Transcripts For KTVU Second Look 20101115 : vimarsana.com

since the mid-1800 understand it s gone from fortress to prison to a tourist attraction. it switched to civilian use. the first civilian main inmates arrived in the summer of 1984. the last inmates was on march 1963 the day that it ceased to be a federal prison. it had become too expensive to operate and the buildings were deteriorating. the last inmates were loaded on to buses that day taken to the pier and transferred to boats and shipped off to other federal prisons that were more modern and less costly to run. for years the rock sat empty, a desolate area. the indians occupied for a time in the 70s. in 1963 a decade after it closed the federal government opened it up to tourists. in 1992 george wattson looked back at the history of alcatraz and the prison that made the island notorious. reporter: the evolution of alcatraz has been as spectacular as it has been predictable. sooner or later the military fortress would volunteer of into a prison fortress and for good reason. the island is surrounded by bay waters that behave like unforgiving open ocean. it wind swept and fog shrouded. it sounds examplely but to penologists it was beautiful and escape-proof. but military thinking prior to the civil war saw the island as a strategy key to controlling the waterways of northern california. but even from the beginning, alcatra was part prison. the first troops arrived in 1859. military convicts were among them. two years later, it was designated the official prison for the department of the pacific. during the civil war, the army transformed the rock into the most heavily armed fortress west of the mississippi. with the giant cannons never fired a shot in anger. the anticipated attack by the south never happened. and by war s end it was obsolete as a fort. but as a prison, it was still ideal for all but the prisoners. well, after years in the civil war this was converted from a gun room into jail cells for military prisoners. 14 long cells were in this small space. become in year, this room which was an access into the plots was converted into a solitary confinement section. there were nine solitary confinement cells in this little space vertical. the men would have to stand up inside the cells. it was just enough room for their knees to hit the door. reporter: military law breakers of the civil war, the spanish american war and both world wars had the misfortune to call alcatraz home. in 1943 they turned it over to the federal bureau of prisons. it would become the toughest in the federal prison gaining instant notoriety when the prisoners were the most famous and powerful gangsters in the country. machine gun kelly will be among the first tenants. and that rocky island no underworld friends can aid him and his boasts will go unheard. alcaraz is right. the gangsters were as renowned and colourful as they were dangerous. their imprisonment in alcatraz enhanced its position. it was the toughest the toughest criminals in the nation or so the rock was perceived. a lot of the perception was derived from the movies. lure i had b movies that have little to do with the island prison. cameras, not even movie cameras were ever allowed on alcatraz. the list of the prisoners was impressive. but the life they were to lead on this island reflected the fact that they were just common criminals with just a measure of fame. this is d block, the isolation wing here on alcatraz home to some of the more infamous. they included machine gun kelly albert carpas. robert the birdman strauss and al capone. let s say you are a prisoner here and you step on my toes. i am going to put you away and waste you. it won t end in a simple fight. it will enin a death. reporter: the first prisoners arrived by train under the greatest secrecy. railcars carried the shackled prisoners to the prison dock. then they were marched solemnly in silence to what must have been the most forbidding sight they had ever seen. prisoners stayed in their cells 23 hours a allowed out for thre 20 minute meals. not allowed books, radios or newspapers. their mail was heavily censored. 5x9-foot cells became the sum of their existence. time weighed heavy in this bleak dank place they called the rock. alcatra was all about punishment, not rehabilitation. it was maximum security with minimum privileges. still to come on second look. the history books show two escape attempts from the rock. the first led to a bloody gun battle that lasted for two days. we are going to tell you how it ended. and a bit later, the second escape ended in mystery. a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. [ music ] . it s been said that desperate men will do desperate things. in the 1940s alcatraz prison was filled with desperate men. some of them hatched a blot to escape. and it led to one of the bloodiest battles in the history of u.s. prisons. here is george wattson s 1992 look back at two bloody days that help cement alcatraz s image as a dark and forbidding place. reporter: when alcatraz became a federal prison in 1933 it carried a simple but chilling mandate. the rock was to be a place of punishment. no more, no less. we look forward to great things from the use of alcatraz prison. mr. attorney general, alcatraz is ready. reporter: the inmates sent here were the worst of the worst. too dangerous and unable to get along in other prisons. at alcatraz officials simply locked them up. there was no pretense of rehabilitation. isolation was the key. at the end of the day after working in the factories the inmates would climb these stairs and pass through a metal detector. you would have to wonder if they wouldn t take a glance over their shoulder and look at the city that would elude them for years if not a lifetime. once they passed through threes doors they were entering one of the most forbidding places on earth. but even the tights security can be overcome by desperate men who feel they have little or nothing to lose. that s when happened back on alcatraz in 1946. the result was the deadlys escape attempt in the history of the rock. as many as 12 inmates took part in planning the outbreak but only three were involved in the blood at this shoot-out that followed. two lives bernard coy and joseph prezer and marvin hubbard. can a tame to be known as the battle of alcatraz. it lasted for three days. they took on the security guards and the united states marine. coy and hubbard were on lunchtime duty. they overpowered a guard and took his keys. able to open most if not all of the cells. coy managed to get to the gun duty when he climbed a mesh. he used a steel bar to spread the bars just enough to slip through. once in the gallery coy overpowered the guard there. the unimaginable was now fact. the prisoners had guns. it was a gory affair. and if you consider that 20 men were shot, 20 men could have died. fortunately, only two if they could use the word only in a death, only two of them died. but when you consider they had as many as six men in one cell, a cell being five feet by nine feet, and you have the kind of characters outside the cell who had no morals what sorry just opened fire on them. reporter: guards crouched and ran along the catwalk outside the cellblock exchanging fire with the convicts who were now armed as well. inside the cellblock the three inmates who instigated the breakout had overpowered ten unarmed guards and now holding them hostage. across the bay in san francisco, thousands of people watched the fighting on alcatraz from the safety of the city s hills. [ music ] reporter: the bloody ballots of alcatraz the island was surrounded by swirling currents of san francisco bay. here for nearly 40 hours of murder outside mutiny, armed convicts shot it out with guards. the stern forbidding rock where uncle sam imprisons the most hardened criminals in the country. the lighthouse looks down on the setting for a drama of violence and sudden death. [ music ] reporter: a pitched battle of 15 guards wounded and two dead. the three inmate ring leaders of the escaped attempt were found dead shot to death in a actuality corridor in cellblock c. in a gruesome postmortem prison officials allowed the media to photograph the fingerprinting of the dead men. two other inmates were later executed in san quentin s gas chamber for their role in the riot. the battle of alcatraz was over. when we come back on second look. three bank robbers serving long terms scratched their way through grills covering an air vent, lining the drainage pipe and disappeared from the forbidding rock in san francisco bay. it appears to be the first successful escape in the history of the maximum security prison. the escape triggered the greats manhunt in san francisco s history as agents of the fbi, coastguard and highway patrol and sheriff s deputies and the local police join in the search. whatever their fate, the three convicts have apparently accomplished a feat that many have tried with no success. [ music ] . did they survive the frigid waters of san francisco bay and disappear as free men? that 48 year-old question still surrounds the mystery of the only inmates who ever escaped from alcatraz. . monday on the 10:00 news we follow the hunt for drunk drivers but with a twist. just going to make sure you are doing good on your probation. reporter: bay area officers searching the homes for the one thing that could put repeat offend deers back behind bars. this isn t funny. reporter: but is it intrusive? it is always intrusive to go to someone s house. reporter: monday on the 10:00 news on ktvu, channel 2 news. complete bay area news coverage. . 48 years ago one of the most famous prison escapes in american history involved three men who swam their way to freedom. or did they? the 1962 dissappears of alcatraz of three inmates has remained a many matter of mystery and speculation to this very day. clint eastwood even made a movie about it. what appears certain is the three men made their way out of the prison and off the island. what remains up for dispute is whether they survived the chilly waters of san francisco bay. bob mckenzie traces the story of the famous escape from alcatraz. a million and a half visitors a year take a boat ride to this cold bleak island in the middle of san francisco bay to take a tour of the notorious alcatraz penitentiary. there is one story that everyone enjoys hearing, the often told tale of the escape. so the island was riddled with caves, tunnels and holes and 1,000 places to hide, it was considered escape-proof. surrounded by cold choppy water and treacherous currents. large parts of the island are still closed to tourists, including the underground parts. park rangers griffin started our underground tour with a bunker that predates the prison. through a maize of underground hallways we looked for a tunnel that prisoners used to search for. one that was rumored to lead directly to the shore. that s the famous hole down there? that s right. and right to the outhouse. this was the hole of the outhouse. that guess right into the ocean? went right into the owes ocean. if anybody ever found this? they could have gotten out of there. and escaped. in 1962 three men clarence and his brother john and frank morris, three tough and daring convicts, disappeared from the prison and were never seen again. did they really get away? darwin coon thinks so. he is a former inmate who says he helped the three escapees. he would have joined them but escape wasn t possible from his cell. they are in south america someplace i would imagine. one of these days one of them will get on his beth deathbed and he will holler here i am and everybody will know he actually made it. reporter: concrete walls six inches thick at the thinnest places. iron bars everywhere. guard towers at every turn. alcatraz was considered escape- proof. and it kept that reputation for a long time. the federal parks department way runs the island now has restored the cells of the three men who escaped, complete with the dummies they used to fool the guards into thinking they were in bed. with paper mache heads topped with hair swiped from the prison barber shop. at the back of the cells can be seen the escape holes they carved. enlarging the air vents. with tools they made themselves. including an electric drill made from a sewing machine motor they stoled from the prison sewing shop. i asked ranger rich weederman how the convicts could chip through concrete walls without making a lot of noise? he explained that they did their digging on the two nights a week that the prison orchestra rehearsed. the sound carried up here to the men s cellblock and reverberated around all of this concrete and hid the noise. reporter: to cover the holes they used paper mache mock had ups of the grid. leaving dummies in their beds the three would meet in this narrow utility corridor behind the wall. these were three strong young guys. they could do this kind of climbing. reporter: right. in their late 30s and 40s. in good shape physically. they built the life raft in this utility corridor out of 140 raincoats they smuggled in from the industries area. reporter: they were able to get to the ceiling above the three tiers of cell blocks and over time cut a hole in the ceiling. after months of preparation the three convicts slipped through their escape holes one final time. they actually climbed the plumbing all the way up through an air ventilation shaft in the roof of the building. broke out through the air ventilation shaft. ran across the roof. slid down a stovepipe. ran to the water s edge and disappeared. reporter: bill long was the pron guard who discovered the three men were missing during a head count on the morning of june 11, 1962. where the hell did they go was the first reaction was shock? i was shocked to find that these guys weren t there. reporter: the fake heads did the job fooling everyone until the last minute. i touched the head and it fell off on the floor. reporter: since the makeshift raft was never found authorities theorized that the three men went down in the bay and drowned in the frigid waters. in 1992 ktvu told to thomas kent who was also an inmate at the time. he said the plan was for the escapees to paddle their makeshift raft to tiburon. it was a small community. it was very small. they had a good chance not being seen. the main thing was the whole thing was not being seen of the the whole thing was destroying the evidence. reporter: did morris and the brothers get to i. buron, destroy the evidence, travel to south america as they planned and start new lives? well, there is no evidence that they didn t. and that s enough mystery to keep a go ahead story alive for 45 years. coastguard and police tower the swift waters of san francisco bay for which they would have to swim or go by raft to shore to nearby angel island. it is a grimly fascinating so are are you. when we come back on second look. a reunion this summer of form are alcatraz inmates and guards reveals more about life on the rock. ktvu.com, complete bay area news coverage. a reunion was held on alcatraz island this summer bringing together some of the men and women who used to call the rock home. and one of those returning hadn t been on alcatraz for 80 years. ktvu reporter ken prichard brought us this story in august. reporter: for those who chose this day for a tour their timing. the 76th anniversary of the opening of the u.s. prison alcatraz. reporter: was great. at his desk in the main cellblock was 75-year-old jim allbright who still fits into his original uniform. i stayed here until 63 when they closed and i was the last guard out. reporter: the national park service calls allbright and other former inmates and residents the alumni of alcatraz, a group that grows smaller with every passing year. bill long passed away a couple of years ago. the average age is 70 or better. reporter: allbright present a living history not only when it was a prison but also when it was a fort. when it was military it was just perfect. now i am looking at all of the paint peeling off the walls and i think oh, my gosh. reporter: 90-year-old betty says alcatraz was pristine when she moved here in 1929 with her army family. this is the first time she returned since leaving at age 17. i m getting older now and i just thought it would be nice. i came from leaven worth where i tried to escape. reporter: record robert lucas felt trepidation returning to alcatraz on this anniversary. it looks about the same. reporter: the former prisoner has not set foot on the rock since 1958. today he shared his story with tourists. i am not used to talk in front of people. reporter: but talking is what they hope he will do. former guard allbright put his story to paper. he had the same advice for robert lucas. i told him you had better write a book because once you are gone all of those memories are gone. reporter: through fewer than 80 alcatraz guards and inmates still alive. three years ago the federal officials announced an expansion of the alcatraz tour. and at that time ktvu s rob roth took a look and also met a man who remembered the rock as a living hell. reporter: it stands as a monument to misery for the prisoners who misbehaved their way here to alcatraz. darwin coon did hard time here. this was my cell. reporter: after robbing a series of banks and escaping from another prison. a living hell. the rock over there was total misery. some of the inmates needed to be in a mental institution rather than a prison. so you had to be aware of who was around you all at all times. guys go off at any time and they would hurt you. reporter: the living hell that was alcatraz is still fascinating attracting more than one million visitor as year. today the national park service which runs alcatraz unveiled the upgrades and changes it s been working on. some of the home shade shivves they made to stab prisoners or guards are now on display. the metal robs wrapped in leather card staffs that guards carried against the prison. there was one lieutenant he had on. he snapped this inmate not a good idea. they were going to kill him. you just don t do that. reporter: up until now visitors touring alcatraz would see cell blocks pretty much bare. now they have been furnished to look just as they did when some of the worst criminals imaginable did their time here. too actually goes down to the level of minutia that you have to restore cells. that s what we did. so when you look into some of the restored cells it looks like an inmate just left that cell that very day. reporter: there is a new audio recording first person accounts, the last one out to the beatless sergeant pepper album. still walking passed these he will cell blocks it is hard to believe that anyone could have any bond memories of this place. but patrick mahoney does. but he was here from 1956 until it closed. every day i went home and my wife said what happened today. there was always some crazy thing out a comic or joke or something. reporter: he recalls his last ride out. we were heading back east we couldn t look over here we felt so terrible. i really enjoyed the rock. they didn t hurt our feelings one bit when they closed the rock i will tell you. that s it for this week s second look. i m frank somerville. we will see you again next week. the traffic ticket some bay area drivers don t want to see go away. i never thought i would be happy to get a ticket. in a ktvu, channel 2 news investigation we ride along with the police. the type of ticket you would be relieved to get. i don t think it should go away. it saves people money. soon it won t be an option. find out it will now be for drivers and the officers watching them. ktvu, channel 2 news at 5, completes bay area news coverage.