Escape From Alcatraz
“Escape From Alcatraz”, by J. Campbell Bruce, was written in 1965 around the last days that Alcatraz was used as a Federal prison. I didn’t know that when I started this book, and was surprised at its age, though I was wondering why it was written in the present tense. This book’s finale is the famous Morris escape, chronicled in the Clint Eastwood movie Escape From Alcatraz.
Far from focusing solely on escapes, this book details the entire history of “The Rock” and its inmates from its earliest days as an army prison, to is final closing. Sometimes it focuses too much on the history of the inmates in fact, detailing their childhoods and misdeeds. Surprising to learn however was that the majority of inmates were not the “worst of the worst” that the prison was supposed to be made to house, but pretty much run of the mill robbers and crooks.
The ingenuity of the prisoners is simply amazing. Their escapes and ability to improvise would bring a tear to McGuyver’s eye. I’ve read a number of interesting escape books, notably Great Escape. This was good, but I’d say only half the book or less is escapes, the rest is history.
I’ve been to Alcatraz (as a visitor, not a resident), and I think it would have been much more interesting with the background and stories from this book fresh in my mind.
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