Guns of Alcatraz
Arming the Rock
It was the remote nature of Alcatraz Island more than
anything else that rendered it inescapable. Image: FBI
Alcatraz. The Rock. The place where hope goes to die. Located a mile and a quarter off the coast of San Francisco, Calif., this maximum security federal penitentiary was originally built atop Alcatraz Island as a military confinement facility. In 1933, the U.S. Department of Justice assumed ownership. The prison closed in 1963. The main facility consisted of three stories, each with four primary cell blocks. In its prime, Alcatraz was home to the worst of the worst.
Gangsters like Alvin Karpis, George “Machinegun” Kelly, James “Whitey” Bulger and Al Capone all took their mail there. The frigid waters and vicious currents that separated the rocky island from the mainland rendered the prison inescapable.
The prison on Alcatraz Island was actually fairly small. Capacity was some 312 inmates. Each cell measured a mere 9x5x7 feet. D-block housed the most difficult prisoners and was affectionately known as “The Hole.” Given the spectacularly vile nature of its clientele, the guards at Alcatraz took great measures to ensure both their safety and the security of the facility.
The Colt Police Positive .38 was a ubiquitous Law Enforcement
sidearm back in the 1930s. They maintained six of them in the
Alcatraz arsenal. Image: Rock Island Auctions
There were half a dozen Colt Officers Model revolvers kept in inventory at Alcatraz during its heyday. Image: Rock Island Auctions
The Colt M1911A1 .45 ACP pistol was the standard sidearm at Alcatraz.
Handguns
The planners who designed the Alcatraz prison knew the sorts of folks who would come there. Despite maintaining a formidable arsenal, the guards who interacted with the prison population directly were unarmed by policy. The staff went to extreme lengths to ensure that prisoners could not gain access to firearms.
In 1948, the arsenal at Alcatraz was formally inventoried. The details were meticulously documented. There was an awful lot of firepower on hand to manage 351 prisoners.
Service pistols included half a dozen Colt Police Positive .38-caliber revolvers with 4″ barrels. A further six Officers Model .38s sported 6″ tubes. The armory also housed three Colt Officers Model revolvers in .22 rimfire. Colt wheelguns were ubiquitous among Law Enforcement circles of the day.
These revolvers were all acquired between 1936 and 1943. There were listings for six shoulder holsters along with 24 Sam Browne belt rigs. The staff maintained 47 pistol lanyards.
Thirty Colt M1911A1 .45 ACP pistols were first acquired in 1934, along with 76 magazines. There were four .22-caliber Colt Ace handguns with 18 magazines. The rimfire handguns were intentionally included for their capacity to wound rather than kill. This obviously represents a fairly antiquated view of tactical firearms. The .22LR offers ample penetration and remains quite lethal, even on the extremities.
The prison arsenal included 2,108 rounds of .38-caliber pistol ammunition, along with 10,092 rounds of .22 Long Rifle. They also maintained some 8,265 rounds of .45 ACP ball and 1,243 .45 ACP tracers. I couldn’t find any references as to whether or not the staff conducted firearms training onsite.
In case life went truly pear-shaped, the Alcatraz security staff
kept eight M1928 Thompson submachineguns on hand.
The Winchester Model 1897 slide-action shotgun was the standard-issue
Coy at fairly long range, the 00 buckshot was exchanged for Number Fours.
After the three-day shootout in 1946, the M1 carbines
kept at Alcatraz were exchanged for the selective-fire M2 sort.
Long Guns
Many of the most hardened inmates arose from extensive criminal networks. While communication between prisoners and the outside world was obviously more difficult than is the case in the Information Age, the prospect of heavily armed gangs trying to stage a prison break remained quite real. As a result, the Alcatraz staff was equipped to withstand a proper invasion attempt.
Long guns included 15 Winchester Model 70 bolt-action rifles chambered in .30-06. These weapons, along with the Colt M1911A1 pistols, were documented as having been cleaned daily. They also had four Winchester Model 52 bolt-action .22 rifles as well. Supplementing such long-range firepower were 20 Winchester Model 1897 12-gauge shotguns. All of these long arms came equipped with slings. The scatterguns were stoked with 00 buckshot up until 1946, when the entire stockpile was disposed of and replaced with Number Fours.
For truly serious situations, the prison maintained eight M1928 Thompson submachine guns along with 30 GI-issue M1 carbines. The Thompsons were acquired between 1935 and 1939, while the M1897 shotguns and the M1 carbines were all on long-term loan from the U.S. Army. To support the submachineguns, there were twenty-eight 20-round box magazines, 46 of the 30-round sort, and eight 50-round drums.
They maintained 11,516 rounds of M1 carbine ammo onsite, along with a total of 6,041 paper shotgun shells. In 1946, there were 22,967 rounds of .30-06 M1 ball, 2,000 rounds of .30-06 M2 armor-piercing ammo, and a further 1,092 rounds of .30-06 M1 tracers. A proper supply of cleaning equipment was kept onsite for maintenance purposes.
This shot was taken in 1895. Alcatraz had been used as a military
took over. Image: Public Domain
Alcatraz was indeed a miserable place. This is the cell that contained
Al Capone prior to his death from neurosyphilis.
Image: Wikipedia by Tres Calcetine
Here we see Al Capone — Scarface — in happier times. He eventually
came to call Alcatraz home. Image: Public Domain
Barney Coy led a bloody escape in 1946 but died in the attempt.
Image: Public Domain
The Best Laid Plans …
Bernard Paul “Barney” Coy was a convicted criminal originally from Kentucky who was doing 25 years at Alcatraz for bank robbery using a sawed-off shotgun. While at Alcatraz, Coy earned the position of cell-house orderly, which gave him a certain amount of freedom to move about the facility. Over time, he contrived a plan to gain access to the prison arsenal. The weapons were maintained in galleries separated from the inmates by steel bars.
Coy had improvised a makeshift tool in the prison workshop out of toilet parts that he planned to use to pry the bars leading to the ordnance apart. He had actually intentionally starved himself for some time to help him squeeze through the bars. Five other inmates were in on the scheme, including one man named Sam Shockley. Shockley was assessed as having an IQ of 68 and the mind of a 10-year-old. However, this did not prevent him from robbing a bank and taking hostages. Once inside, he was badly beaten by another inmate and began suffering hallucinations.
In keeping with Coy’s plan, a kitchen orderly named Marvin Hubbard created a disturbance that allowed Coy to overpower a guard and release the other inmates. Coy then got to work on those bars, eventually spreading them about 10″ apart to gain access to the weapons. He passed a Colt M1911A1 pistol as well as a bolt-action .30-caliber rifle and a billy club along with gas grenades out to his waiting accomplices.
The original plan had Coy and company taking hostages and then making their way to the dock to seize the prison boat and make good their escape. Apparently, they hadn’t thought the plan through much past that. After taking nine guards hostage, the prisoners were unable to locate the key to the yard door of the prison, and their attempt was foiled. The whole sordid episode then degenerated into a three-day standoff followed by a proper war.
Eventually, most of the inmates returned to their cells. However, Coy and two others decided to go down fighting. Realizing the nature of the opposition, the prison warden secured the assistance of two platoons of heavily armed Marines from the nearby Naval Station Treasure Island. These guys had only recently finished spanking the Japanese in the South Pacific. They put their hard-earned combat skills to good use.
Eventually, the captive guards were freed, and the Marines went to work. They drove the convicts into a confined space and then drilled holes through the roof through which they dropped hand grenades. The three primary conspirators were ultimately killed in the exchange.
Two guards lost their lives; 14 were wounded. Sam Shockley and another inmate were subsequently executed for their part in the attempt. In the aftermath, the gun galleries were further secured, and the M1 carbines exchanged for the selective-fire M2 sort. Of 14 documented escape attempts over the course of 29 years, none were known to have been successful.
