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It has been a long time since you first came to Alcatraz and you have been through many difficult years and trials. You were a young man when you first came to us and as many young men you possessed the fire that got you into difficulty. You grew out of those years and by application improved your education and work habits. It was not easy for you since there were many pressures brought to bear that made it most difficult for you to conduct yourself as you wished to do. At any rate, you accomplished what you set your mind to do and are now in a position to accomplish still more.

Franklin would spend nearly his entire life behind bars. He was finally paroled on October 29, 1974, and died only a short time later on May 27, 1975 in Dayton, Ohio. He was living with his sister Ruby Farrow at the time of his death, and was said to have enjoyed cooking every morning, and rode the bus into the city everyday to savor his freedom.

Franklin’s final resting place at the Willow View Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio. He was laid to rest on May 30, 1975.

Correctional Officer Royal Cline tragically had been only thirty-six years old at the time of his death in 1938. His wife Etta remained faithfully at his side in the hospital until he succumbed to his injuries. Fellow correctional officers were profoundly affected by Cline’s death, which was especially sobering to the island’s families since Cline left behind four young children. His death would emphasize the reality that convicts would commit murder in trade for freedom. Warden Johnston would be quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle as stating: “I greatly regret that one who was so attached to his duty should meet such an end.”

ESCAPE ATTEMPT #4

The Barker-Karpis Gang and the Escape Attempt of 1939

Date:

January 13, 1939

Inmates:

Arthur “Doc” Barker

Dale Stamphill

Henri Young

William “Ty” Martin

Rufus McCain

Location:

D Block (Segregation Unit)

It seemed almost predestined that “Doc” Barker would ultimately meet his death as the primary conspirator in the first escape that would demonstrate a weakness in the security of the main cellhouse. Doc’s life as a desperado is the fascinating and bleak story of an American tragedy. A memo from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to Attorney General Homer Cummings dated August 15, 1935 states in part: “Arthur ‘Doc’ Barker is beyond doubt among the most dangerous criminals with which this Bureau has had to deal.”

Arthur “Doc” Barker

Arthur “Doc” Barker

Doc was a member of the notorious “Ma Barker Gang” that terrorized the Midwest during the early 1930’s. He was born in 1899, into an impoverished family in the remote Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Short in stature, he was the third of four sons who had all been reared into a life of crime by their mother, the legendary Kate Barker, known affectionately by associates simply as “Ma.”

Arthur Dunlop and Kate “Ma” Barker.

The FBI chronicled the family’s history extensively and a confidential report dated November 18, 1936 includes the following description:

Ma Barker in the formative period of her sons' lives was probably just an average mother of a family which had no aspirations or evidenced no desire to maintain any high plane socially. They were poor and existed through no prolific support from Ma's husband, George Barker, who was more or less a shiftless individual... The early religious training of the Barkers... was influenced by evangelistic and sporadic revivals. The parents of the Barkers and the other boys with whom they were associated did not reflect any special interest in educational training and as a result their sons were more or less illiterate... Ma was more intelligent than any of her sons, she ruled them with an iron will and found this expression of dominance easily exerted because of the submission of her sons Fred and Arthur

Hoover further characterized Ma Barker as “a monument to the evils of parental indulgence,” and according to legend, she instructed her boys from an early age in the finer points of robbery,