Place

26 - First Escape Attempt

WAYSIDE LAYOUT: Cream colored, horizontally oriented panel with a dark banner running across the top. The banner reads “Golden Gate National Recreation Area” on the left and the National Park Service logo on the right. The panel features two columns. The first column has text and an image. The second column has three images.  

FIRST COLUMN:  

TEXT: First Escape Attempt: “He took his chance.” On April 27, 1936, a guard tower stood on these concrete pylons. As officers watched, inmate Joseph Bowers burned garbage in the incinerator straight ahead. Suddenly, Bowers went for the fence, made it over the top, and became the first federal prisoner to attempt to escape from Alcatraz. When he ignored warnings from the guards, he was shot and killed.  

DESCRIPTION: Black and white photograph showing the guard tower and overhead walkway and where you are currently standing as it looked in the past. There is an orange dot and the words, “You are here” at the base of the guard tower.  

SECOND COLUMN:  

DESCRIPTION #1: Black and white mugshot of Joseph Bowers. It features a white man wearing a dark shirt, with short hair and the numbers 2 1 0 displayed at the bottom and the text “Penitentiary Era, circa 1934."  

CAPTION: Joseph “Dutch” Bowers. Crime: Mail robbery. Sentence: 25 years.  

DESCRIPTION #2: Black and white image of a newspaper clipping that reads: “The Literary Digest, May 9, 1936. Alcatraz Gantlet: Guns Drop Convict Bolting From ‘Escape-Proof’ Prison.  

‘Can it be done?’ Over and over that desperate questions raced through the feverish brain of Convict Joe Bowers one day last week.  

The hills of the big city across the water danced invitingly in the sun. It was worth trying.  

So he took his chance.  

There must be some way of escaping, he had muttered, even from this isolated fortress of cement and steel perched on a barren rock high above the racing currents of San Francisco Bay – some way.” 

DESCRIPTION #3: Black and white photograph of something I can’t make out 

Alcatraz Island , Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Last updated: March 29, 2021