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O.G. BLACKWELL

Warden

The following is Warden Blackwell’s report to the Bureau of Prisons on Daryl Parker, also dated December 17, 1962:

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT of JUSTICE

BUREAU OF PRISONS

UNITED STATES PENITENTARY

ALCATRAZ CALIFORNIA

December 17, 1962

MEMORANDUM FOR FILE

Re: Statement of Inmate Daryl Lee Parker, #1314-AZ

At approximately 6:30 p.m. Sunday, December 16, 1962, inmate PARKER was returned from escape status and brought to the Associate Warden’s office. During questioning he was very reluctant to make any statements, however, eventually he did say that he and inmate J. PAUL SCOTT, #1403-AZ, left the main dining hall shortly after the 5:20 p.m. count, gained access to the basement by way of the elevator, and escaped through the end window on the east side of the kitchen basement after having removed two sections of the bars. From this point, he claims that he climbed up the drainpipe and gained access to the roof, crossed over and went down the other side by means of an electric extension cord, then proceeded to the water and entered. From this point on he does not know what happened to SCOTT, or how he reached "Little Alcatraz."

Following this, he refused to make any further statements.

O.G. BLACKWELL

Warden

An inventory list submitted by Officer Irvin Levinson, representing contraband items that were found in the kitchen basement following the escape of Parker and Scott.

By all accounts, Scott very nearly died in his quest to reach the shore. Open-water swimmer Lisa Johnson would later state that Scott really couldn’t take credit for “swimming to shore, ” but that actually he “was carried” by the three-knot-per-hour tide. Even Scott himself admitted that he hadn’t anticipated how violent the ocean currents could be. In fact, they were so powerful that Scott was washed onto the rock at Fort Point and lay naked except for his socks, after his clothing had been ripped from his body by repeated banging against the rocks. When Scott was revived at Letterman, he was shaking so convulsively that he could not speak. His body temperature had dropped to 94 degrees, or 4.6 degrees below normal. He was lucky to have been spotted in his near-death state. John Paul Scott’s spectacular but futile swim from Alcatraz Island to Fort Point destroyed once and for all the official position that escape from this Federal prison was impossible. As the press snapped photos of Scott wrapped warmly in knit army blankets when he was being taken from Letterman at 10:45 p.m. for his cruise back to Alcatraz, he gave them a coy smile. He had come the closest of any escape artist yet to breaking the Rock.

Scott sustained several cuts and bruises from the sharp rocks when he washed up at Fort Point.

Both inmates would be transferred from Alcatraz following its closure in 1963, and Parker would make another unsuccessful escape attempt in March of 1967, while imprisoned at Atlanta. He built a makeshift ladder nearly thirty feet in length, but his attempt ended when a tower officer opened fire on him, forcing him back down. Parker was later paroled on August 20, 1974.

Scott would also continue to build his resume of crime. In May of 1963 he was transferred back to Atlanta, where he was again found with contraband materials for an escape. His record states that he worked in the hospital as an X-Ray Technician, and was finally paroled on July 10, 1968.

Scott got married for a second time on January 20, 1970 in East Point Georgia, to Margie Morgan, a middle-aged widow. A later arrest report would indicate that Scott resided with his wife “in a very comfortable, spacious, ranch-style home. ” The report went on to say, “he himself built this home and has resided there since 1970. Estimated value is over $50,000 dollars.” It was also documented that he owned four other homes, but had placed them in his wife’s name. Scott also re-enrolled at Georgia State University for a short period. He later took a job as a lab technician at Clayton General Hospital in Riverdale,