The Truth About Alcatraz!: Difference between revisions
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|prev=Trapped Beneath the Waves!
|next=The Battle of Hastings – The True Story.
|image=Fact Files Truth About Alcatraz.jpg
|caption=A craggy island sits in San Francisco bay. Though it was many years ago when it was given form, it just so happens that it is only today, the 12th of August, 1775, that it will be given a name!
|title=The Truth About Alcatraz!
|publisher=[[Marvel Comics]]
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|letters=uncredited
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{{CW
|width=comic
|reason=Outdated language and stereotypical depictions of Native Americans, and a mention of suicide in the notes section.}}
'''The history of the prison island of [[Alcatraz]], from pelicans, to prisoners, to protestors, to park visitors.'''
==Synopsis==
The prison called [[Alcatraz]] in San Francisco bay was once a barren rock, home only to pelicans. Though on the map by the late [[Robot universe#16th Century|16th Century]], it was finally named in [[Robot universe#1775|1775]] by a Spanish-speaking captain after the birds that inhabited it – Isla de Alcatraces, a name that would become Alcatraz.
Alcatraz remained uninhabited for a long time, until it became a prisoner-of-war camp. In [[Robot universe#1934|1934]], the camp was repurposed as a federal penitentiary for hardened criminals under the strict supervision of warden [[James A. Johnston]]. One of the first inmates, armed robber [[Joe Bowers]], didn't plan to stop long, and within months he became the prison's first attempted escapee. He didn't make it far before being shot from the watchtowers.
On the 16th of December, [[Robot universe#1937|1937]], [[Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe]] attempted escape through a wash-house window. After parting ways and diving into the icy waters, the two men were never seen again.
In [[Robot universe#1946|1946]], inmate number 548, [[Joseph Cretzer|Joseph 'Dutch' Cretzer]], led a mutiny with five other men. Two warders were killed, but Cretzer's plan was to treat them as living hostages to exchange for their freedom. Military troops were brought in as reinforcements; after a prison higher-up commented his belief the hostages to be dead, the troops breached the criminals' stronghold. Cretzer and two of his cohorts, [[Coy]] and [[Hubbard]], were shot dead during the assault.
The surviving mutineers were tried, their lawyers paid for by donations from fellow prisoners. After a unanimous guilty verdict, [[Judge Goodman]] sentenced [[Shockley]] and [[Thompson]] to death in the gas chamber, and life imprisonment for [[Carnes]], a Native American inmate.
In [[Robot universe#1963|1963]], the high council of the penitentiary administration decided that, between the prisoners and the families of warders living on the island, the upkeep of Alcatraz was financially untenable. By the 15th of May that year, the [[A2 1041|last prisoners on Alcatraz]] were transferred elsewhere. Despite plans, the buildings were left unoccupied.
Carnes wasn't the only Native American to take residence on the Rock. On the 8th of March, [[Robot universe#1964|1964]], five Native American protestors occupied the land to try and claim it back from the United States. On the 9th of November, another group of Native Americans led by [[Richard Oakes]] invaded the island for similar reasons. The occupation was ended by a sudden outbreak of fire on the 11th of June, [[Robot universe#1971|1971.]]
[[Robot universe#1973|Two years later]], President [[Nixon]] signed a plan to refurbish Alcatraz island as a tourist destination, leading to today, where tourists from all over the world are shown around the grim facility.
==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|h1=Cops
|c1=*[[James A. Johnston]]
*[[Judge Goodman]]
*Foreperson of the jury
*High council of the penitentiary administration
*President [[Nixon]]
'''[[Alcatraz]] staff'''
*Guards
*Wardens
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|h2=Robbers
|c2=*Various prisoners
*[[Joe Bowers]]
*[[Robert Stroud]]
*[[Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe|Theodore Cole]]
*[[Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe|Ralph Roe]]
*"[[A2 1041]]" and cohorts
'''Mutineers'''
*[[Joseph Cretzer]]
*[[Coy]]
*[[Hubbard]]
*[[Shockley]]
*[[Thompson]]
*[[Carnes]]
|h3=Others
|c3=*Pelicans
*Captain
**Captain's subordinate
*[[Billy]]
**Billy's mom
*[[Richard Oakes|"Indian" protestors]]
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*Alcatraz is said to have been uninhabited for a long time before [[w:World War I|World War I]], when it had been a military prison since 1868. The comic calls it a "prisoner-of-war camp", which is a bit of an oversimplification; during this time, it held [[w:American Civil War|Civil War]] prisoners, Native American protestors and, during World War I, conscientious objectors.
*The comic gives January the 1st, 1934 as some sort of significant date for the prison. In reality, the penitentiary opened its doors on August 11th that year.
*The reasoning behind Joseph Bowers' escape attempt is disputed, with his being out of bounds attributed to
*Robert Stroud, the famed Birdman of Alcatraz, was not actually permitted to keep birds in the prison. He did so in his previous incarceration at [[w:United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth|Leavenworth]].
*Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe's escape attempt wasn't via a wash-house; they went through the window of a "mat shop", a room where prisoners turned discarded tyres into rubber mats for the U.S. Navy.
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===Continuity errors===
*Most of the comic takes place during the James A. Johnston's tenure as warden. If every panel featuring a warden is intended to be him, then his appearance (particularly his weight) fluctuates dramatically.
*James A. Johnston, new warden of Alcatraz federal penitentiary, turns up by boat on January 1st, 1934, to open his new prison and seemingly immediately meet with his warders to lay down his no-nonsense regime... but on his arrival, one of the guards asks "Who's the guy getting off the boat?" What, did he miss a briefing or something?
===Other notes===
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==References==
<references/>
{{DEFAULTSORT:Truth About Alcatraz!}}
[[Category:From the Fact Files comic stories]]
[[Category:The Transformers issue 17]]
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