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University Daily Kansan
Friday, March 22, 1962
Alcatraz to Close; Last Inmates Gone
SAN FRANCISCO - (UPI) The last 27 prisoners housed in Alcatraz penitentiary were removed yesterday and transferred to other institutions.
Alcatzra — "The Rock" — will be closed down by June 30.
Those 27 left the easy way—by boat. During its 29 years as the home of the federal government's most hardened convicts, 7 inmates were shot and killed, 6 drowned or were believed to have drowned, and 26 were seized trying to escape from Alcatraz.
A blond, thin-faced gun-smuggler from Anchorage, Alaska, had the distinction of being the last inmate to leave Alcatraz. A newsman asked him how he felt about it.
"Good. Good for me, good for everyone. Alcatraz never was no good," the 29-year-old convict replied.
A FEW MINUTES after the convicts departed, guard Gordon Gronzo climped down the steps of 75-foot gun tower no.1. He carried a rifle and a wore another cartridge belt slung over his shoulder.
Alcatraz was opened in 1934 to house incorrigibles during the wave of gangland violence that followed the end of prohibition.
The decision to abandon the 29-year-old prison in San Francisco Bay was prompted by its deterioration from age and salt air. Federal officials said it would cost $5 million to renovate it.
THE CONDITION of the prison was dramatized last June when three bank robbers used sharpened spoons to dig through rotting concrete at the back of their cells and flee the island. Officials are convinced they drowned, although their bodies were never found.
But the most spectacular escape attempt was the May, 1946 "Battle of Alcatraz" witnessed for two days by thousands from the hills of San Francisco.
Navy destroyers circled the island, U.S. Marines stormed ashore and fighter planes zoomed low overhead as nine inmates attempted to "blast out" of a three-tiered cellblock.
BUT THEY WERE thwarted when a captured guard managed to hide an all-important key; he was beaten and killed when the prisoners tried
unsuccessfully to force him to reveal the hiding place.
Many of the so-called "big names" confined at Alcatraz were model prisoners. These included Al Capone, the Chicago beer baron who was transferred to the "Rock" because he tried to run his gangland operations from Atlanta penitentiary where he was serving an income tax evasion sentence.
MACHINEGUN KELLY, kidnaper of Oklahoma oil man Charles F. Urschel in 1933, won a transfer back to Leavenworth prison because of his good conduct at Alcatraz.
Other widely publicized inmates of the island prison were Basil Stroud, "Birdman of Alcatraz," Basil (The Owl) Banghart, kidnapper and escape artist; mass murderer Billy Cook who was subsequently released to California authorities for trial and execution; and racketeers Mickey Cohen and Frankie Carbo, who are now held at Atlanta and McNeil Island, respectively.
The 12-acre island will be turned over to the General Services Administration as surplus property June 30. California congressmen currently are sponsoring legislation to create a commission that would decide what to do with what has long been one of San Francisco's top tourist sights.
Engineering Center Sponsors Seminar
The KU Center for Research in Engineering Science will sponsor a seminar at 4 p.m. today in 109 Marvin.
Edward Pestel of the Technische Hochschule in Hanover, Germany, will speak on "Application of Matrix Methods to the Statics and Dynamics of Cylindrical Shells." Pestel is now a visiting professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Pestel is a mechanical engineer and director of the Institute for Technical Mechanics at Hannover.
Careless 'Car-less' After Theft
DAYTON, Ohio — (UPI) — Carless (CQ) Foster Stewart, 59, reported to police yesterday that someone stole his car.
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Psychology Club To Meet Wednesday
The sophomore class will sponsor a pre-party before the Peter, Paul and Mary concert March 30.
Prof. Huling will speak on "Changing Space of Professional Psychology." The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Room 305 A and B of the Kansas Union.
Call VI 3-1086
Maurice Huling, assistant professor of psychology, will speak at the Psychology Club meeting; Wednesday, March 27.
Sophomore Class To Sponsor Party
The club, which is organized for Psychology majors, meets once a month to discuss the problems of the field.
The party will begin at 10 a.m. at the Big Barn on the day of the concert and last into the afternoon, according to Jerry Bell, McLouth sophomore and president of the sophomore class.
Music will be provided by the Disciples and the Rainmakers.
Tickets may be purchased from representatives in organized living groups for 75 cents or at the door for $1.
A skit will be given Thursday at each of the organized living groups
If this party is successful, the sophomore class may plan another one in May to celebrate the end of the Western Civilization examination. Bell said.
PATRONIZE YOUR ADVERTISERS
TOPEKA - (UPI) - The House Judiciary Committee is considering a bill which would legalize the sale of contraceptives in Kansas.
Legal Contraceptives Bill Up For House Consideration
The bill slipped quietly through the Senate.
The bill would repeal a law which declares it a misdemeanor offense to keep for sale "any drug, medicine, instrument or apparatus used or recommended to be used for the purpose of preventing conception, or procuring abortion or miscarriage. . ."
Although that law, or some version of it, has been on the statute books since 1874, it has been widely ignored. Contraceptives are widely sold in the state by vending machines and in drug stores.
Prosecutions for violation of the law in recent years have been rare or perhaps non-existent.
The law provides a fine of $50 to $1,000 on conviction or a jail sentence of 30 days to six months.
The silence surrounding the proposed repeal of this law has been so complete that even some Senators who voted for the measure admitted they did not know what they were voting on in approving Senate bill 375.
Inter-Varsity Member To Speak Friday Night
David Mayer, an Inter-Varsity staff member from Texas, will speak on "The Threat of Meaninglessness" at a meeting of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at 7:30 tonight in the Sunflower Room of the Kansas Union.
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