Alcatraz_ A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years - Michael Esslinger [138]
Henri Young would later become one of the most famous inmates ever to reside on Alcatraz. He would also be the subject of several books and of the Hollywood motion picture Murder in the First, which chronicled the psychological effects of the harsh punishment he allegedly received while imprisoned on the Rock. Like McCain, Young had a long record of outbursts and unusual behavior. He was a problem inmate whose ill-mannered acts would frequently land him in solitary confinement.
William “Ty” Martin
A mug shot series of William “Ty” Martin.
William “Ty” Martin was another accomplice in the escape who had a close association with inmate Bernard Coy, the gang leader of the 1946 “Battle of Alcatraz,” which was debatably the most significant escape attempt ever to take place on the island. Ty was an African-American from Chicago, serving a twenty-five year sentence for armed robbery. He was well liked among the Caucasian inmates, which was unusual as there was heavy racial tension and segregation among prisoners during this period.
Dale Stamphill
Dale Stamphill
The last of the inmates who participated in the escape of 1939 was Dale Stamphill, born March 12, 1912. Stamphill was a habitual criminal serving a life sentence for kidnapping and robbery. On February 17, 1935, while serving time at the State Reformatory in Granite, Oklahoma, Dale and twenty-one other prisoners escaped after killing a tower guard. Then on February 27, 1935, Stamphill and two accomplices, W.L. Baker and Malloy Kuykendall, robbed the 1st National Bank in Seiling, Oklahoma, and kidnapped Dr. Fred Myers from his residence at gunpoint. Dr. Myers was forced to treat a hip injury that Kuykendall had received during the bank robbery, and then to drive the men to Grazier, Texas, with a shotgun trained upon him. The outlaws were captured by the police, and Stamphill was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 26, 1937. He was initially sent to Leavenworth, but then was transferred to Alcatraz on January 21, 1938, because of his escape history.
Malloy Kuykendall, Ira Earl Blackwood and Slim Bartlett. William “Slim” Bartlett was rumored to have a smuggled a bar-spreader device to Doc Barker.
The Escape
In the autumn of 1938, several months before the escape, Barker started recruiting his accomplices and plotting a breakout from D Block. After striking deals with other inmates to have a hacksaw blade and makeshift bar spreader delivered to him in D Block, Barker worked on getting himself thrown into segregation. On October 30, 1938 Barker assaulted fellow inmate Ira Earl Blackwood while standing in line in the recreation yard waiting to file down to their work detail. Karpis later wrote that Ira had a reputation with most cons as a stool pigeon. Associate Warden E.J. Miller, nicknamed “Meathead” by the inmates, was on a month-long vacation, and Acting Deputy Warden C.J. Shuttleworth had Barker thrown into isolation for the full nineteen-day duration. After completing his time in isolation, Barker was moved to a standard segregation cell where he would remain until the escape.
D Block was one of the few areas besides A Block that had remained in its original state, just as it was when it was utilized during the military years. The cell bars were still of the flat soft iron type, with outward swinging door hinges similar to those found in A Block. The inmates would exploit this weakness to their advantage by using their hacksaw blade to saw methodically through the soft iron bars in sequence, filling the gaps with debris and paint to avoid detection. The bars that encased the windows of D Block were made of tool-proof alloys, and this would make gaining access an even greater challenge.
A typical cell in D Block, prior to the 1940 remodeling. Note the flat soft iron bars.
The D Block area had not yet been walled off from the rest of the prison, which allowed for the easy transfer of contraband from inmates performing clean-up details and other assignments