This 1940 architectural plan for improvements to the U.S. Penitentiary at Alcatraz shows details and the locations of two new guard towers. Situated on an island in San Francisco Bay, the prison held the nation’s toughest criminals, include Al Capone and “Machine Gun” Kelly.
The prison first opened in 1934 and was meant to show the American public that the federal government was serious about fighting the swell in crime that the nation saw in the 1920s and 1930s. It was designed to hold the most dangerous elements of the federal prison system, in particular prisoners who had shown violent behavior at other federal prisons or those who were likely to attempt escape. U.S. Penitentiary Alcatraz continued to house criminals for nearly 30 years, before ultimately closing its doors in 1963.
Of the more than 1,500 men who served time on Alcatraz, 36 attempted to escape the cell house in 14 unique escape attempts. None of these escape attempts was ever officially declared a success. Thirty-one men were either caught and returned to the prison or died in the midst of their escape. The five remaining men were never captured, and their bodies were never found in San Francisco Bay, leaving them listed as “missing and presumed drowned.”
