Its unique position in the bay as the West Coast's only natural harbor made Alcatraz ideal as a military outpost, and so it became in the Nineteenth Century, being bolstered with fortresses and guns. Because of the island's isolation, and because of the cold, harsh waters that surrounded it, the military eventually began to use it as a place to confine prisoners. Both Civil and Spanish-American War prisoners were held here. And thus was born an idea to which the Island of the Pelicans will be forever linked.
It is, of course, as a civilian prison that Alcatraz is best-known, and it served as such from 1934 until 1963. Over 1500 federal prisoners did time there, sometimes as many as 300 at a time, although the average was closer to 250. There are approximately 375 cells at the facility divided into three blocks. Covering all three eight-hour shifts required a staff of approximately ninety correctional officers, most of whom lived on the island along with their families.
Perhaps the most infamous resident to do time there was Al Capone, otherwise known as Scarface. Despite his numerous crimes, including bootlegging and murder, the only thing he ever got convicted of was income tax evasion, and he served at the Rock for four and a half years. He was transferred to the government's Terminal Island facility in 1939, then to Lewisburg Prison. He eventually died at home.
George ("Machine Gun") Kelly was another notorious inmate, being incarcerated there for seventeen years. He was part of the first batch of prisoners that arrived in the summer of 1934 and was considered to be a model inmate. Alvin Karpis, part of the Barker-Karpis Gang and known at one time as "Public Enemy Number One," was there for twenty-six years, and was eventually deported to Canada, after which he went to Spain, where he killed himself in 1979.
Another infamous resident was Robert Stroud, known (incorrectly) as the Birdman of Alcatraz. Burt Lancaster portrayed him in the 1962 film of that name, and won an Academy Award nomination for his performance, showing Stroud to be a sympathetic character--a highly romanticized portrait. The real Robert Stroud was a violent man who had originally been arrested for manslaughter, and later killed a prison guard in front of more than a thousand witnesses during his subsequent incarceration at Leavenworth. It was only after his mother pleaded with President Woodrow Wilson that Stroud escaped execution.
