Battle of Alcatraz Battle of Alcatraz The Battle of Alcatraz, which lasted from May 2 to 4, 1946, was the result of an unsuccessful escape attempt at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Two corrections officers—William A. Miller and Harold Stites—were killed along with three of the inmates. Eleven corrections officers and one uninvolved convict were also injured. Two of the surviving convicts were later executed for their roles. Alcatraz was a maximum high-security federal prison located on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco bay. It operated from 1934 to 1963, and had a reputation for being impossible to escape from. As a result, it housed
Alcatraz Island August 1934. Alcatraz was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons. At 9:40 am on August 11, 1934, the first batch of 137 prisoners arrived at Alcatraz, arriving by railroad from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas at Santa Venetia, California, before being escorted to Alcatraz, handcuffed in high security coaches and guarded by some 60 special FBI agents, U.S. Marshals and railway security officials. Most of the prisoners were notorious bank robbers and murderers. The prison initially had a staff of 155, including the first warden James A. Johnston and associate warden J.