The Rock: Alcatraz’s Chilling True Crime Legacy

Alcatraz shut its cell doors more than 60 years ago, but its grip on the American imagination hasn’t loosened. Each year, nearly a million and a half tourists ride the ferry across San Francisco Bay, through cold, choppy waters, to walk the crumbling corridors of the most infamous prison in U.S. history.  Visitors today frequently cite the desire to see the cellblocks that once confined legendary outlaws, Notorious gangsters such as Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Robert “Birdman” Stroud were inmates here, cementing Alcatraz’s image as the end of the line for incorrigible criminal offenders. I’ve included a link in the show notes to their “rap sheets” from the Warden’s records. During its 29 years as a federal prison, Alcatraz gained a fearsome reputation for strict discipline and inescapable walls. Now, President Donald Trump says he wants to reopen and expand Alcatraz as a high-security federal prison. In this episode, I take a hard look at the history of The Rock—how it earned its reputation as escape-proof, the men it held, the myth it became, and why, even in ruins, it still casts a long shadow over American justice. The Warden's "Rap Sheets" for Alcatraz's infamous convicts.