What could go possibly wrong if somebody took an inescapable island inhabited by evil spirits
and sent all the most dangerous criminals there?
You’d get a combination of gangsters and ghosts cooperating under one roof.
This is what happened on the Alcatraz Island throughout the XXth century.
Before we enter one of the most haunted areas in the world.
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Things are about to get spooky...
1,25 miles offshore from San Francisco, California,
surrounded by hazardous currents, there lies a 22 acre-sized island.
Alcatraz is best known for the prison which was built on this island.
But before that
it was inhabited by The Ohlone - the Native American people of this area.
They too used this island as a prison.
They believed that evil spirits resided there,
therefore deporting criminals into the isolation of a rocky,
cursed island, surrounded by cold and deep waters, seemed like a reasonable punishment.
But it was not only the Native Americans who believed this place to be haunted.
The famous writer Mark Twain, after visiting the island once,
described the island “... as cold as winter, even in the summer months.”
But a reputation like this did not deter the Americans from taking the island over in 1861
and turning it into the Alcatraz Citadel, a military defense
base and a prison.
Its isolation from the outside world made it the perfect place to house prisoners
from the Civil War.
The inmates worked on modernizing the prison, which eventually resulted in it
becoming the infamous Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary,
also known as...
The Rock.
No, not this one.
The Rock operated from 1934 to 1963.
At that time, It was the most expensive federal prison in the USA
but it served its purpose -
to isolate the most dangerous people from society.
The thing was - a new type of criminals were running amok in the streets of USA -
the Gangsters.
The Rock was believed to be the world's most escape-proof prison, making it perfect spot
for the most wicked of all criminals.
Among them there were such names as: - Alvin “Creepy” Karpis,
the kidnapping, bank-robbing, people-killing gangster,
who got landed in Alcatraz for kidnapping a friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt
and asking for a 200 thousands in ransom.
- George “Machine gun” Kelly
A real life Bonnie and Clyde character,
a gangster who went on crime sprees with his wife.
She even got him a Thompson sub-machine gun as a present,
which earned his nickname.
And even the Scarface - Al Capone.
Always feared and respected, here he was decrowned and had no privileges.
He was simply reduced to from the Public Enemy number 1, to Alcatraz Inmate
number 85.
So how was life there, on the rock, where even the ultimate mob boss was reduced in
status to nothing more than a regular convict?
The vigorous conditions of this prison consisted of more than just a very strict daily routine.
Waking up at 6.20 AM and going into mandatory labour
until 4:50 PM was daily practice.
After that, they were locked back up again in their cells, which were 5 feet deep and
9 feet wide in size.
You could easily touch both of the walls at the same time in a cell of this size.
Reading of magazines was forbidden and during the
break hours, prisoners were not allowed to smoke and
gather in groups.
In fact - not only they were not allowed to gather in groups, they were forbidden to talk!
It was the early years, when James Johnston, the first warden of the Alcatraz prison, implemented
his rigorous ways of dealing with the prisoners - the policy of silence.
Prisoners were not allowed to talk to each other, except during short breaks.
Muttering a word when it was not allowed, resulted in
a trip to the isolation cell.
The perpetual silence had an impact on many inmates’ mental health.
A convict named Rufe Persful is reported to having started grinning maniacally
as he took an axe and cut his four fingers off.
Then he turned to another prisoner and asked him
to cut the fingers off his remaining arm.
But eventually, prisoners found their way of outplaying the policy of silence.
There were over 300 inmates in the prison, and only 6 isolation cells.
So the prisoners started talking.
They outnumbered the available isolation chambers, so eventually
this resulted in the relaxing of the scandalous policy.
Yet Alcatraz was a place for the most hardcore trouble makers.
Even with the policy of silence revoked, it still was a prison.
And this is why there were many attempts to escape the escape-proof prison.
Clarence “The Choctaw Kid” Carnes was just freshly imprisoned when he, with the
help of six other inmates, started implementing his plan.
They captured the guards and took their guns.
This started a revolution which is known today as
The Battle of Alcatraz.
During this two day event, three prisoners and two guards were killed.
The rebels had to surrender.
Clarence’s accomplices were sentenced to death while Clarence himself was sentenced
to additional 99 years in prison
which brought his total sentence to 203 years.
He was 19 years old.
But there were some who achieved the impossible.
Frank Lee Morris and two brothers - John and Clarence Anglin.
Using tools made from metal spoons chiselled through the concrete walls of the prison
and escaped through a vent in the roof,
where they blew up an inflatable raft made from over 50 stolen raincoats.
Their absence in the cell was not noticed,
because the escapees had placed handmade papier-mâché dummy heads
with real human hair, stolen from the prison’s barbershop,
to make it look like they were asleep.
The escape plan was executed perfectly, but it is not known whether they managed to reach the coast.
It is believed that they must have drowned on their way to the coast,
but their bodies were never discovered.
Clint Eastwood decided to make a film about the escape,
which illustrates how truly extraordinary this event was.
The Alcatraz prison operated for 29 years, it was a zone of turmoil,
brutality and tension.
During these years a total of 36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts,
of which 23 were caught, 6 where shot dead, 2 drowned
and 5 were listed as “missing and presumed drowned”.
Apart from deadly clashes with the guards,
8 were murdered by inmates and 5 committed suicide.
Taking into account the fact that Alcatraz Island already had a reputation of an island
with sinister spirits present, even before the prison was built,
these events added a lot the the aura of the place.
All kinds of paranormal sights were reported by the prisoners, guards and visitors of the prison.
Everything from cries, whispers and slamming doors heard at night, to ominous silhouettes
in corridors and female voices in a male only prison
were reported.
The prison was closed back in 1963, but It seems that the evil has refused to leave.
This resulted in Alcatraz being often reported as
the most haunted prison in the USA.
Many visitors claim to have managed to capture the ghosts of Alcatraz on camera, as pictures
like these appear to show.
Apparently, even though the mob is no longer behind the bars,
the mob of the dead is walking freely in the corridors.
The prison consisted of four blocks - the A, B, C and D blocks.
The D-Block is the most notorious for it's ghoulish ambience
and the number of paranormal sightings that occurred there.
This is where the isolation cells are located,
which were known as
The Hole.
Inmates were sent there as a punishment,
to spend days or even weeks in total silence and darkness.
Naturally, these kind of surroundings could drive people mad.
But one of the cells was the most infamous
D-14.
Here is one of the reasons why.
Allegedly, one night a screeching cry for help was heard.
Someone was shouting hysterically.
Apparently, a prisoner who was held there...
started seeing...
red eyes, glowing in complete darkness.
This terrified him and he began screaming,
for hours and hours.
He was found in the morning, dead, with bizarre strangle marks on his neck.
D-14 was an isolation cell and he was alone.
Alcatraz prison ceased its activity in 1963,
because it was too expensive to run.
But today, despite the reputation of being the epicenter of cryptic activities,
it attracts many.
Tourists which flock here in large numbers
around 1,5 million per year!
Yet with the place being more vibrant than ever,
the atmosphere remains chilling.
Would you dare to go and spend a night there?
We hope that you enjoyed this tour through the one of the most haunted places on Earth.
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