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USA - CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO : ALCATRAZ "THE ROCK" - JUST VISITING by Ursula & Eldrid Retief   As the ferry leaves infamous Alcatraz in its wake, a school choir on a day-outing bursts into song with "Danny Boy".As the haunting refrain hangs over the waters of San Francisco Bay one wonders for a moment why they chose this particular song until, near the end, these words: "... you must go and I must bide". The words embody such irony for those who spent their years there.
You remember The Birdman of course. He and Burt Lancaster were look-alikes. And just to shatter the illusion, although Stroud had indeed loved and studied birds at another prison, it was not in Alcatraz, although he was an inmate there. Alcatraz is a name derived from the Spanish la Isla de los Alcatraces (isle of the Pelicans). Since 1858 it has been a lighthouse and fort, a US military prison, an army disciplinary barracks, a federal penitentiary and an American Indian stronghold. Now a major San Francisc o tourist draw. One man who remembers many of the inmates is Frank Heaney, one of the youngest correctional officers ever to serve as a guard on Alcatraz and author of the book "Inside the Walls of Alcatraz". At age 21, Heaney found himself guarding some of America's toughest felons – those who couldn't be kept anywhere else. "What the hell am I getting myself into?" Heaney recalls thinking when he took the job back in 1948. It was not unusual for a new guard to quit soon after being hired. It was, by turn, "scary and boring", he recalls, and there was tremendous psychological pressure in working around the notorious inmates. Strictly enforced prison rules prohibited guards from conversing with convicts. But for young Heaney, the urge to speak with some of the legendary crime figures proved irresistible. He got to know "Machine Gun" Kelly, whom he remembers as an articulate, intelligent man – "more like a bank president than a bank robber". He found "Creepy" Corpus, Ma Barker's right-hand man, to be a "braggart", and "Birdman" Stroud, whom many thought to be psychotic, "untrustworthy", yet rational and bright. Even before you step on the ferry at Fishermen's Wharf you're immersed in Alcatraz hype. The shop at the pier is called Cell Block 41 which sells all things Alcatraz like black-and-white striped nightshirts and nickel-plated dangling handcuff-shaped earrings. Several of the visitors are wearing T-shirts which read Alcatraz Health Club - Swim for your Life and Penitentiary Swim Team. Swimming was the only way off the stern, forbidding rock of 12 acres. As the ferry nudges the dockside, the visitors (over a million every year) are greeted by a sign "United States Penitentiary" and scrawled over it, the graffiti "Indians Welcome", the only remaining relic of the island's occupation by Native Americans who claimed the island as their birthright and were finally evacuated in 1971. While they were there, many of the buildings were gutted by fire. But the main prison block is structurally intact. So is the windswept exercise yard with its concrete bleachers and towering walls topped by guard towers and catwalks. The cells (8.5 x 5-foot) are claustrophobic, stacked on top of each other like battery hens, each with a bunk, table and chair fixed to the wall, a washbasin and toilet. Nearby are the dreaded Holes where disruptive prisoners languished in inky blackness. For a dose of instant hysteria, step into one of these. As you look up in the vast dining room, tear-gas canisters mounted in the ceiling are poised overhead. But the view, through the bars, is almost unsurpassed. The food for the inmates wasn't bad. A chalked menu says there was assorted dry cereals, steamed whole wheat, scrambled eggs, fresh milk, stewed fruit, toast, bread, butter and coffee for breakfast on March 21, 1963. The path to the cell block is a steep one but the Easy Access program allows wheelchair visitors to "visit" the main cell block via a computer. Walk along the beautifully landscaped Agave Trail, winding it through a protected bird sanctuary, for some of the most spectacular views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate. The Agave Trail is open from late August to about mid-February, when bird-nesting season begins. The Birdman would be in his element. Photo by Jeff Greenberg courtesy San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau
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