BIOGRAPHY OF SAMUEL RICHARD SHOCKLEY
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| Leavenworth 1938 |
1. SAM SHOCKLEY
Samuel Richard Shockley, born January 12, 1909, Cerro Gordo, Caney Township, Little River, Arkansas, from who
was assumed to have a share in the Alcatraz uprising or Battle of
Alcatraz, May 1946, in which two prison guards died. Custodial officer W.A "Bill" Miller was shot by Joe Cretzer and Custodial Officer Harold Stites was mistakenly shot by one of the
officers who were posted on the hillside during the revolt.
There's also a story about Stites
being shot by an overeager, drunken officer. The officer was quickly removed from Alcatraz and never charged with the
crime. Three inmates, Barney Coy, Joe Cretzer and Marv Hubbard, were killed by countless rounds of rifle fire, grenades, tear gas and
deck gun shells of the Coast Guard, US Marine Corps, Prison and
Police Department.
It was assumed that six prisoners
had been able to obtain automatic rifles. Clarence Carnes, Bernard Coy, Sam Shockley, Miran Thompson, Joseph Cretzer and Marvin Hubbard, were the six designated instigators of the uprising. The unfounded
assumptions of James J. Johnston, also nicknamed "Saltwater
Johnston", Warden of Alcatraz, age 72, led to a drama. His
staff tried to change Johnston's mind to intervene immediately, but
Johnston refused. He wanted to use all the available force and
therefore bring in the US Navy Center, Police Department, Gunboats, Alcatraz, Mc Neil Island, Leavenworth, Atlanta,
San Quentin and Folsom Officers. Also, the US Marine Corps experts, armed with flame throwers, grenades,
tear gas and demolition charges.
Associate Warden
Miller tried several times to stop this exaggerated action, but
couldn't talk Johnston's delusion out of his head the inmates
had obtained automatic rifles. Miller was aware it would get
total out of hand. Warden Johnston refused to consider a different
approach. As soon as the press and media got wind of what was
happening in Alcatraz, the guilt of the six men was accepted as a
fact and the discussion focused on the dead penalty for the surviving
rioters.
The six inmates were immediately
branded and convicted by the bias of the sensation-loving press
and media and already labeled "The Killers". Once the battle was
over it became clear that the three leaders in this riot were only
armed with one 45-caliber pistol, one rifle, 71 rounds of ammunition
and a knife.
2. CHILDHOOD.
Samuel Richard Shockley was the son of
Richard Samuel "Dick" Shockley, and Annyer Eugenia Bearden, who
died in January 1916, when Samuel was 7 years old. Sam was born
in Cerro Gordo, Caney Township, Little River, Arkansas. His father was a poor
sharecropper with eight children; Bryant Lunsford 1889, by his first wife Norma Josephine Bearden, who died in 1891. By his second wife Annyer E. Bearden: Myrtle Lee 1898 - Frank 1901 - Anna Belle
1904 - Patrick 1907 - Samuel Richard 1909 - Ruth 1913. By his third wife Sally Barton, a 40-year-old
widow, Richard Samuel 1918.
As a newborn baby Sam survived an
accident when his eleven-year-old sister Myrtle looked after the
children during the day, because mother Annie and father Dick worked the land.
The girl had Sam on her arm when she
came too close to the fireplace and her long dress caught fire. In
panic, she ran out of the house still holding Sam. Here she threw Sam clear and collapsed. Both children were lying outside for six hours
without help, covered in burns. Baby
Sam had taken a hard blow.
Sam was taken out of school when he was
twelve years old and strong enough to work the fields with his
father. His formal education ended at the third grade. In his early puberty he exhibited signs of serious
instability. His father was a hard man with little understanding or patience for his strangely behaving son.
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Granit Oklahoma State Reformatory Department of Corrections 1928
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Sam started running away after the
death of his stepmother Sally Barton, who died of Malaria fever in
1920, after three years marriage to his father. Sam had enough of the
hard work, the eternal poverty and his hard-faced father. He didn't
have many reasons to stay at home, his mother adored him and his stepmother had been good to him as
well. Both were death now, the only people who really cared about him. Sam
started looking for the company of criminals, bad men, native women
and prostitutes, and with the age of 19, he got Gonorrhea, because of
his frequent contacts with prostitutes. He left his family in 1927 and became a transient.
3. PRISON AND MARRIAGE.
Sam was arrested in 1928 for stealing chickens,
automobile tires and accessories in Garvin County. He was convicted
and sent for a year to Granite State Reformatory in Oklahoma. Released end of July 1929, and lived in a boarding house in Frisco, Mc Curtain County, from 1929 to 1930.
While in prison he was beaten by a
fellow inmate, resulting in severe brain damage and numerous scars on
his head and neck. He was released the following year, but soon he
sustained a second heavy beating, this time by a police officer, which inflicted
further head-trauma. He was arrested twice in Birmingham, Alabama in 1931. In the second arrest Sam managed to escape from jail the next day. Curiously, the police never went after him,
forgot about him and didn't even bother to file a wanted notice.
Sam had lived in Jerome, Idaho, since the end
of 1930, and it seemed as if he felt at home there. He found work as a
cotton packer, farmhand and a dishwasher. His father died May 9, 1932. In 1934, things went wrong again and Sam was arrested for
drunkenness and disorderly conduct. On October 6, 1936, Sam married
Betty Mae Moore, born in 1923, Shoshone, Idaho. Betty Mae was 13 years old. Betty's mother Adelaide Moore changed Betty's age in the Consent document from 13 to 16, to get a marriage license. Sam already known Betty for four
years. The marriage was a disaster. Sam's instability continued after
the marriage.
In the beginning, Sam did his utmost to
make the marriage work. He had a steady job as truck driver for the City Street Department during his marriage. Soon Betty was pregnant, but the
child was weak at birth on August 7, 1937, and died one and a half
month later. Marriage fidelity was not the highest priority to Betty and Sam. Also, the death of the child and alcohol abuse played a role in the end of
their marriage. After the child's death in September 1937, Sam left Betty in January 1938, completely disappointed. On his way to the total disaster that would ruin and finally end his life. In 1938, when he was definitively locked up in
prison, he told the custodial officers he didn't want to go back to his wife because of incompatibility.
Betty Moore filed for divorce in 1938,
granted on June 27, 1939. She married William Woodrow McDaniel on June 28, 1939.
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4. PAOLI
While living in Jerome he may have come
in contact with Edward Leroy Johnson, a native man. Sam went back to
Oklahoma after his stranded marriage and probably lived with one of
his brothers, Frank or Patrick Shockley. On March 14, 1938, Sam and
his new friend Edward Johnson stole a shotgun and in the same night
they robbed Mr. J.James from his car. On March 15, 13:00 pm, Sam
Shockley and his friend entered the bank of Paoli.
They collected 947 dollars in silver and
currency and forced Mr. and Mrs. Pendley, both employees of the Paoli
bank, into the car and left town. The robbery was soon discovered and
a posse of over one hundred men, include FBI agents was formed to
apprehend the bank robbers. The stolen car broke down and Sam,
Johnson and Mr. and Mrs. Pendley headed on foot for the Arbuckle
Mountains. A lonely hunter chased away the two young men and freed
the couple. Mr. Pendley recognized Sam Shockley on a police mugshot as one
of the perpetrators.
A force of over three hundred men was
formed in the greatest manhunt in Mc Curtain County history. Soon the
authorities received information that Sam was probably hiding in
Frank Shockley's farm near Tom, Oklahoma. Sam Shockley was arrested on March
25, coming out of the back door. Sam was unarmed but a shotgun and
a 45-caliber pistol was found in the house. He made no statement as
to where he has been. No one got hurt in this bank robbery. Sam was
hustled by the FBI to Ada, Oklahoma, where he was arraigned for bank
robbery and kidnapping.
Soon Johnson was caught as well. He had
245 dollars in his pocket. He had been hiding in a barn all the time.
Johnson admitted that his real name was Alfred Ray Wilhelm. He had
like Sam a modest criminal record. Johnson came from a native family and
had a year of high school. On April 2, both men were taken to The
Federal Prison in Muskogee. Sam pleaded innocent and Johnson guilty. Both men were sentenced to life imprisonment and send to
Leavenworth, Kansas.
Newspaper Clipping: EVENING STAR – MARCH 25, 1938.
TRIO HOLD AND PART OF STOLEN PAOLI BANK MONEY RECOVERED IN RAID EARLY TODAY NEAR IDABEL:
Search Continued.
Arrest one woman and two men.
Charges are: Pending.
Further Investigation:
Three Deny Connection.
Idabel Oklahoma March 25.
County officers and a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent arrested two men and a woman
today and recovered 250 dollars in currency identified as stolen from a Paoli OK bank.
The officers sought a fourth man.
The arrests were made at a farm house near Tom, 20 miles south of Idabel.
The men and woman were lodged in Jail here. No charges had been filed pending apprehension
of the fourth man.
The FBI agent Clarence Hurt of Oklahoma City, and Sheriffs Joe Hough of Mc Curtain County
and Claude Seymour of Pauls Valley and their deputies entered the farmhouse about 5 o'clock
this morning. They arrested the trio in their beds. The suspects offered no resistance.
The 250 dollars in currency was recovered from a room in the farmhouse.
1 dollar was identified by serial numbers of the loot taken by two bandits
who held up the Paoli OK bank about two weeks ago.
Hurt refused to divulge names of the two men and the woman *,
or to give information about how the officers located them.
The bank of Paoli was robbed by two men about 13.00 pm, 15 March 1938.
Two bandits kidnapped the cashier and his wife, Mr and Mrs Dudley Pendley, and escaped with
948 dollars.
They released the Pendley's in the afternoon and the stolen automobile,
in which the bandits fled from Paoli was found abandoned eight miles from the
Southwest of Davis.
A young farm boy, Bert Jolly added the Pendley's in securing their release.
He had heard a radio report of the bank robbery and the abduction of the
cashier and his wife.
He saw a stalled car on a country road, suspected that it might be the bandit car.
He obtained a shotgun from his home and started down the road toward the car.
The two bandits saw him and fled into the brush.
Mr and Mrs Pendley were unharmed by the robbers.
Then began an intensive three-day-search of the Arbuckle Mountains
by hundreds of officers aided by bloodhounds and airplanes
.
Federal, state and local officers blockaded the area and beat through
the brush of the "bad lands" of the Arbuckle Mountains.
Two days after the robbery, three volunteer police men fired on the two
men who they believed - were the bandits.
The searchers sighted two men clad in overalls standing in a thicket.
They shouted to the suspects to halt.
Instead, one of the two men seized a small sack and the pair fled.
The posse men opened fire but the fugitives apparently were not hit.
They escaped.
Officers continued the search for another day but were
forced to abandon it when they found no trace of
the fugitives.
The Paoli bank robbery was the second in Oklahoma in recent months.
* Sam Shockley, his brother Frank and Frank's wife Mae Norah.
Newspaper Clipping: EVENING STAR – MARCH 25, 1938.
TRIO HOLD AND PART OF STOLEN PAOLI BANK MONEY RECOVERED IN RAID EARLY TODAY NEAR IDABEL:
Search Continued.
Arrest one woman and two men.
Charges are: Pending.
Further Investigation:
Three Deny Connection.
Idabel Oklahoma March 25.
County officers and a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent arrested two men and a woman
today and recovered 250 dollars in currency identified as stolen from a Paoli OK bank.
The officers sought a fourth man.
The arrests were made at a farm house near Tom, 20 miles south of Idabel.
The men and woman were lodged in Jail here. No charges had been filed pending apprehension
of the fourth man.
The FBI agent Clarence Hurt of Oklahoma City, and Sheriffs Joe Hough of Mc Curtain County
and Claude Seymour of Pauls Valley and their deputies entered the farmhouse about 5 o'clock
this morning. They arrested the trio in their beds. The suspects offered no resistance.
The 250 dollars in currency was recovered from a room in the farmhouse.
1 dollar was identified by serial numbers of the loot taken by two bandits
who held up the Paoli OK bank about two weeks ago.
Hurt refused to divulge names of the two men and the woman *,
or to give information about how the officers located them.
The bank of Paoli was robbed by two men about 13.00 pm, 15 March 1938.
Two bandits kidnapped the cashier and his wife, Mr and Mrs Dudley Pendley, and escaped with
948 dollars.
They released the Pendley's in the afternoon and the stolen automobile,
in which the bandits fled from Paoli was found abandoned eight miles from the
Southwest of Davis.
A young farm boy, Bert Jolly added the Pendley's in securing their release.
He had heard a radio report of the bank robbery and the abduction of the
cashier and his wife.
He saw a stalled car on a country road, suspected that it might be the bandit car.
He obtained a shotgun from his home and started down the road toward the car.
The two bandits saw him and fled into the brush.
Mr and Mrs Pendley were unharmed by the robbers.
Then began an intensive three-day-search of the Arbuckle Mountains
by hundreds of officers aided by bloodhounds and airplanes
.
Federal, state and local officers blockaded the area and beat through
the brush of the "bad lands" of the Arbuckle Mountains.
Two days after the robbery, three volunteer police men fired on the two
men who they believed - were the bandits.
The searchers sighted two men clad in overalls standing in a thicket.
They shouted to the suspects to halt.
Instead, one of the two men seized a small sack and the pair fled.
The posse men opened fire but the fugitives apparently were not hit.
They escaped.
Officers continued the search for another day but were
forced to abandon it when they found no trace of
the fugitives.
The Paoli bank robbery was the second in Oklahoma in recent months.
* Sam Shockley, his brother Frank and Frank's wife Mae Norah.
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| Granite Prison 1928 |
5. LEAVENWORTH PRISON 53148L - CELL G-215
The Associate Warden's report of
Leavenworth prison, Kansas, made on June 1938, states the following:
This man is of small stature being
fairly-well developed and nourished. He makes no complaint relative
his health. All his adult life his occupation was a common laborer.
He says that he is not worried about his long sentence or general
situation. Shockley is indifferent to his situation and shows no anomalies. The investigation does not reveal any
psychotic tendencies.
Sam was described in Leavenworth as a
common and confirmed criminal of the cruelest type. On June 6, 1938, Sam had a heavy scuffle with his old
comrade Johnston. Both men were taken apart and locked up separately.
Sam denied the attack but admitted that he did not feel any affection
for Johnston, which he called a traitor.
Examined by prison psychiatrists, it
was determined that he had a low IQ of 68 and the mental age of a 10-years-10-months old child. He suffered episodes of hallucinations
and demonstrated serious emotional instability. He was incapable of
coping with the normal prison environment, presenting a risk to
himself and others. Someone had the unfortunate thought of sending
the obviously mentally deranged Sam to Alcatraz, instead of sending him to Springfield Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Greene
County, Missouri. With the idea that a more stringent regime would be
better for his adjustment in prison life. The Administration of
Leavenworth has sent Sam on September 23, 1938, to Alcatraz, where they didn't know what to do with Sam either, and would
therefore lock him up like an animal in the Hole for a long time.
6. ALCATRAZ PRISON CALIFORNIA.
When he was transferred to Alcatraz
from Leavenworth Prison Kansas, it was felt the strict routine there
would better manage him. Throughout the early 1940s at Alcatraz,
Sam's condition continued to deteriorate because he was placed for 3
years in the D block isolation section, and for most of the time in
the Hole, the darkened stripped cells on the ground level.
Here he spent most of his time in total darkness. At night, he was
only allowed a blanket and mattress, during the rest of the day he
was sitting and lying on the cold concrete. Sometimes naked and
sometimes given a pair of socks, shorts and a coverall. The Hole was
incredibly cold, and the clothing provided wasn't enough to give protection. The walls and the floor retained the cold damp.
With little food, every other day some solid food dumped together in
a bowl. Oatmeal, prunes, a piece of bread all together in an unappetizing lump and a cup of coffee. The next day some watery soup.
Drinking water was distributed separately and sometimes forgotten for
a day.
The food was an extra torment for Sam
who had chronic stomach, hemorrhoids and intestinal problems. The
door of the cell was sound proof, total silence and darkness were
the constant companions for twenty-four hours each day. The inability
to hear and see was a real torment. After the evening meal, the
mattress and blanket were returned to be able to sleep. The maximum
number of days in the Hole was nineteen, but it often happened that
prisoners were returned within one day. Sam and the other inmates
were being forced to live like caged animals in the Hole.
When he finally came out of isolation
and was allowed to interfere into the prison population, it soon went
wrong again as he started small offenses for which he was severely
punished, so he was often placed back in isolation. Until he was
finally locked up in D block, with the excuse that he refused work
and was unmanageable.
He was often violently
beaten with a Black Jack by the custodial officers and the Associate
Warden for his peculiar, anxiety-aggressive and disturbed behavior, even by Ernest Lageson sr, who was known as reasonable and non-violent.
Associate Warden Miller hated Sam, and often knocked him half
unconscious and called him "the glass eyed devil". Sam only
left his cell for a weekly one-hour visit to the recreation yard, and
weekly ten minutes shower, beyond that he never left his six by
nine-foot cell.
The Surgeon Psychiatrist Romney M
Ritchey reported upon the arrival of Sam in Alcatraz the following:
October 4, 1938.
October 4, 1938.
He is not very alert and observing and
has very poor insight. His intellectual development is much below the
normal. He gave a Stanford-Binet rating of 8-years-and-9 months and an IQ of 54. Reasoning ability and judgment are very
superficial and imperfect. His emotional tone is fairly constant, and
he shows no signs of elevation or depression of mood or retardation
of thought. His ethical standards are very low, and he is lacking a good perspective. No hallucinations where discovered and he
expresses no peculiar ideas. He is not considered actively psychotic.
Sam began by the solitary
confinements, hard cruel treatments and many beatings, to show more
and more signs of classical schizophrenia symptoms, paranoia,
hallucinations, disorientation and auditory delusions. At Alcatraz,
Sam Shockley's mental condition worsened. His IQ dropped from 68 in
Leavenworth to 54 in Alcatraz within a few months.
WORKSHOP ESCAPE ATTEMPT - MAY 21, 1941.
On May 21, 1941, there was an attempted
escape from one of the island's workshops along with Joseph Cretzer,
Arnold Kyle and Lloyd Barkdoll, an Oregon bank
robber, and as incorrectly noted in many Alcatraz books, Sam Shockley. It is repeated that Shockley was complicit in this escape attempt, but there are no official documents to be found officially accusing Shockley of complicity. During the escape attempt from the mat shop the men held a number of custodial officers' hostage. The three inmates started sawing the bars from the
inside. After an hour work, they hadn't been able to saw through
the steel bars. The three men surrendered after Paul Madigan,
Captain of the Guard, arrived in the mat shop and the hostages were
released unharmed. Lloyd Barkdoll managed to speak to Warden James
Johnston and convinced him that Sam Shockley was not in the plot. Sam
was released and send back to his cell.
MEMORANDUM TO THE WARDEN - SEPTEMBER
24, 1941.
SAM SHOCKLEY 462-AZ
This inmate has been
under medical treatment for some time and because of the peculiar
nature of his complaints, he has also been closely observed for signs
of mental illness. He has been a hospital patient for some weeks now, and he has complained first of indigestion, abdominal distress, and
nervousness. And later of pain in the rectum, numbness and weakness
of the thighs and perineum region, pains in the inguinal region. He
has received treatment for these varying complaints but has been eating
and sleeping poorly and has lost some weight. Examination showed that
he has some hemorrhoids, and these are treated but his complaints
persist and become more and more urgent. Yesterday he became abusive
to Doctor Patterson because he claimed, "nothing has been done".
After a time he quieted down and even expressed regrets to Doctor
Patterson. This morning I tried to talk with him but found him very
restless and surly.
He became somewhat abusive and demanded
he been given some treatment, but could not be induced to explain what
he meant. Because of his great nervousness I went to the Pharmacy and
ordered a sedative prepared for him. Upon my return to my office, he
met me in the hall door and walked close beside me across a ward, all
the time scowling at me and acting in every way as though he were
waiting for me to turn my head so that he could strike me. He talked
in a low voice, calling me names and threatening me. I managed to
convert any open class, however. Later when Doctor Patterson opened
the office door, Sam Shockley was standing near and tried to strike
him.
I instructed Mr. Schneider and Mr.
Cassidy to give him the medicine I had ordered and then to place him
in a cell. As Shockley went into the hall, he took the medicine glass
in his hand but made no move to take it, and directly he dropped the
glass to the floor and struck at Mr. Schneider and Mr. Cassidy but
did no damage. As the officers both took an arm and led him to the
cell, he made no further attempt to strike them.
In this connection I have heard from
others that Shockley has been worrying and claimed to have a cancer
of the prostate. This may account for the emotional panic which
appears to be the cause of this unusual conduct.
Romney M. Ritchey, Surgeon. Chief
Medical Officer.
REFUSES WORK IN LAUNDRY - FEBRUARY 15, 1942.
SAM R SHOCKLEY 462-AZ
Cell nr: 401. Sam Shockley wouldn't
get out of his cell and refused to go to work. He said to the senior custodial officer on duty E.F. Stucker, "You can tell the associate
warden (E.J. Miller) to stick the laundry up his ass and you too".
And again, Sam disappeared in the Hole in solitary confinement with restricted diet and forfeit all privileges until further orders.
And again, Sam disappeared in the Hole in solitary confinement with restricted diet and forfeit all privileges until further orders.
SPECIAL PROGRESS REPORT - JUNE 2, 1942.
A fairly well-nourished white man of
33. He gives no history of serious illness. He has been treated for
urethritis, sprained right ankle and hospitalized for cystitis and
prostatitis. Heart action regular, pulse small. Lungs clear.
Neurological essentially negative. Denies use of narcotic drugs and
has no needle scars on his body. He is fairly well oriented but much
below normal in intelligence.
Stanford-Binet rating was 8-year-10-months, IQ 54. Reasoning ability and judgement defective. He
lacks insights. He has had at least two episodes during which he was
hallucinated and fearful. For the past few months, he has been quieter and more orderly and seems to be comfortable. Emotionally very
unstable. He has been hospitalized for mental observation when he
became fearful, partly disoriented and assaulting. He believed he was
dying with cancer. His conduct has been erratic and unpredictable. He
would be likely to break down again under the confusion and tension
of a disaster and be dangerous to those about him. His transfer is
suggested on those grounds.
STEALING MEAT - MARCH 22, 1943.
SAM R SHOCKLEY 462-AZ Cell nr
318
This inmate stole about 6 lbs. of
tenderloin steak from the freezer. Took it in the bakeshop, roasted
it and was caught in the act of attempting to dispose of it.
J.A Kessler sr. Steward
6 - 23 - 1943. Admitted possession of
meat in a small quantity but denied any complicity in the theft. He
had no excuse for stealing food. Change work assignment. Solitary
confinement.
THE APRIL REVOLT - 1946.
On the evening of April 26, Robert
Stroud, "the Birdman of Alcatraz", started complaining that he
was suffering from severe abdominal cramps and needed a doctor. The D
Block officer made an attempt to send a Medical
Technical Assistant from the prison hospital to come down to the D
block and examine him. Stroud protested insisting that he wanted to
see a real doctor. After some time had passed Stroud was
becoming more vocal, and the other inmates started to join in,
insisting that a doctor be brought in to examine him immediately.
After a wait of two hours, the MTA finally made his way into Bob
Stroud’s cell. The MTA performed a quick examination and offered
Stroud aspirin, and prescribed rest. That wasn't enough for Stroud. He kept complaining about pain and asking for a real doctor. Eventually Dr. Roucek came to visit him. He also couldn't find
why Stroud was in such pain, and thought it would be over by the
morning. After Dr. Roucek had disappeared, Stroud started complaining
loudly and asked again for a doctor.
The other D Block inmates started
rallying on his behalf. Their rebellion implied that the prison
administration was cruelly, letting an inmate to suffer. And this
brought the inmates to start vandalizing their cells. Sam Shockley
and several other men began to destroy everything in sight.
It was decided by Warden Johnston that
the inmates would remain in their own cells until proper repairs
could be made. Since many of them had destroyed their sink and
toilet, they were forced to use a tin bucket to relieve themselves, until the cells were repaired. The inmates who had been involved,
received nineteen days in isolation and were forced to pay for all
damages before they were allowed to transfer out of Alcatraz.
DESTRUCTION OF
GOVERNMENTS PROPERTY - APRIL 29, 1946.
Cell 5 - Isolation Block D - SAM
R SHOCKLEY 462-AZ
Violation: Destruction of government
property and creating a disturbance.
This inmate participated in a general
disturbance, yelling, smashing fixtures in his cell, throwing chunks
of broken plumbing, smashing windows, setting paper bedding and his clothing afire. This inmate destroyed his toilet bowl, wash bowl and
electric light fixture. Tore linoleum of the floor and tore the
clothes hooks of the wall. He admitted he had done damage as charged.
Was sullen and uninformative. Claimed he was justified. Found guilty
as charged.
Report: D.W Martin senior Off.
7. THE BATTLE OF ALCATRAZ. MAY 2 - 4 1946.
On May 2, 1946, two inmates Bernard Coy
and Marvin Hubbard overpowered custodial officer Cecil Corwin by
surprise. Hubbard and Coy also overpowered officer Miller and took
his keys, coat and cap. They opened cell 403 and placed
Miller in here. Coy opened the cells of the B block where his three
comrades Cretzer, Thomson and Carnes were locked up. Coy managed to
get into the gun gallery by using a bar spreader and rob the officer
on duty off the weapons they would need for the outbreak. They opened
the door of the isolation block D, to release the prisoners
and Rufus Franklin, an expert in locks and guns. If he could join them, the
better. Rufus was in solitary confinement in "the Hole" for his participation in
the April riot, just a few days earlier. Sam had also
participated in this riot but had not yet been placed in "the
Hole" because everything was occupied at that time.
********************
********************
Jim Quillen wrote in his book: Inside
Alcatraz – my time on the rock:
Although Sam was not included as a
participant by the actual five involved, he was indeed credited by
the officials as such.
Sam, the son of a poor sharecropper
family in Oklahoma, was in every sense of the word the victim of a
grievous and willful miscarriage of justice by our government and
judicial system. I knew very little about Sam until my incarceration
in D Block.
Before the forty-eight-hour siege of
the block, he was just another voice and person who often carried on
in many bizarre and erratic ways. It was said by all the inmates that
he was crazy and was often characterized as "Crazy Sam". I did
not know the extent of his mental illness until we shared a single
cell during the endless hours of assault on D Block: then it became
very apparent his mental capacity was definitely deficient. In
addition to not being intelligent, Sam suffered from hallucinations
and heard voices. He was hardly the dependable, stable personality
that Coy, Cretzer, and Hubbard would have chosen to play such a vital
and intricate part in their plan.
Sam Shockley was executed, however, in
San Quentin's gas chamber, as it was alleged that he created the
disturbance that afforded Coy the opportunity to gain access to the
gun gallery. His “alleged” disturbance did not occur, and
therefore Sam was not a premeditated participant to a crime that led
to murder. Sam was, in reality a victim of the break.
His involvement was only slightly more
than my own, which was merely the result of sheer circumstances and
not foreknowledge. Yet these circumstances led Sam to his death by
execution.
********************
Bernhard Coy had planned to take
control of the cell house and D block. Franklin could be
released now the escape was underway. Coy and Cretzer tried to figure
out how to free Rufus "Whitey" Franklin, who was confined to "the Hole". A darkened solitary cell with two doors. The
outer door made of solid steel and the inner door electronically
operated and barred. Several of the D Block inmates asked Cretzer and
Coy to release them. The overwhelming desire to escape had driven any
reasonable thinking from their minds.
Sam asked to be released. Sam was
raising such a clamor that Cretzer was concerned his noise would
surely alert officers in other work areas. So Cretzer released Sam.
Even after his release Sam would not quiet down and badgered Carnes
to release the other inmates. Cretzer gave Sam the key. With this key
Sam released every inmate on both tiers. Even those who didn't want
to get involved at all. After the release of the men in the D Block
several officers were captured and placed in cell 403. When no
further keys were confiscated from the officers, the men were moved
to cell 402. Although it appeared to the three inmates that they had
all the cell house keys, none of them would fit in the lock of the
cell house rear door which led to the recreation yard. Hubbard had
failed to search officer W.A Millers pants and pockets for any keys. It was through the recreation door the convicts intended to leave
the cell house. The key 107 opened the rear door to the recreation
yard but custodial officer Joseph Burdett held this key, he got from
Miller, hidden. Miller told the inmates he had returned the key to
officer Burch in the gun gallery.
Officer Carl W. Sundstrom was captured, and Sam stepped up behind
him, and clouted over Sundstrom's head when Sundstrom was entering
cell 402. When Captain of the Guard Weinhold was captured, Sam
Shockley for some reason, seemed to lose what little control he had
over his emotions. He suddenly broke away from the group of men and
attacked the captain who was restrained by Carnes. Sam cursed him and
struck over the back of Weinhold's head.
The captain saw it coming and ducked, which
enraged Sam even more. He kicked at the officer’s scrotum, again
missing. This angered captain Weinhold, and he lashed out with a
backhand that punched Sam on the mouth, nearly knocking him to the
floor. Captain Weinhold was a big man, strong and not exactly someone
to argue with. Now Sam changed from an aggressive, belligerent inmate
into a rather pathetic, whimpering, immature and incoherent
individual. Cretzer was losing patience with Sam and asked the other
inmates to get Sam out of the way. This was an impossible task, as
Sam was not in control of his senses. He did at their insistence
eventually move but continued to pace back and forth in front of the
D block door, talking and muttering to himself. He was far beyond the
point of reasoning and become a real detriment to the efforts of Coy
and his men.
Carl Sundstrom later declared in court
that Sam was running around like an idiot. Other
inmates such as Jack Pepper, James Quillen, Howard Butler, Edwin
Sharp and Louis Fleish made statements that Sam was running up and
down the corridors carrying a Stilton wrench and wearing an officer's jacket several sizes too large for him. He looked like a clown, which
amused the onlookers. He repeatedly swore at the hostages, cursing
and yelling, and calling them names. Sam acted as a cheerleader. Several Alcatraz inmates established that Sam was in the D block when
the shooting began that injured the hostage officers.
Inmate Joseph Moyle, testified to
lawyer Sullivan that Sam did not say anything, he was just standing by the cell of the hostages. He didn't understand what was going on. Moyle, and other inmates, denied that they ever heard Sam urge Cretzer to
shoot the officers. Sam was not a part of the plan at all and merely
tagged along because no one told him he could not.
If Sam was to have been a key figure in
helping Coy enter the gun gallery, he would not have risked being
placed in a double-door electronically protected solitary cell by
smashing things and setting fire to his cell in the riot of April 1946. If there had been enough of these solitary cells available, Sam
was just like Rufus Franklin, locked up in one, but now he was still
on the waiting list. The failure to
release Franklin was a good indication that no one in the D Block had
been aware of the break prior to its occurrence.
 |
| Prison Revolt the Night of May 2 1946 |
Moyle agreed to testify in court as an
important defense witness, but Lawyer William Sullivan got a letter
from Moyle handed by Warden James Johnston, in which Moyle declared "that he no longer wished to be summoned as a witness in the court
case, because it would not be in his interest". With this
statement, Sullivan lost one of his best witnesses.
Associate Warden Miller, also called "Meathead" by the inmates, managed to take a look inside the cell
house. He escaped from Coy and Hubbard and passed on his findings to
Warden Johnston. He told that Coy was only armed with a rifle. Warden
Johnston realized that if Associate Warden Miller was correct, he
was in an untenable position. His policies and reputation as the
Warden of Alcatraz, the most secure and escape proof prison, were in
jeopardy. He therefore chose to distort and misconstrue Associate
Miller's observation. He announced that the inmates were in
possession of machine guns.
If the authorities had been a little
lesser concerned about their good name, their personal reputation and
status, and treated this prison break as so many prison breaks have
ever been treated in the past, this whole break would also have been
nothing more than a rebellion, and not a battle as it became in the
end. But unfortunately, in no time at all, this rebellion was totally
blown out of proportion by incorrect and slow action of the Warden
and his deliberately spreading of false information. And so there was
suddenly no return possible without a serious reputation damage from
the authoritative, Warden James Johnston.
When Weinhold,
Miller, Lageson and the other officers were all locked up in the hostage
cell and Captain Weinhold entered into a discussion with Joseph
Cretzer, it is declared in court by the custodial officers that Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson ordered Joseph Cretzer to shoot and kill all the
officers. Cretzer shot at Weinhold and Miller. With Lageson he first
refused because he said that Lageson was a good guy and his friend.
So, Sam said, "Friend hell, ....Kill the motherfucker", so
Cretzer shot Lageson too. A story that doesn't add up. Cretzer was an
aggressive man, a brute who could not be told anything. Everyone was
convinced that sooner or later Joseph Cretzer would die a violent
death. It is very strange that a born criminal would take orders from
a severely disturbed imbecile like Sam, and a petty thief and cop
killer like Thompson. Second peculiarity of this story is that all the officers
involved, locked up in two hostage cells, in all the
consternation and fear, told exactly the same story with the same occurring people.
Sam came into the D Block and joined
the group inmates who started to make themselves a safe hiding place
in the cells for the things that would come. Sam had ceased talking
and muttering to himself. He seemed calm and relatively aware of all
that was taking place. Jim Quillen later testified in court that
Sam's conduct and calmness made it difficult to believe that he could
have been on the scene of the shooting, as claimed by administration
officials, when Cretzer had shot the guards in cell 402 and 403. The
men retreated into the cells and lay down on the floor behind a
mattress barricade and many anxious hours of waiting started.
When the heavy shelling of the D block
started, Sam, Jack, Bill, Jim and the other inmates were hiding on
the ground behind the mattresses. Laying there for hours and hours
with their arms over their heads waiting for the next blast of
bullets and grenades spraying around in the D Block. The fact that
twenty-six men were in the D Block was of no consequence for the
Navy, if they were all killed, it didn't matter. The D Block was
constantly shot at and eventually almost blown up, causing the water
pipes to break. A flood of salt water washed through the cells,
causing the men to be laid in the salt water. It was difficult to
breathe for the men because of all the smoke. Because of the
exploding grenades the men were stunned and totally disoriented, unable to see or hear. The tier quickly became a river of salt water
and this was absorbed by the mattresses. All the cells
were flooded, and all the men were quickly soaked and extremely freezing because all the windows were blown out and the icy wind came in.
The skins of the men were irritated from the salt water. They were
starving of hunger. At times the men fell asleep, exhausted.
On Saturday, the cell house was reconquered by the officers. Coy, Hubbard and Cretzer were found death in the rubble of a corridor. The officers entered the D Block and the inmates were forced to lie on the floor, away from the cell door and stay there until otherwise instructed. If they didn't obey these orders, they were shot was told. When the officers had taken up their position with drawn rifles, the names were called off, and they had to take off their clothes, wait for orders to step forward, out of the cell, arms straight forward and stand against the rail with the arms stretched over. And remain in this position. The officers were extremely nervous and ready to shoot if the inmates didn't follow orders. All the cells were stripped of their contents, the inmates were moved down to the lower tier, searched and then locked in cells again with the instruction to sit down and not to move.
 |
| D Block Population List - May 2nd 1946. Sam Shockley 462 |
Associate Warden Miller accompanied by
three armed officers stormed into D block. They dragged the naked, ignorant Sam from his cell. "Get out of there, you glass eyed son
of a bitch", Miller yelled, as two of the officers pulled the
frightened small man from his cell onto the glass and steel debris
littered tier. Herded along the tier and down the steps to the main
floor, the terrified Sam suffered deep cuts to the bottom of his feet
as he stepped on shards of glass and steel. Sam was dragged to the A
Block and pushed into a cell. The door slammed behind him. Miran
Thompson and Joe Carnes were also dragged to the A Block and locked
up. Associate Warden Miller questioned all three men in which he used
brute force. He wanted to know the names of all the inmates who had
participated in the outbreak attempt. Also, little Sam was violently
beaten, punched and kicked by Miller and the other officers to
elicit a confession.
After the other inmates were resettled
in the cells a demolition team entered the block to remove all the not exploded, but still dangerous, rifle grenades. This took many hours. The
inmates were naked and half frozen in their cells, scared to death of
talking or moving. It wasn't until late in the evening that
mattresses, dry clothing and blankets were brought around. The men
also finally got something to eat, soup, sandwiches and coffee, the
first food since Thursday at noon. A little later the men were
allowed to take a shower one by one to rinse off the salt water.
Slowly it seemed as if the peace and quiet and the normal course of
activities were coming back a bit. The men were glad that it was over
and that they had survived it all.
********************
In his book Inside Alcatraz, my time on
the rock, Jim Quillen made the following remarks about Sam:
“I must admit that I cannot recall,
at this late date, whether or not Sam was with us when we heard the
shots in the main cell house, but there could not have been an
interval of longer than ten minutes between the time of our re-entry
into the block and the bloody revenge carried out by Cretzer. I do
not believe that Sam was a party to that frenzied shooting, nor was
there evidence to prove it. Consider: if Sam had indeed witnessed the
slaughter, and then came into our cell as calm and composed as he
did, this calmness would then tend to indicate he was completely and
undeniably insane. From the moment he came to help us, until the
entire confrontation was ended, he was never more than three feet
away from Jack, Bill or me. During this time Sam did not indicate
that he participated in or witnessed the event. In the remote chance
that the administration was correct, however, it only verifies the
theory that Sam was insane, as no rational individual in control of
his emotions could have witnessed or participated in that scene –
an attempted massacre of nine men – and, within a matter of
minutes, attain and present such a calm composure.
I Feel that the prison officials should
have been held responsible for any part Sam played, although I do not
believe Sam was anymore responsible for the shooting of the guards,
or for the actions of Joe Cretzer, than I was. Executing Sam was the
equivalent to killing a mentally ill child who strikes a parent in
the process of a temper tantrum. His death by execution was a
travesty of justice and should be viewed as such. I truly believe
that Sam was a victim of the break, not a knowledgeable
co-conspirator. I also believe that the US government put to death,
by execution, a man who was not only insane, but who was the victim
of angered, frustrated, and revengeful people who wanted "convict
blood".
********************
********************
The escape attempt ultimately failed by
due to the jamming of the recreation yard door lock, because if the
wrong key is used and this is attempted several times the system will
block completely, and all this turned into an armed confrontation
which lasted 48 hours. Two custodial guards, Bill Miller and Harold
Stites, and three inmates, Bernhard Coy, Joseph Cretzer and Marvin
Hubbard, lost their lives. Three critically injured men, ten mildly injured custodial officers and an inmate, as a result.
Alcatraz was badly damaged and many inhabitants of the island,
guards, their families and the inmates heavily traumatized by this
devastating event.
THE DEATH OF OFFICER MILLER.
There was no evidence of external
bruising or injury, despite Warden Johnston’s assertion to the
press that W.A Miller had been subjected to a severe beating. The
autopsy of Dr. Jeanne Miller, deputy coroner of the University of California
Hospital, also suggested that the wound may not have been a fatal
one, had the victim received timely medical care. Mr. Miller went
into shock. His pleural cavity was filled with blood, resulting in
lung collapse and oxygen deprivation. If the hospital's medical staff
had evaluated the injuries more seriously and hadn't kept Miller
waiting for treatment because they thought his injuries would have
allowed it, Miller would have survived.
 |
This Coroner rapport proves that Off. W.A Miller was not beaten by the inmates. As was persistently claimed by Warden Johnston and the Alcatraz Administration. Miller had 1 bullet wound, but there was no evidence on the body of mistreatment or beatings. |
 |
| Gunshot wound of right arm. Thorax laceration of lungs. Bilateral hemothorax, apex to top. Path. mrs Jeanne Miller Autopsy Surgeon. |
After the death of Officer W.A Miller,
his wife and children received virtually nothing by way of pension
or burial expense of the B.O.P (Bureau of Prisons). A collection
was taken on the island to send his body to Pennsylvania for burial.
His family received pension benefits of only fifteen dollars per
month and suffered enormous economic hardship for years after his
death. There was little empathy from the B.O.P. and government
towards Miller's family.
THE FBI
The FBI investigators came to Alcatraz
the next day, interviewed the three men in an aggressive and
authoritative manner to enforce confessions or statements. Only Miran
Thompson gave in and signed a statement, making the defense more
difficult and complicated for him, his two fellow inmates and their
lawyers.
In the following night Sam was taken by
two officers to the visiting room and there were two FBI men waiting. The men asked Sam a lot of questions about the break. Sam refused
to say anything. The FBI men told
Sam he was going to die in the gas chamber in San Quentin and one of
the men told Sam he was going to take him out and work him over, and after that he would be happy to talk.
US PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE – US
PENITENTIARY ALCATRAZ – CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 5, 1946, SAMUEL
SHOCKLEY 462-AZ
RESUME FROM PSYCHIATRIC INTERVIEW DONE BY DR. JOHN ALDEN, PSYCHIATRIST.
Inmate is a white male. Laborer by
occupation. Born in Oklahoma in 1909. Given a life sentence for bank
robbery and kidnapping. He was received at the US Penitentiary
Leavenworth, Kansas June 2, 1938. Transferred to Alcatraz on
September 23, 1938.
Connected with the May 2 – 4
1946 mutiny at this institution in which two officers and 3 inmates
were killed. Indicted for the murder of one of the officers
killed in the mutiny.
Entered examining room willingly, he
was cooperative, but was hesitant and evasive to some questions. He was rather superficial, slow, not clear in his answers.
However, he seemed most anxious to accentuate the fact about hearing
voices, the men's voices, the radio voices, and seeing light flashes,
and of having minerals placed in his food, but the voices, what were
they saying, etc. It appeared he just wanted to let the examiner know
that he heard the voices, saw the flashes, etc.
THE FOLLOWING IS THE PATIENTS ANSWERS
TO THE EXAMINERS QUESTIONS:
Q. What is your trouble?
A. It’s the minerals in the food here
that gives me pains all over my body, and the rays of light shot
at me.
Q. Who puts them in the food?
A. They are put there by the Public
Health for treatment when we come into the institution.
Q. What rays shoot at you?
A. The rays from the lights in the cell
house have shot at me ever since.
A. I've been there. It is arranged
automatically. In bed at nite, the lights flash, flash, flash.
Q. Where do you feel these rays?
A. On my head. When I came up here
today, I felt them on my head. Sometimes I feel them on my
shoulders.
Q. Do you have any sickness?
A. Yes, I have cancer in the lower part
of my stomach.
Q. How far did you go in school?
A. 3th grade.
Q. How old were you then?
A. About twelve.
Q. Do you eat all your meals?
A. No can't eat breakfast, milk is so
cold, so acid. So doped up to make you crazy.
Q. Do you plan to eat dinner?
A. Yes, I'll eat dinner, the food
around here is better since the break. The more you eat the more you
want.
Q. What do the minerals do to you?
A. They give me marks on my body all
over. (at this point patient opened up his clothes and showed the
doctor a reddish area about groin region which he claims to scratch.)
Q. Do you hear voices?
A. Yes, I hear radio voices.
Q. What do they say?
A. I've heard so many that it'd be a
long story. On May 4, when the officers came into “D” block
with guns, three officers had guns pointed at me, one had this thumb
on the trigger, and the radio said, “let it go off”. (When asked
more questions patient stated, “I'm not in a thinking mood this
morning because the radio irritated me before coming up this
morning”.)
Q. What type of words does the radio
use?
A. Evil words, murder, hung.
Q. Has there been any change since the
break?
A. Its better since the break – not
so many evil words used, and the minerals in the food has been cut
down.
Q. Are any of the inmates insane?
A. We all are insane at times.
Q. Are the voices men of women?
A. Always men voices.
Q. Tell me something about the break?
A. For two days and nights he didn’t
sleep, an insane boy next to me with both of his toe-nails sticking
out yelled. Just an attempt break. Two officers got killed. My doors
were opened, I came out. I got mixed up in it. I was indicted.
When asked as to what part he played in
the break he replied he did not care to say, it might be used against
me. He did not think he should be tried for the mutiny as it is out
of the Justice jurisdiction. Said it was the jurisdiction of Spain,
or Mexico.
He appeared to know something about the
workings of the control box to open the cells. He said, "They tried
to get Whitey, Rufus Franklin out". But he was in solitary, and his
door was electrically controlled and could only opened from a control
box in the gun-gallery.
When asked as to who started or who was
responsible for the break, he said the Justice Department planned it.
He said he was satisfied with his lawyer Mr. Sullivan. He also
indicates his desire to expose conditions here at his coming trail.
Dr. Alden, Psychiatrist, send to W.
Sullivan, lawyer of Sam Shockley, on November 11, nine days
before the trial was due to start, the following Medical-Legal
report, needed to confirm that Sam Shockley was mentally disturbed.
Sullivan read with shock and disbelief the following statement:
"In my opinion, at the time of my
examination on November 5, 1946, Sam Richard Shockley was able to
understand the nature and the consequences of his actions, was
capable of understanding the nature of the charges against him, was
able to confer with his attorney and was capable of preparing his
defense".
Has been signed by: Dr. John Alden, the
court appointed psychiatrist, who examined Sam Shockley and testified
as to the defendant's sanity. Dr. Alden was the only medical witness
to testify regarding the issue of Sam Shockley's sanity. Dr. Alden was only allowed one hour of
examination to test Sam and declare him healthy or insane.
Lawyer W. Sullivan was particularly
concerned about two aspects of the report. At first, he was concerned
because the doctor had concluded that Sam was legally sane and could
participate in the preparation of his defense. Sullivan knew Sam
couldn't participate in his own defense, he was incapable of
cooperating with Sullivan and second, since Sullivan had not raised
the question of Sam's sanity during the riot, so the doctor had not
considered this aspect of the case. There was nothing in the report
about Sam's sanity during May 2 - 4, 1946. A heavy mistake and
a total disaster. Alden had refused to discuss the report and case
with Lawyer Sullivan without the presence of Frank Hennessy, the US Attorney.
8. THE ALCATRAZ TRAIL - 1946
.
LETTER FROM SAM TO WARDEN JOHNSTON.
.
LETTER FROM SAM TO WARDEN JOHNSTON.
from: Sam Shockley
Alcatraz Calif,
to: Mr. James Johnston
July 3, 1946
Dear Sir, I wish you to safe guard me
to a fair trial, by not being or reading my legal papers. In my cell,
back and forth while interviewing my attorney, back and forth to court.
Respectful Yours,
Sam Richard Shockley.
Sam Shockley, Joe Carnes and Miran
Thompson were transferred from Alcatraz to the San Francisco County Prison. And from the County prison, chained together and heavy guarded, transported to the courthouse each day of the trial. The court appointed the
defense attorney William Sullivan to represent Sam Shockley. Archer
Zamlock to represent Carnes. And Ernest Spagnoli to represent
Thompson. Bob Stroud donated 200 dollars to the inmates’ defense, and he
and several other inmates came to testify on their behalf. Jim
Quillen testified, and argued that Sam Shockley was not fit to stand
trial due to his mental state, adding that he felt Sam was more of a
victim than a conspirator. Jim Quillen further contested the
chronology of the events. He stated that Sam never incited any
disturbance prior to the break, and that he most likely had little or
no knowledge if any of the planned escape plots.
 |
| 1946 |
Louis Goodman was appointed to the
bench in 1942, by President Franklin Roosevelt, and was the Judge in
the Alcatraz trail, which started on November 21, 1946, in San
Francisco. In the first day Sam was watching the proceedings with a
fixed stare, most of which he didn't understand. Sixty-seven jurors
had been examined, a jury of six men and six women was selected.
Housewives, an architect, an engineer,
a retired businessman, also a clerk for the War Department, who lost
both legs in WW I and was confined to a wheelchair.
"We believe we will be able to
establish that each of these defendants, while they did not fire the
actual shots, aided, abetted and encouraged the shooting of W.A.
Miller and in law are responsible as principals. We will show that
each of these defendants actively participated in a criminal
conspiracy to escape from this penitentiary, and under the law are
responsible not only for their own acts, but also all their
co-conspirators", Frank Hennessey the US Attorney said to the
court. This means that each man is responsible for the actions of the
other men.
A motion for a separate trial for
each of the defendants, on the ground that they could not get a fair
trial if they were tried together, because the acts of each defendant
would be considered by the jury to be acts of all, was denied by the
judge. Also, a transfer of the trial, because of the widespread
adverse publicity and press coverage, in which prevented the defendants
from obtaining a fair trial, was denied. A request for two lawyers to
assist Sam was rejected, while in a weighty court case, where the
death penalty can be demanded, it is very common and recommended that
the defendant takes two or even three lawyers for defense. Also, a
request for an independent psychiatrist doctor to testify that Sam
was mentally ill was refused.
Sulllivan noted in a discussion about
the cruelties and brutal conditions in Alcatraz prison, that when Sam
was released from his cell he behaved like a wild animal and
explained to his listeners that as a result of years of confinement
in solitude, Sam Shockley was deranged. He had no realistic idea of
what he was doing, nor could he distinguish between right and wrong.
Sam's vacuous stare and open mouth expression proofed his mental
deficiency.
In the San Francisco County Prison Sam,
Miran Thompson and Joe Carnes were allowed to read newspapers, this
was forbidden in Alcatraz. Even Sam with his limited intellect found
the paper a joy. Most of his reading was limited to the comic strips, but he also struggled through a few articles on the sports page and
new movies. The other two were more worried and curious about what
the papers wrote about their trial.
 |
| 1946 |
Lawyer Sullivan declared at the trail
that Sam mental and emotional condition degenerated in Alcatraz to an
extent that he could not cope anymore with a normal prison life. He
got himself over and over into trouble. Refuse all work and destroyed prison property because he
believed the prison administration was persecuting and preventing him
from work in the kitchen.
By the inmates and officers, he got the
nickname "Crazy Sam" or "Little Sam". In his psychotic state he
rejected all other jobs and the result was a permanent confinement
in isolation. With nothing to do he slipped deeper and deeper into
his own world of madness. With his capacity of an eight-year-old
child there was little in the prison simple enough for him to read or
do. He couldn't carry on a conversation; he could hardly read or
write. He began to hear voices coming from the walls, the sink and
the toilet, he got hallucinations and imaged bizarre events such as
being born in a different century or on another planet. That people
were trying to kill him with minerals in his food. All this showed
the classic signs of paranoia schizophrenic disorder.
We knew from the testimony of Malloy
Kuykendall, an inmate who worked in the hospital, that Sam was
hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and medication and that during
these periods he was restrained in the prison hospital "Bug "cage for the crazy people. No one ever seemed to care about Sam and
recognize his need. Sam never got the right treatment and medication.
They just locked him up. The authorities did not allow Henri Young,
who had also difficulties to survive in the brutal and harsh
environment of Alcatraz, to mentor Sam. Sam knew he had mental
problems, and he was very worried about it and welcomed his friend
Henri Young to help him, but the Bureau of Prisons kept any help away
from Sam.
Officer Sundstrom admitted in court
that he never saw weapons in the hands of Sam. In an effort to mitigate
the impact of Sam's attack on Sundstrom the lawyer asked him again to
tell the event and Sundstrom told him that Sam attacked him, and
struck him twice at the jaw. He told that he was neither stunned nor
badly injured by the blows.
Sullivan asked Sam "come Sam, step
up here", and with Sam standing near the witness Sullivan said, "Shockley is kind of weakling", isn't he? Then he asked Sundstrom's weight and the officer told him his weight was 162 lb.
Sam's height was 69 inches and his weight was about 134 lb. Sullivan
asked Sam to remove his coat and vest and roll up his sleeves to
demonstrate his weak physique. Sam face was blank and pale, he
removed his coat and began to unbutton his vest. When judge Goodman
asked furiously, "what is the purpose of this performance?" Sullivan answered, "to show that this man was not strong enough
to hurt this witness".
The request for the jury to visit and
inspect the cell no. 26, D Block, in which Sam lived until the end of April 1946, was rejected by the judge.
Miran Thompson testified in court that
Joseph Cretzer was the leader of the group. Cretzer gave all orders,
including to Marvin Hubbard and Barney Coy. Sam didn't give orders to anyone. He ran up and down the cells as if he had no idea what to do, and wrung his hands and was hollering over and over again, "let's
get outta here".
Officers Miller, Lageson, Weinhold, Burdett, Bristow, Simpson, Corwin, Sundstrom, and Baker, all testified
in court the same: Sam Shockley was always present, was just as much
a leader as Cretzer, and that he ordered Cretzer to shoot all hostages, so they could no longer testify. And they described Sam as a vicious
criminal, who knew exactly what he was doing.
The Henri Young trial in 1941 has a lot
of parallels with the Sam Shockley trial. Both men were non- aggressive and
mentally handicapped men. Both men had been confined for lengthy periods
of time in isolation and had long records of minor misbehavior for
which they suffered harsh punishments. And both men had almost complete
lack of recall of the events for which they were on trial. Hennessey,
the US Attorney and Goodman the Federal District Court Judge feared a
second Henri Young trial, in which the jury publicly attacked Warden
Johnston's administration as cruel and inhumane, and demanded that
Alcatraz be closed, and the Administration investigated by Federal
authorities.
Many inmates who were important as
defense witnesses, such as Earl "Lefty" Egan, who was locked in a
hostage cell together with the custodial officers, and therefore
would have been a very important witnesses for Sam Shockley and Miran
Thompson, were suddenly and in great haste transferred from Alcatraz
to institutions all around the country, where they couldn't locate any more by the defense attorneys.
When the trail began Sam Shockley and
Miran Thompson were moved from the Alcatraz prison to the San
Francisco County Prison on November 20, 1946. The entire process,
including choosing the jury, took only one month. Judge Goodman was
constantly pushing and speeding the case forward, he wanted everything to be done by Christmas.
THE JURY.
The jury consisting of six men and six
women were placed in the Witcomb Hotel. They were not allowed to have any
contact with the outside world, such as the press, family of victims,
family of the perpetrators, witnesses for or against the defendants,
civil servants and government authorities and anyone who could
influence them in their decision. The jurors were picked up in a
group and delivered to the hotel. One juror, Mr. Elinsky was disabled
and sat in a wheelchair.
This man was picked up and brought
back separately by a friendly and helpful Federal Marshall. This
Marshall and Mr. Elinsky, spend a lot of time together without
supervision, so they broke an important court rule. Nobody apparently
objected to this state of affairs.
When the trial had been going on for
some time, a jury member indicated that there were serious problems
in his family and that he should be excused for continuing, so a
new juror had to be added to bring the jurors back to six.
The defendants had been asked by the
Judge whether they did not object this decision. No objection was
filed, either by the defendant's lawyers or by the defendants
themselves. So, a jury member was added, who might have been sitting
at the table the day before with the press, witnesses against the
defendants, or the FBI.
Sullivan made at the court the
following statement in his closing argument: "I've done all what
I can, ladies and gentlemen". "I've fought the good fight for Sam". "The world is against Sam". "The prison system is against Sam". "The court
is against Sam". "Society is against Sam". "Here is a man who never
really had a chance in life". "And now, you, members of this
jury, are his last chance.... you are his last hope”.
 |
| San Francisco Court December 1946 |
9. MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE.
Sam Shockley, along with Miran Thompson
and Clarence Carnes, was found guilty of murder in the first degree
at the Alcatraz Trial on December 21, 1946, the Circuit
Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit San Francisco CA.
After the verdict, Sullivan was
astonished. It would all have been easier for him if Sam hadn't
displayed such a pitiful, childlike nature, and Sullivan had known that the pathetic and helpless soul did understand he was just been
sentenced to death.
Although Sam Shockley's lawyer W.A Sullivan advocated insanity, Sam and Miran Thompson were both sentenced to death, and Joe Carnes to life imprisonment. To the great disbelief of the young and inexperienced lawyers, and even of the public Prosecutor, Frank Hennessey, who had done everything he could to convict Sam to the gas chamber, but was never sure if he could get the jury to do such a verdict. After the verdict of December 21, Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson were taken back to the County Prison and from there to San Quentin, to be placed on Death Row. In San Quentin Sam Shockley was registered as prisoner number A-5141. Joe Carnes was returned to Alcatraz.
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| Sam being taken to San Quentin - December 21, 1946 |
OCTOBER 9, 1947.
A rumor was spread, that Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson had made or were making attempts to escape from San Quentin in a spectacular dash.
Whether Thompson tried to break out or not, and Warden Duffy of the San Quentin prison made the story more sensational by involving Sam, is not clear. An examination of Sam's cell was negative. There's a document indicating that Shockley was mixed-up by the officers of San Quentin with another prisoner, named Walker. All this made it clear that Sam, sinking away into his confused and mentally disturbed world, weakened and emaciated, would have been impossibly involved in the planning an escape. Sam Shockley didn't want anything more to do with the self-centered, irritating and unreliable Miran Thompson. In short, they were no longer "on speaking terms".
It should be seen as an attempt to use these reports to reinforce the belief that the death sentence on this mentally handicapped man would be justified. No disciplinary action has been taken against both men.
On June 14, 1948, the US Supreme
Court denied a petition for Certiorari, a court process to seek
judicial review of a decision of a lower court or administrative
agency, denied without opinion or comment.
Judge Louie Goodman set the execution
for September 24, 1948. On August 24, 1946, pursuant to motions filed on
behalf of both men, Goodman stayed the execution on December 3, 1948.
After the hearing August 24, 1948, Sam was
being returned to San Quentin when the automobile in which he was
transported was involved in a serious accident. The police car blew a
tire and went in a spin at high speed, north of the Golden Gate
Bridge. The car narrowly missed going over an embankment. On November
6, Miran Thompson presented a petition endorsed by 2745 persons to
President Harry Truman. Sam accepted his fate and rejected any
further efforts to stay the execution.
By this time the two men had developed
a deep hatred for another and although they occupied adjoining cells,
never spoke to each other again.
AUGUST 26, 1948. NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.
Sam Richard Shockley won a stay of
execution until December 3.
A few minutes after appearing before a
federal court however he narrowly escaped death when an automobile
tire blew out.
This accident happened as Shockley,
handcuffed and chained, was being returned to the California state
prison from hearing. The blew out throw the speeding police car out
of control near the Golden Gate Bridge. The vehicle barely missed
hurtling into a ditch. No one was hurt.
After the mishap, Shockley was
transferred to another car which was returning a fellow convict,
Miran Edgar Thompson, into prison. Before their stay was granted
Shockley and Thompson were scheduled to die in the San Quentin gas
chamber September 24,1948, for murdering a guard during the bloody Alcatraz
federal prison riot in May 1946.
The two have been in San Quentin's
death row since their conviction December 21, 1946. They were taken
to the state prison because Alcatraz has no gas chamber. Although the
US Supreme Court refused to intervene when an appeal was filed last
June, the stay of execution was granted after Shockley and Thompson
petitioned the president for executive clemency.
The presidential appeal is pending.
Shockley was convicted and sentenced to life on the famous Alcatraz
rock in San Francisco Bay for robbing the bank of Paoli, Oklahoma on
March 15, 1938, and kidnapping Mr. and Mrs. D.F Pendley. After the
abortive escape try two years ago, he was one of three convict
ringleaders who survived the 36-hour battle and siege which left five
death and 15 wounded.
 |
| San Francisco County Prison 1946 |
SATURDAY December 4, 1948 - NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.
SAM SHOCKLEY GASSED FRIDAY IN SAN
QUENTIN
Sam Richard Shockley, who was reared at
Pleasant Hill, died in the San Quentin prison gas chamber Friday
morning, according to national news broadcast Friday.
Shockley, who was serving a life term
for a Muskogee kidnapping and bank robbery, was involved in May 1946
riot at the island prison in which a guard was killed.
He and a second man, Miram E. Thompson
were sentenced to die for the guard's death. Thompson appealed to
president Truman for clemency but a wire from Attorney General Tom
Clark mentioning both Thompson and Shockley by name denied action on
the matter.
Shockley, apparently with no hope to
escape death, did not make any appeal.
President Harry Truman denied all bid for
clemency.
WEDNESDAY December 8, 1948 - NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.
Funeral services for Sam Richard
Shockley 38, who died in San Quentin prison's apple green gas chamber
shortly after 10.00 am, last Friday, were held at 14.00 pm, Tuesday at the
chapel of Wilson funeral home with Rev. Cook officiating.
Burial was in Pollard Cemetery under
direction of Wilson funeral home.
Shockley born in Cerro Gordo on January
12, 1909, paid the penalty for the murder of prison guard W.A
Miller, who was killed in a prison riot at Alcatraz in May 1946.
Strapped firmly in one of the two death
chairs, the other occupied by Miran Thompson who was sentenced in the
same death, Shockley was pronounced death at 10:12 am, Friday, December 3, 1948. The gas
pellets were dropped in at 10:04 am.
All published in Mc Curtain Gazette,
Idabel, Mc Curtain County, Oklahoma, 1948.
10. THE DEATH ROW - SAN QUENTIN.
10. THE DEATH ROW - SAN QUENTIN.
The sentences of Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson
were appealed to higher courts. On March 10, 1948, the Ninth Court
of Appeals confirmed the convictions, and on June 17, 1948, the
Supreme Court denied their petition and ordered their execution. On
December 2, 1948, the Death Watch Squad moved Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson
into two adjacent holding cells on Death Row. It is documented that
Shockley did not appear to fully comprehend his fate*. He refused
any religious support, and spent his last time with his family,
including his eighteen-year-old niece Anna Lee Shockley, daughter of
his brother Patrick, who had supported him during the trial and lived
close by in the town of Richmond.
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| 1948 San Quentin CA |
* Anna Lee Shockley later testified that her Uncle Sam was aware he was going to put to death in the gas chamber and understood death. Anna Lee and Patrick visited him on his last day in the captain's office with 2 guards present. She started crying when he started talking about his death, and he tried calming her by saying it's alright, he was ready to go. He said he felt sorry for Myrtle, his sister, because he knew how bad she was taking his execution. No crying, no fighting, just walking into the gas chamber. He felt there are worse things that death, like the cruel inhuman treatment of the guards, the loneliness and the senselessness of his life and his progressive mental illness.
At seven in the evening of Thursday, December 2, 1948, Sam ate a large chicken dinner and retired for the
night. He slept soundly and woke at 7:00 am, on the morning of his
execution. Sam rejected all offers of spiritual aid with the terse
comment "Don't bother me – and that includes the chaplain".
On the morning of December 3, 1948, at 7:00 am, the two men were seated in adjacent cells for their
final meal. At 9:35 am, the cyanide pellets were fastened into
place inside the gas chamber. At 9:50 am, visitors started to line the witness room.
Sam was taken from his cell just before
10:00 am, for the fifteen-foot walk to the gas chamber. They were
dressed alike, dark trousers and white shirts open at the neck. There
were three officers from Alcatraz in attendance to witness the
execution, Frank Johnson, Joe Steere and Robert Baker. The two men were walked side by side into the chamber,
with Shockley seated first, followed by Thompson.
Dr. Leo Stanley affixed a remote tube
stethoscope to each of the prisoners’ chests, and then exited to
monitor the proceedings from outside the chamber. The two prisoners
were seated in adjacent steel chairs, with leather straps pulled
tightly around their wrists, ankles, and chests.
Judge Goodman had ordered US. Marshal
George Vice to carry out the execution of both men, and he stood in
the doorway with Warden Duffy, who asked the men if they had any
final words. Sam appeared pale and emaciated; twenty-five pounds
lighter than at the trail. He kept his head bowed, never lifting his
eyes.
Miran spoke to Sam, but Sam did not
react. The steel door was swung closed, and a guard turned a
mechanism that resembled the hatch of a submarine, pneumatically
sealing the chamber. At 10:04 am, Warden Duffy nodded the signal to
allow the small fluid wells under each man's chair to begin filling
with sulfuric acid.
As the curtains were opened, the men
peered at the witnesses sitting outside the chamber. One minute
later, the cyanide pellets were dropped into the sulfuric acid pans.
It was later stated that both men strained violently against the
straps as they breathed in the deadly gas. In an eight-minute
horrific death struggle finally their heads slumped forwards. At
10:12 am, the two men were pronounced death.
At 10:15 am, the eyewitnesses left the
witness room, and the five-man execution team started to clear the
gas from the chamber in order to remove the corpses. The sulfuric
acid was neutralized by flushing the seat wells with distilled water.
A powerful blower fan connected to a large duct on top of the chamber
was used to dissipate the residual gases. The bodies of the prisoners
were carefully pulled from the seats, and their clothing was removed
and incinerated.
Larry O'Brien, witness, stated later that the images of Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson being brought into the gas chamber haunted him for the rest of his days.
********************
11. THE GAS CHAMBER.
In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was
introduced as Nevada sought a more humane way of executing its
inmates. Gee Jon was the first person executed by lethal gas. The
state tried to pump cyanide gas into Jon's cell while he slept. This
proved impossible because the gas leaked from his cell, so the gas
chamber was constructed. (Bohm, 1999) Today, five states authorize
lethal gas as a method of execution, but all have lethal injection as
an alternative method. A federal court in California found this
method to be cruel and unusual punishment. For execution by this
method, the condemned person is strapped to a chair in an airtight
chamber. Below the chair rests a pail of sulfuric acid. A long
stethoscope is typically affixed to the inmate so that a doctor
outside the chamber can pronounce death. Once everyone has left the
chamber, the room is sealed. The warden then gives a signal to the
executioner who flicks a lever that releases crystals of sodium
cyanide into the pail. This causes a chemical reaction that releases
hydrogen cyanide gas. (Weisberg, 1991) The prisoner is instructed to
breathe deeply to speed up the process. Most prisoners, however, try
to hold their breath, and some struggle. The inmate does not lose
consciousness immediately. According to former San Quentin,
California, Penitentiary warden, Clinton Duffy, "At first there
is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop.
The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool."
(Weisberg, 1991) Caryl Chessman, before he died in California's gas
chamber in 1960 told reporters that he would nod his head if it hurt.
Witnesses said he nodded his head for several minutes. (Ecenbarger,
1994) According to Dr. Richard Traystman of John Hopkins University
School of Medicine, "The person is unquestionably experiencing
pain and extreme anxiety. The sensation is similar to the pain felt
by a person during a heart attack, where essentially the heart is
being deprived of oxygen." The inmate dies from hypoxia, the
cutting-off of oxygen to the brain. (Weisberg, 1991) At postmortem,
an exhaust fan sucks the poison air out of the chamber, and the
corpse is sprayed with ammonia to neutralize any remaining traces of
cyanide. About a half an hour later, orderlies enter the chamber,
wearing gas masks and rubber gloves. Their training manual advises
them to ruffle the victim's hair to release any trapped cyanide gas
before removing the deceased. (Weisberg, 1991)
********************
12. AFTER THE EXECUTION OF SAM.
Autopsies were routinely conducted on executed prisoners at San Quentin. And since Dr Leo Stanley, the
doctor who was present at the execution of Sam, was also the prison
coroner, he did the autopsies as well. Probably there was also an autopsy on
the deceased body of Sam.
Dr. Leo Leonidas Stanley was the chief
surgeon at San Quentin State Prison in California from 1913 to 1951.
During those years, San Quentin was the world’s largest prison.
Obsessed with diseases and what he called "abnormalities" and
believing they were "crime indicators", Dr. Stanley felt that if
he could control a prisoner’s "abnormalities."
Dr. Stanley
used his office as a research lab. Stanley went to study
the scars, birthmarks and other anomalies of each inmate
who entered the prison gates. Stanley was a product of the Eugenics Movement, which held sway in the
medical community at the beginning of the 20th century. Partly a
reaction to the increasing waves of immigrants from Southern and Central Europe.
The best human "pedigree" was
genetics that included Nordic, Germanic or Anglo-Saxon blood. One of
the top priorities of the Eugenics Movement was the forcible
sterilization of the poor, disabled and "immoral", which would
include anyone who convicted a crime. The Eugenics Movement was
underwritten by the Carnegie Institute, Rockefeller Foundation and
the cereal magnate J.H. Kellogg, who set up the "Race Betterment
Foundation".
Dr. Leo Stanley received approval from the wardens James Holohan and Clinton Duffy to conduct his programs, investigations and experiments on prisoners at San Quentin.
Dr. Leo Stanley received approval from the wardens James Holohan and Clinton Duffy to conduct his programs, investigations and experiments on prisoners at San Quentin.
Sam Shockley’s remains were taken to
Kenton’s Mortuary to be embalmed by Frank Keaton and later on shipped to his brothers
and sisters in Haworth, Mc Curtain County, Oklahoma. Funeral services
for Sam were held at 14.00 pm, Tuesday, December 7, 1948, at the Pollard Cemetery, Haworth, Mc Curtain County, at the chapel of Wilson funeral
home with Reverend Cook officiating. Sam is buried next to his mother
Annyer Eugenia, his father Richard Samuel, his stillborn
half-brother and his stepmother Sally.
Many relatives still live in the
surroundings of Haworth and Idabel, where Sam and his brothers and
sisters lived. None of the siblings is alive anymore. There
was a lot of disbelief and anger about the execution among the family of siblings. When Sam was a child, he went to the Sunday
school in the Baptist Church. Sam was not an easy child, began to run
away from home and behaved strangely when puberty began. He started
drinking at a very young age and was arrested at the age of fifteen
for fighting on the streets under the influence of alcohol.
Sam preferred to be in the company of
his two-year older brother Patrick. His sister-in-law Bonnie Elizabeth Wyatt, the new wife of
Patrick after he divorced May Kiker, didn't like her husband's younger brother, so there was a lot of tension. She couldn't stand
to stay in the same room with him. There was a family story that said
that Sammie, born January 12, 1930, and the youngest
daughter of Frank, was actually Sam's illegitimate daughter and Frank had adopted her. But this family story is not provable.
 |
| Sam's siblings, Richard Samuel, Ruth Mae, Patrick, Myrtle Lee and Frank Shockley |
Life in Mc Curtain County, Oklahoma, was hard and poor in the early 1930s when Sam and Patrick were young
men. Prices dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost
their farms. In some cases, the price of a bushel of corn fell to
just eight or ten cents. Bank robbery had become a serious problem
across the country. Young men become bank robbers out of poverty and
hunger and because they wanted to feed their families. J. Edgar
Hoover put together a team called the Bureau of Investigation, later
renamed the FBI, to track down, capture or kill these men who became
criminals out of poverty. Hoover's men became known as "G-Men". As
many of the men who have become criminals out of necessity, were
captured, Hoover and his men became heroes by the ignorant public.
 |
| 1928, May Kiker, wife of Patrick Shockley, Anna Lee and Sam Shockley |
In the Shockley family life didn't go very prosperous. Pat Shockley, as well as
his brother Frank, spent time in prison for moonshining and manslaughter. The farmer abused his wife and
children from what is told. His daughter Cora was scared of
the mules that pulled the plow. Pat would bring his daughters
Starla and Cora water for the mules and help them to harness the animals, because
the girls had to help with plowing. The mules stomped with their
hooves and kicked backwards so Cora wouldn't dare to come near
the animals. Patrick whipped her with a switch from a tree. Starla, the eldest daughter, said she would
never forget this terrible moment, and saw her mother desperately trying to help her daughter and challenge Patrick to hit her and let go of the child.
For poor and retarded people like Sam was no place, caring and understanding. Most retarded mental ill men ended up in prison for minor
offenses where they sank even further in disorder and
mental illness because of abuse, rape, violence and atrocities of all
kinds committed by fellow prisoners and guards. Only a few were lucky
enough to be sent to Springfield. The cruelties of prisoners and custodial
officers were there too, but it was far better than being locked up
in a small cell without physical exercise and human contacts. Henri
Young and Robert Stroud, Sam's friends, were finally sent to
Springfield after Warden Johnston was retired.
"In 1963 Robert Kennedy came to
Alcatraz for a visit and saw what it was..and closed it up! That was a slap in J. Edgar Hoover's face".
William "Willy" Radkay 666-AZ
 |
| Alcatraz mugshot September 1938 |
GENERAL REFERENCES
- Alcatraz Justice - The Rock's most famous Murder trial by Ernest B. Lageson jr. Creative Arts Book CA Book ID 15836/ ISBN 088739-408-6
- www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/9KKF-H2M
- Battle at Alcatraz - A Desperate Attempt to Escape the Rock by Ernest B. Lageson. ISBN 1-886039-37-2
- https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/166/704/1475755/
- Inside Alcatraz, my time on the Rock – by Jim Quillen. Arrow Books – ISBN 978178475066
- www.notfrisco@.com/alcatraz/bios/hyoung/hyoung5.html
- American Frankenstein – San Quentin's surgeon & his human experiments. By Allen Bisbort.
- Documents Alcatraz Inmate 462-AZ Samuel Richard Shockley. Pages in File: 400. NARA San Bruno CA.
- Michael Esslinger. Alcatraz, A definitive History of. ISBN 0970461402
* https://theshockleyfamily561159808.wordpress.com [Fam.Shockley Photo's and History]
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| San Francisco Court 1946 |
RESTORED PICTURES
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| 1928 Granite Oklahoma |
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| Leavenworth 1938 |
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| Granite 1928 |
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| San Francisco Court 1946 |
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| San Francisco Court 1946 |
