After years of visiting San Francisco for work, I finally made it to Alcatraz last weekend. My friend Paul, his son Loren and I were amazed with the Island prison, made famous by its many notorious inmates and the one escape attempt that, to this day can’t be proven unsuccessful.
Looking at Alcatraz from the shore of San Francisco Bay you think that the prison is not that far from civilization, but once on the Island it must have seemed world’s away. A comment by one of the prisoners on the audio tour we had said that having the city in plain view was torture in itself, reminding the inmates on a daily basis what they were missing in life.
Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly Doc Barker and, of course, the Bird Man of Alcatraz were some of the most infamous inmates of “The Rock.” You also see how history vs. Hollywood is so wrong sometimes.
For instance, the Bird Man wasn’t the Bird Man in Alcatraz — in fact his cell was far away from any windows that I remember Hollywood portraying him with. The Bird Man actually got his reputation while in Leavenworth prison where he married a woman and started a bird company with her. He sold birds from the prison and would leave notes in the cages; sometimes the notes instructed people on how to take care of the bird and other times the notes gave explicit details on his sexual fantasies.
If you are ever in the Bay Area, Alcatraz is one of those places that you just have to see. If you plan to go, make sure you book you tickets at least two weeks in advance; that’s the reason it took me over 5 years to see it.
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