Alcatraz

Here are the pictures from Alcatraz. I will do my best at remembering some of the stories...but for the most part it will just be a picture post.

It was a really cool place in history though and I highly recommend going and seeing it if you get the chance.

So first off to those who don't know...Alcatraz is an old state prison. It was stated that "if you broke the rules you went to prison, if you broke the prison rules you went to Alcatraz" meaning it was for the higher criminals.

The place is massive. There are three rows of cells on top of each other. But so much history took place in this area.

You began by going through a line. We decided to do the audio tour so we could get told the stories. There are a lot of them. We were there for several hours.

These were the narrators. Half of them guards and half of them prisoners. It was quite the story telling experience.

They began by showing us the cells and explaining what happened the first day you were brought to Alcatraz. They weren't issued much but were expected to follow quite the list of rules. Privileges were only given when earned.

They got to once a week or twice a week (I am not sure...I can't remember.) go to the rec yard to play. Some of them even just went out on bad weather days just so they could be outside.

All the aisles had different names. This was the name of one of them. It was in this area we were allowed into an actual cell to look around.

Here is a picture of some of the big names that served time out here. They sure were some interesting names and people.

If you didn't behave in your regular cell you were sent to isolation. I would have hated this. It is a tiny room with the bare essentials in it and no lights. The room was very dark. They only had the light that came from a window of the thick outside door that was several feet away from their actual cell door.

Pretty intense and way dark. I could barely see when we walked in and the door was wide open on the gloomy day. So I could just imagine how it was in there with the door closed.

We then moved to the library. Another privilege that could be earned. The books there couldn't have any weapons, violence and something else in them so they were higher class novels or textbooks that they read.

It only had a few shelves but that would at least be something else to do besides sit in a cell doing nothing day in and day out.

The next thing we learned about was the biggest battle that happened in Alcatraz while six guys tried to escape. They had a plan all figured out. A guy had figured out how to spread apart the cells with a tool he made in a weak spot of the poles. He was then going to starve himself so he could slide through.

Once he slide through he would ambush the guard on the gun walk. The only area where the guns were allowed. When he had the guy ambushed he dropped the keys down from their hanging place to the group below, they would open the door to the rec yard and leave the island.

The only thing that foiled their plans was that a guard that day didn't follow standard procedures and had placed the rec yard door key in his pocket. So when they stole the keys, the key to get out wasn't there so they were trapped.

As guards entered they were caught by these guys and placed into their cells while they tried to figure out how to escape. In the meantime it finally got out that an escape was going on. So for a day they tried to recapture the prisoners. A couple of the guys killed some of the guards including the one that had the key in his pocket.

When the prisoners tried to hide in some of the alley ways they ended up getting killed there and some marks and still on the ground and the ceiling from what they dropped in there.

We then got told some more good that happened while in the prison. Several prisoners painted. knitted, and created tons of other crafts while spending the days in their cells.

Some of them were really good and it was interesting to see some of the things that these guys could really do when they set their minds to it.

We then got to see the view that some of them saw when they looked out the windows near their cells. The city was really pretty close and on some nights when the wind blew just right they could hear the laughter and talking.

They did have places where people could come out and visit them. They weren't very big areas like they are now but I thought it was cool that their families could still come and see them if they wanted to.

We then got a tour of the people that ran the place. The guards and the wardens.

There were only three guards (if I remember right) that died on duty there. They were mostly during that one battle with the six prisoners that tried to escape and everyone of the prisoners but one were killed later.

They had a specific uniform and specific rules on how to enter and leave the prison when they were on duty. However the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that most of them lived right on the prison grounds with their families even. I don't know if I could ever do that.

After seeing the offices and the area the guards could go relax we got to see the warden's office and who the warren's were.

This was the warden's office we weren't allowed directly in just could see if through a glass wall.

They had four warden's. The first was a good one and the second one was a straight shooter. I don't remember what there nicknames were but I remember the last one was the worst out of all of them from what the audio tour said anyway.

These are the pictures and their names. You can look closer at them for more info. This part was gone through really fast.

They had this cool model of how the island looked back when it first was made into the prison.

We then went outside to see the view and to get some stories on how the administration lived on the island or caught a boat back to San Fran in the evenings.

They also talked about some of the other buildings out here. I stayed out just for a little bit then ended up back inside because the wind was blowing too hard and it was raining so I was freezing.

We then saw the command stations where the visitors came and the codes were sent from and everything else.

The last story we were told was of the great escape.The only escape ever successful from Alcatraz.

Three guys made clay heads with real hair and placed them in their beds so it looked like they were still there. They had dug through the wall with spoons (this is a cement wall mind you) until they got to the area where the pipes were. They climbed up the pipes and got outside.

Outside they had a boat made out of a raincoat. That they swarm to shore with. It isn't known if they survived or not but if they could withstand the water the boat would have really floated to shore from what Myth Busters tried.

The heads looked real too. Let me just say I don't know how long they were planning it but man they saved some of their hair up for it because it was real hair on the heads.

After hearing about the escape we headed to the last room of the tour which was the dining room. It was the area that was most feared for a break out the whole time they were located at the island.

However nothing ever happened in the room. The knifes were stolen from the kitchen on several occasions though and used as murder weapons.

Outside on the way back to the boat we saw the place where the bodies were put that had died there. They had their own way of deposing of them for years then changed it.

We also made sure we saw all the living places for the guards and their families. It is crazy to think how close these families were to these crazy murders and other scary prisoners.

Last we returned to the ship (after giving back our head phones) and we were ready to leave. Brian was sad that they had a night tour going on since we thought they didn't have them going at the time we were there. He would have loved to go at night.

I was just happy with going when we did. Whenever we paused our tape player things you heard noises that couldn't have been made by those walking around for the tour. It was creepy.

However anyone that gets the chance go see it for yourself. It was great to see and very interesting to learn the history. However, the earlier you go the more personal tours they have besides just the audio tour which would make it worth even more since it is a little pricey.