Unlocking the Secrets: Top 12 Fun Facts About Alcatraz You Never Knew!

1. Alcatraz Book Club

Who needs Saturday night cinema when you've got the Alcatraz book club? Alas, fellow binge-watchers, the island's prison offered no Netflix or Hulu: Alcatraz inmates were denied access to radios or TVs, surviving on a meager library diet where heavily censored books were cautiously distributed under the watchful eyes of a librarian. These bookworm convicts were only allowed one book at a time and faced harsh penalties if they mistreated their precious pages or overstayed the due date.
Source => nps.gov

2. Bird Island Love Sanctuary

Before it became a feathery rendition of Orange is the New Black, Alcatraz Island strutted the red carpet as "Bird Island" or "White Island": In its flight back to nature, Alcatraz has regained its wings as a sanctuary for love-struck seabirds, offering visitors front-row seats to bird dating, nesting, and parenting performances of cormorants, gulls, night herons, egrets, and pigeon guillemots—all while ruffling as few feathers as possible during nesting season.
Source => nps.gov

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=> Fun Facts about San-Francisco

3. Dummy Heads and Raft Escape

Talk about a major case of head fakes and makeshift rafts: Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers, John and Clarence, successfully escaped from Alcatraz in 1962 by crafting dummy heads to hoodwink the guards and constructing a homemade raft to traverse the treacherous waters surrounding the island fortress.
Source => fbi.gov

4. Prisoner's Playtime on The Rock

Whoever said prison life was all behind-bars blues and misery clearly never enjoyed a thrilling game of baseball at The Rock: Inmates at Alcatraz were actually allowed up to five hours of recreation on weekends and holidays in the yard, featuring sports like baseball, softball, and basketball, with a snazzy paved surface added in 1936 to spruce up the games – just no swimming pool in sight, so no diving into a daring escape plan there!
Source => en.wikipedia.org

5. Machine Gun Kelly's Cell

You might say Alcatraz was the "who's who" of criminal high society, where even "Machine Gun" Kelly, the dapper gangster with a penchant for bank robbery, wasn't on the guest list just for his charming smile: Kelly checked into this exclusive island getaway in 1934, spending 17 years enjoying the scenic views before transferring to another "resort" in 1951, and leaving behind a must-see tourist attraction – his very own cell!
Source => latimes.com

6. No Sharks in Alcatraz Waters

If you ever thought Shark Week was filmed in the bowels of Alcatraz, prepare for your Jaws to drop: Despite popular belief, the cold waters surrounding the infamous island prison were never infiltrated by sharp-toothed neighbors. With not a single sharktail lurking during its time as a military fortress or penitentiary, Alcatraz never had to worry about a Sharknado breaking through its walls.
Source => nps.gov

7. Sharktober in San Francisco Bay

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water around Alcatraz, remember, it's always Sharktober in San Francisco Bay: The Bay is home to around 300 adult white sharks who migrate away during winter and return in the fall, but fear not, as there have been no recorded shark attacks on swimmers and one recorded predation event in 2015 involving a seal near Alcatraz Island, thus keeping the human-shark interactions surprisingly peaceful.
Source => sharkstewards.org

8. Alcatraz Five-Star Prison Food

They say Alcatraz was like dining at a five-star restaurant with bad ambiance: despite its reputation as a brutal and fearsome prison, inmates fortunate enough to earn privileges were busy bees in industries like sewing and woodworking to create goods for the military, all while enjoying the pleasure of three high-quality meals a day alongside the prison's staff. No wonder some prisoners volunteered for a transfer to Alcatraz – it was almost like an all-inclusive club package, with a touch of themed dungeons!
Source => en.wikipedia.org

9. The Rock's Eccentric Zoo

Whoever said living on "The Rock" was for the birds was only half right: Alcatraz Island not only housed the most notorious criminals but also had its own zoo with eccentric animals, such as peacocks, a Himalayan bear, and a family of sea lions, all overseen by prison staff and enjoyed by island visitors.
Source => nps.gov

10. San Fran-pin's Swim School Struggles

Swimming needed at the San Fran-pin's Swimming School: Alcatraz escapees faced bone-chilling, treacherous water temperatures between fifty and fifty-four degrees during the Great Escape. One of them even left behind a life preserver with deep teeth marks on the valve, hinting at a struggle with their DIY flotation device.
Source => alcatrazhistory.com

11. Cramped Cells and Paranormal Activity

If you thought your studio apartment was tight, wait until you hear about Alcatraz's living conditions: notorious criminals like Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly spent 19 to 24 hours a day in five-by-nine-foot cells, occasionally enjoying the tantalizing view of luxury liners amidst the San Francisco skyline. Bonus fact for ghost hunters: spine-chilling noises and perennially cold cell 14-D earned this prison a reputation for paranormal activity, making the eerie atmosphere as hard to escape as the facility itself.
Source => foundsf.org

12. Alcatraz's Secret Kiddie Haven

Who says crime doesn't pay for a little playground fun? Alcatraz, the harbor island housing America's notorious crime club for adults, secretly moonlighted as a kiddie haven: Complete with a school, playground, basketball court, and small zoo, the children of the prison staff and guards grew up enjoying a unique and relatively safe upbringing, all while living amidst some of the most hardened criminals in history.
Source => travelchannel.com