Battle of Alcatraz

The Battle of Alcatraz, which lasted from May 2 to 4, 1946, was the result of an escape attempt at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary by armed convicts. Two Federal Bureau of Prisons officers—William A. Miller and Harold Stites—were killed, Miller by inmate Joseph Cretzer who attempted escape and Stites by friendly fire. Three inmates were killed during the incident. Fourteen other officers and one uninvolved convict were injured. Two prisoners were executed in 1948 for their roles.

Alcatraz was a maximum high-security federal prison located on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco bay. It operated from 1934 to 1963 and had a reputation for being impossible to escape from. As a result, it housed some of the most notorious and high-profile prisoners, in particular ones who had a history of escape attempts.

The escape attempt was planned by Bernard Coy. Three other convicts were involved in the main plan, Marvin Hubbard, Joseph Cretzer and Clarence Carnes. Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson joined the escapees after the attempt had begun.

Coy was a Depression-era criminal who, in 1937, was sentenced to 25 years for bank robbery. In 1938, he was moved to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary from Atlanta and was soon given the job of cell-house orderly, which gave him a relative amount of freedom of movement around the main cellblock.

Joe Cretzer was a West Coast gangster and member of the Cretzer-Kyle Gang. In 1940, he was sentenced to 25 years for murder. After two escape attempts in the first months of his incarceration, one of which resulted in another murder charge, he was transferred to Alcatraz. In May 1941, Cretzer, Shockley and two other convicts made an escape attempt from a prison workshop.

Carnes was the youngest prisoner to reside at Alcatraz, having been convicted of murder in 1943 at the age of 16. He made a number of escape attempts and by 1946, when he was transferred to Alcatraz, had accumulated both a life sentence and 99 years for kidnapping.

Through his role as a cell-house orderly, Coy noticed flaws in the prison's security. The gun-gallery at the west end of the cell-house was protected by bars, but with no mesh or barriers. A Federal Bureau of Prisons officer in the gallery had set routines, allowing convicts to predict when the main cellblock and the gallery would be unobserved.

On May 2, 1946, while most convicts and corrections officers were in outside workshops, Coy was in the main cellhouse sweeping the floor around C Block. Kitchen orderly Marvin Hubbard called on officer William Miller to let him in, as he had just finished cleaning the kitchen. As Miller was frisking Hubbard for any stolen articles, Coy attacked him from behind, and they overpowered him. They released Joseph Cretzer and Clarence Carnes from their cells.