February 17, 2026 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Alcatraz: the inescapable prison. Inmates called it “the Rock,” and the distance from Alcatraz to the mainland was enough to make even the most hardened criminals shiver in fear. But in 1946, a group of prisoners attempted the impossible. They overpowered guards inside Alcatraz and tried to break out. The attempt spiraled into what became known as the Battle of Alcatraz, or the Alcatraz Prison Riot of 1946. U.S. Marines were called in to restore order, turning the most notorious prison in the United States into a battlefield. The History Guy shares the story.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we continue with our American stories, and up next
comes a man who's simply known as the History Guy.
His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people
of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy has also
heard here at our American Story Today, the History Guy
shares the story about an escape attempt in the infamous
(00:32):
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco, California that led to
a standoff. The penitentiary, the inmates called the Rock, was
supposed to be escape proof, but that did not keep
some prisoners from trying. Here's the History Guy with the
story of the nineteen forty six Battle of Alcatraz.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, built on an island in San Francisco Bay,
was open in nineteen thirty four to How's America's most
dangious criminals. Built literally on an island surrounded by shark
infested waters, the prison was considered to be escape proof,
with that to keep the prisoners from attempting to escape
from the infamous prison that was most softly called simply
(01:14):
the Rock.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Welcome to the Rock.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
There were fourteen escape attempts in the twenty nine years
that the prison was in operation, and among those one
was particularly notable, both for its daring and for its violence.
The nineteen forty six Battle of Alcatraz deserves to be remembered.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Forty six year.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Old Bernard Barney Coy had been convicted by a federal
jury for robbing the bank of New Haven, Kentucky, in
March of nineteen thirty seven. He and a cousin held
a bank teller at gunpoint, with sought off Shaka made
off of two thousand, one hundred and seventy five dollars.
Sentenced to twenty five years, he was transferred from Atlanta
to Alcatraz in nineteen thirty eight. Nonetheless, Coi had by
nineteen forty six earned the position of cell House Orderly
(01:57):
Prison janitor, position that allowed him relative access surround the prison.
From that position, he had observed lapses in the security
of the notoriously strict prison that he thought he could exploit,
and he became the ringleader of a group determined to
escape the escape proof prison. Cooi had a plan to
overwhelm one guard and gain access to a weapons locker,
(02:17):
but he needed help to overwhelm another guard who he
thought would have the keys that he needed to escape.
It was a daring plan, and it required more men.
His list of accomplices started with thirty three year old
Marvin Franklin Hubbard at Alcatraz. He was a kitchen orderly
and late cleanup in the prison kitchen made him a
(02:37):
crucial part of Koi's plan.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
But Coi figured that he would also need some muscle.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
For his plan to work, and so he recruited some
other prisoners to his plan. Twenty nine year old mire
and Buddy Thompson was an armed robber who showed skill
at both getting caught and at escaping. In March of
nineteen forty five, he was arrested by an Ambarillo, Texas
Police detective. Thompson had hidden a gun and shot the detective.
Clarence Carnes was just nineteen years old, the youngest man
(03:03):
in Alcatraz. A Choctaw from Oklahoma, he was known as
the Choctaw Kid. He had been given a life sentence
at just the age of sixteen after killing a garage
attendant during an attempted hold up. Thirty five year old
Dutch Kretcher had done his first stint in prison at
the age of sixteen in the nineteen thirties. It had
been part of a gang of West Coast bank robbers
called the Kretzer Kyle Gang that had earned him a
(03:23):
spot as number four on the FBI Most Wanted list.
Kretzer then demanded that another prisoner, a friend of his,
be included. Thirty seven year old Sam Shockley had been
sentenced to life imprisonment for bank robbery and kidnapping. Sent
to the Federal Penitentiary at Levenworth. He was found to
have an IQ just fifty four and be prone to
violent outbursts and an unstable personality.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Coy's plan started with guard Burt Birch.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Birch portrolled an elevated gun platform that overlooked the C
and D blocks, which was armed with a Springfield rifle
and forty five caliber pistol. But Birch had a routine
so precise it could be timed. He would leave the
SEA block for a few minutes as Pacific times and
then go look over D block. That meant that there
were a few minutes when Sea Block was not observed.
Coy had fabricated a bar spreader, a device that would
(04:07):
push two bars apart by turning his screw with a
pair of plyers. His plan was to use the time
when Birch went to D Block to strip off his clothes,
shimmy up the bars, used the barspredder to make a
gap big enough to slip through and waylay Birch as
he came back in taking his guns and getting access
to D Block to release his co Conspiratorskoy had been
starving himself for weeks in order to make it easier
(04:28):
to slip through the gap in the bars, but he
also needed to waylay guard William Miller, who watched the
Sea Block door. Because Miller had a key to the
prison yard, by prison rules, he wasn't supposed to keep
the key, but pass it to the guard in the
gun cage every time he used it. That was intended
to make it impossible for the prisoners to take the
key that would let them out into the yard, exactly
(04:48):
what Coy hoped to do. But Coy noticed that Miller
often did not follow the rule because keeping the key
allowed him to let off the kitchen staff without disturbing
the gallery guard during lunch. As Hubbard worked in the
ky kitchen, he would have to overpower Miller when he
let him.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Out of the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Thus getting the key that Koy hoped would allow them
to escape the yard and get to the prison dock, where,
using the guns from the locker, they would hijack the
boat that carried supplies to the prison and make their escape.
It was a convoluted plan and much could go wrong,
but men serving life sentences are desperate men. They made
their move on May second, nineteen forty six. Koi was
(05:25):
in the main block sweeping up when Miller opened the
door to let Hubbard out, having finished his kitchen duties.
He and Koy jumped Miller, clubbing him over the head.
Miller had no gun, but he did have a gas
billy billy club that could also dispense tear gas. They
threw Miller in a cell. They then hurried to where
they had stashed the Barspetter and plyers. When Birch made
his normal trip to D block, Coy managed to strip down,
(05:47):
shimmy up the bars, and use the Barspetller to make
a gaff wide enough to slip into the gun gallery.
Koy attacked Birch immediately he opened the door. Caught by surprise,
Birch was quickly subdued. Koy yanked the rifle from his
hands and beat him unconscious with it. The plan was
working so far. Koy went along to the gun gallery
to D Block and threatened Guard Cecil Corwin with his rifle.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
He forced Corwin to.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Open the door to the main block, letting in Carnes,
Hubbard and Kretzer. They then opened the D block doors
and freated Thompson and Shockley. Other De Bloc prisoners were
also released, but they wisely decided to stay.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
In their cells.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
The prisoners were convinced their desperate plan was working, but
in fact it was already doomed. Guard Miller had figured
out what they wanted and had managed to slip the
key to the cailar and off the ring and hide it.
The gang had no way to get out of the
cell block. The escape attempt had failed. Now it was
a hostage situation. The group slowly waylaid other guards as
(06:39):
they came in for regular duties or were sent to
check on the other missing guards. Eventually they had nine
guards stashed in two sails, but prison authorities were now
well aware of what was going on. The group decided
that if there was no means for escape, they would
go down fighting. The groups started arguing with the guards
that they had waylaid. When one of the officers told
them they had no chance of escape and would die,
(07:00):
they tried. Kretzer told him that the guards would die
as well. He shot into the cell. Then Shockley yelled
to kill all the hostages, saying they wouldn't have anyone.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
To testify against them.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Krets Are emptied the forty five into the two cells.
Six of the officers were injured. Officer Bill Miller later
died of his wounds. The guards, playing dead were terrified
that Kretzer would come in and finish the job, but
he walked away Desperately. One of the guards managed to
write the names of the six prisoners involved on a
cell wall. Warden James Johnson sent it a large and
heavily armed force in the afternoon. He managed to drive
(07:31):
the prisoners back and rescue the hostages, but a second guard,
Harold's Styles, was killed and three more wounded in the melee.
The warden now shut off the power and watered to
the block, which was surrounded with floodlights and wailing sirens.
Guard shot tear gas of the windows to keep them
in Pinned down. Carnes, Shockley, and Thompson decided the jig
was up and went back to their cells, hoping their
involvement would be missed, but Koy, Hubbard, and Kretzer decided
(07:54):
to fight to the death. Then Johnston took it up
a notch and called into the United States Corps. The
Marines used tactics developed to the Pacific against Japanese soldiers
and bunkers, drilling holes in the roof and dropping in
hand grenades to drive the prisoners to a spot where
they could be captured. Three boxes of rifle grenades and
one hundred and fifty hand grenades later, the three prisoners
(08:15):
found a phone and called, asking about terms for surrender.
Johnston told them that the only terms would be to
throw out their guns and give up. When a guard
peeked into sea block, they shot at him. That was
their answer to the warden's demand for surrender. Guards moved
in and fired a dozen shots into the utility corridor
where the three were.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Thought to be hiding.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
In response, they heard three shots. They were the last
shots of the Battle of Alcatraz. Coy, Hubbard, and Kretzer
had chosen suicide overcapture. In an odd twist, Marvin Hubbard
had filed an appeal to his conviction, and the hearing
for that appeal was held the monday after he had
committed suicide. A prosecute in the case said that Hubbard
(08:57):
had a fair chance that his conviction would be overturned.
Clarence Karnes, Mirn Thompson, and Sam Shockley had gone back
to their cells hoping to remain anonymous. Their hope was
that Kretzer had killed the hostages who could identify them
as being part of the attempt, but all but one
of the hostages had survived. Thompson and Shockley were executed
(09:18):
in the gas chamber of nearby San Quentin Prison December third,
nineteen forty eight. A judge found sympathy for Clarence Carnes,
owing to his age and the fact that the hostages
reported that at one point he had refused an order
by Kretzer to shoot them. His death sentence was commuted,
but another life sentence was added to his term.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Despite that.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
He did manage to eventually earn release in nineteen seventy three,
but he couldn't make it on the outside and violated
the terms of his parole. He died in nineteen eighty
eight in the Federal Penitentiary in Springfield, Missouri. Alcatraz Prison
would see several more escape attempts, including the famous incident
in June of nineteen sixty two where prisoners Frank Morris
and brothers John and Clarence Anglin escaped and never found.
(10:01):
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed March twenty first, nineteen sixty three.
The buildings were simply rotting due to all the exposure
to the salt air and was too expensive to repair,
but was already the most expensive prison in the federal
system to operate.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The former prison was turned into.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
A tourist attraction and today attracts more than one and
a half million visitors a year.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And great job is always by Greg Hangler, and again
thanks to the History Guy for being a regular and
featured contributor here on our American Stories. The story of
the nineteen forty six Battle of Alcatraz Here on our
American Stories
And we continue with our American stories, and up next
comes a man who's simply known as the History Guy.
His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people
of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy has also
heard here at our American Story Today, the History Guy
shares the story about an escape attempt in the infamous
(00:32):
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco, California that led to
a standoff. The penitentiary, the inmates called the Rock, was
supposed to be escape proof, but that did not keep
some prisoners from trying. Here's the History Guy with the
story of the nineteen forty six Battle of Alcatraz.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, built on an island in San Francisco Bay,
was open in nineteen thirty four to How's America's most
dangious criminals. Built literally on an island surrounded by shark
infested waters, the prison was considered to be escape proof,
with that to keep the prisoners from attempting to escape
from the infamous prison that was most softly called simply
(01:14):
the Rock.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Welcome to the Rock.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
There were fourteen escape attempts in the twenty nine years
that the prison was in operation, and among those one
was particularly notable, both for its daring and for its violence.
The nineteen forty six Battle of Alcatraz deserves to be remembered.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Forty six year.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Old Bernard Barney Coy had been convicted by a federal
jury for robbing the bank of New Haven, Kentucky, in
March of nineteen thirty seven. He and a cousin held
a bank teller at gunpoint, with sought off Shaka made
off of two thousand, one hundred and seventy five dollars.
Sentenced to twenty five years, he was transferred from Atlanta
to Alcatraz in nineteen thirty eight. Nonetheless, Coi had by
nineteen forty six earned the position of cell House Orderly
(01:57):
Prison janitor, position that allowed him relative access surround the prison.
From that position, he had observed lapses in the security
of the notoriously strict prison that he thought he could exploit,
and he became the ringleader of a group determined to
escape the escape proof prison. Cooi had a plan to
overwhelm one guard and gain access to a weapons locker,
(02:17):
but he needed help to overwhelm another guard who he
thought would have the keys that he needed to escape.
It was a daring plan, and it required more men.
His list of accomplices started with thirty three year old
Marvin Franklin Hubbard at Alcatraz. He was a kitchen orderly
and late cleanup in the prison kitchen made him a
(02:37):
crucial part of Koi's plan.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
But Coi figured that he would also need some muscle.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
For his plan to work, and so he recruited some
other prisoners to his plan. Twenty nine year old mire
and Buddy Thompson was an armed robber who showed skill
at both getting caught and at escaping. In March of
nineteen forty five, he was arrested by an Ambarillo, Texas
Police detective. Thompson had hidden a gun and shot the detective.
Clarence Carnes was just nineteen years old, the youngest man
(03:03):
in Alcatraz. A Choctaw from Oklahoma, he was known as
the Choctaw Kid. He had been given a life sentence
at just the age of sixteen after killing a garage
attendant during an attempted hold up. Thirty five year old
Dutch Kretcher had done his first stint in prison at
the age of sixteen in the nineteen thirties. It had
been part of a gang of West Coast bank robbers
called the Kretzer Kyle Gang that had earned him a
(03:23):
spot as number four on the FBI Most Wanted list.
Kretzer then demanded that another prisoner, a friend of his,
be included. Thirty seven year old Sam Shockley had been
sentenced to life imprisonment for bank robbery and kidnapping. Sent
to the Federal Penitentiary at Levenworth. He was found to
have an IQ just fifty four and be prone to
violent outbursts and an unstable personality.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Coy's plan started with guard Burt Birch.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Birch portrolled an elevated gun platform that overlooked the C
and D blocks, which was armed with a Springfield rifle
and forty five caliber pistol. But Birch had a routine
so precise it could be timed. He would leave the
SEA block for a few minutes as Pacific times and
then go look over D block. That meant that there
were a few minutes when Sea Block was not observed.
Coy had fabricated a bar spreader, a device that would
(04:07):
push two bars apart by turning his screw with a
pair of plyers. His plan was to use the time
when Birch went to D Block to strip off his clothes,
shimmy up the bars, used the barspredder to make a
gap big enough to slip through and waylay Birch as
he came back in taking his guns and getting access
to D Block to release his co Conspiratorskoy had been
starving himself for weeks in order to make it easier
(04:28):
to slip through the gap in the bars, but he
also needed to waylay guard William Miller, who watched the
Sea Block door. Because Miller had a key to the
prison yard, by prison rules, he wasn't supposed to keep
the key, but pass it to the guard in the
gun cage every time he used it. That was intended
to make it impossible for the prisoners to take the
key that would let them out into the yard, exactly
(04:48):
what Coy hoped to do. But Coy noticed that Miller
often did not follow the rule because keeping the key
allowed him to let off the kitchen staff without disturbing
the gallery guard during lunch. As Hubbard worked in the
ky kitchen, he would have to overpower Miller when he
let him.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Out of the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Thus getting the key that Koy hoped would allow them
to escape the yard and get to the prison dock, where,
using the guns from the locker, they would hijack the
boat that carried supplies to the prison and make their escape.
It was a convoluted plan and much could go wrong,
but men serving life sentences are desperate men. They made
their move on May second, nineteen forty six. Koi was
(05:25):
in the main block sweeping up when Miller opened the
door to let Hubbard out, having finished his kitchen duties.
He and Koy jumped Miller, clubbing him over the head.
Miller had no gun, but he did have a gas
billy billy club that could also dispense tear gas. They
threw Miller in a cell. They then hurried to where
they had stashed the Barspetter and plyers. When Birch made
his normal trip to D block, Coy managed to strip down,
(05:47):
shimmy up the bars, and use the Barspetller to make
a gaff wide enough to slip into the gun gallery.
Koy attacked Birch immediately he opened the door. Caught by surprise,
Birch was quickly subdued. Koy yanked the rifle from his
hands and beat him unconscious with it. The plan was
working so far. Koy went along to the gun gallery
to D Block and threatened Guard Cecil Corwin with his rifle.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
He forced Corwin to.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Open the door to the main block, letting in Carnes,
Hubbard and Kretzer. They then opened the D block doors
and freated Thompson and Shockley. Other De Bloc prisoners were
also released, but they wisely decided to stay.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
In their cells.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
The prisoners were convinced their desperate plan was working, but
in fact it was already doomed. Guard Miller had figured
out what they wanted and had managed to slip the
key to the cailar and off the ring and hide it.
The gang had no way to get out of the
cell block. The escape attempt had failed. Now it was
a hostage situation. The group slowly waylaid other guards as
(06:39):
they came in for regular duties or were sent to
check on the other missing guards. Eventually they had nine
guards stashed in two sails, but prison authorities were now
well aware of what was going on. The group decided
that if there was no means for escape, they would
go down fighting. The groups started arguing with the guards
that they had waylaid. When one of the officers told
them they had no chance of escape and would die,
(07:00):
they tried. Kretzer told him that the guards would die
as well. He shot into the cell. Then Shockley yelled
to kill all the hostages, saying they wouldn't have anyone.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
To testify against them.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Krets Are emptied the forty five into the two cells.
Six of the officers were injured. Officer Bill Miller later
died of his wounds. The guards, playing dead were terrified
that Kretzer would come in and finish the job, but
he walked away Desperately. One of the guards managed to
write the names of the six prisoners involved on a
cell wall. Warden James Johnson sent it a large and
heavily armed force in the afternoon. He managed to drive
(07:31):
the prisoners back and rescue the hostages, but a second guard,
Harold's Styles, was killed and three more wounded in the melee.
The warden now shut off the power and watered to
the block, which was surrounded with floodlights and wailing sirens.
Guard shot tear gas of the windows to keep them
in Pinned down. Carnes, Shockley, and Thompson decided the jig
was up and went back to their cells, hoping their
involvement would be missed, but Koy, Hubbard, and Kretzer decided
(07:54):
to fight to the death. Then Johnston took it up
a notch and called into the United States Corps. The
Marines used tactics developed to the Pacific against Japanese soldiers
and bunkers, drilling holes in the roof and dropping in
hand grenades to drive the prisoners to a spot where
they could be captured. Three boxes of rifle grenades and
one hundred and fifty hand grenades later, the three prisoners
(08:15):
found a phone and called, asking about terms for surrender.
Johnston told them that the only terms would be to
throw out their guns and give up. When a guard
peeked into sea block, they shot at him. That was
their answer to the warden's demand for surrender. Guards moved
in and fired a dozen shots into the utility corridor
where the three were.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Thought to be hiding.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
In response, they heard three shots. They were the last
shots of the Battle of Alcatraz. Coy, Hubbard, and Kretzer
had chosen suicide overcapture. In an odd twist, Marvin Hubbard
had filed an appeal to his conviction, and the hearing
for that appeal was held the monday after he had
committed suicide. A prosecute in the case said that Hubbard
(08:57):
had a fair chance that his conviction would be overturned.
Clarence Karnes, Mirn Thompson, and Sam Shockley had gone back
to their cells hoping to remain anonymous. Their hope was
that Kretzer had killed the hostages who could identify them
as being part of the attempt, but all but one
of the hostages had survived. Thompson and Shockley were executed
(09:18):
in the gas chamber of nearby San Quentin Prison December third,
nineteen forty eight. A judge found sympathy for Clarence Carnes,
owing to his age and the fact that the hostages
reported that at one point he had refused an order
by Kretzer to shoot them. His death sentence was commuted,
but another life sentence was added to his term.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Despite that.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
He did manage to eventually earn release in nineteen seventy three,
but he couldn't make it on the outside and violated
the terms of his parole. He died in nineteen eighty
eight in the Federal Penitentiary in Springfield, Missouri. Alcatraz Prison
would see several more escape attempts, including the famous incident
in June of nineteen sixty two where prisoners Frank Morris
and brothers John and Clarence Anglin escaped and never found.
(10:01):
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed March twenty first, nineteen sixty three.
The buildings were simply rotting due to all the exposure
to the salt air and was too expensive to repair,
but was already the most expensive prison in the federal
system to operate.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The former prison was turned into.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
A tourist attraction and today attracts more than one and
a half million visitors a year.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And great job is always by Greg Hangler, and again
thanks to the History Guy for being a regular and
featured contributor here on our American Stories. The story of
the nineteen forty six Battle of Alcatraz Here on our
American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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