Alcatraz
Alcatraz
Alcatraz is located in San Francisco Bay, California. First opened in 1848 as a protective fortress to keep the bay clear of intruders. Later reopened and became a prison in 1934.From the 1930’s until mid 1960’s, Alcatraz was America ‘s highest security prison, the final stop for the most wicked inmates. Alcatraz is a place of conflict, with a bleak past and an ever lasting future.
Alcatraz was said to be inescapable, because if an inmate could make it out of the prison itself they would then have to encounter the freezing waters of the San Francisco Bay, and the fast rushing currents that would push them out to sea.
There’s record of only a few break out that were rewarding. One of which was successful by Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe, who vanished from Alcatraz on December 16, 1937. Cole and Roe had a broken piece of glass that they had used to file away the prison bars in there work room. They would use saw dust and oil to pack in the cuts until they were ready. The prison guards came in to make their noon headcount and all 13 men were there, but a few hours later when they came for their next count two Cole and Roe were gone. Prison authorities believed they had drowned. A San Francisco Chronicle writer said four years after the escape that they were still alive in South America.
June 12, 1962, authorities at Alcatraz discovered that inmates John Anglin, Clarence Anglin, and Frank Morris had escaped. The FBI started an investigation, which lasted for nearly twenty years, was unable to determine whether the three men actually escaped or died in the attempt. On December 1979 the FBI finally closed the case.
One reason that Alcatraz closed down was because of money. Alcatraz had always been an expensive suggestion,being on an island. Everything had to be transported by boat to get to Alcatraz, even water and food, and they had to run a power plant to create electricity on Alcatraz. One congressman said that “It would have costed less to house the inmates at the Waldorf Astoria with room service, than it cost the taxpayers to keep them at Alcatraz.”
This is a very odd and a very mysterious place on an isolated island called Alcatraz.
http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/mainpg.htm
http://vault.fbi.gov/Alcatraz%20Escape
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/aindex.htm
http://www.alcatraz101.com/Page16.html
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