Alcatraz Prison

Everyone knows about the famous prison: Alcatraz. Some know that the most dangerous criminals were placed there. Others know multiple people attempted to escape the penitentiary. The history of Alcatraz explains why people kept trying to leave and the planning stage of how they was going to follow through with the final escape. To begin, The famous prison is located in the sunny San Francisco Bay area. In 1771 a Spanish explorer founded the island and named it “La isla de los Alcatraces,” which mean “The Island of Pelicans.” No inmate had ever successfully escaped, although a few were never found and could have died from the chilly waters. The terrifying penitentiary’s nickname back then was “The Rock.” The article states, “The federal prison on Alcatraz Island in the chilly waters of California’s San Francisco Bay housed some of America’s most difficult and dangerous felons during its years of operation from 1934 to 1963.” The dangerous felons that were housed there included: Al “Scarface” Capone, George “Machine Gun Kelly” Barnes. Fourteen escapes were made with a total of thirty-six men from Alcatraz. Eventually the prison was shut down after high operating costs. They could not keep transporting items from San Francisco to the island.

The three men planned the escape months in advance in order to make the escape successful. They gathered up blades, using crude tools and also used a homemade drill. The escapees drilled holes to be able to pull the wall off and covered the hole with cardboard so the guards would not notice. They stole more than 50 raincoats to make life preservers when heading out on the Pacific. They had also built wooden paddles to make sure they could get to the other island. “The group had begun laying plans the previous December when one of them came across some old saw blades.” They tried to escape in June after months of