Darwin Coon

The only ex-Alcatraz inmate who made it back to the Rock for the 75th Anniversary of it's opening as a federal penitentiary was 76-year-old Darwin Coon, a former bank robber who helped in the 'dummies' heads' escape of three men.

He was one of over 75 Alcatraz Alumni, the rest made up of former guards and residents, who returned for the day to give audiences and to meet people...see previous blogs

'This island was a hell hole,' he said, standing in the dining room with sight of the kitchen behind barred doors where he used to work as a cook.

In the first of three public audiences that he held over the day, he gave a brief history of himself before turning it into a quickfire question and answer session:

He started his criminal career very young, was at Reformed School by the age of 12, and at 26-years-old, figured he would die in Alcatraz. He arrived on the Rock in 1959 and was one of the last group of prisoners to leave in February 1963, he told his audience.

Due to a sentencing error, Darwin entered Alcatraz not only with shackles on his hands and feet but the weight of an 80-year jail sentence on his young shoulders.

Why did he take the risk of helping in an escape attempt? I asked.

'Well, they were friends of mine,' he said of the Anglin brothers. He had got to know John and Clarence when they were in jail with him in the Leavenworth Prison in Kansas.

Does he still think, as he has written in his book and continued to say, that they and third inmate Frank Lee Morris survived the attempt?

'They got away from here. That's my opinion.' Their bodies were never discovered, he added.

If he were to devise an escape plan, how would he do it? someone else asked.

'I would do it the same way,' he said, by using dummies and escaping at night. It was nine hours before the men were discovered to be missing, whereas during the day they would be checked every 15 minutes.

How did he feel when Alcatraz closed?

He was 'glad'. The then Attorney General, Bobby Kennedy, closed it down because it was too expensive to run.

What was the worst part of his stay?

'You had no social time on this island.' It was worse, he explained, than other prisons because prisoners only had two hours out of their cells in the morning, and two hours in the afternoon.

The very worst of all was when he was sent to the isolation unit for 29 days as punishment for being found with a knife. Kept in a darkened cell - he added 'wearing a pair of boxer shorts' out of decency before a mixed audience - he struggled to keep warm and was fed only half rations twice a day plus no dessert.

He had made the knife with brass so it bypassed the 'snitch box', the metal detector, and was carrying it to protect himself from a prisoner who had tried to stab him, he said.

Of the inmate, Darwin said, 'He was just crazy, he was mental,' and 'he didn't get caught,' he added in answer to another question.

What does he think about prisons today?

'My belief is they need about 1,000 of these scattered throughout the US,' he said, meaning prisons that are strict. Today's prisons are too soft.

What was Darwin in for?

For robbing five banks. From the first four, he and others had netted $1 million in today's currency.

How was he caught?

In a road block, 45 miles down the road from the last bank.

Why didn't he stop at four?

'We were on the run from the law. We needed to keep running.' And the money he'd had, he'd 'spent on pretty girls!'

Does he believe in the death penalty?

'Yes. Sure.' There are hundreds of guys over there, he said, referring to San Quentin, sitting on Death Row, and the state isn't executing any of them. The task of keeping them behind bars is enormous and it costs so much money.

Were there any women inmates?

There were no women and no gangs, either

What terrible incidents did he see?

Two men get killed and dozens of guys cut up.

Was there anything good about Alcatraz?

'The only thing that was good about this island, they served good food.'

The meanest prisoner?

'Red' Hayes, who was transferred from the state prison of Massachusetts. He killed seven men, five with his bare hands.

What family did Darwin have?

Two sisters and a brother. One of his sisters used to visit him.

Did he have any hobbies in Alcatraz, like many of the prisoners?

'No hobbies.'

How does he spend his time now?

'I go visit people and hang round the house, whatever!' Live one day at a time, that was the strategy he used in D-Block - the isolation unit - he added.

Did he resent the guards?

'No. They were just here trying to make a living.'

Is he in contact with any of his foster children?

'I don't see them - they're in Iowa - but I hear from them all the time...especially when they want money!!!'

Darwin found faith in God while in Alcatraz. When he came out he became a committed Christian, married his now late wife, Marge, and became a foster father.

For 18 years he ran a 'safe home', he said, and fostered 94 children. 'We raised nine from babies', he added. 'Those were the best years of my life. Most of them (the children) are doing pretty good.'

Did he ever feel he shouldn't have been in Alcatraz?

'No, I put myself here,' he replied, this despite the fact that he was transferred from the Kansas jail for a false accusation of stealing prison tools.

How long has he been going back to Alcatraz? Since 1994 when he visited it with a niece. The Rangers discovered he was on the island and he's been going back ever since for events and to sign copies of his book.

Does he have any regrets?

'Yes, many, many of them, but there's not a thing I can do about it. They're all in the past.'

pics by Chris: Alcatraz barracks and the jetty where the boats dock; Darwin and his audience; the kitchen through the bars.

Darwin's lifestory see: http://lizinsanfrancisco.blogspot.com/2008/04/alcatraz-inmate.html

Alcatraz Alumni at 75th Anniversary - Stories of the Rock's Notorious Inmates and Residents

A former Alcatraz guard who used to sit and play checkers with notorious inmate, 'Birdman' Robert Stroud, was giving his story on the Rock yesterday.

He was one of over 75 Alcatraz Alumni, including an ex-con, former guards and residents, gathered there to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the opening of the federal penitentiary...see previous blogs

The guard was 83-year-old George De Vincenzi.

'George knew him best of anyone because George spent time in the hospital,' said one of the Rangers.

George is also the guard with the epithet of the 'most dramatic introduction to working there' in the history of Alcatraz.

Playing checkers with Stroud wasn't allowed on the basis that it constituted socializing with an inmate, especially such a high-security one.

'It was prohibited to do what I did,' said George. But he did it. 'We both were bored, and it was an opportunity to pass a little time occasionally.'

Stroud, said George describing the hospital scene, was 'behind a barred door with a chain and lock on it, I did not even have the key. I put a little table against the barred door and he played with his hands through the bars.'

Security for Stroud was so tight that before George could push the table up to the bars he had first to open another door, a thick oak one with a glass window at the top. When the oak door was closed, Stroud would stand behind the window 'to look out and try to get your attention,' he said.

George, however, was always very aware of the dangers of socializing with inmates. Of conversation with Stroud he said, 'I kept that to a minimum. I didn't want it to get personal. If you get too close they begin to want something from you. The next thing you know, they want you to bring a letter out, or something in. I was very wary of that.'

'He would ask me questions sometimes about my family. I knew what I was doing. I just answered what I had to.'

The idea of playing checkers had been passed on by a fellow officer who also played occasionally. The clandestine games took place only when George was confident he could trust other officers to watch out for him and warn him if senior officers were about. 'If I couldn't trust them, I wouldn't do it,' he said.

Had he been caught, 'I probably would have been given thirty days off, possibly fired.'

Who won the games?

'He did! I don't believe I won one. He beat me at checkers, he won all the time.'

Stroud, the 'Birdman', was considered to have a high IQ score of 134, and researched and wrote on birds that he had kept in his former prison in Kansas. He spent a record 44 years in isolation, 17 years of that in Alcatraz, for his brutality.

He killed a barman, assaulted a prison orderly, stabbed a prison inmate, made threats against prisoners and finally murdered a prison officer. Deemed a risk to other prisoners, for most of his time there he was only let out when they were locked up, a feature that used to annoy many of the prisoners, said George.

He was also a known homosexual and a psychopath. 'He was a psychopath. Definitely,' confirmed George.

But though George used to supervise him in the bathroom without the protection of metal bars, he never feared for his personal safety.

'I was always leery of him, but I got to know him quite well, and I got along fine with him,' he said.

Which wasn't the case with all prisoners. His first morning's work there would have sent many a man scurrying back to the dole queue.

George had returned to America from service in the navy during the Second World War. He needed employment and decided to take a short intensive training course to become a Correctional Officer, as guards were called, on Alcatraz.

Three weeks later, Monday morning at 9 am with 'starched shirt and shiny shoes', he reported for his first duty. He was given the innocuous-sounding task of supervising at the barber's, a place where inmates cut each other's hair. It would serve as a sharp lesson that nowhere on the Rock was safer than any other.

There were two black inmates there, Freddie Lee 'Curly' Thomas, barber for black inmates, and in the chair, Joseph Barsock. Both were murderers.

They were whispering together, George recounted. 'I began to get a little suspicious,' he said.

Without warning, suddenly the barber plunged his shears into Barsock's neck, heart and lungs.

'I jumped in like a damn fool,' said George, who risked his life to try and separate them. Barsock collapsed on the floor.

'And then a very strange thing happened,' said George. The barber knelt down, kissed the dying man on the side of the face and whispered "I love you."

The attack was a lovers' tiff, and the time was 9.35 am. George was 24-years-old and had completed his first 35 minutes on duty.

As officers rushed into the room, George, who now cannot recall how he came to have the bloodied shears in his hands but presumes he must have picked them up, handed the gruesome evidence over to an officer.

Nor was it to be the only murder that he witnessed. Five years later, and George had been promoted and given more responsibility. One morning he was ascribed the role of Acting Lieutenant. He had to go to D-Block, the isolation unit, with two other officers to fetch a prisoner who had been in there for two years for his own protection.

He was one of two inmates who had both been sentenced to 40 years in jail for mutiny in the army. Again, it was a lovers' quarrel and one had threatened the other. After two years, and with space needed in the special treatment unit, officers thought that the grievance would have melted away.

George brought the prisoner into the shower and clothing room to kit him out for his return to the main cell block. But who should be working there that morning? His ex-lover. Before George could realize what was happening, the ex-lover had pulled a knife and stabbed his former partner.

'Within thirty seconds, he was dead,' said George.

Over his time there, he was on duty when other terrible things happened, including the incident when an inmate slit his throat with glass from a light bulb.

How did the murders impact George, especially the first one with the barber?

'I'm not the kind of person that falls apart with something like that,' he replied. In part, he was strengthened by his war service, in part he had a resilience and strength of personality that enabled him to cope.

'I've seen potential officers go over there and when they enter inside they say "this is not for me, I don't want the job."'

'You've got to be a certain type of person to do it.'

During the Anniversary day, George related some of his experiences before an audience. Asked by someone if he had any regrets, he replied, 'It doesn't seem as bad (now) as it did then.

'Looking back, it was quite an experience!'

pic by Chris

more stories to follow...