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The federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, located off the coast of San Francisco, CA, opened in 1934. Until it closed nearly three decades later, Alcatraz was reserved for some of the most ruthless criminals. Life at Alcatraz was not just about confinement and punishment but discipline and routine. Not everything about Alcatraz was considered undesirable; in fact, some convicts even requested doing time at "The Rock."
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The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was the premier prison in the United States from 1934 to 1963
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We've all heard stories of the island's most notorious prisoners, like Al Capone
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George Kelly, and the birdman of Alcatraz, Robert Stroud. But what about the people who
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watched over them? Well, today we're going to take a look at what it was like to be a guard
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at Alcatraz Prison. Okay, Weird History fans, welcome to The Rock. Over the 30 years the prison was in use, Alcatraz housed over 1,500 of the most famous criminals
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in American history. Despite that fact, when guards were hired at Alcatraz, they moved to
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the island with their families. Children played with one another. Families ate dinner together
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And life on Alcatraz wasn't that different from life on the mainland. There were some major
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differences, though, such as the notorious prison. Though Alcatraz was a maximum security facility
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and guard housing was barricaded from the prison ground, life on the island was not always safe
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At any moment, an alarm might sound, alerting Alcatraz's residents of an emergency
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or an escaped prisoner. Chuck Stucker was just a child on Alcatraz
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so he was too young to remember or understand many of the fears common to people who lived on the island
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But according to him, his older sister recalled once hearing an escape siren go off
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The family, along with the other residents, followed protocol by immediately locking themselves
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in their apartment and waiting for the danger to pass. Why were the families told to barricade themselves indoors
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Well, in an attempted escape, officials feared an inmate may try to take hostages
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Talk about growing up in a rough neighborhood. Despite the looming threat of danger to their families
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many of the guards shared a common pride in working at Alcatraz. Claire Rudolph Murphy, who lived on the island as a child
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said of the job's prestige, fathers were quite proud of their work as corrections officers
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And the mothers would say that was a dang good job, especially during the Depression
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Chuck Stucker, who was only four months old when his father received a job at the federal prison on Alcatraz
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compared the experience to living on a military base. Many of the families on the island were housed in Building 64
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and formed a small community amongst themselves. For the children, their lives were normal
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Steve Mahoney, who lived on Alcatraz until he was six, recalls living a fun and relatively normal life
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He said, we played basketball and flew kites and rode bikes on what had been the parade field
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We'd get loaves of bread and feed them to small sharks. For us, it was a big playground
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Playing basketball next to El Capone and taking afternoon walks to feed sharks
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That as American as apple pie Additionally the island had most of the amenities you could find on the mainland and functioned much like an average American town According to Mahoney there was a preschool on the island a small commissary with milk butter bread and a post office
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Extended family probably got a lot of Alcatraz postcards. Neighbors frequently ate dinner at each other's apartments
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Former guard Pat Mahoney said they would have large parties on the hill that overlooked the prison
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If something happened, like an escape attempt or a potential riot, you know, typical things
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that might interrupt a dinner. prison guards would go handle the incident, then return to the get-together
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There was also a bowling alley that guards and their families frequented. A bowling alley may sound a little tame today, but back in the early 20th century
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that would have been like having a Dave and Buster's within stumbling distance of your house
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Altogether, it sounds nicer than your average modern housing development. In fact, Mahoney told Reuters that he would have gladly stayed on Alcatraz for longer
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had the prison not closed. In other words, there's a small possibility that Mahoney might have become a notorious criminal
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if Alcatraz hadn't shut down, just to guarantee he'd never have to leave
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Not everything on Alcatraz Island was sunshine and shark feeding. Guards with families and guards
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who were bachelors were separated into two buildings because no one wants to live with
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a bunch of bachelors. The bachelors lived in an apartment complex while the families lived together
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in building 64. However, before construction was completed on the bachelor complex in 1941
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guards experienced severe overcrowding. But most importantly, the guards' entire living area
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was fenced off to prevent their wives and children from coming into contact with the inmates
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Former Alcatraz resident Kathy Albright recalls her husband escorting her around the island
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for protection when she left the fenced-in area, which sounds like a wise policy
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Former prison guard George DiVincenzi once gave reporters from Reuters a tour
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around the prison on Alcatraz. And along the way, he pointed out several spots
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where horrific incidents occurred. In one spot, he noted the location of a sleigh that resulted from a prison love triangle gone wrong
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In the laundry room, he recounted a completely different kind of horror, in which a guard had to remove a prisoner from solitary confinement after he covered himself in his own waste
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To be fair, there's not a whole lot to do in solitary confinement. Chuck Stucker, the son of an Alcatraz guard, did not describe all the traumas his father had to face
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but implied he may have suffered psychologically from his time as a guard
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In fact, Stucker recalled that as a kid, he was strictly told not to startle his father
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He said, I was never allowed to surprise him. I was told, don't jump out from a doorway
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don't surprise him. That was impressed upon me. Stucker might not have even known the worst
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of what his father went through, because guards didn't often talk about their day experiences especially not the more dramatic moments that marked their careers at Alcatraz Human misery generally shouldn be a spectator sport but Joan Brisebois Ellis
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the wife of an Alcatraz guard, recalls that a spectacle was made whenever a new batch of
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prisoners was brought to the island. Ellis said that any time a new group of inmates came to the
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penitentiary, the guards and their families would watch their processing as a form of entertainment
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They would look on as men were shackled and escorted from the boat to the prison, viewing it as, like a carnival, it was the big event for the evening
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There is a reason someone invented NFL season pass. The island had many conveniences, but Alcatraz's non-imprisoned residents still needed to make
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regular trips to the mainland. There were 12 boats that made the voyage each day. Former guard Jim
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Albright recalls everyone keeping a boat schedule on their person because everyone had to plan their
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trips to and from the island around the boats. And if you missed the last boat to Alcatraz from the mainland
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you were out of luck. Albright said, if you missed the last boat at night, shame on you, because you would be in town all night
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Children who lived on Alcatraz Island had to take one of the boats to the mainland in order to go to school
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They were also at a higher risk of being abducted in an attempt to free inmates from the island
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So the children of Alcatraz had to wear dog tags indicating their association with the prison
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which seems like it's letting everybody know that this is the kid to kidnap
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but apparently the system worked. Alcatraz was by no means an easy gig. Despite the island's
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many amenities, you still had to relocate your family to a life of seclusion on an island with
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some of the worst criminals in American history. Consequently, some of the prison's standards were
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a little more relaxed. Former guard George H. Gregory wrote a book titled Alcatraz Screw
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My Years as a Guard in America's Most Notorious Prison. In the book, Gregory discusses the process of roll call
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According to the former guard, it was fairly lax, particularly compared to his time at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth
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At Leavenworth, Gregory writes that you could have been fired for standing roll call
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in less than a clean, pressed, and polished uniform. On Alcatraz, however, not much attention was given to the uniform
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The procedure was primarily to make sure guards were fit for duty and healthy enough to take on their shift
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It's like Taco Bell luring employees to the midnight shift by letting them wear a cape to work
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They were less concerned with the guards appearance than their ability to perform their job
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Prison riots or escapes were always a fear for the guards and there were many precautionary measures built into the prison to help prevent inmates from taking over the prison However incidents still occurred For example from May 2nd through 4th of 1946
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there was a standoff at Alcatraz between guards and prisoners. Bernard Paul Coy, who was serving a 26-year sentence for robbery
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covered his body in axle grease like a cartoon burglar. Then he climbed up to the prison's armory
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and squeezed into the gallery using a handmade bar spreader. After knocking out a prison guard and strangling him
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with his necktie, Coy distributed sidearms to some fellow inmates, and together they took nine
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guards hostage. Although the guards handed over most of their keys, they were able to conceal one
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that led to the recreation yard, keeping the fight contained inside the cell house. The Coast Guard
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and Marines were eventually deployed in response. After 48 hours of fighting, two guards and three
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prisoners perished in what became known as the Battle of Alcatraz, which sounds like a pretty
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solid Rage Against the Machine album. Although the spouses and children of the prison guards couldn't speak to the inmates
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former Alcatraz guard Jim Albright reminisced about striking up conversations with the prisoners
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Albright recalls having to strike a delicate balance between being friendly with the inmates
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and revealing too much personal information about himself. He said the inmates were also careful not to reveal too much personal information to the guards
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Eh, kind of sounds like working at a bar. Both guards and former inmates alike have been involved in the process of turning Alcatraz into a tourist-friendly historical site
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Although they were once at odds, the two groups don't appear to hold any grudges. Former inmate Darwin Kuhn, for example, routinely visited the island and sold his memoir in the gift shop that currently resides on Alcatraz
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When he came into contact with former guard George DiVincenzi, he said
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Why should I have anything against George? He was making a living. In turn, DiVincenzi said he was glad the former prisoner, who was convicted of robbing five banks
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had gone straight. It's like the old adage says, tourist traps make strange bedfellows
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Even though it's been nearly 60 years since the island last held a prisoner
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Alcatraz remains a captivating part of American history, even more so for those who are personally
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connected to it. An alumni association exists for Alcatraz guards and their families
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They've been gathering on the island once a year for almost 30 years to reflect on their experiences
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Betty Stone, who lived on the island as a child, brought her granddaughter to the reunion
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noting that Alcatraz has become an important part of her family's heritage
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Other former residents come to relive old memories. Because many of the guards have since passed
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the Alcatraz Alumni Association decided to hold a final gathering, which occurred in August of 2018