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Joseph Moyle

Bill Montgomery

Earl Egan

Joseph Moyle, an inmate who had just happened to pass through the main gate less than a minute before, was shocked to witness Coy and Hubbard pulling Miller into cell #404. Joseph Moyle and Bill Montgomery were both assigned as Warden Johnston’s “passmen.” This was the most coveted work assignment on Alcatraz as these men were allotted the most freedom of all the inmates, in order to serve as the Warden’s personal stewards. The passmen worked directly in the Warden’s house and often spent several hours each day outside of the normal confines of the prison. The inmates who worked as the Warden’s stewards were handpicked and were generally nearing their release date. Though it may seem hard to believe, the passmen did most of the Warden’s cooking and cleaning, and some reported that the Warden’s wife would put on the radio (allowing them to listen to baseball games), leave out newspapers (which were prohibited inside the prison) and give them special treats like homemade cookies. Though the assignment came with many great perks, these men were generally not trusted by the general inmate population, as they spent so much time with “Old Saltwater” himself. Therefore as Moyle approached the escape accomplices, Hubbard motioned him to enter the cell with Miller to ensure that he didn’t “rat them out” to an unsuspecting guard.

At about the same time two other inmates who were assigned to painting details, Earl Egan and George Pichette, were walking up Park Avenue when they witnessed the activities that were transpiring just ahead. As Coy motioned them forward, Egan apparently indicated that he didn’t want any part of the escape. But the men weren’t taking any chances and Egan was also directed into the cell. Pichette had turned at the end of the cellblock and disappeared. The door of cell #404 was quickly racked closed, and Coy started running to the block control boxes and opening the cells of his other accomplices. Thompson, Cretzer, and younger inmate named Clarence Carnes all emerged from their cells in a state of near disbelief that Coy’s plan had actually succeeded, even to this point. Carnes seemed an unlikely type to participate in the escape, as he was the youngest inmate ever to be sentenced to the Rock at only eighteen.

When Coy had released his accomplices, he made a swift dash down the C Block utility corridor to where his tool set was hidden. Coy emerged from the passageway with a cotton pouch of the type that inmates generally used to carry their dominos into the recreation yard. While the other inmates stood watch for Burch in the West Gallery, and for any other correctional officers who might enter the cellhouse, Coy quickly stripped down to his underwear and with Cretzer’s help, smeared axle grease over his chest, head and extremities. He then briefly inventoried the tools in his sack and started climbing up the West End Gun Gallery from the juncture at Times Square and Michigan Avenue. Hand-over-hand, he scaled the barred cage until he reached the top.

An officer looks up toward the area where Bernard Coy scaled the gun galley. Using plumbing fixtures that had been fashioned into a makeshift bar-spreader; Coy quietly entered the Gallery and secured weapons.

The makeshift tool used by Coy to spread apart the bars at the top of the Gun Gallery.

Clenched in Coy’s teeth was the small bag containing his crudely fashioned bar-spreader device, which had been made from toilet fixtures in one of the prison workshops. He set the tool firmly between the two bars (which were approximately five-inches apart), and using pliers or some type of gripping wrench, he was able to exert enough force to create an opening nearly ten inches wide. With Cretzer eagerly watching his progress from below, Coy painfully squeezed his body through the opening and slipped into the West Gun Gallery.

Without delay, Coy secured a riot club and positioned himself in a low crouch so that Officer Burch couldn’t see him when looking through the window in the door. On Coy’s signal,