Last Days of Alcatraz

Departing from Puerto Rico with grand plans to establish a new colony, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León set out on his ill-fated second expedition to Florida on February 20th, 1521. Ponce de León's reputation as a conquistador preceded him, with tales of his brutal conquests i ...  Show more

When the Second Continental Congress calmly reshuffled the revolutionary army’s high command on 19th February 1777, they couldn’t have known they were detonating a grievance in one of their most daring and battle-tested commanders: Benedict Arnold. Arnold was certain that he had ...  Show more

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

In 1962, brothers John and Clarence Anglin, along with fellow incarcerated person Frank Morris, managed to escape the one prison in America that was supposed to be inescapable: Alcatraz. Alcatraz is surrounded by icy waters, so the men would’ve needed a raft in order to escape th ...  Show more

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This week, we begin our three-part series in which Alcatraz will be covered at length, from the torturous conditions of the prison to the infamous escapes — both successful and failed.

We're kicking off the series by talking about the types of people who ended up on Alca ...