But next thing we knew, Culver had opened Allen`s cell and taken him to solitary without any blankets or clothes. When the new shift went to solitary to take the morning count, Allen was unconscious. They rushed him to operating room, but the ulcers have busted and Allen died on the table.
The battle cry went around: ”Who killed Jack Allen?” If this could happen to one inmate, we were all subject to the same treatment. The strike agitators now had something solid to go on. Every man was approached and asked, ”Are you going to strike?” Very few objected. This death of Allen really hurt everyone, especially placing a real sick man in solitary.
Al Capone did not go on strike. Kelly, Bates and Bailey, the Oklahoma kidnapers, advised him not to have a thing to do with it. If he did, the officials would accuse him of being the leader, and he would lose all his good time. No man ever has taken the abusive language Capone was getting: ”Hey, you D— rat! . . . Phony Caponey! We`ll kill you yet, you dirty rat! We`ll get your wife and that dirty punk of yours, also.” This kept up all night, and Al told me later all he could do was hide his head under the blankets and cry. Capone a rat! What a joke to those who knew the fellow. He was even accused of tipping the officials off that the strike was being organized, but this was part of the frameup by the Texas-Oklahoma punks.
”No work, no food.” That was the order sent into isolation by the warden. Two days passed. One noontime officer came by with bread, but most of the men refused it. Dr. Hess came in and asked what complaint they had against the hospital. The men told him, ”It`s not you, Dr. Hess, but that doctor who wouldn`t help Jack Allen.”
The strike closed up every shop. Officers and civilian employees had to be sent to the laundry, which was under contract to the War Department to get out work for an Army transport. The officers even had to wait on tables in mess hall and wash windows and dishes. The place really was in an uproar, and we heard someone was coming from Washington to investigate.
But the strike lasted only five days, and then the majority of men went back to work. Nothing really was gained but the complete knowledge that you can`t even beat the powerful law-enforcement organization behind prison walls. The ringleaders were still in solitary and went on a hunger strike. This ended after they were given one forced feeding by the doctor. They really didn`t like the way he gave them their food-first through the mouth, and if they bit the rubber tube, it was put down their nose.
After the strike, the doctor who wouldn`t go down to see Jack Allen left the island. Whether he was discharged or resigned, I don`t know. Deputy Warden Shuttleworth was also sent away from Alcatraz. Capone was not permitted to work in the laundry or any other shop where men could get at him. He was assigned to the bathroom to keep the showers clean and floor polished. This gave him the opportunity to practice his music every afternoon.
I was now assigned to the clothing room, to keep the inmates in good dress and issue clothes to new men coming to Alcatraz. I had this job for over a year. The clothing room was right next to the bathroom. Every man in the institution must take a bath once a week, on either Saturday or Sunday afternoon. They are called by an officer who opens the cells and says, ”Down for bath!” The men are waiting for this, and they have ready their used bath sheets, pillowcase, three pair of socks, blue handkerchief, face towel, bath towel, one suit of underwear and one suit of coveralls. After throwing the dirty laundry away, they line up at the clothing room window, call their number and receive new sheets, towels, clothes and so on. At this time they can exchange clothing that don`t fit, worn articles for new. Any man can send his shoes to be repaired or his blue dress suit to the dry cleaner any time they need same. On Sundays and holidays when we march into the dining room we look more like military school-very neat, pants pressed and shoes shined.
There is no set menu. Very little stew or beans, no light meals. Supper is just as big as lunch, and the men never complain. Ice cream is served at least once a week, pie twice and cake or some dessert every night. Doughnuts, coffee rolls, hot biscuits most every day. Hotcakes for breakfast twice a week. On Christmas and Thanksgiving Day-turkey, and plenty of it. Everything that goes with a good dinner except a bottle of wine and a good cigar.
On all legal holidays-Christmas Day, New Year`s Day, Washington`s Birthday, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, seven times a year-they have a picture show of about 2 1/4 hours. This is looked forward to, but the men are always greatly disappointed-no crime or sex pictures like Mae West, etc. We see all of Grace Moore`s pictures. ”David Copperfield” and ”The House of Rothschild” made a great hit. But the pictures enjoyed most is Shirley Temple`s, and many a man cries. Many a wet eye after a Temple picture. Little Shirley Temple is the goddess to every man on the Rock, the Sweetheart of Alcatraz.
Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, when the weather permits, the men are allowed yard. There is four teams of softball, also handball, checkers and dominoes, two horseshoe-throwing boxes. The men that don`t go in for sports usually sit around or keep walking and talking about yesterday and what has been, the big touches they made and the girls they had.
When indoor baseball was first permitted on the island, Capone used to play and tried to run the team, but he made so many errors on first they put him on the field. Al`s feelings were hurt, and he stamped his foot and cursed the fellows. If he couldn`t play first base and manage the team, he wouldn`t play at all. Then he played horseshoes for a while and really got sore because he was beaten. He wouldn`t talk to the fellow that beat him. He had to be a winner or he wouldn`t play. While he was in Atlanta, he and his bodyguards used to play tennis, and if they ever beat him, he would break up the tennis rackets and fire the bodyguards. All he kept on doing was breaking and buying new tennis rackets. Capone offered to pay to have a tennis court made at Alcatraz, but this and all other of his ideas were always knocked to pieces by Warden Johnston.
Working in the bathroom right next to the clothing room, Capone and I became very friendly. He wasn`t acting natural at that time, and even the officer in charge of our department, Joe Kranz, remarked that Al must be losing his mind. I remember one day Al was looking out at the new bridge. No cable as yet was laid across, just the towers. Capone asked Mr. Kranz what that was. Mr. Kranz said, ”That`s the Golden Gate Bridge.” Al looked at him strange for a second or so and then said, ”Say, boss-any traffic over the bridge yet?”
Al always raved about Samuel Insull of Chicago being found not guilty by the courts and he, Capone, given 10 years. He placed himself on the same level as Insull and really couldn`t understand the difference between his case and Insull`s. He said many times that Insull robbed women and widows and he never did.
Many attempts were made to get Capone in a spot where they could go to work on him, but Capone kept close to his own work and his guard at all times. One morning Capone was in the clothing room showing a new instrument he`d just received to his supposed bodyguard, Arthur McDonald. The officer of the department and myself were at a desk not eight feet away. In the next room, getting his monthly haircut, was Jimmy Lucas. The barber was known as ”Hard Rock,” one of the Texas-Oklahoma punks. The barber gave Lucas half a pair of shears so Lucas could get Capone as soon as he left the clothing room and went back to the bathroom.
But Capone knew that Lucas was in the barber shop. He kept McDonald near him and he kept looking at the new instrument. Lucas must have got sick of waiting. In he rushed, pushed Capone`s bodyguard away and started to stab Capone. At first the guard and myself didn`t know what happened. When we looked, Capone was on the floor, wrestling with Lucas, who kept swinging the half of shears. The guard ran over and hit Lucas over the head with his bluejack, and I helped Capone up. Al felt his side and found blood and said,
”The dirty s— stabbed me. Please take me to the hospital.”
All this time the supposed bodyguard of Capone stood there and didn`t help his supposed friend-wouldn`t even help him to the hospital. He was afraid he would get in wrong with the Texas Cowboys.
I helped Capone to quiet down and then helped him upstairs to the hospital. When his shirt was removed they saw all the stab wounds, including one real bad one near the kidneys. The officer brought the half shear up to the doctor, and they noticed that the tip was broke off. I went downstairs and swept the floor, but I couldn`t find it. The doctor then X-rayed Capone`s body to try to find the missing piece. It turned out this piece of steel was embedded in his thumb. Capone must have put up his hand to shield his eyes. They removed the small piece of steel and put Capone to bed in the hospital.
Lucas was placed in solitary and then in isolation for six months, losing all his good time of 12 years. Now he`s just on the edge of going stir bugs.
Most of the men confined on the Rock have 25 years or more to do, with very little hope of ever seeing the free world again. The federal board of paroles meet at Alcatraz approximately every three months, but no man has ever been granted parole from the Rock. Al Capone had his application in and was called, but as usual he was denied, along with two or three others that went up before the board. ”Your application for parole has been denied.” That`s all-no reason or excuses. A man I knew used to say, ”If they only could give me one excuse why I didn`t make parole! What`s wrong with my connections? That dirty rat fixer told my wife I was a cinch!”
If Capone goes insane, that`s not so hard for me to believe. Who wouldn`t under the pressure he has been living the past few years? If any man deserves a break, Al Capone should be given it while there is still a chance to help him regain his mind. He has always been a model prisoner in Alcatraz and would be the same in any institution.
In a medical examination on his arrival at Alcatraz in 1934, Capone was found to have syphilis, but for several years he refused medical treatments. Early in 1938 he began to show symptoms of paresis, slight or partial paralysis. Transferred to a federal correctional institution, he was released in 1939 after serving 1/2 years of his sentence. He died eight years later.
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On Jan. 11, 1937, Alcatraz released Al Best into what he referred to as
”the free world.” For a year or two he stayed out of trouble, but the government agents closed in on him again in 1939 when he applied, under the name ”William Best,” for a United States passport. In addition to using a false name, the government said, Best lied about his father`s name, his father`s place of birth, his wife`s name, his wife`s place of birth, the date of his marriage and his occupation and falsely stated he had never before applied for a passport.
Best again pleaded guilty, and on Feb. 29, 1940, they locked him up for a year and a day in the penitentiary at Atlanta.
He did not go back to Alcatraz.
