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By Root 832 0

the town of Marin. The conspirators were keen to the obvious. This was it – they now knew that the chances of escape were almost nonexistent. The island would soon be swarming with armed officers, and measures were probably already in place to prevent them from gaining access to the launch. Jim Quillen would recall in a later interview that he left D Block around this time and walked out onto Seedy Street, asking Cretzer if he and fellow inmate Jack Pepper could come along. Cretzer was apparently conscious that their chances of escape where dashed, and he shook hands with Quillen and told him to go back to his cell, because he didn’t think that they were going to make it to the mainland. He asked Quillen to try to get Sam Shockley to return to his cell too, but Shockley motioned them to wait a minute, and then walked away. This was the last he would ever see of them.

Coy had entered the bakery carrying the Springfield rifle, and he lined up a shot to take out the Hill Tower guard, Elmus Besk. Upon hearing the siren, Besk walked out onto the catwalk to check for any unusual activity. Coy carefully punched out one of the windows and then opened fire. Elmus was struck in the legs, and dropped to the deck in severe pain from several fragments of a bullet that had struck the railing and broken apart. Fish would later recount that Besk crawled back into the tower and phoned him, reporting that he had been shot with what had seemed almost like a shotgun. Besk communicated that he would hold out until they could get him help, and dressed his own wounds using rags.

Coy then ran up into the kitchen and punched out a pane from another window, this time targeting the Road Tower guard, Irving Levinson. The first bullet ripped through the window and Levinson quickly dropped to the floor for cover. He scanned the prison windows to see if he could make out where the shot had come from. He noticed the yard wall officer who was lying on the catwalk, looking over at him and motioning toward the kitchen. Levinson pulled his rifle over and remained ready to fire, while attempting to determine where the shot had come from. Coy then walked to the other side of the mess hall and punched out another pane, this time taking aim at the Dock Tower guard, Jim Comerford. Coy squeezed off another round, and the bullet sliced through the Dock Tower window. Comerford dropped onto the narrow perimeter catwalk, taking aim at the cellhouse with his rifle as he heard the bullet whiz past his shoulder. Comerford’s wife heard the shot and ran toward the tower, attempting to see if her husband was injured. Comerford waived that he was not hurt and directed her to go back home and take cover. The powerful rifle shots reverberated all over the island and it was later reported that they had been heard as far away as the shores of Marin and San Francisco.

One interesting detail is that the Armory Officer was usually responsible for calibrating and adjusting the target sights on every Springfield that was returned to the Armory. Fish would later note that his adjustments had been off by nearly six inches and this probably had affected Coy’s aim, thus saving the lives of a few officers. Several of the island’s residents heard the rifle fire and retreated into their homes. They knew that the chance of an inmate acquiring weapons was remote, but that nothing was impossible.

Dock Tower Guard Jim Comerford.

Captain of the Guards Henry Weinhold was an ex-marine and he had the reputation among his peers as very capable but rigid officer. After talking with Fish, Weinhold took a gas billy and demanded that he be admitted to the cellhouse. Fish had been vehemently protesting against anyone entering the embattled building, but his pleas fell upon deaf ears. Weinhold went into the cellhouse by himself. He too was quickly captured by the armed convicts and was led off to join the other hostages. But before Weinhold could be put into the cell, Shockley viciously attacked him. Jim Quillen later stated that he saw Shockley throw a punch at Weinhold, who was able to duck and