Alcatraz, or Hellcatraz as some inmates used to call it, is located of the coast of San Francisco. It first recieved the name La Isla de los Alcatraces which means The Island of the Pelicans because it was covered with pelican droppings. Before this island even had a penitentiary Native Americans avoided it because they thought it contained evil spirits.
In the mid 1800s it was realized that the island could be used as a defense against enemy ships that might try to come through the Golden Gate Bridge. The military decided to build a fortress on the island in the 1850s. Since there were now people on the island working, it was only a short time before accidents would start to happen and people would start to die. In 1857 when a crew was working on the roadway a 7,000 cubic-yard rock landslide buried them. The first known dead on Alcatraz were 25 year-old Jacob Unger of Germany and 50 year-old Daniel Pewter of Ireland. In 1859 the first 11 prisoners arrived on Alcatraz escorted by the Third Artillery. There names were anonymous and they were kept there for crimes not recorded in the army files. Alcatraz was now a prison.
By 1861 Alcatraz was the prison used for the whole Department of the Pacific. Men slept head-to-toe on cold stone floors. There was no heat or water in the cells and disease was all over. Soon Alcatraz was housing the worst of the west. Until 1911 when Alcatraz became an official Army Prison which housed any U.S. Army prisoners as well as German soldiers or seamen who became prisoners of war.
There were many escape attempts from 1906 to 1929, none of them being successful. In 1906 four men tried to escape by swimming to the mainland, but the currents took them right back. In 1912, 16, and 27 driftwood was used to try to make it to the mainland and even a ladder was used in 1929.
In 1934 Alcatraz was turned into an escape-proof, maximum security prison, where only the big convicts were brought. The first guests of the new Alcatraz were given numbers 1-32 with Frank Bolt being the lucky guy to get #1.He served a five year sentence for sodomy. Next came Charles Copp (Robbery & Attempted Assault), Leon Gregory (Robbery, Assault, and AWOL), Joseph Harrison (Sodomy), Forest Henry (Robbery and Assault), Clyde Hicks (Sodomy), Ralph Hills (Robbery and Assault), Albert Hoke (Robbery), Alan Hood(Sodomy), and finally Frederick Holme (Sodomy and False Enlistment) who would be the 10th. Al Capone showed up in 1934 as well and was number 85.
Many convicts found Alcatraz as home for the rest of their lives. Not only was this prison reinforced to ensure no escapes, but it was harsh. The convicts could see the San Francisco city lights and hear the party boats pass by. If you broke the prison rules it was confinement in the "D" Block. Here men could only leave their cells once every seven days for a ten-minute shower, then back to the 4x8 foot cell. Life was hard here, real hard. No wonder so many men prefered death to this harsh isolation.
On March 21, 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy closed the doors to Alcatraz. Until 1969 the prison was empty. Today the Island is maintained by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is a huge tourist attraction.
After years of pain and sorrow and death this island must have extreme amounts of energy. All of those who came to "The Rock" and never left are still there for us to hear, see, and feel. Here are just some of the stories.
The Park service staff and rangers have experienced loud crashing sounds, cell doors closing, feelings of being watched, and unearthly screams. A psychic picked up on the voices of the tortured souls as well as vibrations of abuse, mistreatment, fear, and pain. He said that the energy coming from Alcatraz was like no other and was overwhelming.
The most haunted places on Alcatraz are the hospital, the laundry room, and the Warden's house. There is also a lot of energy at the cell block C utility door where convicts Bernard Coy, Joseph Cretzer and Marvin Hubbard died during an escape attempt on May 2, 1946. The most haunted area of Alcatraz is cell block D, solitary. A suuden feeling of intensity hits most who go there. It is very very cold in certain cells, especially cell 14-D. This cell is sometimes so cold that even wearing a jacket will not help.
According to a former guard of Alcatraz men would be locked in "The hole," which were cell block D cells 9-14 if they were really bad. These cells were called "The Hole" because they contained no windows and only one light that would be turned off by the guards. Apparantly once an inmate was taken to "The Hole," but after just seconds of being inside he started screaming that there was someone with glowing eyes in there with him. Because of jokes among the guards about a ghostly presence roaming the corridors the man's screams of being attacked were ignored. The man's screams continued into the night until there was finally silence. The following day the guards opened the cell to find the man dead with a horrible exspression on his face. There were very noticable hand marks around his throat. The autopsy revealed that the strangulation was not self inflicted. Some believe that he was strangled by a guard who was fed up with his screaming, others say it was the evil spirit of a former inmate who had revenge on another helpless soul. The day after this the guards were doing a routine lineup of the convicts and they counted one to many people. There at the end of the lineup was the man who had died just the day before. Everyone looked in silence as the convict vanished into thin air.
Guards have also had experiences with phantom smoke, loud gunfire or cannons, and the sounds of people crying and moaning. Even the Warden, who did not believe in ghosts thought that he heard a woman sobbing.
The Warden's house is also a strong point for sightings. During a Christmas party some guards saw an apparition of a man in a grey suit. The room turned extremely cold and the fire in the old oven went out. After several seconds the man dissappeared.
There are several unexplained happenings at Alcatraz and according to many psychics and paranormal investigators it is a place with a lot of energy. There are spirits that are not at rest here and they will be around for a long time to come.
If you would like to visit Alcatraz take the Red & White Fleet Ferry Service. For reservations call (800) 229-2784
