WEBVTT - How Alcatraz Works 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:17.240 It's ready, are you hey? And welcome to the podcast. 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.159 I'm Josh Clark with me as always, It's Charles W. 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.040 Chuck Bryant that makes the stuff. You should know the 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:29.520 podcast the audio version, because we have a video version, baby. Yeah. 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.720 We throw videos that once a week now. No, no, no, 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:34.639 I mean we have like a video version of our 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.159 podcast that has rules. It's like a game show, remember 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:39.879 the stupid game show and we hey, yeah, yeah, that 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:42.559 one that's coming soon. It'll probably be out by this 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.000 time on the website. I think it published in our 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:48.879 You and Me time right here. 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And then on Facebook, 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:33.880 we're almost like fifty friends on Facebook. You can call 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.199 them and you can listen to us on w FMU 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:38.600 in the New York metro area at ninety point one 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.039 FM and in the Hudson Valley at nine one point 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:46.880 one and that's Friday evenings at seven at seven o'clock. Yeah, 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.000 we love w FMU and it's we're very proud to 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:50.800 be a part of that station. Yeah. Our buddy can 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:55.520 over there. Um just takes one classic episode and another 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.840 classic episode. It makes them kiss like Barbie Dolls, right 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:03.200 and puts them into an hour long version. Alright, yea 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:05.680 plug fest out of the way. Oh. We have two 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.800 audio books, one on the Economy, one Unhappiness. You can 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.919 find them on iTunes. Yeah, super stuff guides. Yeah, okay, 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:17.080 you're ready now, Chuck. Have you heard about this occupy 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.880 Wall Street jam? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, they're shutting it down 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.800 here and there are they? I thought they were generally 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.120 keeping it as long as it uh stayed contained in 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.520 Zuccati Park. It was relatively okay. Well, I mean in 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:35.080 different cities. They're like, cleared them out of Atlanta yesterday, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.040 Oakland and tear gas them, tear gasts and stunt grenades, 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.240 and the apparently when they came back, they tear gast 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.359 them again, stun grenade at them. And there and the 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.359 the Occupy Oakland people are like, we're gonna come back 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.799 every day, and the cops that are like, we're gonna 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:52.600 stunt grenade you every day. We got lots of stunt grenades. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:54.680 Did they clear out Atlanta? What happened? He cleared out 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:56.799 Atlanta overnight last night, I think, But I don't know 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:58.239 if people are gonna come back or nothing. It is 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:03.680 so shady to clear it out overnight. It happens apparently 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:07.720 so well. Occupy Wall Street in particulars doing pretty well. Um. 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:14.040 It started September seventeenth, and as of today, October UM, 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.440 it's been going on for thirty nine days, which is substantial. 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:20.320 I think a lot of people are surprised that it's 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.240 been going on this long, But as long as thirty 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.800 nine days seems it's got nothing on the occupation of 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.800 Alcatraz that took place starting November nine sixty nine and 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:39.200 lasted nineteen months. The Red Power movement, Yes, Red Power. 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.240 Basically this was you've heard of AIM, the American Indian movement, 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.760 the one that UM Marlon Brando helped out by having 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:50.600 what was her name, Little Feather go except as Oscar, Yeah, 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.840 I think that was her name. UM this started that. 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:58.120 This is largely credited with starting that. So November sixty 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:04.320 nine a guy named Richard Mackenzie who was a UM. 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.240 I think he was a mohawk. No, I'm sorry, Uh, 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.040 Richard Oakes was a mohawk and he led an occupation 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.960 UM that took over another occupation basically that it started 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.760 like a couple of weeks earlier, and UM basically just 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:24.159 sat in with about a hundred people on Alcatraz and said, hey, 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.880 we think this should be a cultural center for Native Americans, 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:29.960 and we think it should be the site of an 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.160 Indian university as well, and we're gonna stay here until 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.760 you meet our demands. And they did. And one of 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:38.680 the key UM ingredients of this was that it was 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.360 UM inner tribal. There was more than one tribe. It 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.080 wasn't just the Mohawks who were doing this, which made 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.440 it UM groundbreaking as far as um Indian, the Indian 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.760 movement was concerned um and it lasted for a while, 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:53.479 It had its ups and downs, and basically it was 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.600 ultimately co opted by the dirty hippies in San Francisco, 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.880 um on the across the bay, who started showing up 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:06.240 and like doing drugs, like openly in the in the prison. Now, granted, 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.840 you don't get too many opportunities to take acid on Alcatraz, 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:16.280 but they they ended up eroding the occupation severely the 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.120 right and there was a basis for that. Even the 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.800 Treaty of Fort Laramie in eighteen sixty eight said that 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:28.000 all retired, abandoned, out of use federal land shall be 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.400 returned to the Native people from whom it was acquired. 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.120 And since Alcatraz the prison had shut down in nineteen 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:40.039 sixty three, it was declared a surplus federal property. So 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.560 they said, you know what, We'll give you forty seven 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:44.240 cents an acre, which is what you bought it for. 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.560 So we'll give you nine dollars and forty cents for Alcatraz. 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:52.520 Nice And they said no, let's bring in the coast Guard. Well, 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.240 for a while it was tolerated again nineteen months. But 0:05:55.320 --> 0:06:00.320 then in January, two oil tankers collided UH in San 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:05.719 Francisco Bay, and although there was it was clearly established 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.760 that the lighthouse, which was no longer working on Alcatraz 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.839 because of the movement, had no part in this. It 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.320 was enough so that public sentiment was like, get those 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:18.960 guys out of there. So Nixon was like, get them 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.760 out of there. Yeah, they shut down the power, shut 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.560 off telephone service, a fire broke out, and then it 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.359 dwindled down to about fifteen people, and that was small 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:29.920 enough to where they could just go in and say, 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.200 come on, five women, four children, six unarmed men, and 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.680 Richard Oakes thirteen year old stepdaughter unfortunately felled her to 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:41.560 death during the middle of this occupation three three stories 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.080 down because she probably fell from a cell block because 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.839 they were three tiers high. That's right. So this is 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:52.000 just one major event in the history of Alcatraz, one 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:57.280 of many UH in. Alcatraz itself dates back at least 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.560 well far before this. As far as Europeans are concerned, 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.640 Alcatraz origins begin in seventeen seventy five, but let's talk 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.120 about the Native American um use of Alcatraz before then. 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.960 I got one more interesting factory. A young Benjamin Bratt 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:19.120 was one of the with his mother and sisters, Benjamin 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.040 brad of TV's Law and Order fame. Wow, he was 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.640 one of the one of the kids. That's awesome, alright. 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:29.880 So taking Alcatraz, let's go back in time to the 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.480 Native Americans. There was some rumors that it was actually 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.200 a prison for them as well, where they would exile 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:40.160 those who broke tribal law, but historians say that might 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.080 not be the case. They probably just went there looking 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:48.200 for eggs there, Pelican egg specifically, because the word Alcatraz 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:54.640 is an anglicization. I think that's right of the word alcatrasis, 0:07:55.400 --> 0:08:00.280 which means Pelicans or gannetts. Though that's what I didn't 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.040 get working on with Pelicans, that's what I've heard, but 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:08.280 alcatrazs which was given to the island by the Spanish 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:12.520 explorer Don Juan Manuel day Ayala in seventeen seventy five 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.760 when he sailed into San Francisco Bay. He was pretty 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.240 cool because he was like, it is on this site 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.640 that I decree here and he will eventually play. Yes, 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:27.600 that's right, Yeah, that was my Don Juan Ayala. Very nice, 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.760 very nice. So that was that was the earliest history 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.000 that we know of, even though it's not written down. UH. 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.320 In eighteen forty seven there was an official survey of 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.840 this island, which we should mention is a the top 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.439 of a mountain, because San Francisco Bay used to be 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.560 a valley. Pretty much all islands are tops of mountains 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:49.800 when you get down to it. Yeah, But I like 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.320 how Grabanowski was like, no, I'm just coming out and 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:56.160 saying it. In this time, Lieutenant William H. Warner of 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.920 the U. S. Army UH was like, Hey, this is 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.200 a really prime location here in the bay to UH 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:07.040 stage munitions and to have a defense position. So let's 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:11.640 construct let's construct a building here to guard against the 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:14.439 Confederate soldiers. And you don't I don't really think about 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.280 you know, it's your north and south, but forget about 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.839 San Francisco on there. Yeah, being a part of the 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.839 Civil War. Oh yeah, especially with the gold rush going 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.760 on out there. Anybody who controlled San Francisco controlled the 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:29.360 substantial amount of gold. So it's a big deal. But 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.200 despite the fortifications that were eventually built there and the 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.520 guns that were brought there, the citadel is what they 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:37.200 called it. But It is not to be confused with 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:42.640 the school. Um. The the guns were fired a couple 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:44.880 of times, but never in battle. It was always like 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.640 a case of mistaken identity, like what was that? Or yeah, 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.240 or everybody who was on stationed on Alcatraz got drunk 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:54.240 and just fired him off out of boardom I suppose 0:09:54.280 --> 0:10:00.679 that could have happened. Um, eventually people started being sent Alcatraz. 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.880 If you deserted and were caught, or your court martial 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:06.320 and it didn't go so well, you might end up 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:10.600 on Alcatraz, especially if you were stationed around there. And Um, 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.040 the guy who was the head of the um fort 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:18.520 they're basically, was like, wow, we have a basement. I 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:20.880 guess we can start keeping people in the basement, and 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.200 we will. It's a brig Now build a couple of 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.640 cells here there. And then all of a sudden it 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.560 became very apparent not only is it a great spot 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:33.959 for a garrison, it's a great spot for a prison, because, Chuck, 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.480 there's a lot of aspects to Alcatraz that that make 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:42.680 it a very attractive prison location. It's an island, it's 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:47.640 a rock, there's a prison on it, and the water 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:52.000 is very chilly. Uh, and it's invested with great white sharks. 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:54.360 And that's the word everyone uses, is infested. I don't 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.160 know if that's is it infested, that's what everyone uses. 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.240 Even San Franciscan's are like infested. They make it sound 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:01.840 like you jump in and you will be attacked by 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.480 great white sharks. Have you ever seen the movie Piranha. Yeah, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:06.800 it's like that, but with great white sharks. I saw 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.240 the remake the other day. By the way, how is it? 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:14.840 It is kind of awesomely gruesomely awesome and funny? Is 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.040 it an homage to the first one? Yeah, I mean 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.200 it's way over the top, and it's one of those 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.000 is so over the top it's like, well this is 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.520 kind of fun. It's not good. I have a feeling 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.680 it's sort of like that. But yeah, there's way way 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.840 over the top and awesome for that reason too. But 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.079 have you seen Piranha three D? You remembers they fly eventually? Yeah? 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:38.080 The Spawning? Yeah you know who wrote that actually, Benjamin Bratt, 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:43.160 no amazing writer filmmaker John Sales. Yeah, that was one 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:45.719 of his first writing jobs in Hollywood, was writing a 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.760 Piranha three The Spawning. I think crazy, you know, Roger 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.920 Ebert wrote, Um, yea, did we talk about that and 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.160 they exploitation film. Yeah, that's well you should say that 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:59.040 beyond the Valley of the Dolls. All right, back to Alcatraz, 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.280 I'm sorry, back to the citadel post Civil War. Um, 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.360 there was a big earthquake in San Francisco in nineteen 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.040 o six, and so they had to actually bring two 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:14.960 hundred regular civilian prisoners out to Alcatraz, and uh, you know, 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:16.480 the military at that point was like, you know, it's 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:21.840 really expensive. Let's we don't really need a military prison anymore. So, um, 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.760 let's tear the citadel down. Jedger Hoover said, we need 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.559 a big deterrent in a big scary place, So why 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:30.960 don't we use Alcatraz and make that a regular federal 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:35.319 penitentiary penitentiary. Well, that was in the thirties. In l 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.440 they said the citadel, we do need a military prison, 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.160 or if we're gonna do it, let's do it right, 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.840 And they tore the citadel down and built the military prison. 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.560 They built actually the technical name was the United States 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:50.199 Military Prison Pacific Branch, Alcatraz Island, and that was in 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.080 nineteen twelve. But then, like you said, they were like, 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.559 this is really expensive. You got to bring in everything 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.160 from the San Francisco area. Everyone knows how exp some 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:04.120 cheeses in San Francisco. And they're like, hey, Mr JAA Hoover, 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.680 look over here. And he did, right, he did. He said, 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.880 I'm trying to crack down on all these bootleggers and 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.439 all of these chippies, and I need a prison that's 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.800 gonna just scare people. Just the name of it's gonna 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:22.640 scare people. And I'm in love with my assistant and 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.320 and we're gonna we're gonna use Alcatraz because it is again, 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.959 a perfect prison, that's right. So that that happened. Ownership 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.360 was transferred in between thirty three and thirty four, and 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.680 they brought the first regular civilian prisoners prisoners over to 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:40.280 stay and in secrecy. Yeah, I wonder why. I think 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.400 that's a good way to start off the worst prison 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:46.680 in the country. Okay, well they secretly transporting prisoners there. 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.959 That's like, yeah, that makes you feel like you can 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.440 be stolen out of your house at any moment. All right. 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.080 So that is the history of the island and the 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:59.360 origins of the prison a k a. Part one. Now 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:04.200 starts part too. M M, thank you, Chuck. Yes. Part 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:08.040 two begins with oh, let me stop you first. By 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.880 the way, did you mentioned that lighthouse. That's the very 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.240 first lighthouse on the West coast, and they rebuilt it 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.240 and it still operates today. Yeah. They actually had to 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.040 rebuild it because they started building up San Francisco and 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.640 the lighthouses, like, I can't see it's foggy, yeah, and 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.680 the sharks everywhere help and uh so they tore it 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.560 down and built it again in nineteen nine and now 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.200 it's bigger and it's unobstructed. That's right, all right, So 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.520 modern day or more modern day at least Alcatraz. We 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.920 mentioned it's a mountain top of a mountain. It's very rocky, 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.360 and well they call it the rock for a reason. Yeah, 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:45.480 there's not a lot of plant life growing there. It's 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.640 not some beautiful island getaway. No. Almost all the plant 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:51.720 life that grows there was brought in by construction crews 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:53.720 over the years who were like, God, we need a 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.240 tree or something here, you need a boxwood or something, 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.200 and so they started bringing in so oil and shrubs 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.520 and trees and planted a few things here there. Yeah, 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.560 a few of those things found purchase. It's just a 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.120 dead piece of rock, which just adds to the gloom 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.920 and the dismalness of it, right, which actually plays a 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.880 part in the end of the great, great great movie 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.200 Escape from Alcatraz movie. Remember you saw the little flower 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.280 on the shore. Yeah, that's right. He's like, they ain't 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:27.360 no flowers like this here. Yeah. Uh so Alcatraz Josh 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.960 was built to accommodate six hundred cons but it only 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.320 held about three hundred, and at the time in l 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.040 it was really innovative because first you had the island 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.760 as as hey, you can't escape from the island, so 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:46.480 why bother trying. Then they had cellblocks within the concrete wall, 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:49.000 so it was for the first time you know it 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:53.600 cells within cells almost right. You didn't have a window 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.400 looking out to the outside from yourself, no, no, no, um. 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:58.440 So yeah, if you wanted to get your way out 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:00.840 of there, you had to make it through the wall 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.520 of your cell and then the outer wall. That's right. Um. 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.280 They also had metal detectors, which were pretty much new, 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.280 brand new at the time, and rather than the key 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:12.920 like they had in the Green Mile, they had the levers. 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.600 The lever system to open cell blocks, like they had 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.360 an escape from Alcatraz, which was a big deal because 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.360 you could do that remotely. You didn't have to go 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:25.520 to the cell where you're vulnerable. Uh. They also reinforced 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.600 all the iron with hardened steels called tools distant because 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:33.360 you couldn't cut through it, just like me, because you 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.360 couldn't cut through the hacksaw. And apparently it cost as 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.000 much to install those did to build it in the 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:46.600 first place. So so the average the typical cell um 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:51.320 was something like, uh, five ft wide by nine ft deep, 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.240 and they were concrete walls. How big is this in here? Oh, 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:57.400 this is like two cells. I think if you go 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.520 like this, it's like two cells going that way. Yiche. 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.320 All three three, three of the four walls were made 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.600 of um concrete, and then the fourth wall was the 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:13.440 um steel tool resistant um bars. That's right, the fourth wall. 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.320 You didn't want to break that. People thought you were corny. 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.520 That a little bed. You have a little turlet. You 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:20.160 had a couple of shelves in the back to put 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.960 your stuff. You had a little they call it a desk. 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:24.960 It was really just a sort of a little fold down. 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.879 It was very small. Obviously everything was small. And that 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:33.359 was it. That was it. No uh, you know, no 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:39.040 dub's no breakfast in bed and you could, uh, you 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:41.760 can imagine this is pretty bad in and of itself. 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.320 But that's a block, B block and C block, right, 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.520 that's right. Um, there was also D Block, and D 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.720 Block was where if you were trouble they sent you. 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.320 They called that the treatment unit. Yeah, it was the 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.160 inhumane treatment is what they should have called it. Yeah. 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.520 That they had um, I think fourteen or fifth cells 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.240 in D Block and that was solitary confinement, and then 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.560 you had cells nine through fourteen was the whole and 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:09.560 those were the ones with the iron doors where you 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:13.159 had no light. And then they had one cell that 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:15.680 apparently was the worst of the worst that just had 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.240 a hole in the floor to go poo poo and 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.320 peepee and you were usually naked if you were in there, 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.560 and not for any good reasons. That's where the Birdman 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:30.080 stayed the whole time. Really, Nanny's on de block. Really Yeah, 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.320 apparently you couldn't be in the hole for more than 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:37.479 nineteen days. But the Birdman, Robert Stroud, was in prison 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.560 for fifty four years, and forty two years of that 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:45.040 were in solitary confinement. Can you imagine, dude, I can't. 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.200 They're not rehabbing that guy. And I'm not making a 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:52.439 big political statement, but forty two years in solitary that 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.840 was just straight up punishment. I think that. Um, I 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.240 think that that was the best Alcatraz movie ever. Birdman 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:03.000 of Alcatraz, no way, Yeah, have you seen it? Yeah, dude, 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.080 Burt Lancaster, Yeah, it was good, it was good. Um. 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.240 He didn't have any birds in Alcatraz though, Did he 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.399 really spent Yeah? He did. What are you talking about? You? 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.440 It's like, you're crazy. He had There were no animals 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.800 all out there. He had that came from Leavenworth Prison 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:19.840 and when he got to Alcatraz there were like no 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.280 more birds for you. Oh. I thought he ended up 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.560 keeping birds anyway, and that's probably why he was in 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:31.040 D block the whole time. Let's go with that, Okay. Um, Well, 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.200 then why would they call him the Birdman of Alcatraz 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.920 because he was already a birdman when he went to Alcatraz. 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.760 It's a movie the same reason they fictionalized murder in 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.879 the first with Kevin Bacon. We'll get to that, um. 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.119 And prior to the the construction of D Block. You 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.560 would just be held in the dungeon, which is in 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.240 the basement of the original citadel, which is where the 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:53.880 first prisoners ever to be kept on Alcatraz were kept. 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.640 It's probably not a fun place. So Chuck, you said 0:19:57.640 --> 0:19:59.920 that there was no breakfast in bed. There was breakfast, 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:05.720 and that came every day. After you swept yourself, then 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:08.240 you lined up for inspection and you went down for breakfast. 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:10.840 That's right. Then after that you went to work. Twenty 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.720 minutes twenty minute breakfast. Huh, twenty minute for each meal. 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:19.960 I could do twenty minute breakfast. It's leisurely, that is true. 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.320 Is lesually, so you'd be sent to like the laundry. Um, 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.200 you would be maybe if you were the book guy, 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:29.560 you would be sent for the library. A lot of dockwork, 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.080 lots of unloading and loading of things. Yeah. Um. And 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:38.680 also they manufactured stuff on Alcatraz. They manufactured brushes and brooms, 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.560 but a little known fact these things, by law, could 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:45.080 not be sold on the own open market, only to 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.840 federal agencies because the government didn't want to flood the 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:53.760 broom and brush markets with cheaply made goods. So government 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:57.439 buildings were swept with Alcatraz rooms. Interesting. Yeah, I did 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:01.880 not know that the walkways they named the Central Walkway 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.959 was between the Cell Blox was Broadway. Because they had 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.199 a flair for the dramatic, they named them after New 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:09.959 York streets, Park Avenue, Michigan Avenue and Broadway. And then 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.240 Times Square was between the mess Hall and the Cell Blox. 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:16.440 And overlooking all this on either end was a very 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:21.480 important station called the Gun Gallery and it was enclosed 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:24.880 in bars and mesh, and there's where you will find 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:28.480 some of the only guns aside from the towers and Alcatraz, 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.800 where these armed dudes that had a very clear shot 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.560 in the line of sight of the whole place. But 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:39.359 the guards didn't carry guns or keys or handcuffs because 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.800 that was a risk, but they illegally carried these things 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:46.320 called SAPs. It was like a metal baton and a 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:49.639 leather strap black jack. Yeah, and they weren't supposed to 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:54.240 have those, but they had those um And then after 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:57.879 a hard day of work of being eyed by guys 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.160 in the Gun Gallery, you would have inner lights out 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:07.360 at ninety and then ovensmores and then the thing is Alcatraz. 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:10.080 Thanks to Jacker Hoover had a really crazy reputation for 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:13.359 being like the hardest place ever. UM. But everything we 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:16.400 just described you're going to go through generally in any 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:22.160 prison in the thirties through the sixties, UM, but Alcatraz 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:27.000 did differ in some ways. Specifically, it was extremely especially 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:32.199 at its beginning, it was extremely rigid in its UM discipline, 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:37.720 Like there was literally no talking for most of the time. UM. 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:42.159 Prisoners weren't allowed to speak out loud UM except for 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.159 designated times. I think like twenty minutes a week. I 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:49.000 don't know that sounds about right. UM. And they if 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:50.720 you if you did speak out loud, you went to 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:52.800 the dungeon or d black later on. Did you have 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:56.919 no talk in school elementary school, I don't remember if 0:22:57.000 --> 0:22:59.119 we did. They would do that in the cafeteria sometimes 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:00.920 we had these flags and if things were getting roundy 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:03.439 or they were whatever, they were mad at us, they 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:05.199 would say, you know, you're on no talk and they 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.000 put up the red flag. And it was the worst. 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:11.560 It was awful, especially for me. I was just like 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:16.560 trying to say things to my friends. Yeah, they actually 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:18.960 said the dining room is the most dangerous place in Alcatraz. 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:21.800