~~On mornings when the fog hangs low over San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Island
peers eerily through the mist, providing a grim reminder of its infamous
past.
Dubbed "America's Devil's Island," this former U.S. federal penitentiary
turned tourist site, has become one of San Francisco's top attractions. Over
a million visitors a year come to conjure up the ghosts of such notorious
characters as Al Capone, Machine-gun Kelly, Alvin Karpis and Robert Stroud,
the so-called "Bird man of Alcatraz."
~~~Out in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, the island of Alcatraz is a
world unto itself. Isolation, one of the constants of island life for any
inhabitant - soldier, guard, prisoner, Indian, bird or plant - is a recurrent
theme in the unfolding history of Alcatraz.
~~~For centuries Alcatraz Island has served as a place of penitence. Native
groups used the island to ostracize members who had violated tribal law. By
the late 1850s the U.S. Army had established a fort here, which they began
using as a place to house military prisoners.
~~~ The lawlessness that grew out of prohibition-era America sparked public
demand that officials take action to restore law and order. To that end the
Federal Bureau of Prisons sought to establish a maximum-security,
minimum-privilege penitentiary that would house the country's most
incorrigible prisoners. Alcatraz was selected in 1933.
