Case 67: The Battle of Alcatraz

New Hampshire couple Pamela and Gregory Smart had only recently married when their lives took a shocking turn. Gregory was murdered in their home in what appeared to be a burglary gone wrong. As Pamela navigated life in the public eye as a newly grieving widow, an anonymous phone ...  Show more

*** Content warnings: Child victim, child sexual assault ***On April 22 2003, Queensland police arrived at a suburban home in Brisbane’s Bridgeman Downs to find a confronting scene. Three siblings, Neelma, Kunal and Sidhi Singh, had been killed while their parents were overseas, ...  Show more

Alcatraz was one of the United States' most notorious prisons -- isolated on an island and surrounded by sharks. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about the fact and fiction surrounding escape attempts at Alcatraz.

Locked cells, surrounded by an impenetrable concrete fortress, surrounded by high barbed wire fences, surrounded by water, on an island in San Francisco Bay. Alcatraz was considered the most 'inescapable' prison in the world. The worst of the worst were sent there. So how, in 196 ...  Show more

Cloaked in secrecy, discussed by even the most hardened criminals as a place of terror, US Penitentiary Alcatraz is the most feared institution in the American penal system. From 1934 to 1963 more than 1500 prisoners pass through its gates, including Machine-Gun Kelly and Scarfac ...  Show more

Alcatraz was the jewel in the crown of America's prison system. The wind-swept island fortress was the final stop for the nation's most dangerous criminals, including the notorious gangsters Al Capone and George 'Machine Gun' Kelly. It was thought to be escape-proof - at least ...