Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years Part 25

Johnson arrived at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta on August 10, 1949, and then was transferred to Leavenworth on November 19, 1949. In view of his long sentence and high risk of escape, he was recommended for transfer to Alcatraz. His recommendation read: "He has escaped on several occasions and is considered a serious escape risk at this time. He has committed a number of armed robberies, is considered a vicious gunman who thinks nothing of the lives of others and will stop at nothing less than murder to meet his goal." He would arrive at Alcatraz on March 22, 1950, as inmate AZ-864.

Aaron Walter Burgett

Aaron Walter Burgett Aaron Burgett was born on October 24, 1929, in Potts Camp, Missouri. His mother had died of an illness when he was only three years old and his father worked to support the family as a Railway Section Hand, and later as a cotton picker. Burgett's inmate record would indicate that his father had had trouble caring for the young Aaron during his childhood. Burgett's nickname "Wig" was given to him by his father because of his long blond curls. The death of Aaron's mother weighed heavily on the family and his father was only a minimal presence in the home as he attempted to maintain employment in order to support his ten children. At only sixteen years of age Aaron dropped out of school to work on the family's small farm, but this would prove to be only a brief interlude. On April 20, 1945, the young Burgett was arrested for breaking into a candy truck and sentenced to serve two years at the State Training School in Booneville, Missouri. After serving out nearly a full year, Burgett and another accomplice successfully escaped from the minimum-security inst.i.tution. In close succession, he would be captured, released, and then arrested again for other burglary-related crimes.

On April 4, 1948, Burgett was committed to the State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Missouri, after being charged with "stealing chickens in the night time and breaking escape from the county jail." But despite his early problems, he did experience some good luck as well. In February of 1951, after his release from prison, Burgett met a young girl named Mary Francis Cauley at a party. The couple courted for several months and then married in Piggott, Arkansas, on August 25, 1951. By Burgett's account, this would be the best year of his life but trouble was not far away. Burgett was unable to hold a steady job and this began to create friction between him and his wife, who was now pregnant. He fell back into a life of crime and by 1952, Burgett had established himself as a career felon.

Burgett and his accomplices Earl Wilhelm and John Oliver would go on a spree of over thirty armed robberies in the St. Louis area, some of which turned seriously violent. Generally they robbed their victims by having them lie on the floor while they emptied cash registers and removed personal jewelry. On some occasions, the victims would be struck with the guns. Burgett's robbery targets ranged from post offices to beer taverns, and during one episode, a gunfight ensued in which Wilhelm and a patron were injured by gunfire. On May 16, 1952, Missouri State Trooper David Walker apprehended the trio who were packing eight loaded guns. All three men would stand trial and plead guilty, and each defendant was sentenced to serve twenty-five years in a federal inst.i.tution.

Then on June 9, 1952, while Burgett and his two co-defendants were being transported to the Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas by a Deputy Marshal and a prison guard, Burgett made a desperate attempt to escape. The inmates had been shackled to one another with chains and handcuffs, with Burgett seated in the middle of the back seat, and at around 2:50 a.m. prison guard LeRoy Tozer dropped a lighted cigarette onto the seat beside him. Burgett pleaded to the Marshal to pull over, as the cigarette was burning the seat and his clothing. Tozer ordered Burgett to raise himself so he could reach under him and grab the cigarette. Tozer found the cigarette and started rolling down the window to throw it out. As he turned toward the window, Burgett threw his legs over Tozer to pin him down on the seat. Using great force, he then kicked the back of Deputy Marshal Davidson's head several times, knocking his gla.s.ses off and throwing his head forward into the steering wheel, which forced the car to veer off the road.

As the car came to a halt at the side of the roadway, Davidson drew his pistol and Tozer forcefully restrained Burgett, leaving multiple cuts and bruises about his face. On arrival at Leavenworth, Burgett still refused to cooperate and stated that he would rather die than be forced to serve his time there. This event would buy him his ticket to Alcatraz, in consideration of the length of his sentence. He would arrive on Alcatraz as inmate AZ-991, on August 27, 1952.

At Alcatraz, Burgett briefly enjoyed a reputation as a good inmate. His progress report states that he enjoyed playing cards and table games in the recreation yard. He also played the Hawaiian guitar and subscribed to the magazine Flying, and he purchased books on system navigation and other related subjects. It is speculated that Burgett planned his escape from the Rock for several months in advance, collecting sections of raincoats, plywood, and electricians' tape over a long period of time.

Alcatraz Guard Harold Miller had worked as a casket maker before entering the prison service. He was only twenty-seven years of age and had been working at Alcatraz for about ten months. The garbage a.s.signment was a tough and potentially dangerous detail for the correctional staff. Inmates on this detail would sometimes trim trees and shrubbery, and had access to sharpened gardening tools, even axes. Inmates had to possess good conduct records to be chosen for this detail, as it was considered a privileged a.s.signment. Both Burgett and Johnson had been on this detail for nearly six months at the time of their escape attempt. Miller had just started supervising the detail, and this would only be his fourth shift on this a.s.signment.

At 2:30 p.m., Miller checked in at the control room, and logged his a.s.signment and report time. Shortly thereafter, the inmates working at the southeast tip of the island made their way down a path to throw some refuse into a bed of century plants. Without warning, Johnson pulled a paring knife on Miller, and Burgett grabbed the unsuspecting guard, taking him to the ground. The inmates warned Miller that if he cooperated, he would not be harmed. Burgett stuffed a piece of clothing into the guard's mouth, and then the two quickly tied his hands with tape and wrapped more black tape around his head and eyes. The events that followed are described in an interview with Johnson following the inmates' eventual capture: Subsequent to the capture of inmate Johnson #864, he was interviewed by the Warden and a.s.sociate Warden. This interview took place at least an hour after Johnson had been brought to the Administration Building form the Beach. Part of the interview was conducted with both the Warden and a.s.sociate Warden, and part of it while the Warden was out of the room.

Johnson states that the officer Mr. Miller made his check call at 2:30 p.m. (Sept. 29, 1958) from the vicinity of the foghorn station. He says that he, Mr. Miller, and inmate Burgett proceeded directly from this station to the gate by the a.s.sociate Warden's house and Mr. Kaeppel's cottage. He said that he and Burgett had convinced Mr. Miller that they should go into this area to clean the roadway and drainage outlets. He claims that they had swept up and picked up considerable trash and they suggested to Mr. Miller that they carry the trash over the stone wall and dump the trash down the face of the cliff. He says that they also told Mr. Miller that it was part of their duty to keep the cactus trimmed alongside the pathway leading from the gate to the Beach facing Fisherman's Wharf and that they suggested looking this over to see if it needed tr.i.m.m.i.n.g.

As they were returning along the path toward the gate, Burgett was in the lead followed by Mr. Miller, with Johnson coming up the rear. Johnson says that a point some 20 feet from the gate they pulled a knife on Mr. Miller and taped his eyes and mouth. They tied his hands behind him and then the two of them guided Mr. Miller directly down the hillside towards the vicinity of the large wooden warning sign. They then went a short distance Northward where Mr. Miller was tied to a tree. Johnson states that the two of them then went westward toward the cement steps at the foot of the pathway leaving from the a.s.sociate Warden's house. At this point they observed a boat approaching near to the island. They became alarmed and headed back toward the place where they had left Officer Miller. Johnson states that they then examined Mr. Miller's bindings to make sure that he was suffering no ill effects and to be sure that he had not loosened the bindings.

Johnson claims that when they left Mr. Miller the second time that he and Burgett parted company. He repeatedly stated that he had not seen Burgett after parting with him after this point. He says that he continued on westward and finally removed a plastic bag from underneath his sweatshirt where he had been carrying it folded. He says he then inflated this bag to the best of his ability and fastened the opening securely. He says the bag was some 2 x 3 feet in size. Johnson claims that up to this point he had intended to hide out until dark but after inflating the bag he decided to try it immediately. When he stepped in to the water he states that, "the bag was torn from my hands and I lost not only the bag but just about everything I had including my dental plate." He claims that at this time he gave up all hope of escaping, as he did not think it possible to escape by swimming or even floating in the cold water. Johnson also claims that inmate Burgett changed his mind several times; and one time he would argue that they should try to escape into the water as quickly as possible, at another time he would feel that they should wait until dark before getting off the island.

Johnson again and again emphasized the fact that they had picked this particular time for attempting to escape because of the change from daylight savings to standard time. He says that they had waited for this change in order that darkness would come sooner than under daylight saving time. He further admits that the timing at the change of job rotations were definitely to their advantage, inasmuch as the officers were not yet familiar with their new a.s.signments. He steadily maintains that they had not waited for a dense fog but that the fog on the date of the escape was purely accidental so far as their planning was concerned.

When Miller failed to report in at the routine roll call, the other guards immediately launched a search. Within minutes, the piercing sound of the klaxon alarm resonated throughout the island, and radio bulletins went out to the patrol officers on mainland San Francisco. All of the guards were called to duty, and they began the extensive search. Walking in groups of two with one unarmed lead-man and the other carrying a .45 pistol, they were finally able to locate Miller after nearly an hour of searching. Miller was found tied to a tree, unharmed.

A Coast Guard cutter was dispatched to aid in the search, which was hampered by the dense fog. At approximately 5:00 p.m. the Coast Guard managed to locate Johnson, who was standing waist-deep in the fifty-degree water, shivering. They drew their rifles on him, and waited until guards on sh.o.r.e were able to apprehend him. Johnson didn't resist.

In a letter to Burgett's father on October 9, 1958, Warden Madigan wrote that at approximately 3:15 p.m., a member of the staff had heard cries for help, but could not locate where the sound was coming from. A ma.s.sive search effort was initiated to locate Burgett. It was speculated that he had drowned, as there was a three-knot ebb tide that day, which would have made it impossible for him to swim. Several days later, divers were brought in to search the kelp beds in hopes that they would locate Burgett's body.

On October 12th Alcatraz Guard Lyndon Cropper reported to his a.s.signed post in the road tower, and noticed a body floating a few hundred feet from the eastern end of the island. A Coast Guard patrol boat was dispatched to retrieve the body. In his official report on the incident, Warden Madigan described how the body of Aaron Burgett was identified: On Sunday, October 12, 1958, at approximately 09:30 A.M., J.B. Latimer, a.s.sociate Warden, and I reached Pier No. 45 in the Fisherman's Wharf area, San Francisco, California. There were two Police Officers, Harbor Patrol Officers, and about five members of the Coast Guard present.

I saw a wire net litter-basket stretcher covered with a blanket and a right and left show protruding. The stretcher was in the rear section of a small boat. I climbed down a ladder into the boat and partially uncovered a body, which was resting on the stretcher with the front side up. The face was beyond recognition because of the missing flesh and the damaged condition probably due to decomposition and sea life. The putrid odor of decaying flesh was evident. All of the hair was missing from the top of the head, but there was sandy colored hair around the sides and back of the head. Most of the fingers appeared to be in good condition; however, the skin was hanging from some of the fingers and it is probable that the end joints of two fingers were missing. The skin on the inner sides of both thumbs were in good condition. I placed the fingerprint card from Burgett's inst.i.tutional file beside the right thumb and determined that the two were identical. The ridge counts to the core were identical. Several ending ridges below a line extending from the left to right deltas were identical. All bifurcations, islands, and other characteristics were identical.

The actual fingerprint card used to identify Burgett's body.

A khaki cotton belt commonly worn by prisoners at Alcatraz was around the abdomen, but not pa.s.sed through the belt loops of the trousers, with the number "991" in large numbers on a white cloth which was sewn on the belt. The body was clothed in a heavy "T" under shirt, white cotton shorts, two pairs prison trousers, a heavy khaki undershirt with the legs through the sleeves and the bottom pinned around the waist, three pairs of socks, and brown low-cut work shoes. A broken piece of ply-wood was secured to the bottom of the left shoe by means of electricians tape and a copper wire. A cotton bag similar to those carried by inmates to carry dominoes to the exercise yard was fastened to the belt which was buckled in the rear of the body. The bag contained two smooth stones, the larger of which was about two inches in diameter, a roll of black electricians tape about 21/2 inches in diameter, about cup sand, approximately 10 feet of cord and show laces, and a piece of wire about 10 inches long. The large stenciled numbers, "991" appeared on the belt, undershirt, underwear, and one pair of trousers. The stenciled number, "814" was on the outer pair of trousers. A stainless steel knife was removed by one of the morgue officers and retained by me. This knife was enclosed in plastic, initialed, and submitted to the Warden. The teeth appeared to be in good condition. The body was then covered with a blanket and removed to by uniformed City Morgue Officers to the City Morgue, 650 Merchant Street, San Francisco, California.

Mr. Latimer and I then went to the City Morgue where I watched the clothing being removed from the body. The body measured 6 feet and 2 inches in length and weighed 22 pounds. The inside surface of the right calf of the leg had the tattoo, "499-30-0783", in large blue-black numbers. (This is the number on Burgett's Social Security card now in his personal belongings.) There was also a "pachuco" tattoo in the form of an "X", arc with rays, and a cross, below the series of numbers and upside down when viewed from the feet.

The officers at the Morgue a.s.sured me that their technicians would obtain pictures of the corpse and fingerprints for the inst.i.tution. A copy of the dental chart furnished by Agent Keith,... B.I., was placed with the body and the remains were wheeled into the refrigeration room.

It is my opinion, based upon my acquaintance with inmate Burgett, clothing commonly worn by inmates at Alcatraz, the stiff right middle finger, tattoo marks, identical ridges on the fingers with the fingerprint cards on file, weight and measurements of the corpse, and other features, that the body was that of Aaron Walter Burgett, Reg. No. 991-AZ, beyond any reasonable doubt.

Burgett's body was released to the G.o.deau Funeral Home on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.

Clyde Johnson was paroled from prison in 1971. While on parole, he was again convicted of armed bank robbery, a.s.sault with a deadly weapon, a.s.saulting a Federal officer and attempted escape. He was sentenced to serve thirty-six years for his crimes. In August of 1994, Johnson was diagnosed with lymphoma of the stomach and colon. He died at the Men's Federal Correctional Inst.i.tution in Lexington, Kentucky on October 29, 1995.

ESCAPE ATTEMPT #13.

Date:

June 11, 1962

Inmates:

Frank Lee Morris

John and Clarence Anglin

Allen Clayton West

Location:

Main Cellhouse (B Block)

Main Cellhouse (B Block)

The Great Escape from Alcatraz

The cla.s.sic motion picture Escape from Alcatraz featured Academy Award-winning actor Clint Eastwood in an amazingly accurate portrayal of Frank Morris.

If there was ever an inmate who was destined to escape from Alcatraz, it was Frank Lee Morris. In the 1973 movie Escape from Alcatraz, Clint Eastwood accurately portrayed Morris as the brilliant mastermind of one of the most famous prison escapes in history. The escape plan took several months to design, and required the fabrication of clever decoys and water survival gear. Today it is considered one of the most ingenious escape plans ever attempted.

Frank Lee Morris

Frank Lee Morris a chronology of mug shot photographs, representing a hardening lifetime spent in prison. On his Alcatraz admission card, officials listed one of his formal occupations as "escape artist," and noted his superior intelligence. He would escape from nearly every prison to which he was ever committed.

Frank Lee Morris had spent a lifetime navigating the prison system before his arrival on Alcatraz. From his infant years until his teens, Morris was shuffled from one foster home to another. Frank's years as a toddler are poorly doc.u.mented, but it is known that he was convicted of his first crime at the youthful age of thirteen. Whether by fate or misfortune, Frank's rudderless course had been dictated by his mother long before birth. Some sources indicate that his Morris's mother was the daughter of an upper-middle-cla.s.s family and that she began her misadventures as a runaway at a very young age.

It is alleged that Frank's mother was in her teens when she found herself pregnant. Frank was born on September 1, 1926, in Ednor Maryland. In his responses to a questionnaire that he completed at sixteen years of age during incarceration in a youth reformatory, Frank doc.u.mented that his mother was born in Ireland, his father born in Spain, and both were dead (he claimed that his father had died when he was two or three). He went on to reflect that their pa.s.sing had affected him very deeply. He was raised in foster homes with extremely strict foster parents who delivered harsh discipline, and on occasion he resided with his aunt and her children. His responses to the questionnaire also indicated low self-esteem. In one question asking his opinion of his own appearance, he stated "not so good."

Frank was convicted of his first crime at only thirteen years of age for burglary. He was arrested by the Sheriff's Office in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and was listed as a runaway from Washington. On November 13, 1940, at age fourteen, the young freckled-faced Morris was again arrested for burglary, and was sentenced to six years and nine months. His sentence was to be served at the National Training School for Boys in Washington D.C., not far from the reformatory where his mother had once allegedly been interned. His teachers considered him highly intelligent but difficult to manage and uninterested in his studies. In one incident during his first few weeks of imprisonment at the boys' school, he drew a s.e.xually explicit sketch of his female teacher, including s.e.xual comments and signing it "from guess who?"

Morris was p.r.o.ne to violent outbursts, as was ill.u.s.trated on the morning of July 31, 1941. He had been caught stealing oranges from the kitchen icebox, and was told by the senior officer to put them back. When he refused to obey the order, the officer stated that he would have him benched for three days. But as soon as the officer turned his back, Morris threw a large kitchen knife, which struck him on the blunt side, luckily causing no injury. After receiving harsh discipline for this act, he began planning his escape. Thus began Frank's career in what would later be listed on his Alcatraz record card as his official occupation, that of an "escape artist."

By the time Morris reached his late teens, his criminal record included a mult.i.tude of crimes ranging from narcotics possession to armed robbery, and he had become a professional inhabitant of the correctional system. His repeated escapes and quite brazen acts of non-conformity earned him his way to ever-larger penitentiaries. His life was a merry-go-round of short bouts of freedom interspersed with long terms of imprisonment. Meanwhile, he graduated from small burglaries to large bank heists. Then one day in late April 1955, while serving a ten-year sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for armed robbery and possession of narcotics, Morris and fellow inmate Bill Martin were on a work detail cutting sugar cane when both slipped away and their escape went undetected for several hours.

The fugitives made their way to New Orleans, and after several months of lying low, devised a plan to rob a bank in Kansas City. Because they knew in advance that alarm mechanisms were wired to the bank doors, Morris, Martin, and a third accomplice named Earl Branci decided to cut a hole through the rear wall to minimize the risk of detection. After gaining access, Morris torched through the rear of two vaults, and removed $6,165 in coins, weighing a total of 1,200 pounds. The three men retreated to the home of a woman living in Baton Rouge, where they were harbored for several weeks. Soon after, all of them were apprehended by the FBI. Morris earned a Federal prison term of fourteen years, and he would eventually find his way to Alcatraz.

While serving his Federal term in Atlanta, Morris once more attempted to escape. On September 20, 1959 at 8:30 p.m., prison officer Paul Legg heard a loud crash and ran to see what had happened. He later would report that Morris had run toward him, attempting to conceal his ident.i.ty, and had subsequently tried to sneak back into his cell without being noticed. Morris was reported, and was sentenced to punitive segregation in addition to forfeiting privileges. In 1960, Federal officials decided that Morris's pattern of escape attempts, termed as "shotgun freedom" (although his escapes had never involved the use of a shotgun), would end at the Rock. On January 20, 1960, Morris disembarked from the prison launch and became inmate #AZ-1441. However, Frank's long history of escape attempts would not end at Alcatraz on the contrary, he was to go down in the annals of the island prison as one of its most daring escape artists ever.

John and Clarence Anglin

John W. Anglin. These mug shot photos ill.u.s.trate the pa.s.sage of approximately only two years, but his physical characteristics show significant changes. Note the handwritten entry on the a.s.sociate Warden's Record from Leavenworth, stating that Anglin was not to be celled with his brother Clarence. At Alcatraz, they shared neighboring cells in B Block.

Clarence Anglin Frank's accomplices were equally well acquainted with life amid the dark world of organized crime. Brothers John and Clarence Anglin were also serving sentences at Alcatraz for bank robbery. They came from a large Florida family of fourteen children, and had been convicted along with their brother Alfred. On January 17, 1958, the brothers cased the Bank of Columbia in Alabama, and had made off with nearly $20,000 in cash. Five days later they were apprehended by FBI agents while hiding out in a small two-bedroom apartment in Hamilton, Ohio.

All three brothers served sentences at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, where they first became acquainted with Morris. On April 11, 1958, Clarence Anglin was sent to Leavenworth Penitentiary to be separated from his brothers, though John was soon transferred there as well. Then on October 8, 1960, John was caught a.s.sisting Clarence in an escape attempt at Leavenworth. John Anglin was working in the prison bakery, and the escape would involve cutting the top out of one breadbox and the bottom out of another, which provided ample room for Clarence to stand inside when they were stacked one on top of the other. After the breadboxes were stacked and Clarence was safely hidden within, John pushed them into the kitchen elevator but a prison officer noticed that something was amiss, and halted the escape. Both brothers were subsequently transferred to Alcatraz. John was relocated on October 22, 1960, and Clarence followed on January 16, 1961, their transfer records stating the reason for the move as: "to ensure safer custody."

John Anglin, now inmate #AZ-1476, was a.s.signed to cell #158 while Clarence, as inmate #AZ-1485, moved into #152. Warden Olin Blackwell had shown some leniency in allowing the brothers to reside in adjacent cells. This privilege also ent.i.tled them to sit together during meal periods. Meanwhile Frank Morris, who had been a.s.signed to cell #138 on the same ground-level tier, was already considering the odds of making an escape from the island, and had begun his formative planning.

Allen Clayton West

Allen Clayton West would later claim (and it is believed by many historians) to have masterminded the escape.

Convict Allen Clayton West, a native of New York, was also brought into the scheme though he later claimed that he had been the one to design the plan that resulted in the successful escape. Some have strongly disputed his claim, since Morris had previously masterminded similar types of escapes, and pertinent reading materials on fabricating the apparatus used in the escape had been found in his cell. The style of this escape was also reminiscent of Morris' earlier bank heists.

West resided in cell #140 on the same tier as Morris and the Anglins, and regardless of who had actually masterminded the scheme, he proved to be the perfect accomplice. West carried a reputation as an arrogant criminal. He was serving out his second term at Alcatraz for a relatively unglamorous crime, interstate transportation of stolen vehicles. West also had a history of failed and aggressive escape attempts. In one such attempt at a Florida prison, West had held a gun to the a.s.sociate Warden's head, demanded his car keys and then escaped in his car. West had become acquainted with John Anglin while serving time together at the State Penitentiary in Florida.

The plan for the Alcatraz escape started to take shape in December of 1961. It was a complex strategy that involved the design and fabrication of ingenious lifelike dummies, water rafts, and life preservers, all made from over fifty rain coats acquired from other inmates (some donated and others stolen), and a variety of crudely fashioned tools. In later interviews with the FBI and Alcatraz Prison Officials, West indicated that he had masterminded the escape, and had brought Morris in last of all, after the Anglins. Although it is still unclear who actually conceived the scheme, West's interview provides significant insight into the planning and details of the escape. It establishes that he was at least a key partic.i.p.ant, and likely the most reliable source of a specific chronology for the planning sequence and the escape itself.

In the FBI interview, West stated that he began pondering the idea of escaping from Alcatraz in May of 1961. It was apparently common knowledge among inmates that there were eight ventilator holes in the ceiling of C Block that had not been used for several years. The vent covers had allegedly been cemented closed, according to many of the inmates in the general prison population. West stated that during a routine painting a.s.signment he noticed that one of the ventilators had not been cemented shut. He said that after covertly examining the vent opening, he determined that that it would be possible, with minimal labor, to make a successful escape onto the cellhouse roof. West also claimed that during one of his painting a.s.signments he had noticed that there was a vent duct which ran down the side of the cellhouse. He stated that given these two factors, he felt that a well-planned escape could conceivably succeed.

During a routine painting detail, inmate Allen West noticed that one of the roof ventilators had not been cemented shut. This marked the beginning of his collaboration with Morris and the Anglins on one of the greatest prison escapes ever recorded.