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"The festive
times were the worst for the inmates. Imagine after lights out in
solitary confinement, hearing sounds of celebrations and laughter
drifting over from the mainland, a real life was so close but so far
away.
It wasn't uncommon for inmates to cry themselves to sleep."
Only the worst got sent to Alcatraz.
The most sophisticated prison ever built, it's position ideal, it's lock
up system one of the most advanced in the world.
"Once you enter the water, there's a 50/50/50 survival rate. A 50
percent chance that you’ll last 50 minutes in the 50 degree (farenheight)
water.
Then there's the sharks that patrol the bay during the changes of the
tide, not many were willing to risk it."
Over the years thirty-six prisoners were involved in various attempts to
escape. Only three ever managed to break free, Frank Morris, John and
his brother Clarence Anglin constructed a crude raft from rubber
slickers, using knowledge they gained from reading manufacturing books
they borrowed from Alcatraz' prison library, they managed to row across
the bay in the early hours of the morning. The only trace police ever
found of the men were the makeshift tools left behind in their cell they
were using to dig and grind their way out, in the bay they found oars,
letters and photographs they believed the Anglin brothers had wrapped in
watertight plastic, but to this day no sign of the men has ever turned
up. Several weeks after the escape a mans body dressed in blue clothing
similar to the prison uniform washed up on shore a short distance up the
coast from San Francisco, however identification was impossible due to
the weeks of deterioration from the ocean movements and salt waters,
plus the lack of forensic technology at the
time.*
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Ranger Tom seems to know his stuff, it's actually refreshing to see how
much joy he gets from taking our group around the jail cells, something
he must do 5 times a day 7 days a week, but he's smiling and giving us
the extra detail.
For the next half hour my ears are filled with sounds and confessionals
while following the instructions on the audio tour, and I lose all track
of time. Looking around at the others in the group and the feeling's
mutual, it feels as if we're in the same shoes as these convict, as they
tell us of their time at "The Rock".
For a jail with so much "edge" to it, it actually wasn't so bad. With no
overcrowding of the cells, a much better guard to prisoner ratio than
all other mainland jails, it was said to be the "Holiday Jail."
I'm so engrossed in trying to document the mystique of the cells from
behind the lens that I miss out on a lot of the other tours, wandering
off by myself lost in my own world that when the doors slam shut behind
me I thought the worst.
Locked in Alcatraz.
"Yup…we do that every tour," Ranger Pam answers in a thick drawn out
voice with a grin ear to ear, "should see the look on some people's
faces when they ask that same question."
Not funny.
When our time on the tour is up we exit the cells to the sun setting
over the Golden Gate Bridge, the sea fog is rolling in and the wind has
dropped right out making this feel comfortable, almost like home.
I stop and wonder how many convicts saw these sights and actually
stopped to appreciate them.
Not many.
View the Alcatraz Gallery here |