Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary prisoners would frequently report acts of brutality and inhumane conditions which severely tested their sanity. Ed Wutke was the first prisoner to commit suicide in Alcatraz. Rufe Persful chopped off his fingers after grabbing an axe from the firetruck, begging another inmate to do the same to his other hand. One writer described Alcatraz as "the great garbage can of San Francisco Bay, into which every federal prison dumped its most rotten apples." In 1939, the new U.S. Attorney General Frank Murphy attacked the penitentiary, saying "The whole institution is conductive to psychology that builds up a sinister ambitious attitude
Experiment Alcatraz Experiment Alcatraz Experiment Alcatraz is a 1950 American crime film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Orville H. Hampton. The film stars John Howard, Joan Dixon, Walter Kingsford and Robert Shayne. The film was released on November 21, 1950, by RKO Pictures. A number of Alcatraz prisoners have volunteered to take an experimental serum that could cure a fatal blood disease, promised a parole if they take part. During the experiments, notorious racketeer Barry Morgan steals one of lieutenant nurse Joan McKenna's scissors and stabs convict Eddie Ganz to death, then escapes. The medical tests are abandoned, the