Текст книги "Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years "

Автор книги: Майкл Эсслингер

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ESCAPE ATTEMPT #3

Date:

May 23, 1938

Inmates:

Thomas Robert Limerick

James Lucas

Rufus Franklin

Location:

Model Industries Building

The third escape attempt at Alcatraz would forever stand as one of the most vicious and violent ever seen on The Rock. It would result in the tragic murder of a well-liked senior correctional officer, and the death of an Alcatraz inmate. The plan was uncomplicated and essentially required no more than a few simple tools. These circumstances, combined with the desperation of the convicts, created a deadly formula for tragedy.

Thomas Robert Limerick

Thomas Limerick

Thomas Robert Limerick was born in Council Bluff, Iowa on January 7, 1902. It was recorded that he lived in a harmonious family environment until his father’s death, when Robert was only fifteen years old. His father worked as a farm equipment mechanic, and the family enjoyed a comfortable middle-class lifestyle until his untimely death. Thomas was the oldest of one brother and three sisters, and the family quickly fell into extreme poverty living in a “tar-paper shack” in a poverty-stricken farming community. Thomas was forced to leave school, and took a job as a laborer in a self-sacrificing attempt to help support his stricken family. The circumstances of his father’s death are sketchy, but Thomas would later assert that his father had been “murdered” by the police, and that because “nothing was done about it” he had decided that he would “even the score” himself.

At the age of nineteen, Limerick found himself convicted of grand larceny and sentenced to serve five years at the Iowa State Reformatory. Records also show that Limerick had difficultly adjusting to the conditions of his confinement. Immediately upon his release he again found his way into more trouble when he traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska, violating his parole and stealing an automobile. He served seven years in the Nebraska State Penitentiary, after which was sent back to Iowa to serve additional time for his parole violation.

Following his release on June 20, 1934, Limerick continued to be implicated in various crimes throughout the state. He was retained for questioning in Sidney, Iowa for the suspected burglary of a railroad boxcar, but no charges were filed. A string of robberies followed, and officials were starting to close in on Limerick as the culprit. Then at thirty-two years of age, Limerick met Catherine Cross and they married in September of 1934. The couple had been married for less than two months when Limerick would permanently seal his fate.

On November 7, 1934, using a sawed-off shotgun and a pistol, Limerick and an accomplice “forcibly, violently, and feloniously” robbed the First National Bank in Dell Rapids, South Dakota. They were able to secure $4,812.51 in cash, and $6,900 in stocks and bond certificates. Limerick and his accomplice took three bank employees hostage at gunpoint, and fled. By 1935, Limerick was known as the “No. 1 bank robber of the Northwest.”  He was captured that year and sentenced to life in prison. Limerick arrived at Leavenworth Penitentiary as inmate 47036-L on June 4, 1935, and was transferred to Alcatraz in October of the same year as AZ-263.

James C. Lucas

James “Tex” Lucas

Another accomplice in the escape would be twenty-six-year-old career criminal James “Tex” C. Lucas, who was serving out a thirty-year sentence for bank robbery, in addition to sentences for attempted murder in Texas and an escape while incarcerated in Huntsville. His prison record featured a series of violent outbreaks. In June of 1936, Lucas attempted to stab Al Capone with a single scissor blade while Capone was working in the clothing room. Without warning, Lucas pulled the concealed shear from a handkerchief and started jabbing at Capone, managing to inflict several minor stab wounds. He would later claim that Capone had threatened to have him “ snuffed.” Capone denied the allegation, stating that Lucas had earlier demanded money, which he had refused to give. As a result of the stabbing, Lucas had all of his “ good time” earnings revoked and was sent to serve time in solitary confinement.

Rufus “Whitey” Franklin

A mug shot series of Rufus Franklin. Rufus was a violent criminal who spent nearly his entire adult life behind bars.

The third accomplice, Rufus “Whitey” Franklin, was born on January 15, 1916 in Kilby Alabama, and began his career in crime when he stole an automobile at only thirteen years of age. He was born into a large family of ten siblings as the middle child. At age sixteen Rufus was arrested for carrying a pistol, and only one year later he was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder. When he was allowed a temporary parole to attend the funeral of his mother, he and an accomplice named John Austin Cooper held up a bank in Cedar Bluff, Alabama, taking $558.65 in cash.  Because of his long criminal record, the nature of his offenses, and what was documented as “an assaultive and vicious demeanor,” he was sent to Alcatraz in August of 1936, and there he was registered as inmate AZ-335.

The Escape

Senior Officer Royal C. Cline was brutally murdered by Thomas Limerick during the escape attempt. In his final moment of bravery Cline refused to aid the escapees, and subsequently was killed.

The Model Shop Tower, where Officer Harold Stites was attacked by the would-be escapees. Stites opened fire on the inmates, fatally wounding Limerick.

The image labels indicate the sequence events of the escape: (A) shows where the inmates climbed onto the roof to execute their attack against tower officer Stites; (B) shows the barbed-wire where Franklin was subdued; (C) the tower where Stites was barricaded; (D) the area where Limerick was fatally shot. Lucas would be found cowering under the tower.

Warden Johnston described the escape in great detail in a formal memorandum to the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, James V. Bennett. The memo, dated June 4, 1938, was written following an intensive investigation of the escape. It chronicled the following events:

Immediately following the attempted escape of prisoners Limerick, Franklin and Lucas, their assault on Senior Officer Royal C. Cline, their assault on the guard tower manned by Junior Officer Harold P. Stites, I reported the matter to you by telephone and followed it by making additional telephonic reports on the following day, informing you of the death of Officer Cline and death of prisoner Limerick.

At noon on that day I went to San Francisco to act as honorary pallbearer at the funeral of Jesse S. Cook, former Chief of Police of San Francisco. While I was in the Masonic Temple where the services were being held, somebody tapped me on the shoulder and told me I was wanted on the telephone. I went at once to the telephone and called my secretary who told me there had been some shooting on the lower end of the Island in the work area and apparently some prisoners had tried to escape, that Officer Cline had been hurt, but beyond that he could not give detailed particulars. I ordered the launch sent off and I proceeded immediately to the wharf and reached the Island shortly after Mr. Cline and Prisoners Franklin and Limerick had been moved to the Hospital.

As soon as I got on the grounds and questioned the Associate Warden, Lieutenant of the Watch and officers who had participated, I found that this is what had happened:

Junior Officer Harold P. Stites was on duty in the tower on the roof of the Model Shop Building. Junior Officer Clifford B. Stewart was patrolling the roof of the building at the northwest side where he could keep an eye on the ground below the rear and side of the building nearest the Bay where contractors' workmen were boring boles in the concrete building in preparation for the installation of tool-proof steel window guards, the workmen being under supervision of Junior Officer George D. Hoag.

At about 2 P.M. or even before that hour, Officer Stites was inside the tower and heard noises behind him and turning in the direction of the sound saw Prisoners Lucas, Franklin and Limerick on the roof to which they had ascended from the top floor of the shop building. Subsequent examination showed that they had reached the roof by standing on a window shoved out-ward which they held steady with a timber frame and making an aperture in the barbed wire guard around the roof, cutting the wire with pliers.

Almost as soon as Officer Stites saw the prisoners, they rushed the tower from several angles each of them firing iron missiles (note: these consisted of heavy metal objects including hammers and heavy wrenches), their apparent purpose being to try to knock him out and seize his arms.

Officer Stites endeavored to halt them by warning and by firing the first shot into the frame of the window but they kept advancing and then he kept dodging and firing shots through the glass in his tower. Several of the missiles they fired went through the glass in the tower but many others failed to go through, showing that the shatterproof glass is a very valuable protection. Only one of the missiles that went through hit Officer Stites. He did not leave his tower but fired through the glass.

The Associate Warden happened to be in his work area on the west side near the incinerator. Lieutenant Culver was making his regular afternoon inspection of the work area and at the time was in the laundry. Associate Warden heard the shots and went toward the Model Shop Building where he saw Prisoner Franklin laying on the barbed wire which goes around the edge of the roof, Model Shop Building. Lieutenant Culver coming from the Laundry also saw Franklin, as did several other Officers.

Associate Warden (Miller) used the emergency telephone to call all the officers from the front of the building and instructed the Armorer to get those that were on the island but off duty to go into the work area, and had the launch go to that part of the Bay back of the building, not knowing just whether or not anybody had succeeded in getting out.

When he learned that Officer Stites and Officer Stewart had the three men under control on the roof, Associate Warden Miller and Senior Officer Nickelson went up to the top floor of building to see if all of the other prisoners were there and had all of the shops in the building checked.

When they got to the fourth floor where Franklin, Lucas and Limerick had been assigned to work, they found the remaining prisoners assigned to that shop up at one corner and looking around for Mr. Cline they found him in a corner of the storeroom with his head battered in and bleeding.

He sent for stretchers and immediately moved Mr. Cline to the hospital, then went to the roof and removed Prisoner Franklin who still had the hammer in his hand with which he had been trying to hit Officer Stites, and from the blood appearing on it, it appears that this hammer was used in assaulting Officer Cline. Limerick was lying on the roof, shot in his head, unconscious. Lucas was held in corner, apparently in attitude of surrender, kept covered but not fired upon by Officer Stewart while Officer Stites was engaged in the battle with Franklin and Limerick.

Limerick and Franklin were then removed to the Hospital and Lucas was taken to the cell building and locked up. The Associate Warden interviewed both Lucas and Franklin. He secured a statement from Lucas which was reduced to writing and signed by the prisoner and afterwards he turned it over to the F.B.I. Agent.

At the request of Dr. Ritchey arrangements were made to move Officer Cline to the Marine Hospital, San Francisco, and he was moved over there at 5 P.M.

Dr. Creel, in charge of the Marine Hospital, telephoned to me during the evening and said that Mr. Cline's condition was very critical and it was doubtful if he would survive the night.

I telephoned to the United States Attorney and the San Francisco Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and arranged for their representatives to be at the Hospital so that in case Mr. Cline recovered consciousness and was able to talk they might secure a dying statement but he did not show any signs or consciousness during the night.

During the night Prisoner Limerick died and I immediately called the Coroner and arranged to transfer the body to him very early the morning of May 24, 1938. The afternoon of May 24, 1938, Mr. Cline died and the Marine Hospital notified the Coroner and arranged to transfer the body to him.

After autopsies, the bodies were released to the undertaking parlor and the body of Limerick was prepared and shipped to the Woodring Funeral Parlors, Des Moines, Iowa, in accordance with the request of his relatives.

The body of Mr. Cline was prepared for shipment to home in Sweetwater, Texas, in accordance with request of Mrs. Cline. Prior to shipment, services were held at undertaking parlors in San Francisco, about which I will write you a separate letter. On the morning of May 24, 1938, Agents T. P. Geraghty and Orval H. Patterson at the San Francisco office of the F.B.I. came over to the Island at my request and I related what had happened, gave them the names of all of the officers who had any knowledge, names of prisoners who worked in the shop, gave them sketches which one of our officers, George D. Hoag had made of the roof and fourth door of shop building and helped then in the taking of photographs of the roof of the shop building, the window, the barbed wire, and the tower.

They interviewed all persons having knowledge and they tagged with identifying marks all of the missiles that had been found on the roof as well as the hammer and the pliers and the shattered portions of the glass from the tower.

This detailed report has been held awaiting action of the Coroner who held inquest on both cases Thursday, June 2, 1938. In the meantime l had consulted with United States Attorney Frank J. Henessy and after reciting all that happened to him, decided upon the witnesses who could give the essential testimony necessary for the inquest—E.J. Miller, Associate Warden; Clitton C. Nickelson, Senior Officer; Harold P. Stites, Junior Officer and Clifford B. Stewart, Junior Officer. These officers appeared at the inquest and testified in response to the questions of the Coroner. United States Attorney Henessy was present, as was T. P. Geraghty, F.B.I. Agent.

Mr. Henessy observed the proceedings and asked some questions. The Coroner's Jury returned a verdict that Royal C. Cline, officer of the prison had met his death at the hands of the convicts named who assaulted him in their attempt to escape, and that Prisoner Thomas H. Limerick met his death from wounds inflicted by Officer Stites who shot him in the performance of duty in order to frustrate his attempt to escape.

The verdict of the Coroners Jury is what I have received orally but I am awaiting the copy of the verdict as well as the death certificate so that I may enclose copies with this report. United States Attorney Henessy in bringing the matter to the attention of the Federal Grand Jury and states that he will present it on Tuesday, the Seventh of June, at which time he intends to ask the jury for indictments for Franklin and Lucas. Subsequent developments will be reported as they occur so that you will be kept fully advised.

J.A. Johnston, Warden

Chief Medical Officer Doctor Romney Ritchey wrote the following memorandum to the Warden, describing the condition and injuries of Limerick when he was received at the prison hospital:

United States Public Health Service

U.S. Penitentiary

Alcatraz, California

May 24, 1938

Memorandum to the Warden: Re. Reg. No. 263-A Limerick, Thomas R.

The above captioned inmate was brought to the Hospital at 3:00 P.M. on a stretcher yesterday afternoon, May 23, 1938. He was entirely unconscious and found to be suffering from a gunshot wound of the head. There was a large bleeding hole in the forehead just to the right if the midline. The right eye was badly swollen and prominent. His breathing was heavy and the pulse was small and rapid. There was no wound in the back of the head, but there was some slight prominence at one point about opposite the point of entrance, which might indicate that the bullet had reached the skull posteriorly but had not entirely penetrated it. He was in a very critical condition and medication and treatment was administered to combat the shock. His condition appeared to be absolutely hopeless from the first and he gradually grew worse until about 08:00 P.M. when stertorous breathing set in and the pulse became weaker and he died at 11:18 P.M. May 23,1938, without ever regaining consciousness. Several verbal reports were made regarding this case both to the associate warden and yourself, and the associate warden was notified when he died.

Respectfully,

Romney M. Ritchey, Surgeon.

Chief Medical Officer

Lucas in own account written years later described the escape:

Limerick and Franklin picked a little after one o'clock as the time the officer in charge of the shop went into the office to check his count sheet. At Alcatraz, each officer must check his men on the count sheet every thirty-minutes. He also looked over the orders and stayed in the office about fifteen-minutes. This routine never varied just as the officers changed places every thirty minutes on the roof and never varied. The day of the break came, Limerick said I was to work with him. At one o'clock, Mr. Cline went into his office as usual. Limerick got out a wedge he had built to hold the window open and level when he stood on it. He put it on and waited. Franklin went into the file room. He was to watch the officer patrol the back side and when he started back to the far end of the building and his back was to the window he was to walk out of the File Room. That would be the signal to go up on the roof. So that was the reason Franklin was in the file room. We stood on the floor near the window watching for Franklin to come out of the File Room. Then as we stood on the far side of the shop under the window, Mr. Cline came out of the office and walked slowly into the File Room. I don't know why he came out of his office so soon, he never had before. He never looked around, just walked slowly into the File Room. Maybe he went there to check on an order for supplies. I just don't know. I told Limerick let's put it off. His eyes were cold as ice, he shook his head. He said he didn't notice anything meaning Mr. Cline. We waited what seemed like a million years, but was only a minute or so according to time verified at the trial. Then Franklin walked out of the File Room with a hammer in his hand. Limerick grabbed my arm. Let's go he said and crawled out the window and stood up on the steel sash of the window. I crawled out the other side and stood on the steel sash also. I looked up and could see the officer in the tower, his back toward us, looking over the work area. The door to the glass tower stood open. He was totally unaware to what was creeping up behind him. I was supposed to help Limerick cut the barbwire. Franklin was below us now waiting to crawl out the window as soon as one of us went up. Before I could put up my hand and pretend to cut the wire, Limerick cut through two strands. I had to act fast as the officer was still sitting unaware of anything. As Limerick cut the third strand, I lifted my foot and kicked out one of the windows. I looked up at the officer, he never moved, my heart fell. Below Franklin jerked my pants leg. As he held one pant leg, I rested that foot on the steel sash of the window and kicked another pane of glass out. The window was only 3 panes wide. I looked up. The officer heard that one break. He slowly turned around and looked back. Limerick was crawling up on the roof. He stood up and charged the tower throwing everything he could at the tower. The officer kicked the door shut and he barely had time to bring his gun into action. At that time, the other officer was on the far side of the building getting ready to move a scaffold for workers putting in new steel. I got up on the roof and Mr. Stites was firing at everything and everybody. I was barely able to save my life by crawling under the tower. Limerick was killed at the door. Franklin came flying into action and charged the door and struck several times against the glass with a blood stained hammer. He was shot down and he struck again and again with the hammer. After everything was over, they dragged me out from under the tower. I thought all there would be was an attempt to escape against me. But I wound up being tried for murder. The very thing I sacrificed myself to avoid. There was no plan to kill Mr. Cline, he just walked out into the room where there was a man who already had a life sentence in Alabama for murder. At the trial, I asked Franklin why he killed Mr. Cline and he said when Mr. Cline came into the room, he tried to tie him, but was resisted. He said Mr. Cline reached for his sap. Franklin said he hit him several times with his hammer before he fell.

The trial of Franklin and Lucas lasted three weeks. It was an emotional process, due to the brutal circumstances of Cline’s murder. The jury was forced to examine the grisly weapons used in the crime. They were shown graphic photos of the blood trail left behind when the body was dragged, the hammer which delivered the fatal blows, and the vivid death mask showing the viciousness of the attack. These factors contributed to the jury’s quick decision. Franklin and Lucas were convicted of first-degree murder, and both received life sentences for Cline’s death.

Jimmy Lucas and Rufus Franklin being transferred to court via the prison launch on November 18, 1938.

Lucas (left) and Franklin (right) during their highly publicized court appearances. Both inmates were convicted of first-degree murder for their role in Officer Cline’s death.

Rufus Franklin in court, awaiting the jury’s verdict.

Coroner's Technician Paul Green testifying in the Franklin and Lucas trial. Mr. Green is seen pointing to indentations in the skull, which the prosecution claimed were caused by hammer blows inflicted when Cline resisted the escapees.

Death mask of slain guard R. C. Cline; the hammers used in his murder; and other tools found in the Model Shop that were used in the escape attempt.

Harold P. Stites is sworn in to testify at a coroner’s inquest on November 4, 1938. On the table is Limerick’s death mask, showing the bullet wound from Stites’s fatal gunshot. Stites himself would later die in the brutally violent “Battle of Alcatraz” of 1946.

Franklin, who had been found with the bloodied hammer used in Cline’s killing, would be sentenced to serve nearly fourteen years in a closed-front solitary confinement cell. He would spend the longest term in solitary of any inmate in the history of Alcatraz. Nevertheless, Franklin was eventually extended a few special privileges. After a long period, he was allowed to keep the door front open and to enjoy a non-restricted diet. His long-term isolation status made him an underground hero among his fellow inmates. Even while being held in the most controlled cell row, he was able to communicate with others in the general population via orderlies, and thus to obtain contraband.

On February 27, 1945, Franklin was allowed time in the recreation yard along with famed inmate Henri Young. In an interrogation of Young while he was under the influence of the drug Sodium Amatol, the prisoner asserted that Whitey Franklin was the “coolest” inmate at Alcatraz. However, Franklin apparently didn’t reciprocate Young’s feelings. During their brief meeting in the yard, the two quickly engaged in conflict, and Franklin produced a kitchen knife and inflicted a minor stab wound to Young’s right shoulder. In a telegram written to Bureau of Prisons Director James Bennett, Warden Johnston suggested that an inmate assigned to the kitchen detail had planted the knife in the yard.

Franklin was released back into the general population in 1952. Because he refused to participate in a culinary strike that lasted from March 18th until April 4th, Franklin was forced back into the Treatment Unit for protection from the hostility of other inmates. He was allowed to continue work, and was permanently returned to the general population on February 12, 1954. Records show that Franklin readjusted easily to the normal prison routine. He increased his reading habits and was noted to take special interest in spiritual and philosophical subjects. Franklin gradually became more trusted by the custodial staff, and was later awarded a privileged position in the prison’s hospital. He was trained as an X-Ray technician and later qualified as a surgical assistant, and was even allowed to prepare and handle the surgical instruments during operations.

After spending twenty years at Alcatraz, Franklin was allowed to transfer back to Leavenworth Penitentiary for a brief ten-month stay, and then to Atlanta Federal Prison to be closer to his family. In a letter written in August of 1958, Franklin boasted about the train ride through New Mexico and Arizona in a Pullman car, and the emotion of seeing life outside of prison for the first time since the murder trial of Royal Cline. He wrote frequently to Warden Madigan and other friends at Alcatraz, keeping them up-to-date on his progress. Madigan seemed to reflect pleasantly on Franklin’s progress, and in a letter dated October 15, 1959, he wrote in part:

It has been a long time since you first came to Alcatraz and you have been through many difficult years and trials. You were a young man when you first came to us and as many young men you possessed the fire that got you into difficulty. You grew out of those years and by application improved your education and work habits. It was not easy for you since there were many pressures brought to bear that made it most difficult for you to conduct yourself as you wished to do. At any rate, you accomplished what you set your mind to do and are now in a position to accomplish still more.

Franklin would spend nearly his entire life behind bars. He was finally paroled on October 29, 1974, and died only a short time later on May 27, 1975 in Dayton, Ohio. He was living with his sister Ruby Farrow at the time of his death, and was said to have enjoyed cooking every morning, and rode the bus into the city everyday to savor his freedom.

Franklin’s final resting place at the Willow View Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio. He was laid to rest on May 30, 1975.

Correctional Officer Royal Cline tragically had been only thirty-six years old at the time of his death in 1938. His wife Etta remained faithfully at his side in the hospital until he succumbed to his injuries. Fellow correctional officers were profoundly affected by Cline’s death, which was especially sobering to the island’s families since Cline left behind four young children. His death would emphasize the reality that convicts would commit murder in trade for freedom. Warden Johnston would be quoted in the San Francisco Chronicleas stating: “I greatly regret that one who was so attached to his duty should meet such an end.”