Located on a small island in San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz is one of the most notorious penitentiaries on the face of the earth. Having housed the likes of Al Capone and Robert Stroud before its closure in 1964, here are some of the most chilling facts about Alcatraz prison that may keep you up at night.
Surrounded
While being trapped in an island prison is already a difficult reality to accept, the idea of getting ripped apart by sharks if you take a risk by plunging into the surrounding waters would be enough to dissuade even the most hardened criminals from escaping. Ultimately, this was just a rumor spread by prison guards to keep prisoners under control.
Jailhouse Rock
Although Al Capone is one of the most notorious gangsters of all time, he was surprisingly well-behaved in prison. Because of his model behavior, Capone was permitted to play his banjo in a jailhouse band called the Rock Islanders, named after the infamous island prison.
Discrimination
Several members of the native Hopi tribe of Arizona were imprisoned in Alcatraz after they opposed the forced education of Hopi children in boarding schools, where their culture and language were suppressed. Still, these men refused to allow Alcatraz to break them, and they continued to fight for their cause after the prison was shut down.