“I escorted the last inmate off the island, Frank Weatherman # 1576. Frank Weatherman & Jim Albright (far right) Scott, by now naked and battered senseless, came to rest on a rocky outcropping in the bay near Fort Point. Parker clinging for life on “Little Alcatraz” (a small rock in San Francisco Bay roughly 80 yards off the northwest side of the Island). Once again displaying his amazing recall after nearly 60 years, Jim says, “Darrel and Don Pickens, they were from Arizona, and they were both red haired and red freckles, red faced…I put them out in # 2 and # 3 towers and every thing’s going along and pretty soon they’re yelling.” They had found Scott’s fellow escapee Daryl D. ‘Jim get me some help, I got a couple missing from the kitchen basement’ was all I heard.” It was Jim Albright’s responsibility to call out the news, order the boat and man the towers for that final escape. I got the call on the red phone, that’s the emergency phone, and you ‘dial the deuces’ as they call it, 222. That was 25 years, almost to the day from the first escape. Jim recalls, “Everybody talks about that escape in the Clint Eastwood movie, but I was on duty for the last escape from Alcatraz. My job was not to punish them, my job was security.” He did just straight at 26 years.” Jim recalls both Bulger and Karpis as “good cons”, both were “quiet and respectful when they spoke to you.” However Jim does say this about Karpis, a notorious kidnapper with the Ma Barker gang, “He was creepy, oh yeah, he was creepy.” Jim states, “I always treated them like I would have wanted to be treated had I been the convict. Alvin did more time on the island than any other convict. Alvin was the lowest number left when I was there. “Whitey Bulger # 1428, Alvin Creepy Karpis # 325. ![]() He didn’t want any of those bad guys to get near him.” Jim can still recall the names and numbers of the infamous inmates on the island when he was there. He toured the island and had about 50 bodyguards all around him. I asked guard Jim Albright what he remembers about the closing of Alcatraz prison in March of 1963, in particular the visit by Attorney General Robert F. The author and Jim Albright at the Albright family home in Terre Haute.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |