ALCATRAZ Bill Baker, #1259AZ, former prisoner returns to 'the Rock'

before coming here you understand we had been in the hole many times we broke many rules so we were not intimidated by this place it was not a good place it was a bad place where we were bad guys and we could handle it and we handled it so that I didn't leave here with scars or nightmares. I left here like everyone else, except for a few. I left here to go rob. a bank or cashing your hot checks or something, that was our expectation, that's what we expected and we looked forward to it, yeah, and it was, okay, I have a long answer for that because food was a huge topic. concern here they only had about 250 men to feed and they had all the money in the world to do it this prison was a high priority as far as funding was concerned and the federal prison system was small in those days and they had a lot of money but the food was excellent Not because they wanted us, believe me, the food was great for a reason because the guards were so few, there were so many and so few

prisoner

s that they only cooked one meal a day.

The

prisoner

s' guards ate the same food, so I had to be good. Additionally, the first warden, Warden Johnson, stated in an article in Anna's newspaper in the Bay Area that most problems in prison are caused by bad food, therefore I am feeding him well. He didn't want prison riots he didn't want a food strike, especially because there were some bad guys and if they did a food strike they would probably win it. There were people here who knew how to do a food strike. They were in other prisons and they went on a food strike. they sent him here for that so he didn't want a food strike there was no store here there was no police station you couldn't buy anything extra all you got was what you got from that mess everything and nothing actually other prisons and all the prisons in the United States I had a commissary where you could buy peanut butter cookies and this and this and that, some soups and stuff and make your own meals.

She didn't like what was in the container. They had factories here. They paid you money. You could buy it if you had it. a police station to shop at if they didn't have a store so the food had to be good, the only way to eat was what you got in that mess, that's the reason 18 I went to prison in Oregon for stealing a car when I was 18 I started escape there we rent a van through the back door and then he escapes again and they sent me here when I was 23 to escape the big change where I rehabilitated myself and changed my ways or whatever you want to call it.

The big change was when I published that book and when I decided to put it down and write it, actually I guess it was a change, but it wasn't a moral commitment, it wasn't religious, it wasn't anything except that I got older. 78 when I got out of prison last time and said this was my last chance to write that book. I'm going to write it. I've been writing for many years in prison, mostly cowboy stories or things the prison staff would leave behind. You write as long as it's not critical of prison, so I had to write this book outside of prison and that's how I wrote it and the big change was that my book was successful and I don't have to do what I did. before again I don't have to do it anymore I'm making enough money and it's exciting and it replaces the need for excitement it replaces the need for money it replaces the need for whatever led me to be a criminal When I was a criminal, now they cashed a lot of checks and I worked as hard as I do now signing this book and my days are 13 hours a day, this replaced all that so I don't even think about it anymore.

So that was a big change, it wasn't moral nor my book hadn't been successful and they would still be out of cash now checks who knows what happens with the leaks, okay, okay, Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers, for getting him that earring to Jenny, never forget that he was Here, when I was here, he died in the bay. He's a good friend of mine, but I know your aunt's interests must be in the Anglin brothers and Frank Wars because that's the big mystery. The Wandering Brigade no longer has a history. He died, but Frank Morris and the Anglin Brothers took more than a year to plan and execute that escape.

They did incredible things. Everything had to work perfectly. They collected materials from here and there to dig a hole in the back of their cells. They widened the vent so they could fit. through it so they would go up through the pipe to the top of the building and extend those bars and out of the building. It took some genuine intrigue for them to do what has been said. They widened the hole in At the back of his cell they went up the pipe and out the roof and down the water, you can't tell me, then they got to the water and they said what do we do now?

They knew what they were doing, they were very quiet. This is the main point, my main point is that they didn't let the guard know, but they also didn't let the points know because every time you have a desperate man, you have snitches even here, so if they are out today. you can bet there won't be enough San Francisco water, blinking about it, it's a fact, we wouldn't know, although my opinion was and always has been, whether they made it or not, they got out of prison alive and they didn't. come back if they died, they died free and I'm starting to lean towards I think they made it.

I think some of the stories were nonsense about where they could be, for example the angular brothers, their family now saying we have pictures. of them on a ranch in Brazil to prove my point they were in prison studying Spanish a little weird they don't speak Spanish in Brazil they speak Portuguese who knows but in every way the stories are a little twisted but I think they may have made it and that be free. I did, yes, I thought about escaping from here many times, but I couldn't figure out how to beat the water. Water kills you because it is cold and there is no way to avoid it.

That's that. There is nothing you can do about it. I know there are people swimming today. The children swimming. The dogs swim. They all swim, but they practice in the bay water until their bodies get used to the cold and then they put on wetsuits. and they had a voter book next to them and they're swimming it today, but back then we didn't have the luxury of all that, so I was about 23 years old, six feet tall and weighed about 150 pounds, so I was a bean. He was skinny and skinny people don't do well in cold water you need a little more fat that's the question yes of course forget it forget he was a young guy.

Strong, you swim like a fish, but the water was a real problem because it doesn't matter who you are. If you're not used to the water, you can't handle it for more than 45 minutes and Jesus, a guy, a trained person, can't swim in that lake from here to San Francisco, so he tried to solve that problem by making some. wings of water out of plastic bags and I used to help him when he ended up in the glove box where he works, we worked together down there, they used to fill a plastic bag, tilt it with Aron's and dip it in the mop sink to see if it would float and see if the air remained in him and everything worked very well, so to overcome the cold water he put on a lot of extra clothes to insulate himself from the cold, the problem arose when he got into the water and the water wings broke and the water soaked all those clothes extra and took it straight to the bottom, so it doesn't work for good, yes, that's a good question, but for me probably not because I had really had it in my son, no I don't understand that he was a criminal, the excitement, the danger I was attracted to it and it was wild, you know, I mean, I was crazy to be honest with you, I was also lazy when I was young, so laziness doesn't lend itself to success of any kind and neither does. the arts or anything else, and if my boss at the glove shop used to write a report one day, I was sword-white cotton gloves and I would sell one from time to time and half the time they would be ruined if I sinned again .

I saw him again, he wrote a report about me, I read it and said this is the laziest man I have ever seen in my life, yes, and I just didn't see much point in sewing white cotton gloves, it certainly wouldn't benefit me. I worked there because they gave you some good extra time in the factory, some good time working in the factory, there you could cut your time in half if it added to the good time you're already having, so that's it, plus the Most people worked because that was the only way to get out of your cell. have a job, yes, during the year of Alcatraz and how much did they pay us working in the factory?

I think it was 25 cents for a box of gloves that took a normal person about an hour, maybe 25 to 50 cents. an hour for the same work on the streets, that was three four five dollars an hour in those days, it was pretty good money, but we made a small fraction of that and the federal prison industries made millions of dollars, so I just added Well, I did it a couple of times when I was in other prisons, but when I got here I only had three years left on my sentence and I really loved escaping, but I'm not suicidal, so with three years left I would have to do it. be a very good plan to attract me to the extent that if they had a boat around they would come pick me up.

I don't work. I went for that, of course I did. For my part, I had high hopes that he would make it. He was a great guy, even though he was a bank robber, he lied a little about it, he was actually a mail robber, he said he was a bank robber, but he was still a great guy and during the Penny days we didn't know what happened with that. Of course he stinks and his body didn't wake up until about 10 days later and that's when they found him, but we were locked in our cell the whole time and we never left his cell except to eat, so of course we were hopeful. . yes, Al Capone wasn't here at the time, he was already gone, he was already dead, in fact, but not even Al Capone had, he didn't do well here, he was sick most of the time, he was in and out of the hospital when I was here, the Birdman was here, I met him several times in the hospital and also the sleepy white lump carpus Frank Morris a key: a lot of, but not Capone, you were not allowed to leave your cell if there was an Escape, no, no, until they found him or the cows came home, whatever the longest period of time I spent in prison or six years and eight months and South Dakota State Prison for escaping from prison and kidnap the policeman.

I don't ever remember. I specifically remember some of the guards, but I didn't have anything in particular, but I don't have any problem with the guards now that they were professionals, they were paid well, most of them were handpicked and I don't have any problem with the professionals because as a professional , you know what to expect from them and you know how to deal with it. It's those few guards who were unprofessional and went off the book that caused the problems. Here now there were some young guards who came, for example, from a youth. prison that are going to shake a cell now the professional guards when he shook a cell he didn't mess with little insignificant things, you know what I mean, if your bed wasn't made well, then what wouldn't he get dirty?

If you had a few extra packs of cigarettes in your cell, okay, if you had a saw blade, I'd burst you, or a knife or something, but the young guards, the ones who just got here, would often write you a disciplinary report. . because you know, things like you're betting can write, oh, whatever, trying to score points and there was a guy here that I had a problem with. He must have written hundreds of disciplinary reports on people, as many as the other guards. He even ruled out many appealing to the Heathrow Hawaii captain before going to court.