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
June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt who was "eight or nine" years old at the time, said she was present at the meeting with "Dad's friend, Frank", but "had no idea [about the escape]". In 2012, the 50th anniversary of the escape attempt, Michael Dyke, the Deputy U.S. Marshal, conceded that he "still [receives] leads once in a while regarding the case and there are still active warrants". That same year, relatives of the Anglin brothers made public their belief that another of the Anglins' 11 siblings, Alfred, who was electrocuted while attempting to escape from Kilby Prison in Montgomery Alabama in 1964, was actually beaten