Alcatraz_ A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years - Michael Esslinger [217]
Johnson again and again emphasized the fact that they had picked this particular time for attempting to escape because of the change from daylight savings to standard time. He says that they had waited for this change in order that darkness would come sooner than under daylight saving time. He further admits that the timing at the change of job rotations were definitely to their advantage, inasmuch as the officers were not yet familiar with their new assignments. He steadily maintains that they had not waited for a dense fog but that the fog on the date of the escape was purely accidental so far as their planning was concerned.
When Miller failed to report in at the routine roll call, the other guards immediately launched a search. Within minutes, the piercing sound of the klaxon alarm resonated throughout the island, and radio bulletins went out to the patrol officers on mainland San Francisco. All of the guards were called to duty, and they began the extensive search. Walking in groups of two with one unarmed lead-man and the other carrying a .45 pistol, they were finally able to locate Miller after nearly an hour of searching. Miller was found tied to a tree, unharmed.
A Coast Guard cutter was dispatched to aid in the search, which was hampered by the dense fog. At approximately 5:00 p.m. the Coast Guard managed to locate Johnson, who was standing waist-deep in the fifty-degree water, shivering. They drew their rifles on him, and waited until guards on shore were able to apprehend him. Johnson didn’t resist.
In a letter to Burgett’s father on October 9, 1958, Warden Madigan wrote that at approximately 3:15 p.m., a member of the staff had heard cries for help, but could not locate where the sound was coming from. A massive search effort was initiated to locate Burgett. It was speculated that he had drowned, as there was a three-knot ebb tide that day, which would have made it impossible for him to swim. Several days later, divers were brought in to search the kelp beds in hopes that they would locate Burgett’s body.
On October 12th Alcatraz Guard Lyndon Cropper reported to his assigned post in the road tower, and noticed a body floating a few hundred feet from the eastern end of the island. A Coast Guard patrol boat was dispatched to retrieve the body. In his official report on the incident, Warden Madigan described how the body of Aaron Burgett was identified:
On Sunday, October 12, 1958, at approximately 09:30 A.M., J.B. Latimer, Associate Warden, and I reached Pier No. 45 ½ in the Fisherman’s Wharf area, San Francisco, California. There were two Police Officers, Harbor Patrol Officers, and about five members of the Coast Guard present.
I saw a wire net litter-basket stretcher covered with a blanket and a right and left show protruding. The stretcher was in the rear section of a small boat. I climbed down a ladder into the boat and partially uncovered a body, which was resting on the stretcher with the front side up. The face was beyond recognition because of the missing flesh and the damaged condition probably due to decomposition and sea life. The putrid odor of decaying flesh was evident. All of the hair was missing from the top of the head, but there was sandy colored hair around the sides and back of the head. Most of the fingers appeared to be in good condition; however, the skin was hanging from some of the fingers and it is probable that the end joints of two fingers were missing. The skin on the inner sides of both thumbs were in good condition. I placed the fingerprint card from Burgett’s institutional file beside the right thumb and determined that the two were identical. The ridge counts to the core were identical. Several ending ridges below a line extending from the left to right deltas were identical. All bifurcations, islands, and other characteristics were identical.
The actual fingerprint card used to identify Burgett’s body.