Legends of Alcatraz off on their own accord have all been reported. The Warden's House, now a burnt out shell since the Occupation of Alcatraz, is also reputed to be haunted; during the time of the penitentiary, several guards reported seeing the spectre of a man with mutton-chop sideburns during a party wearing a gray suit and brimmed cap, leaving the room icy cold and extinguishing the fire in the Ben Franklin stove. A phantom lighthouse has also been said to have emerged from the fog of San Francisco bay. Former inmate Leon "Whitey" Thompson, who worked as a guide at Alcatraz for
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary Prisons. The purpose of this transfer was to punish those involved in the rampant crime which prevailed in the country in the 1920s and 1930s. The United States Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz was acquired by the United States Department of Justice on October 12, 1933, and the island became a Federal Bureau of Prisons federal prison in August 1934. The $260,000 conversion to the federal prison took place from January 1934. George Hess of the United States Public Health Service was appointed the chief medical officer of the prison and Edward W. Twitchell became a consultant in psychiatry for Alcatraz