Coming in as #85 in Alcatraz was Al “Scarface” Capone.  He got his nickname because he got an ugly scar in a criminal attack.  He is the most notorious criminal of Alcatraz and of the 1930s.  Capone was first sent to Atlanta Penitentiary.  There he still conducted illegal business in his cell.  He would bribe the guards and seemed to have more control over the prison than the warden.  Capone was sent to Alcatraz because people thought his men were going to help him escape.  He was in the first batch of prisoners.  The other inmates didn’t like Capone and made various attempts to kill him.  Capone was said to go crazy.  He was diagnosed with syphilis and spent his last year in Alcatraz in the hospital.  When he was released, he went to Miami, where he spent his time until his death on January 25, 1947.  Al Capone was an inmate at The Rock from 1934 to 1939.

Robert Stroud got his nickname from breeding birds while in Alcatraz.  He was guilty of murder.  He was sent to Alcatraz in 1942.  In 1943, he wrote a book in Alcatraz called Stroud’s Digest of the Diseases of Birds.  In 1962, a movie about his life made him one of Alcatraz’s most famous inmates.

This inmate’s real name was Albin Karpowicz.  His nickname is Alvin "Creepy" Karpis.  His criminal record started at the age of 10 when he stole his first hand gun.  His first time to prison was at age 18.  While in prison, he met another inmate and started a gang who made two kidnappings.  Karpis eventually became known as “Public Enemy Number One”.  In 1936, he was sent to Alcatraz.  Alvin Karpis spent 25 years in prison here. 

George “Machine Gun” Kelly was sent to Alcatraz for kidnapping.  When first sent to prison, George Kelly became friends with 3 of the most notorious bank robbers: Harvey Bailey, Frank Nash, and Albert Bates.  “Machine Gun” Kelly would always use a Thompson Submachine gun, so that’s how he got his nickname.  When he was sent to Alcatraz, he was an alter boy, worked in industrial office, and basically behaved himself.