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 Wharf and sank in deep water off the wharf in the early 1910s. Her crew of forty-two men escaped by jumping into the bay and swimming ashore. Seismic rehabilitation of the wharf occurred in the early 2000s. The retrofit to the existing wharf and its facilities consisted of concrete demolition, excavation, and installation of tiebacks. Reinforced steel and concrete were added to a new deck. Work was also done on the deteriorated piles under the wharf deck.David Finney is the youngest person to swim the South End Rowing Club Alcatraz Swim when he swam it in 2015 at ten years old.