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

Автор книги: Майкл Эсслингер

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ESCAPE ATTEMPT #14

Date:

December 16, 1962

Inmates:

John Paul Scott

Daryl Lee Parker

Location:

Kitchen Basement

By December of 1962, plans had already been set in motion to close the prison due to crippling costs and structural deterioration of the main cellhouse. Decades of exposure to the harsh salt ocean air had taken its toll on the prison. The last attempted escape at Alcatraz may have been facilitated by the dilapidated state of the prison facilities. In any case, it finally demonstrated that with properly constructed floats and a favorable current, it was technically possible for an inmate to enter the icy Bay waters and paddle to the mainland. John Paul Scott and Daryl Parker were two of the tough incorrigibles that Alcatraz was designed to cage, but they proved that even The Rock was not invulnerable to a well-planned prison break.

John Paul Scott was a university educated bank robber of the modern era. His inmate file details a multitude of bank heists, dramatic prison breaks, and spectacular shootouts with police. Like Scott, Daryl Lee Parker’s attempted escape at Alcatraz would be merely a brief episode in a lifelong diary of crime. In this chapter, the stories of John Paul Scott and Daryl Lee Parker are illustrated through firsthand reports and inmate records that chronicle their lives in prison as well as their various escape attempts.

Daryl Lee Parker

Daryl Lee Parker

Parker’s transfer order to Alcatraz.

An entry in a 1967 classification study report recounts the early life of Daryl Parker, and it includes a letter from his mother describing his childhood:

Daryl’s childhood was normal. He was number five of a family of eight children. No bad habits like drinking or smoking early in life. At age of twelve to fourteen he began taking bottles and cashing them in for spending money. The habit of thievery grew rapidly with it ending in your institution.   Daryl was a beautiful baby and much loved by his brothers and sisters. Therefore, might have been spoiled somewhat. He was sent to the Boys Industrial School at the end of eighth grade. He also entered Timkin Vocational and finished all but two credits in high school. He lost out in Industrial School there being a war on and a shortage of math teachers. He took printing in Timkin Vocational School. After this he worked at Isaly’s Dairy store and he married Margaret Davis, also of Tinkin Vocational School, in a church here in Canton. There were no children. His father, Howard, is a foreman at the Timkin Roller Bearing Company. He also fixes TVs in his spare time as a hobby. He was born in Morgan County, Ohio. Georgia (Walker) Parker, his grandmother, was also born in Morgan County, Ohio, and was a schoolteacher prior to her marriage. 

All I can say in conclusion was Daryl was high-strung, quick-tempered, and very nervous. At age 6 he developed a stammer. It was not bad, but irritated him a lot. He changed schools three times by our moving, and he resented the last school bringing home all F’s in every department. He has been in the Boys Industrial School, Mansfield Reformatory, Lorton and the prison in Maryland. He came nearer adjusting himself after leaving Mansfield, staying out of trouble three years. He returned from Lorton Prison in very bad shape having made friends with an elder criminal, which he ended where he is now, with you. Each time Daryl has been in trouble we hope and pray it will be his last. That hasn’t happened yet and we hope that he will come out of your prison a better boy for our faith in prisons is very low at the moment.

The inmate is married but has no children. He married Margaret Davis January 19, 1952, at Canton, Ohio, and stated there had been no discord with his wife, who is self supporting as a secretary, and he stated that in view of his long sentence, he had advised her to obtain a divorce. 

By 1957 Daryl’s criminal record was already full of entries, ranging from juvenile stints as a runaway beginning in 1944, to armed robbery charges in 1957. A bank robbery that he committed in that year with his friend John Bartholomew is detailed in his criminal summary:

Attached to the form 792, U.S. Attorney’s Report, accounting for the sentence of 20 years on count 1 and 25 years concurrently on count 2 for Bank Robbery and assault with a deadly weapon was the statement, Defendant, Daryl Lee Parker, which John T. Bartholomew, robbed the Clinton and Rudisill Branch of the Lincoln National Bank and Trust Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana of the sum of $50,104.00 on Friday, October 18, 1957. 

The men became acquainted while both were doing time in the Federal Reformatory at Lorton, Virginia. Daryl Lee Parker, though the younger of the two men, carefully laid all of the plans and made all of the arrangements for the bank robbery. He furnished the weapons used and stole two automobiles used as getaway cars. Both Parker and Bartholomew wore grotesque Halloween masks during the actual robbery. The defendant Daryl Lee Parker disguised his appearance by the use of black hair dye and of suntan theatrical grease paint. Both men entered the bank together. Bartholomew carried a .45 automatic pistol, while Daryl Lee Parker carried a .357 caliber magnum revolver, which, we are informed, is the most powerful handgun made, so powerful that it will drive a shell through the motor block of an automobile engine.

Bartholomew took up a position near the front of the of the bank, menacing the branch manager and the assistant branch manager with his gun, and directing them to fill a laundry bag with the bank’s money from the teller’s cages. Daryl Lee Parker proceeded to the rear of the bank menacing tellers behind the teller’s cages with his magnum revolver, and compelling a youthful vault casher to take money from the drive-in windows of the bank and put it in one of the bank’s money bags. During the time of the robbery there were 15 to 20 customers in the bank. Daryl Lee Parker vaulted over the gate in the area behind the teller’s cages, held the magnum revolver to a young girl cashier and on the youthful vault cashier whom he ordered not to take another step or he would “blow your head off.”  Daryl Lee Parker ordered all of the clerks away from their teller’s cages and said that if the police should come during the robbery he and his fellow robber would take 3 hostages and that they would kill the hostages without hesitation.

Defendant Daryl Lee Parker planned this bank robbery with such meticulous attention to detail that it required months of intensive investigation to assemble the evidence required before his arrest on March 19, 1958. Daryl Lee Parker said to a fellow prisoner at the Allen County Jail at Fort Wayne, Indiana, that he was sure to be convicted of the Fort Wayne bank robbery charge on which he was held and that escape was the only way out. 

Daryl Lee Parker on June 11, 1958, stated to Donald Byington, Warden, United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Indiana, that he would try to escape at the first opportunity he had and stated: “I am in too much trouble, having robbed four banks and I couldn’t do all that time”; the defendant’s brother, Robert Parker, who probably has more than just simple guilty knowledge of Daryl’s activities, has admitted that they have a total of $226,000,00 hidden away. Both Daryl Lee Parker and his brother Robert Parker are known to have made flights to Cuba soon after the Fort Wayne bank robbery.

Parker was charged with two counts of robbery, and was committed to the Allen County Jail in Fort Wayne. The following report describes his escape, which would prefigure his eventual break from Alcatraz:

Parker was at first confined in Cell Block “A” on the first floor of the County Jail. There he approached a fellow prisoner, who was a trustee, showed him a hundred dollar bill concealed in a package of cigarettes, and solicited his aid for escape. Parker told the trusty that a large negro man would place some hacksaw blades near a flag pole in the front yard of the jail. Parker suggested that this trusty, who had freedom to go in and out of the jail, might pick these hack saw blades up, conceal them in a magazine and deliver the magazine to Parker. Parker offered $1,000.00 to this trusty if he would smuggle these hacksaw blades into the jail. The trusty immediately reported Parker’s offer to the jail officials.

Parker was thereupon moved upstairs to the maximum-security cellblock of the County Jail, adjacent to the section where mental patients were held. Jail officials and... B.I. agents searched Parker’s cell for the $1,000.00, which he offered to pay to the trusty. Parker was even required to strip his clothing and to be examined by a physician as part of the search. Parker’s shoes were taken to a local shoemaker for examination. The shoemaker tore the heels off the shoes and discovered two packets made of black electrician’s tape, each of which packets contained five one-hundred-dollar bills. Each packet was secreted in special indentations, which had been cut out of the heel of each shoe. The shoemaker who made the examination expressed the opinion that the work had been done by a skilled shoemaker. Further investigation showed that the shoes had been taken to a shoemaker in Canton, Ohio, to have the work done. The packets of money were already made up for insertion under the heel in each of the shoes.

Parker managed to smuggle out of the jail, plans of the jail to certain persons to enable those persons to deliver to him the tools necessary for escape. At this time, Parker was confined in a cell to the left of which was a cell occupied by a person named [deleted entry]. Immediately to the left of this person’s cell was a cell in which there was located a bathtub for the use of prisoners. [Deleted entry] had been the trusty detailed to empty the garbage from the basement kitchen of the jail. At the time the practice of the jail had been to entrust the cook in the kitchen with the key that unlocked the barred door from the kitchen that led directly to the outside. [Deleted entry] had secured the key, had unlocked the barred rear door of the kitchen and had gone out to empty the garbage. He did not return and was later apprehended and returned to the jail cell next to the cell occupied by Parker. Parker inquired and learned from this prisoner how he had secured the key.

On a stormy night prior to Tuesday, June 10, 1958, two men scaled the wall of the County Jail with an extension ladder. One of these men carried a dark oilcloth bag tied around his neck. He was able to get onto a roof below the barred window of the jail cell used by the prisoners for bathing. He tied the bag to the end of a rope, the other end of which had been previously tied to one of the cell bars of this cell. The rope had been painted black and was long enough to allow the bag to lie on the jail roof in such a way as be unnoticed from the window. The bag contained a .45 automatic pistol, ammunition, hacksaw blades, and money. Perhaps $75 to $80 dollars.

Parker himself admitted that he took a bath and concealed this black bag under his clothing when he returned to his own jail cell. Parker spent three nights trying to saw through the bars of on the window of his jail cell. The bars were of such hard steel, that he was unable to make any headway. Then he commenced working on the bolt which locked his jail cell door, discovering in the process that it was of a softer steel and that he was able to cut through it.

On Tuesday morning, June 10, 1958, a jail guard and a trusty came into the cellblock to feed the prisoners. Parker did not eat that morning, and the trusty and the jail guard continued on past Parker’s cell to feed the patients held in the mental section. Thereupon, Parker opened the steel barred door of his jail cell, menaced the jail guard and the trusty with a .45 caliber pistol, and compelled them to get into one of the jail cells. He compelled the jail guard to take off his Deputy Sheriff’s uniform. Parker then put the Deputy Sheriff’s uniform on himself over his own clothing and fled downstairs into the jail kitchen. There he was unable to obtain the key to unlock the door that led immediately outside, because after the other prisoner’s escape from the kitchen, the practice had been changed. The cook was no longer entrusted with the key.

Parker then went back upstairs into the jail office. With his .45 caliber pistol, he shot the lock off the door of the jail guard’s office. The office was completely bullet proofed except for one little spot just behind the door’s lock. Parker compelled the guard on-duty to press the button, which electrically unlocked the iron barred door to the front of the jail. 

Parker then fled out of the jail, through an alley behind the jail to an intersection at which traffic was regulated by stop-and-go lights. There he commandeered the private automobile of a Fort Wayne mail carrier, who had been stopped by the red light. At gunpoint Parker compelled the mail carrier to drive him out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the direction of the Ohio state line. Parker became lost on the back roads, which they followed and ran into a roadblock.  The roadblock was manned by the Chief of Police and by an Ohio State Policeman. A gun battle followed in which the life of the mail carrier was gravely endangered. Parker was shot in the hip by the Ohio State Policeman and thereby recaptured. He had been free from the Allen County Jail a total of approximately five hours. Subject was then confined to the Terra Haute Penitentiary in the hospital, and also in the Federal Medical Center at Springfield until he was well enough to appear before the court. He was sentenced to fifty years in a Federal Penitentiary for his crimes.

Daryl Lee Parker arrived at Alcatraz May 29, 1959, as inmate #AZ-1413. Even prior to his attempted escape from the island, Parker’s incarceration was problematic. For example, on March 15, 1960 he was placed in the closed-front solitary confinement cell for exploding a homemade bomb, and only one month later he was caught behaving intoxicated after having ingested a specially concocted homebrew.

John Paul Scott

A mug shot series of John Paul Scott.

J. Paul Scott was born on January 3, 1927 in Willisburg, Kentucky, the second of six children in the family of Buelah and William A. Scott. His father, who served as the postmaster of Springfield, Kentucky from 1950 until his death in 1966, was an affectionate parent. He provided a good living for his family and offered all of his children a college education. His mother was also a college graduate and she never worked outside the home. From all indications, the home situation was most amicable.

In 1944 Scott graduated from Springfield High School in Springfield, Kentucky. He entered the University of Kentucky in 1950, and subsequently attended Western State Teachers College, the University of Georgia, and Georgia State University. During his attendance at these universities, he maintained an above-average academic standing and amassed a total of 170 hours of credit toward his Bachelors degree. The last school he attended was Georgia State University, during the winter quarter of 1970.

Scott enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve on July 13, 1944, and entered active duty in June of 1945. He left the U.S. Air Force with an honorable discharge on December 28, 1946. He also enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program on September 24, 1949, and was honorably discharged on November 2, 1949. He experienced minor disciplinary problems while in the Air Force, but was discharged because it was discovered that he had a prison record. The highest rank he attained was that of private.

Scott’s first arrest occurred in February of 1949, and he was charged with possession of stolen merchandise. During the years following, he would be arrested on various other charges including burglary and armed robbery. On the weekend of December 15, 1956, J. Paul Scott and his brother Don R. Scott forcibly entered the National Guard Armory at Danville, Kentucky with accomplice Earl Morris, and stole two .45 caliber submachine guns and three .30 caliber rifles, with a sizeable quantity of ammunition. On January 6, 1957 J. Paul Scott and the same two accomplices entered the Farmers and Traders Bank of Campton, Kentucky, armed and carrying acetylene cutting equipment. While in the bank, Scott was struck in the mouth and the arm by two bullets fired by a bank guard. Meanwhile, Morris was perched outside of a window and Don Scott was on the roof of the bank, standing guard. As the robbers fled from the bank they engaged local officers in a gun battle, which resulted in the wounding of a Wolfe County Sheriff.

Scott began serving his sentence at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, where he received two disciplinary reports, one for attempted escape and one for a homosexual act. In March of 1959 he was transferred to Alcatraz, and there his disciplinary reports would include an escape from the island.

The Alcatraz Escape Files of Parker and Scott

The following report was written by Warden Blackwell to the Director of the Bureau of Prisons on December 20, 1962, describing the events from his perspective:

Date: December 20, 1962

To: Director, Bureau of Prisons

From: O.G. Blackwell, Warden

Re: Escape Attempt, December 16, 1002 – John Paul SCOTT 1403-AZ and Daryl Parker 1413-AZ

On Sunday, December 16, 1962, the two above inmates were missed from their detail in the Culinary unit, at 5:47 p.m. We have definitely established that both of those individuals were accounted for on the official 5:20 p.m. count and again counted by the lieutenant on duty, Mr. Harold Robbins, at 5:30 p.m.

The alarm was sounded, immediate search of the area was instituted, and the entire escape procedure was placed into effect. At 6:10 p.m. our boat officer spotted Parker clinging to a rock some 100 yards off the northwest end of the island, known as "Little Alcatraz."  At approximately 7:20 p.m. inmate SCOTT was spotted clinging to a rock off Fort Point, which is located almost directly under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. SCOTT was spotted by two teenagers who reported to the Presidio MPs. They reported to the scene and called for a fire department rescue team, rescued SCOTT from this rock and took him immediately to the Letterman Hospital for emergency treatment. For the first thirty minutes several doctors worked with SCOTT and stated that they were very much uncertain as to whether he would live or die. He was suffering from numerous cuts and bruises and from severe shock as a result of extreme lowering of body temperature, caused by the cold water of the Bay, which normally runs from 52 to 54 degrees, the year around. PARKER, of course, was returned to the institution, examined by the medical staff and locked up immediately after he was found. SCOTT was returned to the institution following release from the emergency unit of the hospital

by the doctors.

Of course both you and Mr. Aldredge came to the institution and are very familiar with the incident and all of the findings. However, I might review some of the more outstanding points for the benefit of others who might read this report.

During the investigation it became obvious that the two sets of bars that were removed had been worked on over a long period of time and obviously by more people than just SCOTT. A check of the records indicates that ex-inmate BURBANK, No. 1369, now in custody by the Missouri State Penitentiary, was assigned to the kitchen basement for a long period of time and could have well have started the removal of the bars. Following his assignment, inmate Leonard WILLIAMS, No. 1045, was assigned to the basement area and he too could have contributed to these cuts. It is noted by the record that WILLIAMS was involved in several escape attempts, including an attempt to escape while being transported to Alcatraz.

Investigative reports suggest that inmates Charles Burbank (left) and Leonard Williams (right) may have begun cutting through the steel window bars several months before the escape, when they were assigned to the kitchen detail.

We are not quite sure of all instruments used to sever these bars; however, we are rather positive that a spatula, with serrated edges; a grease scraper, used by fry-cooks in scraping down grills, that had serrated edges, and string, which had been impregnated with floor wax; and institution scouring powder were at least three items that were used to sever these bars. One set of these bars, incidentally, is commonly referred to as "tool-proof-steel."

As we see the picture, and as admitted now by SCOTT and PARKER, SCOTT almost completed severing the bars, alerted PARKER that he expected to try to escape, and invited him then to go along. On the evening of the sixteenth, immediately after the 5:30 count, under the guise of taking the garbage to the basement, SCOTT got on the elevator, took the elevator half-way down, jumped off and completed severing the bars, which he states took approximately five minutes. He then dashed to the elevator shaft and signaled for PARKER, who jumped down the shaft, landing on the elevator halfway down, then jumped off to the floor and they both went out through the window.

This window is the last window on the south side of the kitchen basement and is partially hidden by two butane tanks that service burner units in the hospital. They eluded the officer who was patrolling back of the Kitchen by seeing that he had checked that side of the building and started in the other direction. They then hurriedly climbed two pipes at the corner of the building, gaining access to the roof. They crossed the roof and lowered themselves to the ground directly behind the Library on a length of extension cord that they had tied knots in, approximately three feet apart. This cord was removed from the buffing machine that is used to polish the basement floor. They then slid and fell down the steep hill directly behind Apartment Building "A."  During this fall PARKER apparently broke his foot and received several cuts and bruises. They then went down the rather high bluff to the water's edge by sliding down a sewer pipe. At this point they inflated rubber gloves that they had inserted in shirtsleeves, and pieces of shirt that had been crudely stitched together, making a set of so called "water-wings" to be used as flotation equipment.

The cutaway bar section of the south-end window at the east end of the kitchen basement, through which inmates Parker and Scott made their escape.

An exterior view of the window that was used by inmates in their attempted escape.

An extension cord used in the escape, removed from a floor buffer that was used to polish the basement floor.

It was dark and rainy. Visibility was extremely poor. PARKER stated that SCOTT moved out first and he followed after checking his flotation equipment and immediately lost SCOTT, but thought he saw him. As it turned out, it was a bucket floating in the bay. He fought the tides as hard as he could but could make no headway and it washed him back in to the rock known as "Little Alcatraz," and he hung on to this rock until found by our boat. He received further cuts and bruises attempting to stay on the rock. SCOTT claims that he almost drowned when he hit the rock at Fort Point because the waves were coming over his head, and he could not find any protection on this rock at all.

This is the actual label from the scouring power that was combined with floor wax and soaked into string, then used as an abrasive to cut through a steel bar over a long period of time.

Surgical rubber gloves were inflated and sewn into a heavy mat that was successfully used as a flotation device.

In searching the basement area several times, we found items which included the impregnated string, and a twelve-inch crescent wrench that had been missed over two years ago from the old Furniture Factory and apparently had been secreted in the Kitchen basement behind one or the huge refrigerators. The rubber gloves obviously had been stolen from the hospital unit and SCOTT claims they had been there for a long time. The crescent wrench was used to twist out the last section of the outside detention sash, which was extremely eroded from the elements and of course, was never designed to be first-rate security material.

As attached reports will indicate, searches of the basement area had been ordered and apparently completed. The bars had been tapped by officers on both Saturday and Sunday, the day of the escape. At first glance it seemed strongly indicated that disciplinary action should be instituted against those who were ordered to knock the bars in this unit. However, after careful examination of all of the facts it became highly conceivable, from a technical or mechanical standpoint, that the officers hammering these bars with rubber hammers could very well have struck them a heavy blow (and they insist they did) without noticing any particular difference from any other bar. It is obvious, of course, that their visual inspection was not effective. However, since the cuts were on the back side of the main bar, and the duty of hammering bars is rather monotonous, it is highly possible that they could have overlooked the carefully concealed cut, thinking that they were doing a good job. With all of this in mind, and after careful consideration of all of the facts by the Captain, Associate Warden, Mr. Aldredge, and myself, at this point we do not feel that disciplinary action against the officers is indicated.

To further explain the reasoning, the top of the upright bar was not cut, but was eventually removed by SCOTT through the use of a three by two foot piece of oak, and it required considerable leverage to break loose the welds at that end. SCOTT claims that enough of the lower section of the bar was left solid that it took him five minutes to remove it, which would have fastened that end, making both ends rather solid and quite capable of receiving a heavy blow with a rubber hammer without showing any appreciable movement.

In reviewing our obvious weaknesses and in endeavoring to correct as many weaknesses as possible, we have instituted the following:

(1) We welded in bar material to replace that which had been removed. We then fabricated an additional set of stainless steel bars and secured them on the outside window, which now makes three sets of detention material that must be gone through to escape from this unit.

(2) We have completely secured with expanded metal the entrance to the elevator at the Kitchen level. This will be kept locked at all times unless actually in use, and then under direct supervision.

(3) Under existing operations the officer furnishing coverage for the back of the Kitchen was patrolling from side to side on the cat-walk around the yard wall in order to check both sides and the end of the Kitchen area. We have now stationed one man on the northeast corner of the cat-walk, which will permit him to constantly observe the east side of the Kitchen and the north end at any time inmates are out of the cellhouse, and in any part of the Kitchen area. We have stationed another officer on the yard wall that can observe the west side of the kitchen and dining roof unit as well as assist in viewing the north end.

(4) We have issued a specific order that no inmate, or inmates, will he permitted in the basement of the Culinary unit unless under direct and constant supervision, and any time an employee takes inmates to that unit he must advise the Control Center first, indicating who he is taking. He must call the Control Center each fifteen minutes and must advise the Control Center as soon as he departs and secures the Kitchen basement area. This is, of course, to prevent an employee from being overpowered or otherwise incapacitated without someone being aware of it.

(5) We have issued an order that in order to protect all employees' families, in the event of escape, the gates on the Parade Ground near "B" Building will be secured during the hours of darkness and more specifically, from 5:40 p.m. until 8:10 a.m.

(6) All lieutenants have been instructed to issue specific and detailed instructions to any officer or group of officers that are designated to make searches or to check bar facilities, and then to make periodic checks to insure that they are being carried out as intended.

(7) Since we are in the process of phasing-out and have some thirteen custodial vacancies, at present we are not following our normal annual leave schedule, and are urging that those employees who do not need annual leave on an emergency basis cancel out any leave that may have been scheduled. We are not, of course, refusing leave to people who have already made specific plans or have sound reasoning for taking leave. With this arrangement we feel that additional coverage can be satisfactorily carried out without an enormous amount of overtime being paid.

Copies of reports of all employees concerned with this incident are attached, and a complete set of pictures of all specific items of interest are also attached. Copies are furnished for the inmate Bureau files and the institution inmate files. The FBI investigated this incident and reported their findings to the U. S. Attorney, who in turn presented the cases to the Grand Jury, who in turn indicted both inmates. It is expected they will be prosecuted for the escape in the early part of next year. Any further items that may develop in connection with this case will be reported promptly.

O.G. BLACKWELL

Warden

Warden Blackwell sent individual reports on the two escaped inmates to the Bureau of Prisons. The following is his memorandum on J. Paul Scott, dated December 17, 1962:

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT of JUSTICE

BUREAU OF PRISONS

UNITED STATES PENITENTARY

ALCATRAZ CALIFORNIA

December 17, 1962

MEMORANDUM FOR FILE

Re: Statement or Inmate JOHN PAUL SCOTT #1403-AZ