Although Warden Johnston attempted to impose equal restrictions on all prisoners, the impression persisted inside and outside Alcatraz that Capone enjoyed a privileged status.
The mail was getting everyone down. It took a letter from 10 days to 2 weeks to get to you after it reached the institution. You see, all the incoming letters are censored and then given to different guards to type in duplicate when they have time. Nothing was personal. Every officer could take your letters and read them and then discuss your personal affairs with each other. The prisoners` personal mail was taken home by different officers to let their wives read.
Prisoners in the ”first grade” for good behavior were permitted to write one letter a week to immediate relatives, and those in the ”second grade,” two letters a month. Letters to lawyers or other unrelated persons were permitted only on approval of the deputy warden, and they counted in the weekly allowance. The cell-house officer would issue three sheets of lined paper for each letter, which had to be turned in unfolded, without an envelope. The prisoner wrote on one side of the paper, and signed his full name and his number. If anyone was mentioned by name in the letter, the full name had to be used. No nicknames allowed.
Visits are permitted once a month, for 20 minutes, from a near relative only. You can hardly see your visitor, as they are in one room and you in another. You sit on a small stool and a guard behind you, and the visitor is in the other with a guard near her. Small holes are in the steel wall, and you talk through this or place your ear to hear what is said.
The relative must apply in writing to the warden for a pass. This is sent out, stating a certain date. Your visitor is taken to the Rock on the launch and goes through the Snitch Box to find out whether she has any guns or files. Alcatraz has three of these Snitch Boxes or Magic Eye machines: two for prisoners and one at the pier for visitors and civilian employees. The inmates pass through going to work and upon return. The last piece of metal will be found, and a buzzer will ring. That`s one reason there are no nails in inmates` shoes. At one time, metal buttons was used on coveralls, but this had to be discontinued, also.
The machines can be beat, but it is the habit of the guards to grab every third or fourth man in line and give him a thorough search, which proves the officials haven`t much confidence in the machines. No one knows who will be called out of line and given a thorough frisk. This is done not only for metal or knives but for notes or messages passed between prisoners.
Capone`s mother visited him once, and when she went through, the machine buzzed. She was taken by an officer`s wife and searched. They found she had an old-fashioned corset with steel in it. What a thing for a woman nearly 70 years old to go through!
That December Capone was in the first fight among the men on the island. Capone was working on the mangle in laundry, feeding it. At the other end was a prisoner named William Collyer, No. 185, a soldier serving life for killing an Army officer. Capone didn`t like the way this chap was working, not fast enough. Words were exchanged and Capone lost his head and threw a bunch of wet laundry at Collyer. (According to ”Capone” by John Kobler, it was Collyer who threw the laundry.-Ed.) Collyer returned this by throwing a wood bench at Capone. Then they went to it for a few minutes, until separated by the officer. Both were placed in the dungeon. (This is not the solitary cell but really an underground dungeon used years ago by the Spanish.) Leg irons we placed on both men so they couldn`t walk around. Capone and Collyer were only in the dungeon overnight, but they lost all privileges for a month, and Capone was not sent back to laundry.
I noticed that Alcatraz really had ”clicks.” The Texas and Oklahoma Cowboys, mostly bank robbers, were together. The Kelly-Bailey-Bates mob were strong. Jim Ryan, No. 189, and Frank ”Blackie” McKee, No. 188, ex-members of the Terrible Touhy mob of Chicago, kept to themselves. Arthur ”Doc” Barker, No. 268, and Alvin ”Creepy” Karpis, No. 325, had another mob.
Warden Johnston counted nine associates of the Karpis-Barker gang-killers, robbers, kidnapers-at Alcatraz in the mid-1930s. Doc Barker, like his mother, the notorious ”Ma” Barker, and his brothers Fred and Herman, died defying officers. In January, 1939, he sawed out of his cell at Alcatraz, ran to the water`s edge and was shot by guards.
(John) Paul Chace, No. 237, the partner of ”Baby Face” Nelson, was in the Frisco Mob. Another mob was led by Carl Rettich, No. 254, of Providence, R.I., doing 25 years as the brains of the Fall River mail robbery. The soldiers, mostly all youngsters, kept to themselves.
Permission was granted for the institution to have an orchestra. Anyone that wanted to purchase a musical instrument could do so and study for 20 minutes each day. A young chap named Arthur Charrington, No. 199, who used to play in some good orchestra in Chicago at night and rob banks with John Dillinger in the daytime, was given charge. Capone asked the warden for permission to buy instruments for the entire orchestra, but this was absolutely denied.
”I would not permit any scheme to enable (Capone) to gain leadership through largess,” Warden Johnston wrote later. ”It was apparent from the beginning that he was trying to show the other prisoners that he would find some way to get what he wanted inside, just as he had always got what he wanted when he was outside.”
Capone purchased a banjo and two instruments for his so-called bodyguards-or leeches, that`s all they were. Capone really didn`t know one musical note from another, but he soon played and read music. He purchased another instrument, a mandolo-a combination mandolin and banjo, I believe. It was a $600 instrument and a masterpiece. Capone would sit away from anyone and practice. But the men in the orchestra were always in dispute over who was in charge, and many arguments and dissension was amongst them. Capone was receiving original orchestrations and trying to help, but they didn`t want any part of Al and at one time refused to play if he was in the orchestra.
Best`s version of the conflict between Capone and other prisoners differs from other reports holding that Capone got along reasonably well.
Harmon Waley, No. 248, one of the kidnapers of little George Weyerhaeuser, played an instrument in the orchestra and sang. Waley was a tall youngster, an ex-sailor, considered a big, dumb kid. He was one of the most hated men inside the prison, not only because he kidnaped a youngster but because he ratted on his pal and wouldn`t help his wife in court. Waley knew he was hated and kept to himself. Capone always pushed Waley around, until one Saturday afternoon Capone`s back was turned, and Waley hit him and knocked him down. Chairs were thrown, and it looked like they were all going to gang up on Capone and give him the works when the officers split it up. Waley and Capone were reported and punished-Capone`s second fight on the Rock.
Around that time Capone seemed worried and excited and was really hard to get along with. He has a very bad temper and loses his head easily. I noticed this and kept away, but he broke down and told me he`d been approached by the Texas-Oklahoma mob: Jimmy Lucas, No. 224, Cecil Snow, No. 222, Jack Hardin, No. 220, and others. They tried to shake him down for $15,000, assured him that they had an ”in” to smuggle a few machine guns into the prison and could have a fast motorboat waiting in the bay. Capone listened and laughed. He told them they were crazy and that he didn`t want any part of their plans or even their friendship. This really started the severe hatred of Capone, although he was liked by all the older fellows and the big shots. Word went all over the prison that the Texas-Oklahoma kids were out to get Capone.
Capone at this time was working in dry-cleaning plant with two other prisoners-Alfred ”Sailor” Loomis, No. 187, and Arthur McDonald, No. 109-and a civilian laundry employee. They all were shaking Capone down. McDonald, the stickup man from Washington, got $500 sent home through Capone. He was supposed to be Capone`s bodyguard and friend, but he was always dealing with the boys that were out to get Capone.
The officials found out that the civilian employee was doing favors for Capone, and he was fired at once. About the same time, another employee in the laundry also was fired for sneaking whiskey and other things into the prison. Those punks from Texas-Oklahoma spread the rumor that everything the officials found out was through Capone. There was absolutely no truth to it. Capone would never rat on anyone under any condition. Outside of losing his head so easily and bragging about what he has done, Capone has a heart as big as a house. He worships his wife and son. His only ambition was to pay his debt to society and forget the past. He wanted to do his time in Alcatraz as easy as he could-but the majority of the men had it in for him and were out to get him.
Public fascination with Alcatraz fed on fantasies of madness and despair. The fog, the wind, the loneliness, the boring, monastic regime were said to drive the prisoners out of their minds. Worse, there was no hope of eventual escape. No one, it was said, could survive more than a few minutes in the icy waters that swirl around the island. In fact, the rate of insanity and attempted suicide at Alcatraz was about average for a maximum-security prison, but many of the prisoners-including, apparently, Al Best-were haunted by the specter of madness.
A number of boys were going stir bugs, and the fellows were wondering who would be the next to break under this severe strain. Jack Stadig, the counterfeiter, was taken to Washington for another trial and, on the way back, jumped out of the train window and was found a few days later, injured. Stadig didn`t want to escape; he wanted death instead of years in Alcatraz. Well, he was returned to the Rock and finally went stir bugs. He tried three or four times to commit suicide but always was caught in time. Finally he was transferred to Leavenworth, but he was too far gone. The first chance he had, he jumped to his death from a cell gallery.
Mike Telerico, No. 156, a kidnaper from Des Moines, Ia., doing 42 years, went completely mad and was transferred to an institution for the insane. Edward ”Sailor” Wutke, No. 47, tried to commit suicide twice while I was at Alcatraz, and recently the guards found him with his jugular vein cut.
Right now the Chicago ganglord Al Capone is proclaimed insane on Alcatraz. No man can stand the routine of Alcatraz very long. It`s impossible for the human brain cells to stay normal under present conditions.
Last December (1935) the Christmas spirit was completely missing. The boys were dissatisfied with everything, even the food. The well-known agitators were getting organized. They didn`t know whether to strike on the holidays, but I guess the two picture shows-on Christmas and New Year`s-meant a great deal to the men, so they waited.
Early January-I would say about the 7th or 8th-a prisoner named Jack Allen, No. 211, was taken real ill about 8 p.m. and kept yelling for the guard. Allen was a real sick chap, TB and ulcers of the stomach. The officer came, saw Allen was in great pain and called the lieutenant of the guard, Richard Culver. The lieutenant telephoned the doctor, but was told Allen was faking and that if he made any more noise to lock him in solitary. Allen kept yelling real loud, ”Oh, Christ! Save me! Oh, God, I can`t stand this pain,” etc.
