Alvin Karpis is pictured here being apprehended by FBI agents in May of 1936. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (seen in the foreground) he would later claim to have planned the capture and the arrest himself. Karpis would comment that Hoover was “nowhere to be seen” during the arrest, and that he came out only after the suspects were handcuffed.
Meanwhile J. Edgar Hoover had initiated an intense pursuit to capture Karpis and his associate gang members. On May 1, 1936, under Hoover’s personal direction, the FBI descended on Karpis and Hunter in New Orleans. Hoover was on hand to command the squad of FBI agents who performed the arrest. Karpis would later laugh at Hoover’s claim that he had been present for the arrest, stating that Hoover was actually nowhere to be seen until Karpis and his accomplice had already been cuffed, when he quickly emerged for the photo opportunities.
Karpis would not formally participate in the 1939 escape attempt, and would remain at Alcatraz for twenty-five years, the longest term ever served on the Rock. He was sent to McNeil Island in 1962, and finally released in 1969 under condition of deportment to his country of birth, Canada. Karpis would later write two books about his life at Alcatraz, including one bestseller, and he would thus acquire enough funds to fulfill his longtime dream of moving to Spain. His life in Spain is largely undocumented, but on August 26, 1979, Karpis was found dead from what was alleged to be an intentional overdose of sleeping pills. It was speculated that Karpis had likely run out of money, and had no other means to support himself. This was contested by many who knew him, and his death was officially ruled as occurring by natural causes.
Karpis on the day of his release in 1969. Karpis would hold the distinction for the longest single prison term on Alcatraz, nearly 26 years. He would spend a total of 32 years in prison and was finally granted parole on the condition of deportation to his native Canada, from McNeil Island. His lawyer James Carty, later stated that Karpis dreamed of moving to an exotic place where he could escape his past and live his final years in peace. He was estranged from his son Raymond, who had visited him once at Leavenworth (his son died in October of 2001), as well as his only grandson Damon, who died at only 15-years of age. Using money he accumulated from books, interviews and movie rights to his story optioned by Harold Hecht (producer of the Birdman of Alcatraz and other Hollywood greats) for the motion picture The Last Public Enemy (which never made it to production), he moved to Torremolinas, located in Spain’s Costa del Sol. Karpis led a quiet and simple life during his final years. Karpis died in August of 1979 at the age of 71.
A photograph of Alvin Karpis taken during his release from prison in 1969.
Henri Young and Rufus McCain
Henri Young and Rufus McCain
Two other accomplices in the escape of 1939 were Rufus Roy McCain and Henri Young. Both of their biographies are covered extensively in a separate chapter. Rufus McCain maintained a reputation as a difficult and violence-prone inmate at Alcatraz. He had built a record of violent acts and rebellion against his guards, and therefore he was no stranger to the solitary confinement cells in A and D Blocks.
Henri Young would later become one of the most famous inmates ever to reside on Alcatraz. He would also be the subject of several books and of the Hollywood motion picture Murder in the First, which chronicled the psychological effects of the harsh punishment he allegedly received while imprisoned on the Rock. Like McCain, Young had a long record of outbursts and unusual behavior. He was a problem inmate whose ill-mannered acts would frequently land him in solitary confinement.
William “Ty” Martin
A mug shot series of William “Ty” Martin.
William “Ty” Martin was another accomplice in the escape who had a close association with inmate Bernard Coy, the gang leader of the 1946 “Battle of Alcatraz,” which was debatably the most significant escape attempt ever to take place on the island. Ty was an African-American from Chicago, serving a twenty-five year sentence for armed robbery. He was well liked among the Caucasian inmates, which was unusual as there was heavy racial tension and segregation among prisoners during this period.
Dale Stamphill
Dale Stamphill
The last of the inmates who participated in the escape of 1939 was Dale Stamphill, born March 12, 1912. Stamphill was a habitual criminal serving a life sentence for kidnapping and robbery. On February 17, 1935, while serving time at the State Reformatory in Granite, Oklahoma, Dale and twenty-one other prisoners escaped after killing a tower guard. Then on February 27, 1935, Stamphill and two accomplices, W.L. Baker and Malloy Kuykendall, robbed the 1 stNational Bank in Seiling, Oklahoma, and kidnapped Dr. Fred Myers from his residence at gunpoint. Dr. Myers was forced to treat a hip injury that Kuykendall had received during the bank robbery, and then to drive the men to Grazier, Texas, with a shotgun trained upon him. The outlaws were captured by the police, and Stamphill was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 26, 1937. He was initially sent to Leavenworth, but then was transferred to Alcatraz on January 21, 1938, because of his escape history.
Malloy Kuykendall, Ira Earl Blackwood and Slim Bartlett. William “Slim” Bartlett was rumored to have a smuggled a bar-spreader device to Doc Barker.
The Escape
In the autumn of 1938, several months before the escape, Barker started recruiting his accomplices and plotting a breakout from D Block. After striking deals with other inmates to have a hacksaw blade and makeshift bar spreader delivered to him in D Block, Barker worked on getting himself thrown into segregation. On October 30, 1938 Barker assaulted fellow inmate Ira Earl Blackwood while standing in line in the recreation yard waiting to file down to their work detail. Karpis later wrote that Ira had a reputation with most cons as a stool pigeon. Associate Warden E.J. Miller, nicknamed “Meathead” by the inmates, was on a month-long vacation, and Acting Deputy Warden C.J. Shuttleworth had Barker thrown into isolation for the full nineteen-day duration. After completing his time in isolation, Barker was moved to a standard segregation cell where he would remain until the escape.
D Block was one of the few areas besides A Block that had remained in its original state, just as it was when it was utilized during the military years. The cell bars were still of the flat soft iron type, with outward swinging door hinges similar to those found in A Block. The inmates would exploit this weakness to their advantage by using their hacksaw blade to saw methodically through the soft iron bars in sequence, filling the gaps with debris and paint to avoid detection. The bars that encased the windows of D Block were made of tool-proof alloys, and this would make gaining access an even greater challenge.
A typical cell in D Block, prior to the 1940 remodeling. Note the flat soft iron bars.
The D Block area had not yet been walled off from the rest of the prison, which allowed for the easy transfer of contraband from inmates performing clean-up details and other assignments inside the main cellhouse. It was further rumored that inmate William “Slim” Bartlett, who apparently had worked as a machinist before being incarcerated, had requested permission to build a lap steel guitar. It was said that once it was completed, he smuggled the makeshift bar spreader into the main cellblock inside the guitar, so that another collaborator could pass it to Barker in D Block. The bar-spreader was in some respects similar to the device that would later be used by Bernard Coy in the 1946 escape attempt. It was small, consisting of two bolts with a cross thread, and if used in combination with a crescent style wrench, it could exert enough force to reposition and force apart the bar section.