Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [182]
The desperate inmates searched feverishly for key #107, but a brave correctional officer had concealed the key inside the hostage cell.
Standing at the recreation yard door, Coy and Cretzer methodically debated where the right key could be found. Cretzer seemed certain that it had to be one of the keys in their possession. Carnes called over to Cretzer and Coy from his lookout post, warning them that he had heard a gate inside the sallyport open and then close. About a minute later the main cell door swung open and Chief Steward Bristow emerged, walking briskly down Broadway towards the Dining Hall. Bristow was in charge of the prison’s culinary division and he was completely unaware that armed convicts were roaming the cellhouse. He approached the Dining Hall door realizing that something was amiss, as the gate was not secure and Bill Miller wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Attempting not to make any suspicious gestures, he turned quickly as if he had forgotten something, and headed back to the main gate, hoping Officer Phillips would be there to greet him. Carnes positioned himself in the cutoff corridor after quietly running up from Park Avenue, and he watched Bristow to see if he would enter the kitchen. Carnes was now armed with what an officer would later describe as a pair of sharp “artist’s dividers,” and he intercepted Bristow at the cutoff and led him to Cell #404 without any struggle.
Coy and Cretzer were now becoming very frustrated, as they had not anticipated being unable to locate the yard key. The two inmates walked up to cell #404 where Bill Miller was now fully conscious and sternly demanded to know where key #107 was hidden. Miller denied having any knowledge of the key’s location, since it was strict protocol to return it to the gun gallery officer after using it. He insisted that the key must be in the gallery, adding that the inmates had witnessed the procedure numerous times themselves, and therefore must know that this regulation was stringently followed by all correctional officers. Coy and Cretzer walked a short distance to the officer’s desk in D Block, and laid out all of the keys, searching for #107. What they didn’t know was that Miller had failed to follow protocol and for convenience sake, had slipped key #107 into his shirt pocket. It was a stroke of luck, but Miller’s act of mild nonconformity was in fact upsetting the entire escape effort.
Suddenly, one of the inmates signaled that someone was coming through the main gate. At about 1:45 p.m., the gate opened and an unsuspecting Ernie Lageson strolled into the main cellhouse. While making his way down Broadway, he quickly noticed that something was wrong. Turning to look back, he recognized Bernie Coy wearing a pair of officer’s pants and no shirt. But before he could act, Coy aimed a rifle at him, leaving him no chance of escape. Coy forced Lageson to walk through the cutoff and onto Seedy Street, where he was searched and stripped of his keys and other valuables. With few words exchanged, he was shoved into the now crowded cell #404.
Sam Shockley then turned up at the cell front, yelling that Lageson had assaulted him previously when shoving him into the strip cell. Shockley insisted that his comrades let him at the officer, but Hubbard and Cretzer only pointed their weapons, discouraging this foolish behavior. Still Sam was fixated on injuring Lageson, and he stood at the cell front making threatening slurs. Finally Cretzer aimed the pistol at Shockley’s head, warning him to back off and calm himself.
As Lageson entered and moved to the middle of the crowded cell, Corwin quickly briefed him as to what had happened. It baffled them as to how Coy had managed to penetrate the gun gallery and access the weapons. Their initial assumption was that Coy had perched himself on something, then grabbed Burch by his clothing from outside, repeatedly smashing him against the tool-proof steel bars. Another hypothesis was that a guard had been held hostage until