Page Eight THE MICHIGAN DAILY Thursday, January 8, 1976 PageEigt TE MCHIGN DILYThusday Jauar 8,197 Alcatraz: Life on the rock SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) - Perhaps the greatest punish- ment was the silence - the chilly, damp solitude broken only by the clanking of the cell doors. Of the world beyond the walls of "The Rock," the inmates knew little. And the desolation of all that makes life real drove many to suicide. No one ever escaped from Alcatraz. ONE inmate wrote: "These words are written in fire on the walls of my cell, 'Nothing can be worth this!' No one knows what it is like to suffer from the intellectual atrophy, the pernicious mental scurVy that comes of long privation of all the things that make life real." In all of its years, the federal penetentiary on Alcatraz Island housed 1,460 prisoners. Now 1,700 curious tourists visit "The Rock" every day. Two years ago the National Park Service opened what was once America's most feared prison to tourists who for $2 could spend two hours looking at its crumbling walls, damp cellblocks, windswept exercise yard, and the ruins of prison buildings burned during 19 months of Indian occupation. THE last convicts left 15 years ago. Among the first men im- prisoned in Alcatraz' cells were 17 Southern sympathizers who hoped to cut off San Francisco by sea and to turn California's gold over to the Confederate army. After the Civil War, the is- land became a military and In- dian prison, and later served as a health resort for U. S. soldiers recovering from dysen- tery, a temporary jail for San Francisco city prisoners after the 1906 earthquake, and a pri- son housing World War I espi- onage agents. THEN came the end of Prohibition - a time when trigger men rubbed out rivals, kidnapers held out for high ransoms. The Federal Bureau of Investigation began rounding up gangsters and Attorney Gen- eral Homer Cummings chose "The Rock" for his maximum security and minimum privi- lege prison. Soft steel cell fronts were replaced with tool-proof steel. Guard towers went up at stra- tegic points. Barbed wire bar- riers were erected near the rocky shore line. Gun detectors were installed at the dock and by work areas. Alcatraz opened its doors in 1934 and when the prison closed on June 30, 1960, 1,460 prisoners had served time in its cells. Of those, 219 were conditionally released, 74 were freed when their term expired, and many were killed, committed suicide or died from penumonia within its walls. THE first warden imposed a rule of silence. Later, rules were relaxed somewhat but guards report that the prison was always very quiet - broken only by the ear-piercing grind of the rows of opening and closing cell doors. A n o t h e r part of inmate punishment was elimination of news of the outside world. Prisoners learned only that World War II started and ended, even though the inmates washed military uniforms, often wearing some clothing for a few days before returning it to the base, and made gloves and Navy Cargo nets in prison fac- tories. Prisoners arrived at Alcatraz the way Al Capone did in Au- gust, 1934. "S C A R F A C E" Capone was caught running his gamb- ling business from an Atlanta prison cell, so he was locked in a safety rail car, taken across country, loaded onto a barge and hauled to the prison gate, never seeing the light of day. Capone lived in a typical Alcatraz cell - five feet wide by nine feet deep, with a wall bunk, a Uttle work table, a toilet and wash basin and a shelf for the prisoner's personal belongings. Other famous prisoners in- cluded Bonnie and Clyde gang m e m b e r Floyd Hamilton, George "Machine Gun" Kelley, convicted of kidnaping an Ok- lahoma oil man, and the "Bird Man" of Alcatraz, Robert S'ro'id, who actually did his Pior Pior Pior Pio Pio Pio Sar Sa Sa Sa Sa M, M M M Al Al Tech Tech Teclt AR) Phil Dua Dua Dua Due Gar Gar Gai (w1 PE (w PE Pil SPi lAl ll{ AJ All All All All All All All AlI Tect Tech Tech Tech Tech Son Sor Sor Son Son Sol Tea Tea Tec Te Te TE Sc Tc ore 2,W tore All All All