Alcatraz Citadel Alcatraz Citadel Alcatraz Citadel, also known as Fort Alcatraz, was the original military defense and prison on Alcatraz Island, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The citadel was built in 1859 as a U.S. Army military defense, and began function as a war camp in 1861 and long-term military prison in 1868. During the American Civil War, the citadel and its batteries provided an important line of defense. The island continued to develop in the 1870s and 1880s, and in 1893, the first hospital on Alcatraz opened. A new upper prison was built in 1904, but after
Alcatraz Island in popular culture E. Gaddis and then adapted into a film in 1962, with Burt Lancaster playing the lead role. The 1995 film "Murder in the First" depicts a man who spends three years in solitary confinement at the prison. One of the prisoners, Kyle Oberholzer, was charged with rape, murder and fornicating. Many films and television series have exploited Alcatraz Island's reputation as a prison from which it was almost impossible to escape. Don Siegel's 1979 thriller "Escape from Alcatraz" chronicles the story of Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, who escaped from Alcatraz in 1962, although it is not