Alcatraz - A Brief History

in the 1930s America was hit by a wave of organized crime the FBI spent many years trying to catch and convict mobsters like Al Capone when they finally arrested him they had to make sure he stayed locked up to contain this new breed of super gangster the US government planned to build a super prison they found the perfect location an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay called Alcatraz on the island was an old military fort sitting in a deep pit cut into the rock workers demolished the old building and built three storeys of steel reinforced concrete cell blocks on top none of the 600 cells had any contact to the outer walls they were a prison within prison each cell was fitted with unbreakable steel gates which had no keys but could be opened remotely Alcatraz was the biggest concrete structure in the world and supposedly the most secure prison on the planet Bablu arrived in Alcatraz in 1954 looking forward to 12 years on the rock the board made a wide turn and then I could see the island and first I saw the houses down the bottom and then looked up and the prison was sitting up on top the island so that was my first glimpse of Alcatraz it looked like to me like a French chateau but I knew that this was no country home this is going to be my prison for several years of course we all had heard Alcatraz it was going to be the end of that why Alcatraz was the last stop for America's most dangerous and violent offenders this is my mug shot that was taken though the first day I got here in April 1954 was just a young thug that beat you up as soon as look at you old up banks I was a burglar car thief served 11 or 12 years in prison for all that so it was obvious a different guy to keep people like young Bob safely locked up engineers fitted the cell doors with an extremely tough kind of prison bar when they opened the prison up in 1934 these all were done over with tool steels it can't cut these bars even if you had a hacksaw blade they're impossible there's a heavy hardened tool steel inside this bar I used to come in at 12 o'clock in Midnight and walk these tears counting and I always felt fairly safe you know the doors weren't just unbreakable they locked without keys they gave a whole new meaning to the term the Slimer 13 doors that we can open from this one box and down the row here rocker just giving them a heads up that the doors are going to be closing that's where you get the true sound of the slam right this is part of the punishments of Alcatraz here in this door open and close every year well the first time you hear that door slam it's like being entombed you know you just know that this is gonna be it for a while Alcatraz looked like the perfect prison a concrete fortress brimming with technology it didn't even need a fence around it as it was surrounded by the icy currents of San Francisco Bay when I used to work the towers I used to see logs maybe eight nine feet long going out with the tide its if it had a not born motor on it out it would go oh sure I want to try to skate from anywhere with I always thought was impossible to fight here so I just give up even we were thinking about it despite all the technology at Alcatraz three inmates went missing in 1962 all that was left of them were three dummies made of soap toilet paper and hair stolen from the barber shop and of course the big holes they had scraped into the concrete walls of their selves with the spoon the cells are back to back with a corridor in between nothing but pipes they call right up to the top and once they got up there they can't be seen I must have took a year or two you continue was planning kind of amazing that I was allowed to happen despite a massive search operation there was no trace of the prisoners I don't believe anyone ever escaped from Alcatraz most people don't realize the closest these inmates ever got to water was to take a shower now you couldn't be imagined panic-stricken to 3 o'clock in the morning jumping into that Bay no way my impression is that they got into the water they may have got out 100 yards or so and then goodbye whether the men escaped or not the fate of Alcatraz were sealed an investigation revealed that the supposedly escape-proof concrete was to blame for the break-up Alcatraz used seawater to flush the toilets it trickled from leaky pipes and seeped into the walls brick chips in the concrete soaked up the water and swell like sponges wedging open fishes eventually the reinforcing steel bars started a run and expand and concrete cracked even more after 30 years the formerly super strong walls were so crumbly that they weren't even a match for a spoon the leaky concrete would have cost millions to repair so in 1963 Alcatraz closed its doors for the last time but the lessons from the rock live on leave anyone ever Escape from Alcatraz most people don't realize the closest these inmates ever got to water was to take a shower now you could to be imagined panic-stricken to three o'clock in the morning jumping into that Bay no way my impression is that they got into the water they may have got out 100 yards or so and then goodbye Alcatraz look like the perfect prison a concrete fortress brimming with technology it didn't even need a fence around it as it was surrounded by the icy currents of San Francisco Bay when I used to work the towers I used to see logs maybe eight nine feet long going out with the tide is if it had an outboard motor on it out it would go well sure I want to try to skate them anywhere with I always thought was impossible to fly here you

Channel: obasmedia

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Keywords: alcatraz, charity, escape, fund, blackpool

Id: BZqThttBpU0

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 18 2013