Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [83]
how he felt at the moment.
If there are any changes in the situation, I will advise.
J.A. Johnston
Warden
Al Capone’s Terminal Island mug shot, taken on January 6, 1938, the day of his release from Alcatraz.
The United States Federal Penitentiary at Terminal Island, California.
Capone and his brothers Albert and Ralph (wearing their ranger style hats) in Mercer, Wisconsin. This never before published photo was taken during a hunting trip in 1944.
Capone at his Palm Island estate following his release from prison.
Early on the morning of January 6, 1939, Associate Warden E.J. Miller escorted Capone to the mainland, where Federal Marshals awaited to take custody of the famous prisoner. He was transferred to Terminal Island, a Federal Prison in Southern California where he would serve out the remainder of his sentence. His time served at Terminal Island, proved to be a continuum of harsh confinement. George Hess, the one-time Chief Medical Officer at Alcatraz (who had also transferred his practice to Terminal Island), wrote to the Medical Director at the Bureau of Prisons in September of 1939:
Capone is now confined to one of the Segregation Cells but is permitted books, magazines, papers, commissary and proper exercise. It became necessary to segregate this man from other inmates for his own protection. His most recent assault of another inmate happened to be one of our model inmates who is very well liked by the inmate body as well as the officials. The feeling against Capone for this unprovoked assault was decidedly one of intense resentment. It is felt that the best interests of all concerned will be adequately protected by Capone’s indefinite segregation under careful supervision.
* * *
He was released from prison on November 16, 1939, following a brief stay at the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and was then voluntarily transferred to the Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore to undergo a three week treatment program for paresis. The Department of Justice provided only a brief official news release to members of the press. It read simply:
Alphonse Capone was released today from the United States Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He was met by a member of his family. He was recently transferred to the United States Penitentiary at Lewisburg from, the Federal Correctional Institution near Los Angeles, California.
Upon the petition of Capone's attorneys the computation of his sentence has again been reviewed, and he is now being given credit for three days he served in federal custody between October 24, 1931 and October 27, 1931, the date on which the United States Circuit Court of Appeals granted a supersedeas suspending execution of the judgment under which he was originally incarcerated on October 24, 1931. He began service of the ten-year sentence on May 4, 1932, to be followed by a one-year sentence. Allowances for good conduct on both sentences and allowance for the time held in the jail between the date of his sentence and the granting of the supersedeas bring his release date to November 16, 1939.
Capone died on January 25, 1947 in his Palm Island Mansion, in Miami Beach Florida. On his death certificate, completed by Medical Examiner Kenneth Phillips, “Bronco- Pneumonia and Apoplexy” were listed as the official cause of death. His older brother Raffaele would also later serve time for tax evasion at McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary.
The Birdman of Alcatraz
The Life and Imprisonment of Robert Franklin Stroud
Burt Lancaster portrayed Robert Stroud in the 1962 classic motion picture Birdman of Alcatraz.
Robert Stroud was perhaps one of the most unique and interesting of all the prisoners in the annals of American penology. He remains a historical icon and his legend is woven into the fabric of Alcatraz and its colorful past. However, despite his worldwide fame and notoriety, the public never came to know the real Stroud. His soft image as a gentle bird doctor was the romanticized