Frank L. Bolt was Alcatraz inmate #AZ-01.
Bolt’s dishonorable discharge papers from the US Army.
Frederick Grant White was the first civilian inmate at Alcatraz. He arrived on July 13, 1934 from McNeil Island.
A telegram to Warden Johnston, providing transfer details for inmate White.
A photograph of military inmate John Miller, one of the thirty-two inmates left to finish out their sentences at Alcatraz following the prison’s transition to a civilian institution. Miller’s photograph illustrates one of the rare instances of leniency at the prison, which would be short lived. Mustaches were not allowed at Alcatraz during its tenure as a Federal penitentiary.
Robert Bradford Moxon
Warden Johnston on August 18, 1934, leading a tour for dignitaries. Pictured from left to right are San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi; Attorney General Homer Cummings, one of the conceptual founders of the prison; Warden Johnston; and San Francisco Police Chief William Quinn. The photograph opposite shows the group leaving the prison.
Attorney General Homer S. Cummings and Warden James Johnston inspecting the staff of correctional officers during the opening of the prison in 1934. The officer standing second from the left is future Associate Warden E.J. Miller.
The first official group of fourteen federal inmates arrived at Alcatraz from McNeil Island on August 11, 1934. Their identities were kept completely secret from an aggressive press, hungry to report on the first arrivals. Their train pulled into Oakland at 9:40 a.m., and the inmates were led in handcuffed pairs to the prison launch General McDowell. As the prisoners were lined up in formation along the dock, the island’s residents peered down through their curtains to get a glimpse of their new neighbors. The inmates were forced to walk up to the main cellhouse heavily shackled, and under heavy guard. Once they arrived at the receiving area in the prison basement, they were photographed, stripped, and assigned their inmate numbers. They were then each given a medical examination, showered, and marched naked to their new cells carrying their clothes and utensils. Renowned inmate Darwin Coon recalled his first experience of arriving at Alcatraz, in his compelling personal memoir entitled Alcatraz – The True End of the Line:
Five or six officers were standing in front of the prison. Without ceremony, they ushered us through a solid steel door with an electric lock. Then we had to wait for a key to be lowered down so that the officer could open a barred gate in front of us. We went into a room where they removed the handcuffs and leg irons. I was so happy to get those things off I didn’t care where I was. Then we were strip searched and marched naked to the showers. After that we were taken to fish row where we were each assigned a cell in an area that came to be known to us as Broadway.
The first groups of inmates transferred from other Federal penitentiaries were brought to the island still shackled in the train cars that had carried them across the United States. They were considered the nations’ most incorrigible criminals, and no chances would be taken by off-loading the train cars on the mainland. During the transfers, newspaper reporters followed the trains across the country, with onlookers flocking to see America’s worst public enemies.
The second group of fifty-three inmates arrived at 5:45 a.m. on August 22, 1934, three and a half days after it left Atlanta, and the third and largest group consisting of 106 inmates came from Leavenworth on September 4, 1934. In later a newspaper report covering the arrival of the Atlanta cars, it provided late details of the route. Rather than taking any direct route, it made an excursion which added an additional 60-mile route through northern Bay Area cities:
Two miles east of Martinez, a switchman shifted the train onto the Southern Pacific track that took it over the railroad bridge heading toward Suisun City. It turned left at Fairfield passed through Cordelia and Napa Junction. At Shellville, the train went on the tracks of the Northwestern Pacific and turned south, passing Black Point, Ignacio and San Rafael, finally stopping at Tiburon. Awaiting it there (Tiburon) was the Red Stack Sea Rover, under Captain Webster Hargins with 25 special guards and federal operatives, ready to take the prisoners out to Alcatraz.
The routine for admission would essentially remain unchanged throughout the history of the prison. When the first groups arrived, Associate Warden C.J. Shuttleworth distributed a brief set of rules describing the disciplinary matrix that would govern their confinement. In this communication he also described the system that would be employed to discipline inmates who refused to abide by the rules set down by the Warden:
You will receive your punishment of perhaps 10 days in isolation on a restricted diet of bread and water. That practice will continue while you remain in isolation, and you will be provided with medical care if required for any illness. Isolation is a dark cell known here as “the Hole.” It consists of nothing but four walls, a ceiling and a floor. When you sleep, you will be provided blankets for warmth and a pillow for your head, but you may be required to do so on concrete. When a prisoners’ required number of days in the hole expires, he is placed in what is known as Solitary Confinement. Here he enjoys the nighttime use of a bunk. He gets bread and water for breakfast, a noon meal the same as on the prison main line, and bread and water before he goes to bed.
When he is released from solitary he goes to his regular cell in the main prison. He will be placed in “grade.” Grade will consist of the following: He will have a red tag placed on the cell plate of his door, which will indicate third grade. He may leave his cell only to go to the mess hall for scheduled meals. This will continue for three months. If he has not violated any rules for this period, he will be elevated to second grade. Now he will be able to write and receive a restricted number of letters. When he performs satisfactorily at this level, he will be promoted to first grade, where he will enjoy instatement of all normal prison privileges.