Infamous Alcatraz Inmates

Just when you thought you knew everything about this terrible crime... Ash and Alaina review the repressed memories, connected murders, and awful accusations that made this case so extraordinarily puzzling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 

Just when you thought you knew everything about this terrible crime... Ash and Alaina review the repressed memories, connected murders, and awful accusations that made this case so extraordinarily puzzling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 

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 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.

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 ...