Clyde Milton Johnson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 16, 1918, the second of two siblings. Johnson’s father, whose profession was officially listed as a “truck driver,” died when Clyde was only two years of age. With no other means of financial support, his mother relocated the family to Glendale, California, where she secured exhausting employment as a laundress. Johnson’s file shows no record of delinquency as a juvenile, but after joining the Army in 1941 he deserted on several occasions. During the same period he was linked to no less than twelve Safeway grocery store robberies. He was sentenced to serve one year to life at San Quentin State Prison and was dishonorably discharged from the Army in 1943.
After his release in 1949, Johnson and an accomplice committed an armed robbery in a Memphis bank, making off with $43,662 in cash. They made their getaway in a stolen car and were later apprehended in Florida, in February of the same year. While awaiting extradition at the Dade County Jail, the two convicts were able to escape with the help of Johnson’s girlfriend, Billie Hayes, and they committed four other robberies before being apprehended again in April. FBI documents show that Johnson resisted arrest and fired upon FBI agents during his capture. Johnson had been listed by the FBI as Public Enemy Number Two, and was believed to have committed numerous armed robberies across the United States. On July 13, 1949 he was sentenced to serve forty years in a Federal Penitentiary.
Johnson arrived at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta on August 10, 1949, and then was transferred to Leavenworth on November 19, 1949. In view of his long sentence and high risk of escape, he was recommended for transfer to Alcatraz. His recommendation read: “He has escaped on several occasions and is considered a serious escape risk at this time. He has committed a number of armed robberies, is considered a vicious gunman who thinks nothing of the lives of others and will stop at nothing less than murder to meet his goal.” He would arrive at Alcatraz on March 22, 1950, as inmate AZ-864.
Aaron Walter Burgett
Aaron Walter Burgett
Aaron Burgett was born on October 24, 1929, in Potts Camp, Missouri. His mother had died of an illness when he was only three years old and his father worked to support the family as a Railway Section Hand, and later as a cotton picker. Burgett’s inmate record would indicate that his father had had trouble caring for the young Aaron during his childhood. Burgett’s nickname “Wig” was given to him by his father because of his long blond curls. The death of Aaron’s mother weighed heavily on the family and his father was only a minimal presence in the home as he attempted to maintain employment in order to support his ten children. At only sixteen years of age Aaron dropped out of school to work on the family’s small farm, but this would prove to be only a brief interlude. On April 20, 1945, the young Burgett was arrested for breaking into a candy truck and sentenced to serve two years at the State Training School in Booneville, Missouri. After serving out nearly a full year, Burgett and another accomplice successfully escaped from the minimum-security institution. In close succession, he would be captured, released, and then arrested again for other burglary-related crimes.
On April 4, 1948, Burgett was committed to the State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Missouri, after being charged with “stealing chickens in the night time and breaking escape from the county jail.” But despite his early problems, he did experience some good luck as well. In February of 1951, after his release from prison, Burgett met a young girl named Mary Francis Cauley at a party. The couple courted for several months and then married in Piggott, Arkansas, on August 25, 1951. By Burgett’s account, this would be the best year of his life – but trouble was not far away. Burgett was unable to hold a steady job and this began to create friction between him and his wife, who was now pregnant. He fell back into a life of crime and by 1952, Burgett had established himself as a career felon.
Burgett and his accomplices Earl Wilhelm and John Oliver would go on a spree of over thirty armed robberies in the St. Louis area, some of which turned seriously violent. Generally they robbed their victims by having them lie on the floor while they emptied cash registers and removed personal jewelry. On some occasions, the victims would be struck with the guns. Burgett’s robbery targets ranged from post offices to beer taverns, and during one episode, a gunfight ensued in which Wilhelm and a patron were injured by gunfire. On May 16, 1952, Missouri State Trooper David Walker apprehended the trio who were packing eight loaded guns. All three men would stand trial and plead guilty, and each defendant was sentenced to serve twenty-five years in a federal institution.
Then on June 9, 1952, while Burgett and his two co-defendants were being transported to the Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas by a Deputy Marshal and a prison guard, Burgett made a desperate attempt to escape. The inmates had been shackled to one another with chains and handcuffs, with Burgett seated in the middle of the back seat, and at around 2:50 a.m. prison guard LeRoy Tozer dropped a lighted cigarette onto the seat beside him. Burgett pleaded to the Marshal to pull over, as the cigarette was burning the seat and his clothing. Tozer ordered Burgett to raise himself so he could reach under him and grab the cigarette. Tozer found the cigarette and started rolling down the window to throw it out. As he turned toward the window, Burgett threw his legs over Tozer to pin him down on the seat. Using great force, he then kicked the back of Deputy Marshal Davidson’s head several times, knocking his glasses off and throwing his head forward into the steering wheel, which forced the car to veer off the road.
As the car came to a halt at the side of the roadway, Davidson drew his pistol and Tozer forcefully restrained Burgett, leaving multiple cuts and bruises about his face. On arrival at Leavenworth, Burgett still refused to cooperate and stated that he would rather die than be forced to serve his time there. This event would buy him his ticket to Alcatraz, in consideration of the length of his sentence. He would arrive on Alcatraz as inmate AZ-991, on August 27, 1952.
At Alcatraz, Burgett briefly enjoyed a reputation as a good inmate. His progress report states that he enjoyed playing cards and table games in the recreation yard. He also played the Hawaiian guitar and subscribed to the magazine Flying, and he purchased books on system navigation and other related subjects. It is speculated that Burgett planned his escape from the Rock for several months in advance, collecting sections of raincoats, plywood, and electricians’ tape over a long period of time.
Alcatraz Guard Harold Miller had worked as a casket maker before entering the prison service. He was only twenty-seven years of age and had been working at Alcatraz for about ten months. The garbage assignment was a tough and potentially dangerous detail for the correctional staff. Inmates on this detail would sometimes trim trees and shrubbery, and had access to sharpened gardening tools, even axes. Inmates had to possess good conduct records to be chosen for this detail, as it was considered a privileged assignment. Both Burgett and Johnson had been on this detail for nearly six months at the time of their escape attempt. Miller had just started supervising the detail, and this would only be his fourth shift on this assignment.
At 2:30 p.m., Miller checked in at the control room, and logged his assignment and report time. Shortly thereafter, the inmates working at the southeast tip of the island made their way down a path to throw some refuse into a bed of century plants. Without warning, Johnson pulled a paring knife on Miller, and Burgett grabbed the unsuspecting guard, taking him to the ground. The inmates warned Miller that if he cooperated, he would not be harmed. Burgett stuffed a piece of clothing into the guard’s mouth, and then the two quickly tied his hands with tape and wrapped more black tape around his head and eyes. The events that followed are described in an interview with Johnson following the inmates’ eventual capture: