DESPERATE CONVICTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1939, Page 11

DESPERATE CONVICTS

810 DASH FOR FREEDOM FOG HAMPERS GUARDS. I ) INCIDENT AT ALCATRAZ. Guards shooting by the glow of Searchlights piercing a fog as thick as wool frustrated a wholesale escape attempt at Alcatraz Island, Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay. fatally wounding Arthur (Doc) Barker, one of the Ma Barker's criminals sons, wounding critically another convict, and forcing three others to surrender. The 40-year-old Barker, serving a life sentence for the Karpis-Barker gang kidnapping of Edward Bremer in St Paul in 1934. lived throughout the day, but died at night in the “Devil’s Island” prison hospital. He was the third of the sons of the white-haired Ozark mother to perish by violence. One of the older boys was killed by authorities before the family gained national notoriety. The youngest, Fred, was killed with “Ma” when Federal agents raided a hideout in Florida in 1935. The only Barker who survives is doing a life sentence at Leavenworth Penitentiary. “Doc” Barker was shot through the head and the left leg as he and his four companions dashed for the water of San Francisco Bay on the west side of the island. The second wounded man, 27-year-old Dale Stamphill, life-termer from Oklahoma, was taken to the hospital in a most critical condition. Shots which tore through both his legs severed a main artery and he lost much blood. The other three desperadoes who came close to effecting an escape were Henry Young, 28, serving 20 years for robbing the First National Bank of Lind. Washington; Rufus'McCain, 36, serving 99 years for kidnapping bank employees in an attempted bank robbery at Edabel, Oklahoma, and Warren Martin, 25, serving 25 years for armed robbery of a Chicago post office. Martin, a negro, suffered rib injuries and lacerations in sliding down the rocky bank that runs from the main part of the island to the water. Their apparently well-conceived break attempt was made during one of the thickest fogs of the year. Obtaining saws from some undisclosed source, they sawed their way . cut of their separate cells, forced the bars of a cell door, and climbed out of a window, dropping ten feet to the ground. They ran across the prison reservation, shielded by the fog. A guard, checking the cells at 4 a.m., discovered they were missing and a general alarm was sounded. GREAT CONFUSION. There must have been great confusion on the island for a time as Warden James Johnston and his aides were unable to find the missing men. They asked San Francisco police to guard the shore, and called on the United States Army and the Coastguard to aid. Thep the search-lights showed two men running down the bank. Guards called on them* to surrender and they threw up their hands. They were McCain and Young. Two others refused to halt and guards fired at them, bringing them both down. Two men were captured in the water. The fifth man was found near the bottom of the rocky slide. He was bleeding but not hurt seriously, and the guards identified him as Martin. All five had divested themselves of as much of their clothing as possible for the plunge into the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay and a swim which most authorities believe is impossible of accomplishment. Martin was entirely nude. The men were captured shortly before 5 a.m., but it was not until an hour later that Johnston dismissed the police guard, soldiers stationed along the shore of Crissy Airfield, toward which the tide would have carried the fugitives, and the police and coastguaid boats patrolling around the island. Immediately an investigation began to determine where the men had obtained the saws. It was the first time that this type of escape had been attempted at the American “Devil’s Island.” The island’s 300 inmates—considered the most desperate criminals in all America—were locked in their cells for careful inspection, and all normal activities of the prison were suspended pending a thorough search of each inmate. ’Warden Johnston said the heavy curtain of fog was “like a mass of wool.”

WARDEN RECOUNTS “BREAK.” In a graphic story. Warden Johnston said: “The five prisoners obviously had this break well planned in advance. They waited for the fog and they got it. Just how they were able to cut their way out of their five separate cells and through the exterior window, we are still seeking to determine. "All the men were confined in the cell block nearest the Golden Gate, all on the lower floor. When the 4 a.m. count was made ,it was discovered that they were missing ,and that the bars of each cell had been cut through. The alarm was immediately turned on and the siren sounded. When I was awakened it was so foggy that I could scarcely see to make my way to the cell block. It was really wool thick. ••We found that the men had escaped from the cell block by cutting through the bars of an exterior window and dropping nine or ten feet to the ground outside. From there to the cove at the west side of the island there was nothing in their way .except to elude the outside patrol —and that was not difficult in the fog. "The lights were turned on full, and the launch immediately went out to throw its searchlights on the shore and water, but the fog was so thick that the lights failed to penetrate far. Then, about half an hour after their absence was discovered .four of the prisoners were spotted by guards on the beach. They were Barker, McCain, Young and Stamphill. Martin, the negro ,was missing . “The guards shouted to the four prisoners, telling them to halt. McCain and Young immediately halted, throwing up their hands in surrender, but Barker and Stamphill made a dash for the surf. The guards shouted a warning that they were going to shoot. When Barker and Stamphill failed to stop they were shot. We brought the two wounded men to the hospital immediately and brought in McCain and Young at the same time, while the search for Martin continued. About 10 or 15 minutes later guards found Martin hiding in the same corner of the island. He had a few scratches and abrasions .but was not injured.”