain things only if they behaved and did as they were told to. Alcatraz had B, C and D block. D block was for the worse behaved prisoners, it held the biggest cells but it also was the coldest. Also, inside there were a number of isolation cells with barred doors and a door with only little sunlight that entered the room. Men that were locked up there pulled out their button and played the game flipping the button and try to find the button in the darkness. It depended on the action that led to the length of their stay in the isolated cells. No one knew privacy on Alcatraz. When it was time to shower which took place twice every week, the prisoners showered in front of each other while officers watched along. When Alcatraz was first built, they had shower rooms but for the safety of other men so fights won’t outbreak, they removed it and had a one clear room. When a man was new to Alcatraz, they would march in naked to their cell while onlookers screamed, laughed and made fun of them from their cells.
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