Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [185]
Meanwhile Coy went back into cell #404, and he and Cretzer started methodically going through the cell inch by inch in case the guards had been bold enough to try and hide the key there. Suddenly Coy had the idea that they might have attempted to flush the key. This seemed like a long shot, but there was a slim chance that it was lying hidden inside the toilet, just out of view. Coy took off the guard’s coat, positioned himself on his hands and knees, and reached into the saltwater-filled toilet bowl. As he groped along the bottom, he suddenly felt a piece of metal with the shape and texture of a brass key. He maneuvered the key out with his fingers, and strained to read the number. Sure enough, it was #107. Coy handed the key to Thompson, who carefully guided it into the slot, and attempted to turn the mechanism... But the key still would not work. The dead bolt had been specially designed to jam if it was sufficiently tampered with. The security design had worked, and despite the inmates’ frenzied efforts, the key would not budge the heavy steel dead bolt.
The heavy steel door leading to the recreation yard from the main cellhouse.
By now Cliff Fish was incredibly nervous, and he rang all of the phones located at the main internal posts. The ringing phones could be heard throughout the cellhouse, and this seemed to contribute to the stress of the inmates involved in the plot. Still there was no answer, and at about 2:00 p.m. Officer Fish called the Warden at his residence. Mrs. Johnston answered the phone, and explained that the Warden was taking a nap and had asked not to be disturbed. Fish explained that there was a crisis in the cellhouse and stressed that he needed to speak with the Warden urgently. Fish then briefed Johnston about the situation. Johnston instructed him to contact all of the tower posts as well as the Associate Warden, and added that he would wash up and meet Fish in the Armory within a few minutes. Fish then found himself in a rare predicament – the Warden had left him to decide whether or not to sound the siren. At this point, he had been unable to confirm any serious problem. But once the siren was engaged, it would sound for three minutes with no way to deactivate it – and the siren’s wail would signal to the world that there was a major situation at Alcatraz. At 2:07 p.m., Fish reached over and unlocked the siren cover and pressed the activation key.
When the siren began to sound, it could be heard across the Bay as far as the town of Marin. The conspirators were keen to the obvious. This was it – they now knew that the chances of escape were almost nonexistent. The island would soon be swarming with armed officers, and measures were probably already in place to prevent them from gaining access to the launch. Jim Quillen would recall in a later interview that he left D Block around this time and walked out onto Seedy Street, asking Cretzer if he and fellow inmate Jack Pepper could come along. Cretzer was apparently conscious that their chances of escape where dashed, and he shook hands with Quillen and told him to go back to his cell, because he didn’t think that they were going to make it to the mainland. He asked Quillen to try to get Sam Shockley to return to his cell too, but Shockley motioned them to wait a minute, and then walked away. This was the last he would ever see of them.
Coy had entered the bakery carrying the Springfield rifle, and he lined up a shot to take out the Hill Tower guard, Elmus Besk. Upon hearing the siren, Besk walked out onto the