Comment from Hudson
Alcatraz Island sits in the middle of the cold and windy San Francisco Bay, alone except for the pelicans and seagulls that chance to stop here. First used as a prison by the U.S. Army during the Civil War, “The Rock” became a maximum security penitentiary in 1934, as a sort-of experimental prison designed to house other, more unmanageable prisoners. Many notorious names graced these walls, including Al Capone, bank robber Leon “Whitey” Thompson, Machine Gun Kelly, and the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” Robert Stroud. Thirty-six escape attempts were made, and though a movie or two might suggest otherwise, none were known to have survived the icy waters surrounding the Rock.
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