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

Автор книги: Майкл Эсслингер

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Текущая страница: 31 (всего у книги 42 страниц)

The other men in the assault team were assigned to their stations, and it was planned that they would hold the West Gallery once Bergen, Stites, and Cochrane had completed the rescue of Officer Bert Burch. It was still unclear whether they would be recovering his corpse or rescuing him alive, since no one knew his true fate. The reserves were mostly seasoned officers. The remaining group was comprised of Lieutenant Frank Johnson, and Officers Alvin Bloomquest, Fred Mahan, Herschel R. Oldham, Fred J. Richberger, and Joe Maxell, who had made the first attempt at entering the gallery with Stites, but had been forced to retreat.

While the guards crouched at the entrance, Bergen made a final review of the plan, and then on cue he carefully swung open the door just enough to allow them passage. As they entered the building they remained cautiously silent, while searching for any visible movement on the cellhouse floor. The interior was mysteriously quiet, and masked with an eerie haze of smoke that clouded the air. The acrid smell of teargas slightly irritated their eyes as they tried to adjust to the dim lighting. As they searched the cellhouse for any sign of the hostages and the escapees, they could see little except broken glass littering the floors, and several of the cells standing open with no movement inside. Bergen and Cochrane advanced steadily to the middle of the gallery, stopping at the stairwell that led up to the middle level. Stites covered the entrance area, and scanned for any sign of movement.

Coy armed with his rifle and Cretzer with his .45 watched the officers make their entry into the gallery. They carefully took aim at the shadows moving down the caged corridor, and then once they had a sure shot, they fired almost in unison. As soon as the shots were discharged, Stites, Bergen and Cochrane instantaneously dropped for cover under a volley of return fire. The officers on the catwalk squeezed into the entrance, and they too started shooting into the cellhouse. A brief gun battle ensued while Bergen and Cochrane made a concerted effort to locate the origin of the gunfire, without success. Meanwhile, the deafening barrage was heard all the way to the city’s shores. Bergen yelled out to Stites to head for the stairs, where they could take cover and secure better positions from which to return fire. As Cochrane attempted to climb the stairs, he was violently struck by a bullet in his right arm. Bergen yelled emphatically to cease fire, and led the reluctant Cochrane back to the entrance. Richberger had also suffered a major gunshot wound to the leg, and in a painful low stance, he limped along the catwalk back to safety. Bert Burch, still tied and unable to move, tried to remain as still as possible to avoid being hit or targeted.

The team quickly regrouped outside the gallery entrance, and Bergen, full of determination, prepared to reenter and take control of the gallery. Bergen and Stites, now followed by the reserve officers, quickly rushed back into the building. Bergen had just begun a feverous search for Burch when the gunfire intensified, causing him to stop and take cover. Bergen and Mahan rushed to the stairwell while Stites and Oldham maintained their positions in the D Block section of the gallery. The gun gallery in the D Block section had an “L” shaped curve that paralleled the south cellblock wall. This section provided an excellent frontal view of the cells and the activity of the inmates. Bergen and Mahan carefully positioned themselves in a low stance, and prepared to return fire into the ghostly haze of smoke. As the reserves fired off piston-like bursts of gunfire into the cellblock, the assault team quickly navigated the stairwell, hoping to locate and extricate Officer Burch. Suddenly and without warning, while Stites was slowly advancing along the south wall of the gun gallery, he was struck by a bullet and fatally wounded.

A diagram hand drawn by Lieutenant Phil Bergen, showing the key event locations.

Officer Donald Martin kept a detailed journal of assignments on Alcatraz, and would be one of the officers sent in to recover the fatally wounded Harold Stites from the West Gun Gallery. His personal journal notes describe the injuries suffered by officers and detail the escape events.

The interior of the Gun Gallery section inside of D Block. Visible at floor level is the window from which the fatal shot struck officer Harold Stites.

Unconscious and completely unresponsive to his surroundings, Stites was lying supine and motionless at the southwest corner of D Block, bleeding profusely from a flank wound. Bergen and Mahan heard Oldham yelling out that Stites was badly hit, and quickly came to his aid. They immediately recognized the severity of his wounds, and each officer grabbed a leg to drag him along the gallery to the stairwell. Oldham joined in to help them carry the wounded officer, and he was struck in the arm as he passed one of the gallery windows. Stites was dragged out to the catwalk, where he lay bleeding in full view of the other officers positioned on the hillside. He was quickly carried into the administration area, where he was immediately pronounced dead. It was a sobering indicator of the gravity of the situation, and a final confirmation that this would not end peacefully. Bergen was now more determined than ever to free his fellow officers.

Bergen and Fred Mahan were now all alone in the West Gallery, studying every sound and every shadow.

Correctional Officer Fred Mahan.

Bergen and Fred Mahan were now all alone in the West Gallery, studying every sound and every shadow. The cellhouse remained still, and free of any movement. They could only hear an occasional cough or a muffled voice from an anonymous cell. Mahan maintained his position in the D Block end of the gallery, while Bergen advanced alone into the main area of the cellhouse. Bergen was especially cautious, and he studied every discernible figure and shadow that he could make out through the gallery bars. As he progressed cautiously through the darkened gallery, he finally came across Burch, who was cold and shivering, and relieved to hear Bergen’s voice. Burch briefed Bergen on what little he could remember. He didn’t recall being struck, but had some recollection of the fight that had ensued with an inmate who he believed to be Bernie Coy. Burch was sore and had several scrapes and bruises, but amazingly he didn’t appear to have suffered any other injuries. He was unclothed, except for his undergarments and socks.

Bergen and Burch slowly crawled their way back into D Block. As soon as they met up with Mahan, they called the Armory and notified the staff there that they had located Burch, and that he appeared to be unhurt. Burch was assisted out of the gallery and walked back into administration, where he was examined and provided with clothing. Against the advice of the physician, he immediately returned to the gallery to provide support. Bergen had decided to make another excursion into the West Gallery, where he would attempt to locate his fellow officers. Holding his pistol at the ready, he skillfully advanced into the narrow corridor. He again studied every tier of cells, looking for even the slightest indication of where the captives could be located. He ascended the staircase at the north end of the gallery, careful and alert, and ready to react should the convicts attempt to ambush him. As he made it to the top level, the mystery of how Coy had infiltrated the galley became clear. From a crouched position he could see the bars and how they had been bent. It was clear that Coy had somehow acquired tools that were capable of bending the steel that had been termed “tool-proof.”  Bergen inspected the gallery, and was finally confident that no inmates were waiting in ambush. He descended back into the D Block section, where he was met by Mahan, and he reported his findings back to the Armory via the gallery telephone. Bergen and Mahan maintained their positions and continued a close surveillance of the cellhouse, awaiting further orders from the Warden’s office.

The Warden was behind closed doors, plotting with his aides about how to perform a stealthy rescue and free his men. With Lieutenants Isaac Faulk, Frank Johnson and Associate Warden Ed Miller, he debated the pros and cons of making entry into the cellhouse without firm knowledge of the whereabouts of the captive officers. It was later reported that Warden Johnston had also felt uneasy about sending in a team carrying weapons, which could potentially be seized by the already armed inmates. It was known that the inmates had only a small arsenal of weapons and ammunition, and the prison staff realized that the battle could intensify if the convicts secured more firearms and drew more inmates into their scheme. This had been one of the most critical elements of the security system at Alcatraz. Weapons were never to be allowed into the cellhouse under any circumstances. But clearly this type of situation had never been anticipated, and some invasive action would have to be implemented, beyond what was dictated by protocol.

The injured guards, Richberger, Cochrane, and Oldham, were driven down to the dock area. Johnston made a solemn trip over to meet with Bessie Stites and deliver the news of her husband’s tragic death. Her friends and children would assist her, as they gathered their belongings and met at the dock where her husband’s body lay tightly covered with a dark green army blanket. Harold P. Stites had become the first known fatality, and his body was lifted onto the bow of the launch for the brief trip over to the Van Ness Pier. As they arrived, they were met with a barrage of reporters snapping photos, desperate to get any information that was available. The news of Stites’ death was starting to spread, and the tension rose among the families, who feared the worst for their loved ones on the island. Ambulances lined the dock access path with their flashing red lights radiating against the buildings and water. When the launch arrived at the dock, four prison officers, Fred Richberger, Harry Cochrane, Herschel Oldham, and Elmus Besk, were rushed by ambulance to the Marine Hospital in the Presidio. The body of Harold Stites was solemnly loaded into the back of an ambulance and driven to the Medical Examiner’s Office, where it would immediately undergo an autopsy.

Warden Johnston had made a final decision that it was still too risky to send in an armed assault team. The plan would therefore be to attempt to communicate with the cornered inmates, to see if they could strike some limited bargain for the hostages’ return. Ed Miller was assigned the task of attempting to negotiate with the inmates. Breaking out a pane from a window over the D Block catwalk, Miller yelled blindly into the cellhouse, trying to reason with the escapees, and pleading for them to surrender. At first there was no response, but then after a brief moment, Cretzer yelled from an indiscernible location that they would not be taken alive, and challenged Miller to “come’n and get us.”  From his position in the gun gallery Bergen listened carefully to the sound of the voice, and cautiously looking over the Gallery’s steel barrier, he attempted to locate where the voice was coming from. As Cretzer and Miller briefly exchanged words, Coy fired off several rounds toward the window where Miller was standing. This action incited a response, and soon there was an intense barrage of gunfire into D Block.

Scenes of Alcatraz at war. Armed with mortars and bazookas, United States Marines used heavy artillery to bomb the cellhouse in an effort to regain control.

Alvin Karpis, former “Public Enemy Number One” and the inmate to serve the longest term on the Rock, later recounted that the first bombardment of gunfire took the inmates completely by surprise. They had not expected the barrage of bullets to be so severe. The inmates in D Block were nearly deafened as the artillery attack reverberated throughout the cellhouse, and to the many spectators who lined the shores of San Francisco, it was reminiscent of a Fourth of July fireworks display. Former inmate Jim Quillen later reported that when the rifle grenades fired by marines penetrated into the cellhouse, the steel casings of the segregation cells could be seen expanding and contracting from the massive impact of the explosions. The inmates took cover behind piled mattresses, bedding, and books. As grenades traveled through the barred windows of D Block and clumsily landed, they would detonate hot shrapnel fragments across the cells. The individual blasts sent violent shock waves across the tiers and in one case inmate Burton Phillips was knocked completely unconscious, and all of the plumbing fixtures within his cell were destroyed. Each time a grenade hit, it would rupture the water lines, creating what Quillen later described as a “free-flowing river” that flooded each tier. There was a collective mood of terror as the inmates were forced to take cover behind the icy-cold water-soaked mattresses, which slowly increased in density, acting as large porous sponges. The chilly Bay winds started to creep into the cellblock, but this also dispersed some of the harsh and acrid haze of teargas. It was later recounted that each time the clouds of teargas started to dissipate; another canister would be thrown onto the cellhouse floor.

Spectators lined the shores of San Francisco, watching the embattled prison. The sounds of gunfire and bombing resonated throughout the city.

By 9:00 p.m. the cellhouse was completely dark, with only ambient lighting glowing though the exterior windows. Bergen was now positioned in the “L” section of the gun gallery, observing the attack of the administration forces. As the barrage of fire lessened, voices from the catwalk again pleaded with the inmates to surrender their weapons and release the hostages. Coy was now taking cover behind the cement wall next to the D-Block entrance, and he yelled more obscenities at the guards, then fired several rounds toward the window from which the voice had emerged. The attack would again rage on, as the cellhouse was shelled with powerful artillery. Bergen and Mahan, who were now rejoined by Burch, fiercely opened fire on Coy, but they were unable to see him well enough to aim precisely. After nearly forty-five minutes of fierce battle, the rapid pulse of gunfire slowed to an irregular pattern, with only occasional deafening bursts aimed at briskly moving shadows. Coy retreated back into the utility corridor, where he climbed the labyrinth of piping, hoping to find a point on top of the cellhouse from which he would have a clear, unobstructed shooting radius.

Tension was now also rising for the inmates in the recreation yard. Each time shots were fired into the cellhouse, the inmates would yell obscenities at the marines and guards along the wall. These slurs would generally be met with aimed rifles and machine guns, challenging the prisoners’ unruliness. The sharp winds had also added to the inmates’ misery, and the blankets seemed to offer little protection against the salty ocean mist. The guards in the East Gallery were aware that Coy and his accomplices were pinned down in the C Block Corridor. The inmates decided that they would need to position themselves more advantageously, and they decided to make a run for the dining hall, where they could stock up on food supplies, and perhaps attempt another attack on the yard wall guards. As they slowly opened the access door they were immediately met with intense fire, and were forced to retreat into the corridor. On the outside, Bergen, Burch, and Mahan spread out to see if they could detect any movement. There was virtually none, and all they heard was the loud whispering of the inmates amongst themselves. Bergen got back on the phone with Miller, and he conveyed his confidence that his team now controlled both galleries, and that they were in a good position to attempt the rescue.

Warden Clinton Duffy of San Quentin had shared a long and close friendship with Warden Johnston. Duffy’s father had also served as Warden of San Quentin, and he himself had actually been born inside the prison grounds.  A mentor to both Johnston and Duffy was the former Warden of “Q,” James B. Holohan. Holohan and Johnston had been among the driving forces behind recent progress in the area of inmate reform and education. Duffy and Holohan interfaced extensively with Johnston, and both men continued many of the programs that were introduced by Johnston during his days at San Quentin. When word came of the current debacle, Duffy committed a large group of his full-time correctional staff to help support their peers on Alcatraz, including the San Quentin physician, Dr. Leo Stanley. A Coast Guard cutter made a special trip across the Bay, bringing the San Quentin guards straight over to the island. Captain Bernard McDonald of the San Francisco Police Department also brought over several heavily armed officers, who were all prepared to engage in battle with the inmates.

At approximately 10:30 p.m. Johnston finally agreed to put together a large armed assault team that could enter the main cellhouse and carry out the rescue. The Associate Warden and Lieutenant Isaac Faulk assembled their group of ten additional men, and planned their entry. The rescue would be aggressive, and they were prepared to do battle with the inmates should they attempt to ambush the team. The inmates affectionately referred to the special troops that carried out this type of task as “The Goon Squad.”  By 11:05 p.m. the assault team had lined up outside the main entrance, awaiting the signal to enter. Miller slowly opened the main steel door, and carefully assessed the main floor of the prison. With no suspicious movement visible, the team advanced inward and started an articulate search, with their flashlights glaring into the squinting eyes of timid inmates as the officers closely examined each cell they passed along the flats. As they slowly progressed towards Seedy Street with their weapons poised and ready to fire, they heard whispers from one of the captive officers in one of the end cells on the C-D aisle. Officer Mowery was able to advance forward and locate the hostages. He also managed to open the cells and begin preparing the men for evacuation.

But as the officers moved toward the cells, they were suddenly fired upon by Coy, who was perched on top of C Block. Officer McKean and Lieutenant Faulk were able to secure and lock the door to D Block as well as the C Block utility corridor access door, and then they took cover. Coy fired off several shots, thus giving away his position. Officer Fred Roberts took a bullet in the arm, and plummeted to the floor. The team then retreated under one of the walkway balconies below a cell row, and pulled Roberts under for cover. The officers had seen the muzzle flashes, and they emerged from their hiding place with a rapid barrage of gunfire aimed at the top of C Block, forcing Coy to retreat. Then without delay, the officers started pulling the injured men from the cells.

Sundstrom, Burdette, and Bristow were found unharmed, and Lageson had only minor wounds; all were able to walk on their own. Weinhold, Simpson, Corwin and Miller were all in extremely critical condition, and had to be carried out to safety by the other officers. The freed hostages were brought in through the sallyport and laid on the floor outside of the Warden’s office. Alcatraz physicians Roucek and Bowden, assisted by Dr. Jones of the Public Health Department, all started feverously treating and bandaging the injured officers’ wounds. At about midnight, the wounded officers were taken aboard the prison launch and quickly ferried to the Van Ness Pier. When the launch pulled up to the dock, there were abundant crowds of onlookers and reporters watching attentively as the critically injured officers were loaded into waiting ambulances. As each ambulance departed, the wailing and fading sirens could be heard by everyone on the island.

Heroic Officer Bill Miller. Irving Levinson who had been assigned to the Road Tower on the day of the escape, emphasized in a later interview that Miller’s unselfish act that ultimately cost him his life, kept the inmates from gaining access to the families. Levinson stated that the “final outcome” should the inmates have made into the family living areas would have been “catastrophic” based on their desperate disposition.

Officer Bill Miller is shown being transferred to the Marine Hospital just hours before he succumbed to a fatal gunshot wound.

Officer Cecil Corwin was critically injured by a gunshot wound to the head. Luckily, Corwin would survive his injuries.

One of the injured officers is seen being wheeled into the Emergency Room following the historic rescue.

With the hostages rescued and large numbers of reinforcements swarming the island, the officers would now aggressively attempt to flush out the armed convicts. Warden Johnston and his staff sat with Officers Lageson, Sundstrom, Burdette, and Bristow, and exhaustively interviewed the men, attempting to extract every minute detail of how the escape had transpired. They were able to ascertain conclusively that Coy, Cretzer, Hubbard, Thompson, Shockley, and Carnes were the active armed conspirators. Other convicts were also named, mostly by individual officers, but their level of participation could not be precisely determined. It seemed possible that they might not even have been involved, and might have been present purely by coincidence. Johnston was also unable to pinpoint the conspirators’ exact location in the cellhouse. The group discussed the various possible origins of the gunfire, but the evidence was not conclusive, since the guards had heard gunshots from a variety of locations. Ed Miller was confident that Roberts had been shot with a rifle from on top of C Block, because he had seen the muzzle flashes as they were fired upon during the rescue.

Lieutenant Bergen had watched Miller’s team during the rescue and had helped to return Coy’s fire. He had already moved more men up to the top of the West Galley, and had situated them so they would have a sound vantage point from which to suppress gunfire. Officers O’Brien and Green used heavy sledgehammers to knock out the bullet-proof panes from the Visitors’ Gallery, and prepared to take aim on any of the armed convicts who might appear. Three other armed officers named Mowery, Jones, and Runnels entered the cellhouse and climbed to the top of B Block. They carefully watched for any movement on top of C Block, and fired whenever they saw a moving shadow. Bergen had left the gallery phone off the hook to maintain an open line, and he continued to convey updates on activities to the Armory. When the Armory officer needed to speak to Bergen, he would blow a whistle into the receiver, which would generate just enough sound to capture his attention. Warden Johnston had contacted Bergen personally as soon as he had confirmed the identities of the conspirators. He had asked Bergen and his men to maintain a careful lookout for these convicts.

By 2:10 a.m. Simpson and Weinhold were in surgery having the fragmented Colt slugs removed from their bodies. Miller and Corwin were scheduled next, and they initially appeared to be doing well. Miller had provided a sworn statement to FBI agents, positively identifying Joseph Cretzer as the gunman who had shot them one by one in cold blood. Reporters flooded the hospital waiting rooms, attempting to grab photos and any statements that they could get from the doctors and from the ambulance attendants who had transported the men. The city morgue had also sprung to life, with journalists lining the entryway, hoping to glean information on how Stites had met his fate. One of the morgue attendants who had transported Stites from the dock acknowledged that he had stayed to watch Stites’s uniform cut away, and had seen some of his wounds. However, he misinformed the hungry reporters, stating that it looked like Stites had taken “several machine-gun bullets” in his back. Meanwhile the battle continued through the night, with the officers and marines launching attacks on both D and C Blocks. Lieutenant Faulk managed to secure the entrance door to D Block, and it was believed that one of the armed men was trapped there. The battle raged on as thousands lined the shores throughout the night, watching the tracers of artillery fire bludgeoning the cellhouse.

As the sun started to rise on San Francisco, Ed Miller assisted Warrant Officer Charlie Buckner to the roof, and started shooting gas grenades into the C-Block corridor through the ventilators. They continued to call to the inmates, urging a peaceful surrender, but there was never any reply. Charlie L. Buckner was a decorated World War II veteran, who had been stationed on Treasure Island after the war. He was a demolition expert, and had prevailed in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. The Alcatraz guards had been able to achieve virtually no precision with the gas grenades, because they would bounce off of objects and land far from their target. Buckner’s experience would be invaluable, because during the war he had become an expert at rigging devices designed to expel Japanese soldiers from the burrowed tunnels in which they concealed themselves during battles. He was a master at lowering the grenade into the tunnel on a thin string, armed with a detonation system that was extremely effective and precise.

Charlie L. Buckner lowered demolition grenades into the cellhouse from the roof using string. He strategically detonated the grenades inside the utility corridors, in an attempt to flush out the rioters.

Buckner told Warden Johnston that if he could obtain demolition grenades, he could lower these explosives into confined areas with great accuracy, and without risking the lives of his officers. Johnston quickly made arrangements to have the ammunition boated over from a military arsenal in Benecia. When the supplies arrived, the rescue team started drilling holes through the ceilings directly above the corridors. The holes were drilled large enough to allow fist-sized grenades to pass through the openings. In a systematic process, Buckner rigged a wire around the casing cap to hold the grenade, and then delicately lowered it through the opening. The string was generally measured to a specific length, and thus the explosive device was lowered to a precise height. Once the string was spooled out and the grenade had reached the desired position, Buckner would sharply jerk a second string that was affixed to the discharge mechanism, and this would expel the pin. He was later described by one of the correctional officers as having the skill of a “masterful puppeteer.”

The cement scar patterns are still visible today where Buckner detonated the explosives.

Warden Johnston was also pleased to welcome two other visitors, General Joseph W. “Vinegar Joe ”Stilwell and General Frank Merrill, who had come over to the island on an Army vessel. Johnston and the two Generals evaluated the situation in meticulous detail, and reviewed every officer’s post assignment, as well as the strategy for regaining control of the cellhouse. The generals seemed impressed with the containment procedures already in place, and they reviewed some of the artillery configurations that they had recommended to help reestablish control. The light fragmentation explosives they had been using were replaced with anti-tank shells, which were dropped through the drilled ceiling portals.

The guards and Marines also fired rifle grenades from the lawn on the side of the building that faced the Golden Gate Bridge. Army-style cots were set up in the administration building so the officers could remain close by while they rested. Many of the officers had been up for over twenty-four hours, including Burch, who had been tied up for nine hours following the brutal attack, and had then stayed up all night on watch in the gallery with Bergen. Bergen and the others had also begun to tire after having been up all night, but before turning in, both men met with the Warden and described in detail all of the events that they had witnessed from their perspective in the gun gallery. At 7:00 a.m., the Alcatraz staff received the dreadful news that Bill Miller had gone into cardiac arrest, and that the surgeons had been unable to resuscitate him. One of the doctors explained to Johnston over the phone that Miller had fallen into a deep state of shock as a result of severe blood loss and had subsequently died. Cecil Corwin was still deemed to be in critical condition, but he was expected to survive his injuries. Weinhold and Simpson had done well in surgery, and had been moved into the intensive care ward where they were now listed in critical but stable condition. They had both been placed in oxygen tents, and allowed to rest. The other guards were also in a stable condition, and were expected to recover fully from their injuries.

After interviewing Burch and Bergen, the Warden walked the short distance to his house and retired for a short nap. Sleep would be difficult however, as more marines were landing on the island, and the artillery attack had intensified. Dr. Roucek pulled out a small flask and provided Burch and Bergen with a shot of whisky to help sooth their nerves. By 11:00 a.m. the situation was still considered to be out of control, and heavier artillery was brought to the island, including anti-tank mortars and bazookas. The firing grew more and more intensive, and a staccato rhythm of bombing began against the exterior walls of D Block, launched from the grassy slopes below the south wall. Small brush fires started below the cellhouse, and a heavy blanket of dense pungent smoke could be seen from all points of San Francisco. Large groups of journalists keenly watched the events from boats that were idling in the waters only a few hundred yards away. Jack Eoisie was one of the reporters who had been assigned to cover the escape attempt by the San Francisco Chronicle. He described the events in sharp detail on page four of the May 4 ^thedition: