Battle of Alcatraz
| Battle of Alcatraz | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Alcatraz cellhouse shelled by mortars, May 3, 1946 | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
|
Guards U.S. Marines U.S. Coast Guard California State Police |
Bernard Coy † Joseph Cretzer † Marvin Hubbard † | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
2 killed 11 wounded |
3 killed 2 executed 1 non-participating inmate wounded | ||||||
The Battle of Alcatraz, which lasted from May 2 to 4, 1946, was the result of an unsuccessful escape attempt at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Two guards—William A. Miller and Harold Stites—were killed along with three of the inmates. Eleven guards and one uninvolved convict were also injured. Two of the surviving convicts were later executed for their roles.[1]
Takeover
On May 2, 1946, while most convicts and guards were in outside workshops, Bernard Coy, a bank robber serving a 25-year sentence at Alcatraz, was in the main cellhouse sweeping the floor around C Block when kitchen orderly Marvin Hubbard called on guard William Miller to let him in as he had just finished cleaning the kitchen. As Miller was frisking Hubbard for any stolen articles, Coy attacked him from behind, and the two men overpowered the officer. They then released Joseph Cretzer and Clarence Carnes from their cells.[2]
The cellhouse had an elevated gun gallery that was regularly patrolled by an armed guard. The guard, Bert Burch, had a set routine, and the convicts had attacked Miller while Burch was away. Coy, as a cellhouse 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 that moved when the nut was turned by a small wrench. Coy thus managed to spread the bars and squeeze through the widened gap (Coy starved himself in order to fit through the space between the widened bars, which was still relatively narrow) into the temporarily vacant gallery and to overpower and bind Burch on his return. Coy kept the Springfield rifle in the gallery and lowered an M1911 pistol, keys, a number of clubs, and gas grenades to his accomplices below.[2]
Continuing along the gun gallery, Coy then entered D Block, which was separated from the main cellhouse by a concrete wall and was used for prisoners kept in isolation. There, he used the rifle to force guard Cecil Corwin to open the door to the main cellhouse and let the others in. They then released about a dozen convicts including Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson. Shockley and Thompson joined Coy, Carnes, Hubbard, and Cretzer in the main cellhouse. The other prisoners returned to their cells. Miller and Corwin were placed in a cell in C Block.[2]
The escapees now needed to secure the key to the yard door of the prison from which they expected to make their way to the island's dock to seize the prison's launch. The boat docked daily between 14:00 and 14:30. The plan was to use the hostage guards as cover as the prisoners made their way to the dock, then San Francisco and freedom.
Failed escape attempt
Miller had held on to the yard door key (against regulations), so that he could let out kitchen staff without having to disturb the gallery guard at lunch. 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 while searching for the correct one. The escape attempt was thus inadvertently foiled from the outset as the prisoners were trapped in the cellhouse.
Meanwhile, additional guards who entered the cellhouse as part of their routine were seized along with others sent to investigate when the former guard failed to report in. The prisoners were soon holding nine guards in two separate cells, but with nowhere to go, despair set in among the would-be escapees.
Having failed on their initial plan, the prisoners decided the next plan would be to go up the hill and take civilian hostages from the residences on the island.[3] To do that, they decided they must take out the watchtowers, since they had rifles on them. At 14:30, Coy took the rifle and fired at the guards in some neighboring watchtowers, wounding one of them. Associate warden Ed Miller went to the cellhouse to investigate, armed with a gas billy club. He came across Coy, who shot at him. Miller retreated. By now, the alarm had been raised.
Their plan having failed, Shockley and Thompson urged Cretzer, who had one of the guns, to kill the hostages in case they testified against them. Cretzer opened fire on the guards, wounding five, three seriously, including Bill Miller, who later died of his wounds. Carnes, Shockley, and Thompson then returned to their cells, but Coy, Hubbard, and Cretzer decided they were not going to surrender.[4] Meanwhile, one of the hostages discreetly wrote down the names of the convicts involved, circling the names of the ringleaders.
At about 18:00, a squad of armed guards entering the gun cage were shot at by the convicts. One officer, Harold Stites, was killed, and four other guards were wounded.[4] Prison officials then cut the electricity and put on hold all further attempts to regain control of the cellhouse until darkness.
Warden James A. Johnston now called upon the expertise of two platoons of Marines under the direction of Generals "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell and Frank Merrill to guard the general population of convicts and to take the cellhouse from the outside.[5]
After night fell, two squads of guards entered the prison to locate and rescue the captive officers. There was a long-standing rule at Alcatraz that no guns were allowed in the cellhouse, and the prison officials did not want more guards injured or killed. The convicts' position on the top of a cell block provided a nearly impregnable firing position as they were out of range of the guards in the gun cages.
At 20:00, unarmed guards entered the cellhouse, covered by armed guards in the two gun galleries overhead. They found the hostages; however, one guard was wounded by a gunshot fired from the roof of one of the cell blocks. They locked the open door to D Block. When the last officer reached safety, the guards opened a massive barrage from machine guns, mortars, and grenades on the prisoners within D Block, where the prison authorities erroneously thought one of the armed convicts was holed up. They eventually figured out that the rebellious prisoners were confined to the main cellhouse and ceased their attack until further tactics were worked out.
The Marines implemented a plan to drive the armed convicts into a corner with tactics they had perfected against entrenched Japanese resistance during the Pacific War. They drilled holes in the prison roof and dropped grenades into areas where they believed the convicts were to force them into a utility corridor where they could be cornered.
On May 3, at about 12:00, the convicts phoned Johnston to try to discuss a deal. Johnston would only accept their surrender. Later that day, a shot was fired at a guard as he checked out C Block's utility corridor.[2] That night, a constant fusillade was fired at the cell block until about 21:00. The following morning, squads of armed guards periodically rushed into the cellhouse firing repeatedly into the narrow corridor. At 09:40 on May 4, they finally entered the corridor and found the bodies of Cretzer, Coy, and Hubbard.
Aftermath
Before the escape attempt, Hubbard had petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that his confession had been beaten out of him; he had produced hospital records to back up his claims. A federal hearing into the matter had been scheduled for the Monday after he died. The case was dismissed on a motion filed by prosecutor Joseph Karesh, who is quoted as saying that had it gone through, Hubbard would have had "a fair chance" of being released.[2]
Miran Thompson and Sam Shockley were executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin on December 3, 1948, for their role in the Battle of Alcatraz. Carnes was given an additional life sentence but was eventually released from prison in 1973. Increased security measures ensured that there were no more escape attempts until 1956.
Film depictions
Several versions of the events of the Battle of Alcatraz have been depicted on film:
- Brute Force (1947) — Starring Burt Lancaster. Although inspired by the events, this is a highly fictionalized account of an attempted prison break. It was unusual at the time for the level of violence it portrayed.
- Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) — Again starring Burt Lancaster, this film briefly depicts a largely fictional version of the battle which, from the start, is portrayed as a full-scale riot rather than a discrete escape attempt. Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", is given unwarranted credit for ending the conflict.
- Alcatraz — The Whole Shocking Story (1980) — A factually based TV drama of the events incorporated into a larger narrative of the history of Alcatraz as seen through the eyes of its youngest prisoner, Clarence Carnes.
- Six Against the Rock (1987) — Starring David Carradine as Bernard Coy, based on the semi-fictional book by Clark Howard.
Sources
- ↑ "A Brief History of Alcatraz". Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Escape from Alcatraz by J. Campbell Bruce, published in 1963
- ↑ Six Against the Rock by Clark Howard, published in 1978
- 1 2 Alcatraz: The Gangster Years by David Ward, published in 2009
- ↑ The Encyclopedia of American Prisons by Carl Sifakis, pg. 9
Additional reading
- Bruce, J. Campbell (2005). Escape from Alcatraz. Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 1-58008-678-0.
External links
- alcatatrazhisory.com
- escapes from Alcatraz articles
- Account of the battle from This is an Alcatraz Documentary
- Crime Magazine Battle for Alcatraz
