Battle of Alcatraz

Unsuccessful escape attempt from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1946

The Battle of Alcatraz, which lasted from May 2 to 4, 1946, was the result of an escape attempt at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary by armed convicts. Two Federal Bureau of Prisons officers—William A. Miller and Harold Stites—were killed (Miller by inmate Joseph Cretzer who attempted escape and Stites by friendly fire). Three inmates were also killed during the incident. Fourteen other officers and one uninvolved convict were also injured. Two of the perpetrators were executed in 1948 for their roles.

Alcatraz was a maximum high security federal prison located on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco bay. It operated from 1934 to 1963 and had a reputation for being impossible to escape from. As a result, it housed some of the most notorious and high profile prisoners, in particular ones who had a history of escape attempts.

The escape attempt was planned by Bernard Coy. Three other convicts were involved in the main plan, Marvin Hubbard, Joseph Cretzer and Clarence Carnes. Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson joined the escapees after the attempt had begun. Coy was a Depression era criminal who, in 1937, was sentenced to 25 years for bank robbery. He was moved to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1938 from Atlanta and was soon given the job of cell house orderly, which gave him a relative amount of freedom of movement around the main cellblock. Joe Cretzer was a West Coast gangster and member of the Cretzer Kyle Gang. In 1940, he was sentenced to 25 years for murder. After two escape attempts in the first months of his incarceration, one of which resulted in another murder charge, he was transferred to Alcatraz. In May 1941, Cretzer, Shockley and two other convicts made an escape attempt from a prison workshop. Carnes was the youngest prisoner to reside at Alcatraz, having been convicted of murder in 1943 at the age of 16. He made a number of escape attempts and by 1946, when he was transferred to Alcatraz, had accumulated both a life sentence and 99 years for kidnapping.

Through his role as a cell house orderly, Coy noticed flaws in the prison's security. The gun gallery at the west end of the cell house was protected by bars, but with no mesh or barriers. A Federal Bureau of Prisons officer in the gallery had set routines, allowing convicts to predict when the main cellblock and the gallery would be unobserved.

On May 2, 1946, while most convicts and corrections officers were in outside workshops, Coy was in the main cellhouse sweeping the floor around C Block when kitchen orderly Marvin Hubbard called on officer William Miller to let him in, as he had just finished cleaning the kitchen. As Miller was frisking Hubbard for any stolen articles, Coy attacked him from behind and they overpowered him. They released Joseph Cretzer and Clarence Carnes from their cells. At 14:35 Coy took the rifle and fired at the officers in some neighboring watchtowers, wounding one of them. Associate warden Ed Miller went to the cellhouse to investigate, armed with a gas billy club. He came across Coy, who shot at him. Miller retreated. By now, the alarm had been raised. Their plan having failed, Shockley and Thompson urged Cretzer, who had one of the guns, to kill the hostages in case they testified against them. Cretzer opened fire on the officers, wounding five, three seriously, including Bill Miller, who later died of his wounds. Carnes, Shockley, and Thompson returned to their cells, but Coy, Hubbard, and Cretzer decided they were not going to surrender. Meanwhile, one of the hostages wrote down the names of the convicts involved, circling the names of the ringleaders. At about 18:00, a squad of armed officers entering the gun cage were shot at by the convicts. One officer, Harold Stites, was killed by friendly fire,

After night fell, two squads of officers entered the prison to locate and rescue the captive officers. There was a long standing rule at Alcatraz that no guns were allowed in the cellhouse, and the prison officials did not want more officers injured or killed. The convicts' position on the top of a cell block provided a nearly impregnable firing position, as they were out of range of the officers in the gun cages. At 20:00, unarmed officers entered the cellhouse, covered by armed officers in the two gun galleries overhead. They found the hostages; however, one officer was wounded by a gunshot fired from the roof of one of the cell blocks. They locked the open door to D Block. When the last officer reached safety, the officers opened a massive barrage from machine guns, and grenades on the prisoners within D Block, where the prison authorities erroneously thought one of the armed convicts was holed up. They eventually figured out that the rebellious prisoners were confined to the main cellhouse and ceased their attack until further tactics were worked out. The Marines, led by World War II veteran, Warrant Officer Charles Lafayette Buckner IX, drove the armed convicts into a corner with tactics they had perfected against entrenched Japanese resistance during the Pacific War. They drilled holes in the prison roof and dropped grenades into areas where they believed the convicts were located, to force them into a utility corridor where they could be cornered. On May 3, at about 12:00, the convicts phoned Johnston to try to discuss a deal. Johnston would accept only their surrender. Cretzer replied that he'd never be taken alive. Later that day, a shot was fired at an officer as he checked out C Block's utility corridor. Miran Thompson and Sam Shockley were executed simultaneously in the gas chamber at San Quentin on December 3, 1948, for their roles in the Battle of Alcatraz. Carnes was spared from execution after numerous officers taken hostage testified that he'd refrained from carrying out orders to kill them. Carnes received an additional life sentence, but was eventually paroled in 1973. He breached his parole conditions, was sent back to prison and died there from complications due to AIDS in 1988. Increased security measures ensured that there were no more escape attempts until 1956. Prison Guard Harold P. Stites was shot and killed (by friendly fire