Alcatraz_ A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years - Michael Esslinger [211]
Wilson ultimately received a conviction for first-degree murder and as a result of the brutal nature of the crime; he was sentenced to death by electrocution on June 27, 1947. His attorneys appealed the verdict, stating that Wilson was only a desperate man trying to support his ailing family. He was presented to the court as an honorable family man who had been reduced to crime because of his inability to find work. On August 3, 1948 President Harry Truman proved sympathetic to Wilson’s case, and in consideration of the mitigating circumstances, he commuted the death sentence to life in prison. Wilson was transferred to the Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta in April of 1949. Shortly thereafter, he was found in possession of a rope and some pipe segments, which officials speculated were likely intended for use in an escape attempt. Based on the length of his sentence and his high risk of escape, he was recommended for transfer to Alcatraz.
President Harry Truman was sympathetic to Wilson’s case and commuted his sentence to life imprisonment in 1948.
Floyd P. Wilson arrived at Alcatraz on January 6, 1952, and was registered as inmate AZ-956. His conduct report reflects a man completely in conflict with his environment. While it was common knowledge that a significant percentage of inmates never fully adjusted to the rigid regimen of the penitentiary, this was especially evident with Floyd. Within his first year at Alcatraz, he received multiple disciplinary reports for insubordination and poor job performance. These reports reveal that Wilson rarely interacted with fellow inmates, and generally limited his conversation to correctional staff and older inmates.
Even in later years, Wilson minimized his interactions with prisoners as much as possible and insisted that he be fed separately, claiming that other inmates had threatened to kill him. It was also documented that over the course of his imprisonment at Alcatraz, Floyd rarely visited the recreation yard. When he did, he kept to himself. He preferred to spend his leisure time reading in his cell.
On July 23, 1956, Wilson was assigned to the dock crew and after a routine count in the late afternoon, he disappeared without a trace. His only hope for an escape to the mainland was a length of rope that he planned to use to tie logs together. Once he reached the water’s edge, he would try to collect wood and construct a makeshift raft. Warden Madigan best described the details of Wilson’s escape in a memo written to the Bureau of Prisons Director on July 27, 1956:
July 27, 1956
DIRECTOR, Bureau of Prisons
Warden Madigan – Alcatraz
Attempted Escape – Floyd P. Wilson, Reg. No 956-AZ
The following is an account of the events occurring on the afternoon of July 23rd when inmate Floyd P. Wilson, Reg. No. 956-AZ ran from the dock crew and was able to hide out on the island for a period of several hours.
Four inmates were assigned to the dock crew that day, plus one inmate assigned to the garbage pick up detail. At 3:25 P.M. when the launch was due to leave on a scheduled trip, the water barge was also about to leave, and the inmates were called on the line for counting purposes which is customary procedure. The four dock inmates were on the line and the garbage truck, with Officer Jones and one inmate, had arrived at a position under #1 Dock Tower at that exact time. Mr. Jones stopped his truck until the boat and barge had cleared the docks. He then drove to the dock proper, let the inmate out of his truck and went about his duties, but told us later that he saw inmate Wilson take a rubber automobile tire and throw it on bonfire that was burning at the end of the dock. This created some black smoke that belched up, but not too much thought was given to this fact because Wilson had spent most of the day in burning excess refuse that had been around the dock.
At 3:40 a routine count was made by Mr. Black Dock, Officer in Charge, and all inmates were present. At 3:50 P.M. just as the launch “McDowell” was returning from the mainland, the inmates