Alcatraz (94 page)

8
. For example, see Ben M. Crouch and James W. Marquart,
An Appeal to Justice: Litigated Reform in Texas Prisons
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989); Thomas Murton and Joseph Hyams,
Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal
(New York: Grove Press, 1969); and David M. Oshinsky,
Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice
(New York: Free Press, 1996).

9
. Michel Foucault,
Discipline and Punish
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1977); Erving Goffman,
Asylums
(Garden City, NJ: Anchor Books, 1961).

10
. See Lynn Goodstein, Doris Layton MacKenzie, and R. Lance Shotland, “Personal Control and Inmate Adjustment to Prison,”
Criminology
22, no. 2 (August 1984): 343–69.

11
. Examinations of inmates’ reactions, adaptations, and mechanisms to cope with imprisonment include Maurice L. Farber, “Suffering and Time Perspective of the Prisoner,”
Iowa University Studies in Child Welfare
20 (1943–44): 155–227; Edward Zamble and Frank J. Porporino,
Coping, Behavior, and Adaptation in Prison Inmates
(New York: Springer-Verlag, 1988); Robert Johnson and Hans Toch, eds.,
The Pains of Imprisonment
(Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1982); Roger Sapsford,
Life Sentence Prisoners: Reaction, Response and Change
(Thetford, UK: Open University Press, 1983); Stanley Cohen and Laurie Taylor,
Psychological Survival: The Experience of Long Term Imprisonment
(Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1982); and Hans Toch, Kenneth Adams, and J. Douglas Grant,
Coping: Maladaptation in Prison
(New Brunswick: Transaction, 1989).

12
. John K. Irwin, “Sociological Studies of the Impact of Long-Term Confinement,” in
Confinement in Maximum Custody
, ed. David A. Ward and Kenneth F. Schoen (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books / D. C. Heath, 1981), 49–52. Also see Irwin’s description of “The Convict World,” in
The Felon
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970), 61–85.

13
. Altercations between prisoners recorded as assaults were not those that involved simply pushing, shoving, wrestling around, or even throwing punches but those that involved the use of weapons or resulted in serious injury. Given the physical confines of the prison, the limited time and opportunities for movement outside their cells, and the large number of staff to observe inmates’ activity and evidence of injuries, these figures represent a fair approximation of the actual number of assaults and homicides. It should be noted that none of the voluminous files compiled by the staff recorded what prisoners would characterize as assaults on them by prison personnel. These incidents would be defined by staff as “using necessary force” to subdue a resisting prisoner. Some serious inmate-on-inmate assaults might have ended up as homicides in free-world settings where prompt, proximate, experienced medical care was not so readily available.

14
. Unhappy at Leavenworth, Herring had appealed to the attorney general for a transfer to Alcatraz, “where they treat you like a man.” Maurice Herring Alcatraz file.

15
. Cecil Snow Alcatraz file.

16
. E. J. Miller, Acting Warden, to the Director, November 17, 1945.

17
. Ralph Greene Alcatraz file.

18
. Quillen interview in 1980.

19
. Greene file. Ralph Greene’s lengthy sojourn in D block is to be explained only in part by the administration of Alcatraz justice: he accumulated numerous misconduct reports for destroying government property (mainly his toilet bowl), creating disturbances, fighting with other prisoners (once for reaching through the cell bars trying to stab the orderly, and another when he was released for a shower and attacked another orderly, and twice for fighting in the yard with other D block prisoners until a tower guard fired warning shots). He also threatened an officer telling him, “I’ll fuck you, you son of a bitch,” and on numerous occasions was insolent and refused to obey orders. By the time he was released from D block he had forfeited 1,461 days of good time. Greene, like other convicts, filed writs and petitions including a claim that “refusal of prison authorities to permit him to purchase underwear heavier than prison issue constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.” His writ of habeas corpus contended, “he had been thrown into a dungeon and beaten with a black jack by a guard he admitted to have struck during an altercation.” Greene also wrote to NAACP president Thurgood Marshall complaining of beatings by guards and attempts to poison his food. This letter was not forwarded to Marshall because it did not “stick to the facts” and was intended to “create trouble.”

20
. James Grove Alcatraz file.

21
. James Walsh Alcatraz file.

22
. E. J. Miller, Acting Warden, to Director, March 6, 1939.

1
. Bob Gaucher, ed.,
Writing as Resistance: The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, 1998–2002
(Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2002).

2
. Walter B. Martin, Acting Assistant Surgeon/Psychiatrist, Leavenworth, Kansas, August 26, 1931.

3
. Director to James A. Johnston, October 1, 1935.

4
. Edward W. Twitchell, MD, Psychiatrist, report to the Surgeon General re James Grove, October 16, 1935.

5
. George Hess, Surgeon, Chief Medical Officer, James Grove Alcatraz file. All quotes and reports on Grove not otherwise cited come from this source.

6
. M. R. King, Surgeon, U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Warden and Chief Medical Officer [Springfield], to Director, BOP, January 8, 1938.

7
. Frank Loveland, memorandum to Mr. Bennett re James Grove, March 4, 1939.

8
. Romney M. Ritchey, Surgeon, Chief Medical Officer, memorandum to the Warden, July 3, 1943.

9
. James Grove to NAACP, July 31, 1946. These complaints prompted a review of his treatment by Warden Johnston, who forwarded Grove’s letter to Bureau headquarters with a recommendation that it be sent on to the NAACP.

10
. To Honorable Robert B. Patterson, Secretary of War, October 23, 1946.

11
. [James Grove] Special progress report, February 8, 1952.

12
. Ibid., p. 2.

13
. Robert Baker, who worked at Alcatraz from 1934 to 1957, told the author that on one occasion in the early 1950s James Grove saved his life: “They had a bad habit up in the hospital of passing out pills, dope them up, cool them down. [Prisoners] came through the main gate and about twenty to twenty-five blacks were going up the stairs to the movies. Two of them were drunker than a skunk but not on liquor. There was nothing on their breath but they were all doped up. As I grabbed one of them, Jimmy Grove says, ‘Mr. Baker, don’t do that.’ I said, ‘Well that slob is drunk as a skunk on dope.’ He says, ‘I know, I know, I’ll take care of him.’ So I turned him loose and I looked around and there was about ten of them ready to pounce on me before I could have made any alarm or hit one of them with my foot. They’d have had me down with a shiv in my back.” Baker interview in 1980.

14
. James Grove to Hon. Chairman, NAACP, June 18, 1953, New York City.

15
. James Grove, special progress report, November 26, 1954.

16
. Grove, special progress report, March 27, 1959.

17
. Waley interview in 1980. All subsequent quotes in this chapter attributed to Waley are from this interview.

18
. Philip Bergen, interview with the author, April 29, 1983.

19
. Milton Daniel Beacher,
Alcatraz Island: Memoirs of a Rock Doc
, ed. Dianne Beacher Perfit (Lebanon, NJ: Pelican Island Publishing, 2001). Perfit is his daughter.

20
. James A. Johnston, Warden, to Director, August 31, 1936. See chapter 6 for a description of the dungeons.

21
. Waley said he knew that Culver lived in Orlando, Florida, after he retired: “I was going to go down and kill him when I got out, but I decided why should I do that.”

22
. Beacher,
Memoirs
.

23
. Ibid.

24
. James A. Johnston to Director, December 3, 1937.

25
. Letter to his mother, September 27, 1938, Harmon Waley Alcatraz file.

26
. Walter Hansen, Jr. Officer, disciplinary report, Waley file.

27
. Waley to James V. Bennett, November 28, 1940. “Of course [Miller] told you that he and your little Lt. Simpson were forced to knock me out with their fists, and by pounding my head against the cement wall, during the hunger strike. He told Dr. Ritchey that I attacked him with a bottle. As I explained to Dr. Ritchey, had I attacked him with a bottle I would have cut him but he never had a scratch. . . . As for me working in your institution that is out.”

28
. J. P. Simpson, Lt., to Deputy Warden, May 1941. This report was written months after the episode when Waley claimed he had been “beaten up” by Miller.

29
. Report of writ of habeas corpus, April 14, 1939, Waley file.

30
. Bert E. Haney, U.S. Circuit Judge, to James A. Johnston, January 7, 1942. Johnston met with Haney to inform the judge that the prison staff had read all legal mail but had to be “careful not to delay or impede them.” The judge warned the warden to “be on guard against threats of dangerous men.” James A. Johnston to James V. Bennett, January 11, 1942.

31
.
San Francisco News
, April 23, 1941.

32
.
San Francisco Examiner
, April 24, 1941.

33
. Ibid.

34
. Johnston memorandum, December 20, 1941, Waley file.

35
. Waley letter, December 22, 1941, ibid.

36
. Waley letter, March 1, 1944, ibid.

37
. Ibid.

38
. Report of disciplinary board, June 5, 1944, ibid.

39
. Letter to his mother, October 3, 1940, Waley file.

40
. Letters to Secretary of War, October 6, and October 9, 1940, ibid.

41
. Director to James A. Johnston, January 10, 1941.

42
. [Harmon Waley] Special progress report, June 3, 1948.

43
. Special progress report, 1949.

44
. Leon J. Whitsell, MD, Psychiatrist, to Warden, January 17, 1951, Waley file.

45
. Special progress report, February 8, 1952.

46
. Special progress report, October 28, 1955.

47
. Autobiographical statement, p. 12, Richard Neumer Alcatraz file. Neumer also spelled his name N-U-M-E-R but no explanation for the name change was recorded in prison or FBI records.

48
. Ibid., pp. 12–13.

49
. Neumer file.

50
. Special progress report, August 23, 1945, ibid.

51
. Edward W. Twitchell, Psychiatrist, hospital report, July 3, 1945, ibid.

52
. English A866, lesson no. 1, University of California Extension Division, December 27, 1946, ibid.

53
. “The question raised by your action is whether a prisoner should be denied the opportunity to do something constructive and good because his motives are bad. . . . It had been intimated that Mr. Numer
[sic]
is already a good writer and that he should not be permitted to improve his skills in order to libel the prison administration. Of course, it will be a long time before Mr. Numer is released and I venture to say that the reputation of Alcatraz Prison will not depend upon what Mr. Numer says about it. I think the idea of a convict wanting to improve his writing abilities to lambaste the prison administration is extremely funny, and it provides one more story for your collection. Once the court denies the petition, I trust you will reconsider the matter and grant Mr. Numer an opportunity to take the course.” Ernest Besig, Director, ACLU of Northern California, to James A. Johnston, January 18, 1947, ibid.

54
. Richard A. Neumer no. 286 to Hon. Alexander Wiley, Senate Building, Washington, D.C., January 25, 1947, ibid.

55
. James A. Johnston to Director, January 28, 1947, ibid.

56
. Richard S. Yocum, Surgeon, memorandum to the Warden, February 10, 1948, ibid.

57
. Ibid.

58
. P. J. Madigan, memorandum re no. 268 Neumer, September 7, 1950, ibid.

59
. J. V. Bennett on memo from R. J. Heaney re Richard Neumer, January 18, 1951, ibid.

60
. According to Thomas Gaddis, Neumer spent “a day or two as a ‘technical consultant’ on the set watching Burt Lancaster play the role of Robert Stroud in the movie
The Birdman of Alcatraz
.” Thomas E. Gaddis,
Unknown Men of Alcatraz
(Portland, OR: NewGate, 1977), 32.

61
. E. J. Miller, Deputy Warden, to J. A. Johnston, November 15, 1937, Burton Phillips Alcatraz file.

62
. Burton Phillips to James Bennett, October 29, 1940, ibid., pp. 3, 18, 49.

63
. James Bennett to James Johnston, September 25, 1939, ibid.

64
. Romney M. Ritchey, Surgeon, memorandum to the Warden, August 19, 1940.

65
. Special progress report, September 12, 1945, Phillips parole file.

66
. Phillips to Mrs. Ella Phillips, August 17, 1944.

67
. Special progress report, October 24, 1949.

68
. William C. Robinson, Chief U.S. Probation Officer, District of Kansas, to Joseph N. Shore, Parole Executive, Washington, D.C., July 6, 1965.

69
. James V. Bennett to William Robinson, February 7, 1963, Phillips parole file.

70
. William Robinson to Joseph Shore, July 6, 1965, ibid.

71
. Urbaytis Alcatraz file.

72
. Ibid.

73
. Special progress report, August 19, 1935, Jack Hensley Atlanta file.

74
. C. R. Beall, MD, Psychiatrist, USPHS, Atlanta, Georgia, August 24, 1935.