Joseph Bowers Joseph Bowers Joseph "Dutch" Bowers (December 13, 1896 – April 27, 1936) was the first man to attempt an escape from Alcatraz prison. On 27 April 1936, convict Henry Larry claims to have watched Bowers, who was feeding seagulls, stack some empty barrels and climb up next to the fence so he could retrieve a bit of food which had fallen on the barbed wire. He stood there feeding the birds for several minutes until a tower guard turned, saw him atop the fence, and fired on the convict. Bowers fell seventy feet to his death on the rocks below.
Libby Prison Escape men to another effort, and soon the knives and toy saws were at work again with vigor." Lieutenant Colonel Federico Fernández Cavada, a prisoner at Libby, wrote, "To Colonel Rose is chiefly due the credit [for the escape]... Animated by an unflinching earnestness of purpose, unwearying perseverance, and no ordinary engineering abilities, he organized ... working parties [which] he conducted every night [in] the cellars of the prison." "[Rose] was the acknowledged leader of the tunnel party, the acknowledged projector of the tunnel," maintained Hamilton, "and it was through his good sense, energy, and management ... that the escape was