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earned Alcatraz the unflattering nickname of "Devil's Island." Warden Johnston succeeded in keeping the media at a distance, and this resulted in the dissemination of various misleading stories. The fact that inmates were never directly paroled from Alcatraz added to the mythology of the island. The media had a difficult time finding men who had lived on the inside, because after prisoners were released from Alcatraz, they were sent on to other prisons to finish out their sentences. When the press did manage to talk with former inmates, they usually told horrific stories about the brutalities they had experienced while incarcerated on the island. Most of these depictions were flawed, but the stories of horrid beatings, rigid disciplinary measures, and extreme isolation fueled the media's interest. In July of 1935, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a headline article entitled “Alcatraz Silence Awful.” The editorial featured an interview with an inmate who had been released for exportation. He described the tough rule of silence, stating that this was the harshest aspect of confinement at Alcatraz. He said that it created a constant pressure, with only a brief reprieve in the recreation yard on weekends. The article concluded with the inmate stating: “It’s the toughest pen I’ve ever seen. The hopelessness of it really gets to you. Capone feels it. Everybody does.”

A letter smuggled out of the prison to a San Francisco newspaper in 1935, claiming abuse and cruelty at Alcatraz.

John Stadig, one of the inmates referenced in the smuggled letter, who allegedly suffered from psychosis resulting from severe abuse.

Verrill Rapp was the first inmate paroled from Alcatraz as a Federal Penitentiary. The San Francisco Examiner printed news stories that told of horrid conditions at Alcatraz, which were alleged by Rapp.

The stressful regimen of Alcatraz did indeed create a pressure-cooker environment for some of the inmates. The cellblocks were always illuminated, and there was no privacy of any kind. There was a continual sense of mistrust and suspicion among inmates and staff alike. Writer Susan Lamb offered a unique perspective in her book entitled: Alcatraz – The Rock:

Parallel to the regimentation imposed by authority was the conformity demanded of one another by the inmates. Rival subcultures, complete with hierarchies and arcane jargon, left no one in peace. Independence and character had no chance for expression.

In Erwin T. Thompson’s masterful historic reference on Alcatraz, the author quotes a letter sent to Bureau Director James V. Bennett on June 6, 1937 by Burton Phillips, a young convict sentenced to Alcatraz for kidnapping and robbery. Phillips wrote to Bennett claiming that the Bureau had violated his constitutional rights by denying his request for specific legal publications.

Burton Phillips

Los Angeles mobster and gambler Meyer “Mickey” Cohen a famed inmate of Alcatraz. Mickey was the trusted friend of racketeer Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

The letter read in part:

Are you to put me in here for life, stop all my mail and deny me the right of legal redress by keeping me in ignorance of legal decisions? Then I would be better off to slit my throat, or perhaps, someone else’s and make you hang me, ending quickly and mercifully a life which would otherwise be carried on tortuously year after weary year without hope or possibilities of legal release.

I’ll grant you the point that there is nothing in the Constitution to keep you from starving, torturing and mistreating me but it must be a regrettable oversight on your part to deny me full access to legal documents.

A letter smuggled off Alcatraz to the Attorney General, requesting that inmates be allowed to read the newspaper in order to keep up with current events. This letter, considered as contraband, was signed by numerous famous inmates at Alcatraz, but it did not reach its intended destination. A mail handler found the letter in Sacramento and turned it over to the authorities.

Phillip’s rage would finally flare-out on September 20,