Joseph Bowers attempt to climb the fence to feed a seagull. However, regardless of Bowers' initial motive, it is indisputable that Bowers ignored the guards' forceful signals to halt and he kept climbing even after the guards began firing, such that he fell on the outside of the fence. 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
M. F. Bowers M. F. Bowers M.F. Bowers was sheriff of El Paso County, Colorado from 1894 to 1896. Prior to becoming sheriff, Bowers had been a saloon bouncer and a night marshal in the town of Altman, Colorado. Bowers is known for assisting in an attempt to suppress a mine workers' strike. During the Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894, Bowers attempted to get Governor Davis H. Waite to send in the state militia after the first day of the strike by wildly exaggerating the chaos in the Cripple Creek area. After 300 state troops arrived, Adjutant General T.J. Tarsney found the