by David Ward
14. Unhappy at Leavenworth, Herring had appealed to the attorney general for a transfer to Alcatraz, “where they treat you like a man.” Maurice Herring Alcatraz file.
15. Cecil Snow Alcatraz file.
16. E. J. Miller, Acting Warden, to the Director, November 17, 1945.
17. Ralph Greene Alcatraz file.
18. Quillen interview in 1980.
19. Greene file. Ralph Greene’s lengthy sojourn in D block is to be explained only in part by the administration of Alcatraz justice: he accumulated numerous misconduct reports for destroying government property (mainly his toilet bowl), creating disturbances, fighting with other prisoners (once for reaching through the cell bars trying to stab the orderly, and another when he was released for a shower and attacked another orderly, and twice for fighting in the yard with other D block prisoners until a tower guard fired warning shots). He also threatened an officer telling him, “I’ll fuck you, you son of a bitch,” and on numerous occasions was insolent and refused to obey orders. By the time he was released from D block he had forfeited 1,461 days of good time. Greene, like other convicts, filed writs and petitions including a claim that “refusal of prison authorities to permit him to purchase underwear heavier than prison issue constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.” His writ of habeas corpus contended, “he had been thrown into a dungeon and beaten with a black jack by a guard he admitted to have struck during an altercation.” Greene also wrote to NAACP president Thurgood Marshall complaining of beatings by guards and attempts to poison his food. This letter was not forwarded to Marshall because it did not “stick to the facts” and was intended to “create trouble.”
20. James Grove Alcatraz file.
21. James Walsh Alcatraz file.
22. E. J. Miller, Acting Warden, to Director, March 6, 1939.
CHAPTER 11
1. Bob Gaucher, ed., Writing as Resistance: The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, 1998–2002 (Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2002).
2. Walter B. Martin, Acting Assistant Surgeon/Psychiatrist, Leavenworth, Kansas, August 26, 1931.
3. Director to James A. Johnston, October 1, 1935.
4. Edward W. Twitchell, MD, Psychiatrist, report to the Surgeon General re James Grove, October 16, 1935.
5. George Hess, Surgeon, Chief Medical Officer, James Grove Alcatraz file. All quotes and reports on Grove not otherwise cited come from this source.
6. M. R. King, Surgeon, U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Warden and Chief Medical Officer [Springfield], to Director, BOP, January 8, 1938.
7. Frank Loveland, memorandum to Mr. Bennett re James Grove, March 4, 1939.
8. Romney M. Ritchey, Surgeon, Chief Medical Officer, memorandum to the Warden, July 3, 1943.
9. James Grove to NAACP, July 31, 1946. These complaints prompted a review of his treatment by Warden Johnston, who forwarded Grove’s letter to Bureau headquarters with a recommendation that it be sent on to the NAACP.
10. To Honorable Robert B. Patterson, Secretary of War, October 23, 1946.
11. [James Grove] Special progress report, February 8, 1952.
12. Ibid., p. 2.
13. Robert Baker, who worked at Alcatraz from 1934 to 1957, told the author that on one occasion in the early 1950s James Grove saved his life: “They had a bad habit up in the hospital of passing out pills, dope them up, cool them down. [Prisoners] came through the main gate and about twenty to twenty-five blacks were going up the stairs to the movies. Two of them were drunker than a skunk but not on liquor. There was nothing on their breath but they were all doped up. As I grabbed one of them, Jimmy Grove says, ‘Mr. Baker, don’t do that.’ I said, ‘Well that slob is drunk as a skunk on dope.’ He says, ‘I know, I know, I’ll take care of him.’ So I turned him loose and I looked around and there was about ten of them ready to pounce on me before I could have made any alarm or hit one of them with my foot. They’d have had me down with a shiv in my back.” Baker interview in 1980.
14. James Grove to Hon. Chairman, NAACP, June 18, 1953, New York City.
15. James Grove, special progress report, November 26, 1954.
16. Grove, special progress report, March 27, 1959.
17. Waley interview in 1980. All subsequent quotes in this chapter attributed to Waley are from this interview.
18. Philip Bergen, interview with the author, April 29, 1983.
19. Milton Daniel Beacher, Alcatraz Island: Memoirs of a Rock Doc, ed. Dianne Beacher Perfit (Lebanon, NJ: Pelican Island Publishing, 2001). Perfit is his daughter.
20. James A. Johnston, Warden, to Director, August 31, 1936. See chapter 6 for a description of the dungeons.
21. Waley said he knew that Culver lived in Orlando, Florida, after he retired: “I was going to go down and kill him when I got out, but I decided why should I do that.”
22. Beacher, Memoirs.
23. Ibid.
24. James A. Johnston to Director, December 3, 1937.
25. Letter to his mother, September 27, 1938, Harmon Waley Alcatraz file.
26. Walter Hansen, Jr. Officer, disciplinary report, Waley file.
27. Waley to James V. Bennett, November 28, 1940. “Of course [Miller] told you that he and your little Lt. Simpson were forced to knock me out with their fists, and by pounding my head against the cement wall, during the hunger strike. He told Dr. Ritchey that I attacked him with a bottle. As I explained to Dr. Ritchey, had I attacked him with a bottle I would have cut him but he never had a scratch. . . . As for me working in your institution that is out.”
28. J. P. Simpson, Lt., to Deputy Warden, May 1941. This report was written months after the episode when Waley claimed he had been “beaten up” by Miller.
29. Report of writ of habeas corpus, April 14, 1939, Waley file.
30. Bert E. Haney, U.S. Circuit Judge, to James A. Johnston, January 7, 1942. Johnston met with Haney to inform the judge that the prison staff had read all legal mail but had to be “careful not to delay or impede them.” The judge warned the warden to “be on guard against threats of dangerous men.” James A. Johnston to James V. Bennett, January 11, 1942.
31. San Francisco News, April 23, 1941.
32. San Francisco Examiner, April 24, 1941.
33. Ibid.
34. Johnston memorandum, December 20, 1941, Waley file.
35. Waley letter, December 22, 1941, ibid.
36. Waley letter, March 1, 1944, ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Report of disciplinary board, June 5, 1944, ibid.
39. Letter to his mother, October 3, 1940, Waley file.
40. Letters to Secretary of War, October 6, and October 9, 1940, ibid.
41. Director to James A. Johnston, January 10, 1941.
42. [Harmon Waley] Special progress report, June 3, 1948.
43. Special progress report, 1949.
44. Leon J. Whitsell, MD, Psychiatrist, to Warden, January 17, 1951, Waley file.
45. Special progress report, February 8, 1952.
46. Special progress report, October 28, 1955.
47. Autobiographical statement, p. 12, Richard Neumer Alcatraz file. Neumer also spelled his name N-U-M-E-R but no explanation for the name change was recorded in prison or FBI records.
48. Ibid., pp. 12–13.
49. Neumer file.
50. Special progress report, August 23, 1945, ibid.
51. Edward W. Twitchell, Psychiatrist, hospital report, July 3, 1945, ibid.
52. English A866, lesson no. 1, University of California Extension Division, December 27, 1946, ibid.
53. “The question raised by your action is whether a prisoner should be denied the opportunity to do something constructive and good because his motives are bad. . . . It had been intimated that Mr. Numer [sic] is already a good writer and that he should not be permitted to improve his skills in order to libel the prison administration. Of course, it will be a long time before Mr. Numer is released and I venture to say that the reputation of Alcatraz Prison will not depend upon what Mr. N
umer says about it. I think the idea of a convict wanting to improve his writing abilities to lambaste the prison administration is extremely funny, and it provides one more story for your collection. Once the court denies the petition, I trust you will reconsider the matter and grant Mr. Numer an opportunity to take the course.” Ernest Besig, Director, ACLU of Northern California, to James A. Johnston, January 18, 1947, ibid.
54. Richard A. Neumer no. 286 to Hon. Alexander Wiley, Senate Building, Washington, D.C., January 25, 1947, ibid.
55. James A. Johnston to Director, January 28, 1947, ibid.
56. Richard S. Yocum, Surgeon, memorandum to the Warden, February 10, 1948, ibid.
57. Ibid.
58. P. J. Madigan, memorandum re no. 268 Neumer, September 7, 1950, ibid.
59. J. V. Bennett on memo from R. J. Heaney re Richard Neumer, January 18, 1951, ibid.
60. According to Thomas Gaddis, Neumer spent “a day or two as a ‘technical consultant’ on the set watching Burt Lancaster play the role of Robert Stroud in the movie The Birdman of Alcatraz.” Thomas E. Gaddis, Unknown Men of Alcatraz (Portland, OR: NewGate, 1977), 32.
61. E. J. Miller, Deputy Warden, to J. A. Johnston, November 15, 1937, Burton Phillips Alcatraz file.
62. Burton Phillips to James Bennett, October 29, 1940, ibid., pp. 3, 18, 49.
63. James Bennett to James Johnston, September 25, 1939, ibid.
64. Romney M. Ritchey, Surgeon, memorandum to the Warden, August 19, 1940.
65. Special progress report, September 12, 1945, Phillips parole file.
66. Phillips to Mrs. Ella Phillips, August 17, 1944.
67. Special progress report, October 24, 1949.
68. William C. Robinson, Chief U.S. Probation Officer, District of Kansas, to Joseph N. Shore, Parole Executive, Washington, D.C., July 6, 1965.
69. James V. Bennett to William Robinson, February 7, 1963, Phillips parole file.
70. William Robinson to Joseph Shore, July 6, 1965, ibid.
71. Urbaytis Alcatraz file.
72. Ibid.
73. Special progress report, August 19, 1935, Jack Hensley Atlanta file.
74. C. R. Beall, MD, Psychiatrist, USPHS, Atlanta, Georgia, August 24, 1935.
75. Special progress report, September 12, 1945, Hensley Alcatraz file.
76. Hensley Alcatraz file. See Thomas Murton and Joseph Hyams, Accomplices to the Crime (New York: Grove Press, 1969), for descriptions of prisons in Georgia before the intervention of the federal courts.
77. Romney M. Ritchey, Surgeon, Psychiatrist, neuro-psychiatric examination, November 7, 1938.
78. Romney Ritchey, Surgeon, Chief Medical Officer, memoranda to the Warden, August 5 and August 19, 1940.
79. While in prison in Arkansas, Hensley wrote to the governor, Sid McMath, who was looking to reform the state’s prison system. The governor, on a trip to the prison, met Hensley, who advised McMath on needed areas of reform. In return McMath wrote a letter of support for Hensley, as did James Bennett, and Hensley’s Arkansas sentence was commuted; ten days after his visit with the governor, he was released.
80. Jack Hensley to James V. Bennett, January 20, 1959. Hensley expressed his appreciation to Bennett for writing on his behalf to Arkansas prison authorities.
81. Howard Butler Alcatraz file.
82. In 1949 Butler appeared for routine classification before the committee: “He seemed in very good spirits and talked for some length about the colored population. He said, that with the exception of one or two negro prisoners, he had nothing in common with them and would appreciate it if he did not have to even see them. During the interview he suggested that the negro prisoners celling across from the second tier in B block be moved somewhere else, as he hated to look at them. He said that they were talking filthy and loudly, and stupidly caused much confusion and disturbance in the cell house. He said the last negro prisoners received, especially the Army inmates, were very low in intelligence and were a very bad bunch. He stated he wants nothing to do with the other colored inmates and his best friends were among the white population. He likes all the officers and officials and never had any ‘beefs’ where they were concerned. Butler said he appreciated consideration for restored good time and recently obtained 364 days restoration.” Special progress report, December 16, 1959, Butler file. This statement may have been an attempt by a savvy convict to curry favor with staff by presenting himself as different from most black prisoners. That his statement was recorded as part of an official record suggests that Butler’s remarks were a welcome reinforcement of negative racial stereotypes.
83. Butler file.
84. It is unclear whether Joe Urbaytis was a success or a failure; he lived outside of prison for three years before he was shot to death. In prison recidivism statistics he would be recorded as a “success” since he did not return to prison. If James Grove had not taken his own life (the ultimate form of resistance) before his release, he might have succeeded in staying out of prison as well.
CHAPTER 12
1. Dock Barker—another Public Enemy with a reputation at least as large as Karpis’s—might have been in this category had he not died during an escape attempt early in his sentence. See chapter 5.
2. See the chapters on Alvin Karpis in J. Edgar Hoover, Persons in Hiding (Boston: Little, Brown, 1938); and in Courtney Ryley Cooper, Ten Thousand Public Enemies (Boston: Little, Brown, 1935). Arthur Barker and George and Kathryn Kelly are also featured in these books. See also the chapters on the Urschel kidnapping and the Barkers and Alvin Karpis in Irving Crump and John W. Newton, Our G-Men (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1937).
3. Alvin Karpis, as told to Robert Livesey, On the Rock: Twenty-Five Years in Alcatraz (New York: Beaufort Books, 1980), 60.
4. San Francisco FBI field office, February 27, 1935, file 62–1238.
5. In June 1935 a former inmate of Atlanta sent a 243-page manuscript titled “The Biography of Al Capone’s Life in the Atlanta Penitentiary” to the office of Real Detective Magazine in New York. Its focus was the usual allegations of preferential treatment and Capone’s ability to corrupt prison employees. The author reported that he had been employed as a secretary in the prison records office and therefore had access to all correspondence and records, including confidential correspondence between Atlanta officials and BOP headquarters. The FBI reviewed the incidents described in the manuscript and concluded that, with the exception of the case of a guard who was dismissed for carrying a letter from Capone out of the prison, the allegations were not based on fact. Al Capone, Alcatraz and Terminal Island files. All quotes and references to letters and reports on Capone are taken from this source.
6. Parole board members stopped by Alcatraz only to review cases of inmates whose time remaining on their sentences was becoming short, those who might be released directly to the West Coast, or, in Capone’s case, to avoid being accused of denying a high-profile offender his legal right to a hearing.
7. Report of E. Twitchell, Psychiatrist, and G. Hess, Chief Medical Officer, Alcatraz, February 6, 1938.
8. E. J. Miller, to James A. Johnston, February 11, 1938.
9. Time Magazine, February 21, 1938.
10. R. Ritchey, MD, August 17, 1938.
11. James V. Bennett to Attorney General, December 14, 1938.
12. San Francisco News, September 9, 1939. When the island was opened to tourists by the National Park Service in 1975, the commercialization of Alcatraz began with shops selling pseudo Al Capone cigars, the Big Boy’s picture on posters, and the claims of ex-guards and inmates that they had been “best friends” with Public Enemy no. 1.
13. G. Hess, MD, to Medical Director, BOP, January 16, 1939.
14. H. R. Lipton, MD, to Chief Medical Officer, psychiatric examination of Al Capone, September 9, 1939, p. 3.
15. R. B. Hood, Special-Agent-in-Charge, to Director, FBI, October 26, 1939, file 62–39128–101.
16. The specialist who agreed to treat Capone informed the Bureau that the patient’s admis
sion to the Johns Hopkins Hospital was contingent on several factors: that he be admitted under an assumed name and that the Capone family make every effort to avoid publicity; that visitors were to be limited to family members; that Capone’s condition justify his management on the medical service rather than in the psychiatric ward; and that Capone’s physical and mental condition be sufficiently satisfactory to permit his management on the medical service but also offer some hope of improvement.
17. Harry H. Lipton, abstract of neuropsychiatric record, October 24, 1939, p. 29.
18. Special-Agent-in-Charge, Miami, to Director, FBI, April 15, 1945, file 62–39128–147.
19. John Kobler, Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone (New York: Collier Books, 1971), 38.
20. George Kelly, Alcatraz file. All quotes and references to letters and reports on Kelly come from this source.
21. George Kelly to Charles F. Urschel, April 11, 1940. This letter was forwarded to BOP headquarters and to Director Hoover. The sophisticated description of prison life in this letter may reflect Kelly’s three years’ attendance at the University of Mississippi as well as his reading habits at Alcatraz. Willie Radkay, a friend of his on the island, told the author that Kelly had the ability to use such language.
22. E. Swope to J. Bennett, 1948.
23. Radkay interview in 1981.
24. J. V. Bennett memo re Kelly transfer request, May 3, 1950.
25. Report, September 3, 1949.
26. A memorandum to J. Edgar Hoover from the FBI office in Oklahoma City regarding these charges contained this handwritten note from the director, “Be certain we watch closely and take steps to see Kelly does not get a parole. We can expect anything from Bennett’s outfit.” October 2, 1953, file 7–115–2788.
27. Director, FBI, to the Attorney General, November 1, 1949. A handwritten note on this memo from an FBI official stated, “I have been in touch with the Chairman of the Parole Board for the past several weeks re this matter and feel they will take no action on application. . . . Have made clear what our position is on this application.” November 17, 1949, file SE 21 7–115–2200.
