Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years Part 15

The image labels indicate the sequence events of the escape: (A) shows where the inmates climbed onto the roof to execute their attack against tower officer St.i.tes; (B) shows the barbed-wire where Franklin was subdued; (C) the tower where St.i.tes was barricaded; (D) the area where Limerick was fatally shot. Lucas would be found cowering under the tower.

Warden Johnston described the escape in great detail in a formal memorandum to the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, James V. Bennett. The memo, dated June 4, 1938, was written following an intensive investigation of the escape. It chronicled the following events: Immediately following the attempted escape of prisoners Limerick, Franklin and Lucas, their a.s.sault on Senior Officer Royal C. Cline, their a.s.sault on the guard tower manned by Junior Officer Harold P. St.i.tes, I reported the matter to you by telephone and followed it by making additional telephonic reports on the following day, informing you of the death of Officer Cline and death of prisoner Limerick.

At noon on that day I went to San Francisco to act as honorary pallbearer at the funeral of Jesse S. Cook, former Chief of Police of San Francisco. While I was in the Masonic Temple where the services were being held, somebody tapped me on the shoulder and told me I was wanted on the telephone. I went at once to the telephone and called my secretary who told me there had been some shooting on the lower end of the Island in the work area and apparently some prisoners had tried to escape, that Officer Cline had been hurt, but beyond that he could not give detailed particulars. I ordered the launch sent off and I proceeded immediately to the wharf and reached the Island shortly after Mr. Cline and Prisoners Franklin and Limerick had been moved to the Hospital.

As soon as I got on the grounds and questioned the a.s.sociate Warden, Lieutenant of the Watch and officers who had partic.i.p.ated, I found that this is what had happened: Junior Officer Harold P. St.i.tes was on duty in the tower on the roof of the Model Shop Building. Junior Officer Clifford B. Stewart was patrolling the roof of the building at the northwest side where he could keep an eye on the ground below the rear and side of the building nearest the Bay where contractors' workmen were boring boles in the concrete building in preparation for the installation of tool-proof steel window guards, the workmen being under supervision of Junior Officer George D. Hoag.

At about 2 P.M. or even before that hour, Officer St.i.tes was inside the tower and heard noises behind him and turning in the direction of the sound saw Prisoners Lucas, Franklin and Limerick on the roof to which they had ascended from the top floor of the shop building. Subsequent examination showed that they had reached the roof by standing on a window shoved out-ward which they held steady with a timber frame and making an aperture in the barbed wire guard around the roof, cutting the wire with pliers.

Almost as soon as Officer St.i.tes saw the prisoners, they rushed the tower from several angles each of them firing iron missiles (note: these consisted of heavy metal objects including hammers and heavy wrenches), their apparent purpose being to try to knock him out and seize his arms.

Officer St.i.tes endeavored to halt them by warning and by firing the first shot into the frame of the window but they kept advancing and then he kept dodging and firing shots through the gla.s.s in his tower. Several of the missiles they fired went through the gla.s.s in the tower but many others failed to go through, showing that the shatterproof gla.s.s is a very valuable protection. Only one of the missiles that went through hit Officer St.i.tes. He did not leave his tower but fired through the gla.s.s.

The a.s.sociate Warden happened to be in his work area on the west side near the incinerator. Lieutenant Culver was making his regular afternoon inspection of the work area and at the time was in the laundry. a.s.sociate Warden heard the shots and went toward the Model Shop Building where he saw Prisoner Franklin laying on the barbed wire which goes around the edge of the roof, Model Shop Building. Lieutenant Culver coming from the Laundry also saw Franklin, as did several other Officers.

a.s.sociate Warden (Miller) used the emergency telephone to call all the officers from the front of the building and instructed the Armorer to get those that were on the island but off duty to go into the work area, and had the launch go to that part of the Bay back of the building, not knowing just whether or not anybody had succeeded in getting out.

When he learned that Officer St.i.tes and Officer Stewart had the three men under control on the roof, a.s.sociate Warden Miller and Senior Officer Nickelson went up to the top floor of building to see if all of the other prisoners were there and had all of the shops in the building checked.

When they got to the fourth floor where Franklin, Lucas and Limerick had been a.s.signed to work, they found the remaining prisoners a.s.signed to that shop up at one corner and looking around for Mr. Cline they found him in a corner of the storeroom with his head battered in and bleeding.

He sent for stretchers and immediately moved Mr. Cline to the hospital, then went to the roof and removed Prisoner Franklin who still had the hammer in his hand with which he had been trying to hit Officer St.i.tes, and from the blood appearing on it, it appears that this hammer was used in a.s.saulting Officer Cline. Limerick was lying on the roof, shot in his head, unconscious. Lucas was held in corner, apparently in att.i.tude of surrender, kept covered but not fired upon by Officer Stewart while Officer St.i.tes was engaged in the battle with Franklin and Limerick.

Limerick and Franklin were then removed to the Hospital and Lucas was taken to the cell building and locked up. The a.s.sociate Warden interviewed both Lucas and Franklin. He secured a statement from Lucas which was reduced to writing and signed by the prisoner and afterwards he turned it over to the F.B.I. Agent.

At the request of Dr. Ritchey arrangements were made to move Officer Cline to the Marine Hospital, San Francisco, and he was moved over there at 5 P.M.

Dr. Creel, in charge of the Marine Hospital, telephoned to me during the evening and said that Mr. Cline's condition was very critical and it was doubtful if he would survive the night.

I telephoned to the United States Attorney and the San Francisco Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and arranged for their representatives to be at the Hospital so that in case Mr. Cline recovered consciousness and was able to talk they might secure a dying statement but he did not show any signs or consciousness during the night.

During the night Prisoner Limerick died and I immediately called the Coroner and arranged to transfer the body to him very early the morning of May 24, 1938. The afternoon of May 24, 1938, Mr. Cline died and the Marine Hospital notified the Coroner and arranged to transfer the body to him.

After autopsies, the bodies were released to the undertaking parlor and the body of Limerick was prepared and shipped to the Woodring Funeral Parlors, Des Moines, Iowa, in accordance with the request of his relatives.

The body of Mr. Cline was prepared for shipment to home in Sweet.w.a.ter, Texas, in accordance with request of Mrs. Cline. Prior to shipment, services were held at undertaking parlors in San Francisco, about which I will write you a separate letter. On the morning of May 24, 1938, Agents T. P. Geraghty and Orval H. Patterson at the San Francisco office of the F.B.I. came over to the Island at my request and I related what had happened, gave them the names of all of the officers who had any knowledge, names of prisoners who worked in the shop, gave them sketches which one of our officers, George D. Hoag had made of the roof and fourth door of shop building and helped then in the taking of photographs of the roof of the shop building, the window, the barbed wire, and the tower.

They interviewed all persons having knowledge and they tagged with identifying marks all of the missiles that had been found on the roof as well as the hammer and the pliers and the shattered portions of the gla.s.s from the tower.

This detailed report has been held awaiting action of the Coroner who held inquest on both cases Thursday, June 2, 1938. In the meantime l had consulted with United States Attorney Frank J. Henessy and after reciting all that happened to him, decided upon the witnesses who could give the essential testimony necessary for the inquest-E.J. Miller, a.s.sociate Warden; c.l.i.tton C. Nickelson, Senior Officer; Harold P. St.i.tes, Junior Officer and Clifford B. Stewart, Junior Officer. These officers appeared at the inquest and testified in response to the questions of the Coroner. United States Attorney Henessy was present, as was T. P. Geraghty, F.B.I. Agent.

Mr. Henessy observed the proceedings and asked some questions. The Coroner's Jury returned a verdict that Royal C. Cline, officer of the prison had met his death at the hands of the convicts named who a.s.saulted him in their attempt to escape, and that Prisoner Thomas H. Limerick met his death from wounds inflicted by Officer St.i.tes who shot him in the performance of duty in order to frustrate his attempt to escape.

The verdict of the Coroners Jury is what I have received orally but I am awaiting the copy of the verdict as well as the death certificate so that I may enclose copies with this report. United States Attorney Henessy in bringing the matter to the attention of the Federal Grand Jury and states that he will present it on Tuesday, the Seventh of June, at which time he intends to ask the jury for indictments for Franklin and Lucas. Subsequent developments will be reported as they occur so that you will be kept fully advised.

J.A. Johnston, Warden.

Chief Medical Officer Doctor Romney Ritchey wrote the following memorandum to the Warden, describing the condition and injuries of Limerick when he was received at the prison hospital: United States Public Health Service.

U.S. Penitentiary.

Alcatraz, California.

May 24, 1938.

Memorandum to the Warden: Re. Reg. No. 263-A Limerick, Thomas R.

The above captioned inmate was brought to the Hospital at 3:00 P.M. on a stretcher yesterday afternoon, May 23, 1938. He was entirely unconscious and found to be suffering from a gunshot wound of the head. There was a large bleeding hole in the forehead just to the right if the midline. The right eye was badly swollen and prominent. His breathing was heavy and the pulse was small and rapid. There was no wound in the back of the head, but there was some slight prominence at one point about opposite the point of entrance, which might indicate that the bullet had reached the skull posteriorly but had not entirely penetrated it. He was in a very critical condition and medication and treatment was administered to combat the shock. His condition appeared to be absolutely hopeless from the first and he gradually grew worse until about 08:00 P.M. when stertorous breathing set in and the pulse became weaker and he died at 11:18 P.M. May 23,1938, without ever regaining consciousness. Several verbal reports were made regarding this case both to the a.s.sociate warden and yourself, and the a.s.sociate warden was notified when he died.

Respectfully, Romney M. Ritchey, Surgeon.

Chief Medical Officer.

Lucas in own account written years later described the escape: Limerick and Franklin picked a little after one o'clock as the time the officer in charge of the shop went into the office to check his count sheet. At Alcatraz, each officer must check his men on the count sheet every thirty-minutes. He also looked over the orders and stayed in the office about fifteen-minutes. This routine never varied just as the officers changed places every thirty minutes on the roof and never varied. The day of the break came, Limerick said I was to work with him. At one o'clock, Mr. Cline went into his office as usual. Limerick got out a wedge he had built to hold the window open and level when he stood on it. He put it on and waited. Franklin went into the file room. He was to watch the officer patrol the back side and when he started back to the far end of the building and his back was to the window he was to walk out of the File Room. That would be the signal to go up on the roof. So that was the reason Franklin was in the file room. We stood on the floor near the window watching for Franklin to come out of the File Room. Then as we stood on the far side of the shop under the window, Mr. Cline came out of the office and walked slowly into the File Room. I don't know why he came out of his office so soon, he never had before. He never looked around, just walked slowly into the File Room. Maybe he went there to check on an order for supplies. I just don't know. I told Limerick let's put it off. His eyes were cold as ice, he shook his head. He said he didn't notice anything meaning Mr. Cline. We waited what seemed like a million years, but was only a minute or so according to time verified at the trial. Then Franklin walked out of the File Room with a hammer in his hand. Limerick grabbed my arm. Let's go he said and crawled out the window and stood up on the steel sash of the window. I crawled out the other side and stood on the steel sash also. I looked up and could see the officer in the tower, his back toward us, looking over the work area. The door to the gla.s.s tower stood open. He was totally unaware to what was creeping up behind him. I was supposed to help Limerick cut the barbwire. Franklin was below us now waiting to crawl out the window as soon as one of us went up. Before I could put up my hand and pretend to cut the wire, Limerick cut through two strands. I had to act fast as the officer was still sitting unaware of anything. As Limerick cut the third strand, I lifted my foot and kicked out one of the windows. I looked up at the officer, he never moved, my heart fell. Below Franklin jerked my pants leg. As he held one pant leg, I rested that foot on the steel sash of the window and kicked another pane of gla.s.s out. The window was only 3 panes wide. I looked up. The officer heard that one break. He slowly turned around and looked back. Limerick was crawling up on the roof. He stood up and charged the tower throwing everything he could at the tower. The officer kicked the door shut and he barely had time to bring his gun into action. At that time, the other officer was on the far side of the building getting ready to move a scaffold for workers putting in new steel. I got up on the roof and Mr. St.i.tes was firing at everything and everybody. I was barely able to save my life by crawling under the tower. Limerick was killed at the door. Franklin came flying into action and charged the door and struck several times against the gla.s.s with a blood stained hammer. He was shot down and he struck again and again with the hammer. After everything was over, they dragged me out from under the tower. I thought all there would be was an attempt to escape against me. But I wound up being tried for murder. The very thing I sacrificed myself to avoid. There was no plan to kill Mr. Cline, he just walked out into the room where there was a man who already had a life sentence in Alabama for murder. At the trial, I asked Franklin why he killed Mr. Cline and he said when Mr. Cline came into the room, he tried to tie him, but was resisted. He said Mr. Cline reached for his sap. Franklin said he hit him several times with his hammer before he fell.

The trial of Franklin and Lucas lasted three weeks. It was an emotional process, due to the brutal circ.u.mstances of Cline's murder. The jury was forced to examine the grisly weapons used in the crime. They were shown graphic photos of the blood trail left behind when the body was dragged, the hammer which delivered the fatal blows, and the vivid death mask showing the viciousness of the attack. These factors contributed to the jury's quick decision. Franklin and Lucas were convicted of first-degree murder, and both received life sentences for Cline's death.

Jimmy Lucas and Rufus Franklin being transferred to court via the prison launch on November 18, 1938.

Lucas (left) and Franklin (right) during their highly publicized court appearances. Both inmates were convicted of first-degree murder for their role in Officer Cline's death.

Rufus Franklin in court, awaiting the jury's verdict.

Coroner's Technician Paul Green testifying in the Franklin and Lucas trial. Mr. Green is seen pointing to indentations in the skull, which the prosecution claimed were caused by hammer blows inflicted when Cline resisted the escapees.

Death mask of slain guard R. C. Cline; the hammers used in his murder; and other tools found in the Model Shop that were used in the escape attempt.

Harold P. St.i.tes is sworn in to testify at a coroner's inquest on November 4, 1938. On the table is Limerick's death mask, showing the bullet wound from St.i.tes's fatal gunshot. St.i.tes himself would later die in the brutally violent "Battle of Alcatraz" of 1946.

Franklin, who had been found with the bloodied hammer used in Cline's killing, would be sentenced to serve nearly fourteen years in a closed-front solitary confinement cell. He would spend the longest term in solitary of any inmate in the history of Alcatraz. Nevertheless, Franklin was eventually extended a few special privileges. After a long period, he was allowed to keep the door front open and to enjoy a non-restricted diet. His long-term isolation status made him an underground hero among his fellow inmates. Even while being held in the most controlled cell row, he was able to communicate with others in the general population via orderlies, and thus to obtain contraband.

On February 27, 1945, Franklin was allowed time in the recreation yard along with famed inmate Henri Young. In an interrogation of Young while he was under the influence of the drug Sodium Amatol, the prisoner a.s.serted that Whitey Franklin was the "coolest" inmate at Alcatraz. However, Franklin apparently didn't reciprocate Young's feelings. During their brief meeting in the yard, the two quickly engaged in conflict, and Franklin produced a kitchen knife and inflicted a minor stab wound to Young's right shoulder. In a telegram written to Bureau of Prisons Director James Bennett, Warden Johnston suggested that an inmate a.s.signed to the kitchen detail had planted the knife in the yard.

Franklin was released back into the general population in 1952. Because he refused to partic.i.p.ate in a culinary strike that lasted from March 18th until April 4th, Franklin was forced back into the Treatment Unit for protection from the hostility of other inmates. He was allowed to continue work, and was permanently returned to the general population on February 12, 1954. Records show that Franklin readjusted easily to the normal prison routine. He increased his reading habits and was noted to take special interest in spiritual and philosophical subjects. Franklin gradually became more trusted by the custodial staff, and was later awarded a privileged position in the prison's hospital. He was trained as an X-Ray technician and later qualified as a surgical a.s.sistant, and was even allowed to prepare and handle the surgical instruments during operations.

After spending twenty years at Alcatraz, Franklin was allowed to transfer back to Leavenworth Penitentiary for a brief ten-month stay, and then to Atlanta Federal Prison to be closer to his family. In a letter written in August of 1958, Franklin boasted about the train ride through New Mexico and Arizona in a Pullman car, and the emotion of seeing life outside of prison for the first time since the murder trial of Royal Cline. He wrote frequently to Warden Madigan and other friends at Alcatraz, keeping them up-to-date on his progress. Madigan seemed to reflect pleasantly on Franklin's progress, and in a letter dated October 15, 1959, he wrote in part: It has been a long time since you first came to Alcatraz and you have been through many difficult years and trials. You were a young man when you first came to us and as many young men you possessed the fire that got you into difficulty. You grew out of those years and by application improved your education and work habits. It was not easy for you since there were many pressures brought to bear that made it most difficult for you to conduct yourself as you wished to do. At any rate, you accomplished what you set your mind to do and are now in a position to accomplish still more.

Franklin would spend nearly his entire life behind bars. He was finally paroled on October 29, 1974, and died only a short time later on May 27, 1975 in Dayton, Ohio. He was living with his sister Ruby Farrow at the time of his death, and was said to have enjoyed cooking every morning, and rode the bus into the city everyday to savor his freedom.

Franklin's final resting place at the Willow View Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio. He was laid to rest on May 30, 1975.

Correctional Officer Royal Cline tragically had been only thirty-six years old at the time of his death in 1938. His wife Etta remained faithfully at his side in the hospital until he succ.u.mbed to his injuries. Fellow correctional officers were profoundly affected by Cline's death, which was especially sobering to the island's families since Cline left behind four young children. His death would emphasize the reality that convicts would commit murder in trade for freedom. Warden Johnston would be quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle as stating: "I greatly regret that one who was so attached to his duty should meet such an end."

ESCAPE ATTEMPT #4.

The Barker-Karpis Gang and the Escape Attempt of 1939.

Date:.

January 13, 1939.

Inmates:.

Arthur "Doc" Barker.

Dale Stamphill.

Henri Young.

William "Ty" Martin.

Rufus McCain.

Location:.

D Block (Segregation Unit).

It seemed almost predestined that "Doc" Barker would ultimately meet his death as the primary conspirator in the first escape that would demonstrate a weakness in the security of the main cellhouse. Doc's life as a desperado is the fascinating and bleak story of an American tragedy. A memo from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to Attorney General Homer c.u.mmings dated August 15, 1935 states in part: "Arthur 'Doc' Barker is beyond doubt among the most dangerous criminals with which this Bureau has had to deal."

Arthur "Doc" Barker.

Arthur "Doc" Barker.

Doc was a member of the notorious "Ma Barker Gang" that terrorized the Midwest during the early 1930's. He was born in 1899, into an impoverished family in the remote Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Short in stature, he was the third of four sons who had all been reared into a life of crime by their mother, the legendary Kate Barker, known affectionately by a.s.sociates simply as "Ma."

Arthur Dunlop and Kate "Ma" Barker.

The FBI chronicled the family's history extensively and a confidential report dated November 18, 1936 includes the following description: Ma Barker in the formative period of her sons' lives was probably just an average mother of a family which had no aspirations or evidenced no desire to maintain any high plane socially. They were poor and existed through no prolific support from Ma's husband, George Barker, who was more or less a shiftless individual... The early religious training of the Barkers... was influenced by evangelistic and sporadic revivals. The parents of the Barkers and the other boys with whom they were a.s.sociated did not reflect any special interest in educational training and as a result their sons were more or less illiterate... Ma was more intelligent than any of her sons, she ruled them with an iron will and found this expression of dominance easily exerted because of the submission of her sons Fred and Arthur Hoover further characterized Ma Barker as "a monument to the evils of parental indulgence," and according to legend, she instructed her boys from an early age in the finer points of robbery, kidnapping, larceny and murder, romanticizing the life and wealth of being an outlaw.

The family eventually moved to Tulsa Oklahoma where the Barker boys quickly became community nuisances, engaging in petty thefts and forming a youth crime group dubbed the "Central Park Gang." During his adolescence Doc would form strongly bonded relationships with these town hoodlums, including Volney Davis and Harry Campbell, who years later would also find their way to Alcatraz. Another gang a.s.sociate, William Green, would conspire in a 1931 ma.s.s escape from Leavenworth Prison, and would ultimately commit suicide to avoid recapture.

Volney Davis.

The eldest Barker son, Herman, was arrested on March 5, 1915 for highway robbery in Joplin, Missouri, and this would mark the beginning of the family's private crime wave. It is doc.u.mented that Ma Barker liked to live well and purchased expensive clothing, furniture, and other necessities from the spoils of her sons' depredations. FBI records disclosed that Ma was exceptionally jealous of her sons' girlfriends, and would purposely attempt to sever their relationships. Her personality would be sharply described as that of a "gutty old girl with a fantastic loyalty to her sons, who wouldn't tell cops or G-Men the time of day and backed her boys to the hilt, right or wrong."

Herman left the Barker household and continued his criminal antics while traveling through the Midwestern States. He was arrested several times and ultimately landed himself in prison, serving moderate terms for grand larceny and robbery. Fred Barker would also leave the family homestead, and venture out to pursue his own career in crime. He would eventually join forces with Herbert Farmer, who owned a renowned chicken ranch with his wife near Joplin, Missouri, and over the years they would harbor several fugitives, including Bonnie and Clyde. Farmer would later find himself sentenced to serve time on Alcatraz after being convicted as a conspirator in the famous 1933 Kansas City Union Station Ma.s.sacre, an event which had a profound impact on the image of the American gangster. As Hoover described it, the Ma.s.sacre was a "turning point in the nation's fight against crime." The savageness of the attack had stripped away the glamour and romantic mystique of the early gangster era, and U.S. Attorney General Homer c.u.mmings had used the Ma.s.sacre as a pretext for proclaiming the Federal government's "war against crime."

The Fourth of July would seem an ironic date for Doc Barker to establish his role as a public enemy of the nation, but as fate would have it, on July 4, 1918 he stole a government vehicle in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was quickly apprehended. Doc somehow managed to escape from the county jail and then for nearly two years he maintained a low profile, working as a gla.s.s blower and later on a labor detail. On February 19, 1920 Doc was captured and charged in connection with the escape. He pleaded guilty, and was released less than a year later. On January 21, 1921 Doc and his longtime friend Ray Terrill were arrested for the attempted armed robbery of a bank firm in Muskogee Doc under the alias Claud Dale and Ray under the alias G.R. Patton. Surprisingly, Doc was released in June of 1921 without any formal charges being brought against him. Only two months later, on August 26th, Doc and his old companion Volney Davis allegedly murdered James J. Sherrill, a security watchman at Tulsa's St. John's Hospital, during a break-in. On February 10, 1922 Doc and Volney were given life sentences for this crime, and were sent to serve their time at the State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. Volney would escape in 1925, and he quickly started building his resume for Alcatraz. It was rumored that Doc was innocent of the murder and another criminal would claim responsibility several years later.

Despite the raging criminal activity of her young sons, Ma Barker continued to defend them vehemently, with unrelenting requests for their release. However, Ma did not extend the same loyalty to her husband George, whom she had married when she was only fifteen. In 1927 Ma Barker left her husband for a man known as Arthur Dunlop. He carried a low reputation in the community as a drunkard and an arrogant and illiterate nomad. It was further rumored that the Barker Boys were resentful of Dunlop, who apparently did little more than freeload and boast about the criminal escapades of his youth.

Herman Barker had also found himself deep in the criminal life, roaming the Southwest with the Kimes-Terril Gang, robbing banks, stores, and other establishments. In late January of 1928, Herman and several accomplices broke into an Oklahoma bank, and under the cover of night, made off with a cash safe containing nearly $45,000. On a tip from a witness, police quickly raided their hideout in Carterville, Missouri. A fierce gun battle ensued and Herman and the others were forced to surrender. Herman was sent to Arkansas to stand trial for another robbery and he later managed to escape by sawing through the bars of his jail cell.

In early August, Herman and his wife were pulled over by Deputy Sheriff Arthur Osborne and before the officer was able to draw his gun, Herman fatally shot him. Less than a month later Herman engaged in another gun battle with police while attempting to escape a roadblock, and he was severely wounded. Bleeding profusely from his bullet wounds and with no hope of escape, Herman turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. Herman likely had pondered the certain fate of death by electrocution that would await him if he surrendered to police. His wife would later be convicted as an accomplice to Osborne's murder, but was released only a few years later. She subsequently became a prost.i.tute and the mistress of Alvin Karpis, another notorious Alcatraz inmate.

Alvin "Creepy" Karpis.

Alvin "Creepy" Karpis became known in the 1930's as America's "Public Enemy Number One." Karpis would spend twenty-five hard years at Alcatraz.

Alvin Karpowicz was born in Montreal, Canada in 1908, and his father moved the family to Topeka, Kansas when Alvin was still a young boy. It was an elementary school teacher who decided to shorten his name to simply Alvin Karpis and he would later be given the nicknames "Creepy Karpis" and "Old Creepy" by fellow inmates. Alvin would have the unique distinction of enduring a twenty-five year residence at Alcatraz (the longest term served on the Rock by any inmate) and he was designated as "Public Enemy Number One" by J. Edgar Hoover himself. He would live a quarter of a century in a place where he would never be allowed to walk astray and would never see many areas that were only a few yards from his cell. In his memoir published in Canada in 1980, Karpis claimed that his first encounter with crime had occurred when he stole a gun at only ten years of age. Like many other criminals of his day, his first arrest was for illegally hopping trains. He was sentenced to a Florida chain gang and after release he was again arrested for robbery. He subsequently escaped from prison and returned to his fugitive status.

Karpis joined the Barker gang after meeting Fred Barker in 1930 at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing. Karpis and Fred had formed a close relationship in prison while working together in the coalmines. Karpis had made arrangements to buy himself an early release. Prisoners who worked in the mines were required to dig a specified amount of coal, and each day that they dug over their quota, they were given special "good time" credits that they could apply toward their release. Karpis paid other inmates to turn over their coal to him, which helped him to secure an early release in May of 1931. Only a month later, Karpis and Fred Barker were arrested for robbing a jewelry store. Both managed to pay rest.i.tution and were paroled.

Continuing their escapades in crime, on December 18, 1931 Karpis and Fred Barker robbed another store using a new 1931 DeSoto as their getaway car, and several witnesses were able to identify the vehicle. The following day an officer named C.R. Kelly was sent to investigate a sighting of the car at the Division Motor Company in West Plains, Missouri. Alvin and Fred had stopped there to have a flat tire repaired. When the officer approached the car to question the two occupants, Karpis opened fire on him, inflicting fatal gunshot wounds to the chest. Not long after the murder the two were identified, and on a tip from a witness Dunlop's cottage in Thayer, Missouri was raided by the police. The fugitives had already fled, but the police discovered stolen merchandise from other robberies, and thus were able to identify the players.

Karpis was quickly accepted as one of the Barker family, and he almost seemed to replace Herman. Doc was released from prison in 1932, and as a condition of his parole, he was directed by authorities never again to return to Oklahoma. Once more the Barker gang went into full swing, pulling various bank and business heists. The family rented a house with Karpis and Dunlop at 1301 South Roberts Street in West St. Paul, Minnesota, but the landlady soon became suspicious on seeing them frequently entering and leaving the house carrying violin cases. Her son also recognized Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis from a detective magazine which featured a story about the killing of Officer Kelly. On April 25, 1932 the police raided the house, only to find that it had just been abandoned. The following morning, the body of Arthur "Old Man" Dunlop was found on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Frendsted near Webster, Missouri. Dunlop had been stripped of his clothing and shot three times at close range. Not too far away, the police found a bloodstained woman's glove that was believed to belong to Ma Barker. The FBI later contended that Alvin and Fred had shot Dunlop to death, believing that he had been the one who tipped off the police.

The FBI had now started to close in on the Barker gang, which forced the outlaws to flee to Kansas City. Karpis posed as one of Ma's sons, and the family bought a luxury home in an exclusive residential district known as Country Club Plaza. They attempted to masquerade as an upstanding family that worked in a successful insurance firm. The men ultimately teamed up with convicts Francis Keating, Thomas Holden, and Harvey Bailey (later an accomplice of "Machine Gun" Kelly), who had all escaped from Leavenworth Penitentiary. Another accomplice was Bernard Phillips, a corrupt police officer who had become a professional bank robber. The family started to move from one location to another, attempting to evade the FBI. On July 7th the FBI apprehended Bailey, Holden and Keating while they were playing golf at the Old Mission Golf Course in Kansas City. Phillips was also with the men, but he happened to be inside the country club, and watched from afar as the others were handcuffed and shoved into law enforcement vehicles. Phillips carried the news back to the gang, and Alvin and Fred quickly packed their belongings and fled. When the FBI raided the apartment they found cooked meals on the table, indicating an unplanned and rapid departure.