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.
Drew Bowers vote in 1926; 22.7 percent in 1928. In the latter election year, U.S. Senator Joseph T. Robinson was the vice presidential nominee on the Al Smith Democratic ticket, which won the electoral votes of Arkansas. In 1925, during the Calvin Coolidge administration, Bowers was appointed Assistant United States Attorney. After eleven years in that position, also under Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bowers resigned in 1936 to enter private practice. In 1953, the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration recalled him as Assistant United States Attorney. He retired from the federal position in 1962 at the age of seventy-six and