US President Donald Trump claims that he wants to convert Alcatraz for decades after the conversion of the island california island into a US tourist destination to a federal prison because it had become too costly for the house criminals.
In prison off the coast of San Francisco, the US government sent all theis-infamed gangster Al Capone and George “machine gun” Kelly as well as less well-known men who were considered too dangerous to join elsewhere.
The notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger served time in Alcatraz, as did the Canadian bank clearer Alvin Karpis and the Soviet Pion Morton Sobell.
Alcatraz circled by heron and seagulls and often wrapped in fog, was the backdrop for films with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage (The rock) and Clint Eastwood (Escape from Alcatraz).
Trump says Alcatraz, currently part of the US National Park Service, is suddenly necessary to accommodate America’s “most ruthless and most violent” criminals.
“When we were a more serious nation in earlier times, we did not hesitate to lock the most dangerous criminals and keep them far away from any way to which they could harm. So it should be,” said Trump on Sunday on his social site.
Scott Wiener, the democratic state of the California Democratic State, criticized Trump and said that he wanted to create a “domestic Gulag in the middle of the Bay of San Francisco”.
What is Alcatraz?
Alcatraz Island is located in the bay north of the city and visible from the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco. It is best known for his years as a federal prison from 1934 to 1963, but its story is much longer.
US President Millard Fillmore declared the island for public purposes in 1850 and soon became a military location. There were accommodated there during the civil war.
In the 1930s, the US government decided that it needed a place to hold the worst criminals, and Alcatraz was a choice for a prison.
“A remote location was searched for that would prohibit constant communication with the outside world by those who were locked up in his walls,” said the parking service.
“Although Land in Alaska was considered, the availability of Alcatraz Island fell conveniently with the government’s perceived need for a high -security prison.”
Does it fit the Hollywood picture?
Karpis, the Canadian bank robber, was in prison for more than 30 years, including a long route in Alcatraz. In the 1970s he spoke to CBC about his time there.
“Was it so great, terrible, as impressive as Hollywood led us to faith?” The broadcaster Larry Solway asked him during a conversation about CBC This Monday About him time on “The Rock”.
“Well, I personally, I myself, I thought it was one of the greatest fraud cases that the American public ever postponed, as far as it is a place that was filled by murderous ‘public enemies’ as it was on these boys,” replied Karpis. As he granted it, the facility had “its share” in infamous residents, he claimed that it was “nothing more than any other big state prison”.
Karpis had been deported to Canada in 1969. He later recalled that the RCMP asked him whether he was planning to hang out with members of the organized crime at this side of the border.
“As I explained to the guy: Do you think I would be stupid enough to tell you, yes, if I would be?” He said about CBCs during an interview in 1976 90 minutes live.
Why did it take it closed?
The seclusion of Alcatraz finally made it impractical. Everything from food to fuel had to arrive by boat.
“The island had no source of fresh water,” according to the US prison office, “almost a million gallon water had to be directed to the island every week.”
The cost of the accommodation of someone in 1959 was 10 US dollars a day compared to 3 US dollars in a federal prison in Atlanta, the government said. It was cheaper to build a new prison from scratch.
Why is Alcatraz notorious?
Despite the place, many prisoners tried to get out: According to FBI 14, 36 men tried separate escape into the bay. Almost all of them were caught or did not survive the cold water and the fast electricity.
In 1969, a group of indigenous people, mainly college students, claimed a historical right to Alcatraz and began a crew that lasted 19 months for the federal authorities to enter into 1971.
Escape from AlcatrazA 1979 film with Eastwood told the story of John Anglin, his brother Clarence and Frank Morris, who had all escaped in 1962 and remained handmade plaster heads with real hair in their beds.
“In the 17 years in which we worked on the case, there were no credible evidence that the men were still alive, either in the USA or overseas,” said the FBI.
The rockA fictitious thriller from 1996 with Connery and Cage revolves around the efforts to save hostages from Rogue Marines on Alcatraz.
Alcatraz became part of the Golden Gate national recreation area and open to the public in 1973, a decade after closing as a prison.
