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ALCATRAZ ESCAPES

Alcatraz was designed to be an “escape-proof” prison for the nation’s most hardened criminals, incorporating multiple layers of redundant safeguards to eliminate all possible routes of escape. The island’s size, location and topography were also ideal in this regard, as it lay accessible to the mainland, yet surrounded by icy waters and treacherous currents, with a barren rocky landscape that offered little cover for potential escapees. The prison buildings were constructed to enhance even further the natural inaccessibility of the site, and even the interior gun galleries were designed so that they could only be entered from outside of the prison perimeter. But despite the seemingly foolproof design of the prison, inmates were still able to identify weaknesses in the system, and some made it down to the shore and into the ice-cold water – never to be seen or heard from again...

ESCAPE ATTEMPT #1

Date:

April 27, 1936

Inmates:

Joseph Bowers

Location:

Incinerator Detail

Joseph Bowers

The first recorded escape on Alcatraz during its tenure as a Federal Penitentiary occurred on April 27, 1936. However, several historians consider the escape attempt by Joseph Bowers as a suicide rather than a conventional prison break. Joseph Bowers was among the first group to be transferred to Alcatraz from McNeil in 1934. In a report submitted on September 4, 1936, shortly after Bower’s arrival, Chief Medical Officer George Hess concluded: “He is a man of extremely low mentality upon which is superimposed an extremely ugly disposition, he is a custodial problem and will probably have to be dealt with by firm measures.”

Joseph Bowers was originally thought to have been born on February 18, 1897 in El Paso Texas (records would later show that he was of Austrian decent and held legal citizenship). He was thirty-eight years old when he arrived at Alcatraz as inmate AZ-210. From his birth onward, his life had been a fragmented model of instability. Bowers was born to circus performers and alleged to have been deserted by his parents at birth. He was raised by various people within the circus environment and although he was never given any formal schooling, he claimed to have learned to read and write from others in the circus. Bowers traveled the world extensively and he later asserted that he could read and write in six different languages. At age thirteen, Bowers decided to leave the circus and take employment as a seaman on a commercial schooner. In 1919 he was married in Russia, but he separated from his wife later that same year.

A neuro-psychiatric report written by Dr. Romney Ritchey at McNeil states that it was “believed” that Bowers had served in the German Army, but that he would not admit to this. There was significant circumstantial evidence to corroborate this however, as Bowers had suffered what appeared to be combat injuries. These included a lost testicle due to a bullet wound and a “bullet scar” on his chest. Bowers also claimed that at the age of twenty-five he had secured employment in Germany as an interpreter, making $350.00 per month. When it was discovered that he didn’t possess a valid passport or proof of citizenship, he was deported back to the U.S. to obtain documentary evidence of his birthplace. It was further recorded that he could not find any traces of his parents.

In 1928 Bowers was arrested for car theft in Oregon where he served ten months in jail. He was again arrested in Washington in 1930 for drunken driving, fined $75, and released. The Federal crime that would lead him to Alcatraz was committed in 1930, and it would garner him a mere $16.63. Bowers’ description of the crime, which he claimed he did not commit, was included in the neuropsychiatry summary by Dr. Ritchy of the McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington State. It is further worth noting that in 1938, Dr. Ritchy left McNeil Island to replace Dr. George Hess as Chief Medical Officer at Alcatraz. A pertinent section of Dr. Ritchey’s report